4 key wellness industry insights from the 2024 wellness marketing report
The wellness industry is more than just healthy—it’s booming.
In 2024, 61% of large wellness companies reported higher profits, while 63% saw increased margins compared to the previous year.
But in this competitive space, success isn’t guaranteed. To thrive, you need to understand your clients’ needs and how to meet them effectively.
Klaviyo’s 2024 wellness marketing report offers crucial insights for wellness brands. We surveyed more than 190 marketing executives in the wellness industry and more than 390 wellness consumers to uncover trends that can reshape your marketing strategy.
Whether you run a salon, spa, or fitness studio, these findings will help you connect with health-conscious consumers and strengthen your approach to wellness marketing.
Insight 1: Consumers continue spending on wellness
The wellness industry is riding a wave of consumer enthusiasm that shows no signs of cresting.
A remarkable 74% of consumers indulge in wellness purchases at least monthly, treating self-care not as a luxury but as a staple in their lives. This frequent engagement creates fertile ground for brands to cultivate lasting relationships with their clients.
Beyond that, 30% of consumers anticipate digging deeper into their pockets for wellness purchases in 2024. Of those planning to spend more on wellness this year, 58% say it’s because they plan to buy more products and services for themselves in this category.
This signals a consumer mindset in which wellness is seen as an investment rather than an expense. For wellness brands, this consumer behavior presents many exciting opportunities to keep wellness clients engaged.
How to use this insight to thrive: implement a tiered loyalty program
This is just as true for wellness brands as for any other business: customer retention is crucial for long-term success.
Loyalty programs address this need by incentivizing repeat purchases and bookings and fostering brand loyalty. Tiered systems, in particular, leverage behavioral psychology principles like goal-setting and status motivation to drive engagement.
Companies that sell services are perfectly positioned to offer a “wellness journey” program where clients can earn points after completing each milestone of the journey.
To apply this concept, a yoga studio, for example, might implement the following approach:
- Sign-up reward: free yoga mat and water bottle
- 10th class: 15% off next class package
- 25th class: free private session with an instructor
- 50th class: exclusive workshop access
- 100th class: personalized yoga plan and studio merchandise
- Yearly anniversary: spa day package with a partner wellness brand
The studio could even create a mobile app through which members can track progress, view their history, access exclusive content, and connect with other members (more on mobile apps later).
These strategies can help you convert occasional clients into loyal ones, increasing lifetime value and building a community around your wellness brand.
How to use this insight to thrive: use predictive analytics for personalized replenishment emails
Beyond points and perks, fostering brand loyalty involves understanding your clients so well that you can anticipate their needs. And that’s something predictive analytics can help you do.
Predictive analytics help you make an educated guess about when a client might need to repurchase, allowing you to send timely, personalized reminders via email. This proves particularly useful in the wellness industry, where many products are used regularly and need replenishment.
For example, a spa might sell muscle-relaxing cream so customers can avoid muscle tension between massage sessions. The spa then could send a replenishment email with personalized reminders just as customers are running low on the cream. This spa email marketing technique can also encourage clients to book another massage appointment.
Don’t just stop at simple reminders. You can include product-specific tips, complementary product suggestions based on prior services booked, and multi-buy incentives. This approach transforms a potentially routine re-order into an opportunity for education and up-selling, deepening the client relationship with each interaction.
Insight 2: Wellness consumers value quality most
In the wellness industry, quality reigns supreme. In our survey, 76% of consumers ranked quality as the most important factor when considering which company to buy a product or service from.
Unlike other sectors where price often trumps all or ties with quality, wellness consumers stand out for their willingness to invest more for perceived better results. This quality-over-price mentality presents unique implications for wellness marketers.
Your clients aren’t just looking for a quick fix or the cheapest option. They’re seeking transformative experiences, products that deliver on their promises, and services that contribute meaningfully to their well-being.
