CRO Agency Mistakes In The Health Industry

The Average CRO Agency Misses The Mark In The Health Industry

Every conversion rate optimization practitioner and CRO agency approaches optimization the exact same way.

All of the different methodologies are basically the same. Remove the friction add urgency, yadda, yadda. What it really comes down to is, they all just test different variations of best practices.

That works if you’re optimizing generic E-commence websites. But it does not work for dietary supplement brands.

People buy dietary supplements differently than they buy any other product. And optimizing a health brand online is totally different.

Using the same optimization approach is not the fault of the CRO agency.

Well, maybe it is… I mean who else is to blame?

Many CRO agencies don’t specialize in any single vertical market.

As a result the average CRO agency misses the 6 critical things that are unique for selling health supplements online.

1. Funnel Economics

The first thing a CRO agency just totally skips when optimizing a health product is funnel economics.

Funnel Economics is the most important factor for determining the growth and profitability of a health brand online.

It, tells you how each offer in your funnel contributes to the economic results of the whole.

Without understanding the economics of a funnel you’re guessing when it comes to maximizing your funnel profitability.

Conversion rate optimization without looking at your funnel economics might get you a conversion lift. But you can’t deposit conversions in the bank.

Without first understanding the economics of your funnel you’re leaving profit on the table. And you might actually be losing money without even knowing it.

To learn more about our thinking on this topic, read our core article on funnel economics as well as how it ties into a self liquidating funnel here in this supporting article.

2. The Marketplace

Classic marketplace analysis looks at the competitive landscape. But when it comes to optimizing for a health product we like to go a level deeper.

We conduct a marketing marketplace analysis. This is where the market intersects with how people think about your product and their lifestyle.

It shows you what people see and hear in the market. Enabling you to align with the culture of your market segment to convert more visitors into sales.

Without doing marketing marketplace analysis your message to market match is going to be a me-too clone of everyone else in the market. Which, leads to mistrust and lost sales.

Marketin g marketplace analysis is a big topic, but you can learn the basics of how we look at in this article.

3. Hope

Without hope there is no future.

And when it comes to health, what people are buying is their future.

Selling hope is unique to selling health and requires a delicate touch.

If you haven’t built up hope prior to the introduction of the product however, chances are you won’t be able to convert a cold visitor into a buyer.

There are several ways to do that but one way is to tie hope to the products method of action, sometimes known as the unique mechanism. Which is essentially how the product works. This needs to make sense both logically and scientifically on two different fronts.

First on a structural level. Meaning the scientific method of action supports the way your organs or other systems in your body function.

Second, the unique mechanism it tied to the human side of hope. The solution needs to be attainable to the prospect. The less work or effort they need to go through to get to the end desired result the better.

Developing and validating through testing around concepts like hope are part of how optimizing for a health brand is different.

4. Desire

If hope is the future outcome you’re selling, then desire is the fuel for that outcome.

Contrary to what some think, desire cannot be created. It can only be intensified. Part of conversion rate optimization for a health product is to carefully intensify desire at the right points.

Too much and you’ve killed the sale. Not enough and there’s no momentum for the sale to even begin.

Developing a hypothesis around desire and then validating it through A/B testing is par for the course when it comes to optimizing a health product or service.

5. Trust

Leveraging trust to sell online is pretty standard for every CRO agency. However, there are different nuances of trust that must be addressed when selling health.

For a non-health product you simply have to overcome trust in the product and the company.

Do I trust this product enough to buy it?

Do I trust your company enough to buy from you?

But for a dietary health supplement specifically, there’s trust at different levels. You’re not just buying the product, you’re ingesting the product.

Do I trust the ingredients?

Do I trust where they are sourced from, how they are made and what else is in it?

Trust also ties into the sales approach for selling health in general. Building trust up to and after the sale for a health company is different also.

For one, the backend is so much more important for making money. Trust then becomes even more important because if you lose that trust you’re throwing away your backend revenue.

If you’re not accounting for trust you’re not optimizing health products online correctly.

To learn more about using trust to sell health products read this article.

6. Belief

All of our research and optimization for many dietary supplement companies has uncovered this fundamental insight… People don’t buy supplements the way they buy other products online. Trust as well as the other factors mentioned, hope, desire and belief are critical to the sale when it comes to selling health products.

It doesn’t matter what specific health product you’re selling. Tapping into beliefs is one of the biggest levers to selling a health brand online. And generalist CRO agencies always miss this.

Underneath all buying motivation lies our individual “self stories” which are rooted deeply in belief.

Be lief is based on one’s own individual desires and self story. We tend to believe that which we desire.

Taping into an existing belief continues the “self story” conversation that’s already going on in their mind.

And there’s no better way to help someone buy something as scary as a dietary supplement or a health product than to enter into their pre-existing conversation.

If you’re beginning to realize all of this is not sounding like the typical CRO agency best practices speech, you’re right.

Conversion Rate Optimization For Dietary Supplement Brands Is Different

People don’t buy health products the same way they buy other products.

Selling supplements and natural health products online is not simply a matter of increasing clarity and reducing friction. Nor is it simply a matter of improving the user experience.

The specialized knowledge we’ve gained in working exclusively with dietary supplement brands has shown us how people buy health products differently and what’s required for a health company to succeed.

These 6 critical pieces that are unique to selling health supplements online is part of our 4 Framework Growth Methodology. Developed over 6 years and 600 A/B test in the dietary supplement industry.

Creative Thirst is focused solely on helping health brands grow their business. We do this with the online traffic they already have. Through conversion rate optimization and split-testing in a way that is specific to the health market.

By helping to increase your profits, we can both have a bigger impact on the world. It’s less about conversion rate optimization tactics or technology, and more about enabling our clients to connect with their audience and grow their businesses.