A Health Buyer Journey online, doesn’t start with a click.
It starts with a step.
And that step can be towards your product or away from it.
But the path your prospect takes to get there is dependent on just two things… Trust and Belief.
Yet both of these directions, are parallel paths that need to be traveled at the same time.
One path is an outward journey of Trust.
The other is an inward journey of Belief.
They both meet at the crossroad of a buying decision.
The only question is, will you, as the natural health product marketer, be a tour guide on this journey with your prospect, or just a passenger?
Passenger marketers focus on the features and benefits of their products. This is nothing more than just surface level noise.
Tour guide marketers hone in on their customers thoughts and feelings of trust. They go even deeper by understanding the inner voice that makes up the beliefs and values of their customers.
Which type of health marketer will you be?
The choice is entirely up to you. But, if you choose to take the higher ground and be the tour guide, you have to be willing to go on both journeys as well.
The First Health Buyer Journey – The Outward Journey Of Trust
The journey of Trust a health prospect takes is an outward one.
Outward from the prospect and towards your product and your company.
It’s not enough for a prospect to just have a condition that your product can help with.
Prospects in the natural health market inherently need to trust in the ingredients that make up your product, which is just as important as the extension of trust in the company they are buying from.
The basics of trust at this leg of the journey include:
- Trust-marks
- Testimonials
- Guarantees
But the tour guide marketer knows this is not enough for the health marketplace where the prospect awareness level is usually at a level 3 (solution aware) or higher (product aware or most aware).
The tour guide marketer moves beyond the basics to a number of more advanced techniques that build trust online.
Advanced Method #1
The first is the Unique Mechanism.
The Unique Mechanism can be:
- A particular part of the manufacturing process.
- An ingredient or combination of ingredients and how they interact synergistically together.
- The delivery method (i.e. The way a supplement gets into your body.)
- A method, process or philosophy of healing.
The power of a unique mechanism is that it connects the “mechanism of action” with the reason why the product will work in your prospect’s mind.
The way to make such a claim without being slapped by the FDA is to get there in multiple steps, rather than one giant leap. This lets the prospect fill in the blanks on their own rather than you making the claim.
So not… Ingredient A prevents condition B.
But rather…
Our product has antioxidants.
Then you explain what antioxidants are.
Next describe what antioxidants do.
And then, explain what free radicals are.
Explain that free radicals cause cellular degeneration. (i.e the cause of the previous step.)
Which takes you to explaining what cellular degeneration is.
Followed by what cellular degeneration can lead to.
And then, explain the significance of fewer free radicals in your body.
Now the prospect is 99% of the way there for them to draw the ultimate conclusion on their own. Which is that your product, because of the “unique mechanism”, treats/cures/prevents/reduces the risk of their condition.
Advanced Method #2
The second advanced technique the tour guide marketer uses to build trust online is the “Why Buy From Us” video.
This is a simple but powerful short video message, usually from the owner or spokesperson of the brand. The video itself doesn’t talk about your products but rather the unique selling proposition (USP) of buying from your company. It is designed to tell people how your company is different, and the video delivery method humanizes the brand.
Here’s an example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVuXup0_gjw
The Second Health Buyer Journey – The Inward Journey Of Belief
The inward journey of belief is taken by the prospect as they consume your marketing message.
Belief is the foundation that we, as tour guide marketers, build on top of.
Rather than create, or change the prospects beliefs, the key is to tap into their existing value systems.
But the tour guide marketer must first understand:
- What the prospect already believes about the problem
- What they need to believe in order to put their hope in your solution
At the core of belief, between your prospect’s inner voice and your company / product, are the values they are built upon.
If the story of your product is aligned with the prospects internal story, they are more likely to cross the threshold of belief and thus buy from you.
But, if you want someone to accept new evidence, make sure to present it to them in a context that doesn’t trigger a defensive, emotional reaction. In other words, don’t lead with the facts in order to convince. Lead with values to give the facts a fighting chance.
The Health Buyer Journey Starts With Your First Step
Tour guide marketers are needed more than ever online in the turbulent natural health product category.
They are needed to help guide prospects through the buying decision journey.
On both the outward journey of Trust and the inward journey of Belief.
Both of which are vital when there is so much mis-information and “me-too” products crowding the marketplace.
Because when it comes down to it, as we have learned from our research, people buy health products differently. Both trust and belief are vital parts on the health buyer journey.
There Are Three Funnels Every Health Supplement Business Needs To Build A Multi-Million Dollar Empire…
The problem is most dietary supplement companies only have one funnel. Through our work in the online health space, we’ve had the opportunity to observe hundreds of health businesses. What we’ve uncovered are the three critical funnels that each work together that make the difference between the average supplement company just selling on Amazon and a multi-million dollar health empire and compiled our findings in the book below. Click here to get the ebook delivered right to your email for FREE.