Therefore, your marketing strategy should be less about competing on price, and more about articulating the exceptional value your offerings provide.
How to use this insight to thrive: highlight specific wellness benefits in service descriptions
In wellness marketing, specificity is key. Vague promises of “better health” or “improved wellness” don’t cut it anymore. Today’s savvy consumers want to know exactly how a service will impact their lives. This desire for detailed information stems from a deeper need to justify their investment in premium wellness offerings.
Effective service descriptions in the wellness space should paint a vivid picture of the benefits, using language that resonates with the target audience’s aspirations and pain points. This approach not only informs but also engages the emotional drivers behind wellness purchases.
CorePower Yoga masterfully demonstrates this principle. Their service descriptions aren’t just a list of features; they’re compelling narratives of transformation, highlighting benefits such as “muscle growth,” “enhanced metabolism,” and “better bone health.”
Image source: CorePower Yoga
This language doesn’t just tell, it shows—allowing customers to envision the positive changes they might experience.
How to use this insight to thrive: use before-and-after testimonials to showcase effectiveness
Social proof is a powerful tool in any form of marketing. But in the wellness industry, it takes on even greater significance.
When consumers are considering investing in their health and well-being, they want assurance that the product or service will deliver results. Before-and-after testimonials provide this assurance in a compelling, relatable format.
The effectiveness of these testimonials lies in their ability to transform abstract promises into concrete results. They bridge the gap between hope and reality, showing potential customers that others like them have achieved the desired outcomes.
Mira, a California-based healthtech fertility brand, exemplifies this approach. Their website doesn’t just feature isolated quotes or brief testimonials. Instead, they’ve created a comprehensive showcase of customer success stories, including detailed text accounts, video testimonials, and a dedicated section for user-submitted stories.
Image source: Mira
This multi-format approach serves several purposes for Mira:
- They cater to different content preferences among their audience.
- They provide a depth of information that text-only testimonials can’t match.
- They create a sense of community around the brand.
One word of caution about before-and-after testimonials: regulatory bodies and advertising platforms often scrutinize health-related claims closely. Always include appropriate disclaimers and focus on individual experiences rather than guaranteed results.
Insight 3: Wellness brands should invest in search, social, and email marketing
When it comes to marketing channels, our research reveals a striking disconnect between consumer preferences and current industry practices.
While 83% of consumers find search marketing influential, only 26% of wellness companies use it. Similarly, 66% of consumers are swayed by social media and 65% by email marketing, yet roughly a quarter of companies invest in these channels.
This gap represents not just a missed opportunity but a goldmine for wellness brands ready to align their marketing strategies with consumer behavior.
How to use this insight to thrive: optimize website content for wellness-related keywords
Search marketing involves understanding and addressing the questions, concerns, and aspirations of your audience. Effective search optimization starts with deep empathy for your customers’ wellness journeys.
Let’s consider the example of a hypothetical yoga and meditation studio we’ll call Mindful Moments.
Aiming to capture the attention of stressed professionals, their content strategy might include in-depth articles on topics like “5-minute mindfulness exercises for busy executives” or “How meditation improves workplace productivity.” Anticipating and answering common queries like this helps position them as a valuable resource, not just a brand.
But true search optimization goes beyond keywords. It involves creating a content ecosystem that guides potential customers through their wellness journey.
Mindful Moments might develop a series of interconnected blog posts, each targeting a different aspect of workplace stress and linking to relevant services. This approach not only improves search rankings but also demonstrates the company’s comprehensive understanding of customer needs.
How to use this insight to thrive: create engaging social content showcasing customer transformations
Social media’s power in wellness marketing lies in its ability to build communities around shared health goals. It works because it fosters a sense of belonging and mutual support among your customers.
Mira exemplifies this community-building approach. Their use of a branded hashtag for gathering user-generated content (UGC) does more than showcase product effectiveness. It creates a supportive space where customers share their fertility journeys, celebrate successes, and offer encouragement during challenges.
