The global coronavirus pandemic derailed, well, everything, so it’s no surprise that people’s mental and physical health were severely impacted. With so many other competing priorities, such as remote work, child and family care, and financial security, it’s completely understandable that many lost the motivation to stay active during these tumultuous times.
These particular effects of the pandemic have impacted those in the health and wellness industry, but there’s still hope for marketers in this space despite the collective malaise.
A recent survey Iterable conducted showed that nearly 44% of health and wellness marketers had planned to launch New Year’s resolution campaigns, and 36% planned to focus on delivering targeted messages that help drive engagement and growth.
Regardless of what your specific health and wellness marketing goals are, kicking off the new year with campaigns that convey empathy and trust can help your customers achieve a healthy body and mind—and a more balanced life.
Here are four ways to do just that, using tactics from Iterable’s own health and wellness customers.
4 Ways to Stick to Your New Year’s Marketing Resolutions
1. Analyze user engagement data to optimize communications that drive revenue.
Calm is a mindfulness and meditation app that has helped millions of people manage their emotions and find their center. Last April, 1.6 million people downloaded the app for the first time to cope with the stresses and anxieties brought forth by the pandemic. But as Sue Cho (Head of Lifecycle Marketing at Calm) can attest, the path to reaching a large user base came with some challenges.
Previously, she launched a new-member onboarding campaign that entailed eight emails over the course of one month. The first email was sent the day after sign-up; the remaining emails were dispatched every two days thereafter. During her post-launch analysis, Sue discovered that 80% of new users were dropping off after signup, which indicated that the messages didn’t make a powerful first impression.
To remedy the situation, Sue segmented half of the new members and delivered the same eight emails in 15 days versus 27 days. Through testing and optimizing with Iterable and Amplitude, she saw a significant improvement in user engagement and retention and noticed a 4x increase in revenue.
Learn more about Calm’s analytics and testing strategies in our webinar on-demand.
2. Apply dynamic segmentation across channels to boost engagement and the bottom line.
Curology understands that a solid plan is as good as the person seeing it through. As an individualized prescription skincare company that caters to Gen Z and Millennials, it provides bespoke treatment plans that address a range of skin concerns, from acne to fine lines and wrinkles. In addition, the Curology team offers its customers 1:1 consultations with licensed dermatologists to ensure they achieve the best possible results.
Given the nature of the business, its success hinges on its customers’ ability to follow their personalized treatment plans. Knowing this, the Curology team launched a 21-day challenge to encourage its young customers to abide by their skincare regimen.
However, the Curology team’s initial use of two different platforms to manage their email and SMS campaigns proved difficult. The data disparity hindered their ability to provide personalized recommendations at scale, let alone gain their customers’ compliance. They also had to contend with the fact that Gen Z consumers have an attention span of about 8 seconds, which meant they had to grab their attention fast.
This prompted VP of Marketing Fabian Seelbach to seek out Iterable to streamline the process, segment unengaged SMS users, and send them targeted follow-up campaigns to make sure they were sticking to the treatment plan. As for the results? The team boosted customer engagement by 26%, treatment plan compliance by 14%, and increased revenue by 10%.
Check out the video below and read Curology’s full case study to learn how.
3. Strengthen new user onboarding for maximum gains in conversions.
Fiit.TV is a U.K.-based fitness subscription app with a mission to make online fitness classes accessible to everyone. When the pandemic hit, the Fiit team saw a massive influx of new users—300% YoY to be exact. But the exponential growth raised the question among the founders: How were they going to deliver personalized experiences at scale and retain users?
To answer that question, the team launched a 14-day free trial for all new users in early 2020, and to their surprise, conversion rates dropped. Upon closer look, they discovered that their email onboarding sequence lacked clear objectives, leaving users not sure how best to get started.
After revising the onboarding sequence with Iterable’s Experiments and Workflow Studio (and testing and optimizing), the team’s hard work paid off: Trial-to-paid conversions increased to 65% and first-day activations increased by 12%.
Read Fiit’s case study for a deeper dive into how the team optimized its health and wellness marketing for peak performance.
4. Automate personalization to scale results and take back your time.
In 2014, Noga Leviner, co-founder and CEO of PicnicHealth, launched the company to create a platform that would allow patients to access their comprehensive medical history and anonymously contribute to medical research.
During the early stages, the company’s engineering team handled all the marketing initiatives in the absence of a marketing team. They wrote the email logic and launched and managed their ongoing medical record collection campaign. But as the company’s research programs grew, the engineers realized that manually segmenting users was highly inefficient and yielded less-than-ideal conversion rates.
After switching to Iterable, they were able to automate the medical history consent campaign and send personalized emails to different audience segments at scale. As a result, PicnicHealth’s conversion rate skyrocketed to 90% and saved 10 hours per week in customer support.
Learn how PicnicHealth automated its communications, while maintaining the security and privacy of patient data, in this full case study.
Closing Thoughts on Health and Wellness Marketing
If there’s anything 2020 has shown us, it’s that health and wellness are essential. For marketers in the industry, as you continue to navigate the pandemic this year, make a commitment to restore some balance for your customers.
Whether it’s encouraging them to meditate for five minutes or rewarding them for completing a workout, make sure your health and wellness marketing messages exude empathy and relevancy like never before.
Need some guidance on how to boost customer engagement and revenue? Request a demo with Iterable today.