Image source: Mira
By featuring these stories prominently on their website, Mira transforms customer experiences into powerful marketing tools. Each post serves as a testament to the product’s effectiveness and the brand’s commitment to its users’ journeys.
This strategy not only boosts engagement but also builds trust—a crucial factor in the sensitive field of fertility health.
How to use this insight to thrive: tailor email marketing campaigns to drive engagement
Email marketing gives you a direct line to your wellness clients. But simply sending generic newsletters won’t cut it. The most successful wellness brands segment their audience and craft targeted messages that speak to specific needs.
For example, a yoga studio might create different email flows for:
- New students: beginner-friendly class recommendations, first-time poses
- Regular practitioners: advanced workshops, teacher training programs
- Members who haven’t visited in 30+ days: special “welcome back” class packages
- Class package holders: reminders about expiring credits, early booking for popular classes
This type of approach helps you deliver relevant content that keeps subscribers engaged and drives them back to your studio. Plus, you can track which messages resonate most, helping you refine your wellness marketing strategy over time.
Insight 4: Engage clients with discounts, apps, and loyalty programs
Here’s another striking opportunity our research reveals: while 94% of consumers use discounts and sales, and 89% utilize mobile apps and loyalty programs, many wellness brands lag behind in offering these engagement tools.
Currently, only 62% of wellness companies offer discounts, with even fewer providing mobile apps (48%) and loyalty programs (48%). This gap between consumer preferences and industry offerings represents a golden opportunity for companies ready to elevate their customer engagement strategies.
We already discussed loyalty programs. Their effectiveness in driving repeat purchases and fostering brand loyalty is undeniable.
Now, let’s explore how to integrate discounts and mobile apps into a comprehensive engagement strategy that keeps customers coming back for more.
How to use this insight to thrive: offer bundled discounts on complementary products
Bundled discounts serve a dual purpose in the wellness space: they provide value to cost-conscious consumers while encouraging a holistic approach to health and well-being. When strategically designed, these bundles can increase average order value and introduce clients to new products within your ecosystem.
European Wax Center masterfully employs this strategy. They offer custom bundle discounts, allowing clients to save up to 25% on orders containing 4+ products.
Image source: European Wax Center
But the real magic happens with European Wax Center’s subscription offer. The 5% discount gently nudges clients towards a subscription model, fostering long-term engagement and more predictable revenue for European Wax Center.
How to use this insight to thrive: develop a mobile app with integrated features
A well-designed mobile app can transform a wellness brand from an occasional purchase into a daily health companion. The most effective wellness apps seamlessly integrate multiple functions, creating a one-stop shop for all wellness needs.
Take the example of Urban You, a medspa chain. At its core, the Urban You app serves as a booking platform for spa services. But beyond mere scheduling, users can also use the app to manage their membership status, track reward points, and even shop the products used in their treatments.
Image source: Urban You
The app’s genius lies in its ability to cater to various customer needs:
- For the busy professional, the quick-book feature allows for easy appointment scheduling between meetings.
- Wellness enthusiasts can dive deep into educational content about different treatments and products, including The Beauty Standard podcast hosted by Urban You’s CEO.
- Value-seekers can track their points and redeem rewards, gamifying their wellness journey.
Integrating these features creates an ecosystem that keeps clients engaged between visits. The app becomes a daily touchpoint, reinforcing the company’s role in the customer’s ongoing wellness journey.
Read the full report to help get your wellness company into peak shape
The wellness industry thrives on understanding consumer behavior. Successful brands align their strategies with customer preferences, from valuing quality over price to engaging through preferred channels.
Adopting loyalty programs, highlighting specific benefits, investing in search and social marketing, and integrating mobile apps are pivotal for growth—but these insights merely scratch the surface of the rich data available in the full 2024 wellness marketing report.
For wellness brands aiming to make informed, data-driven decisions, this comprehensive report is an invaluable resource.
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