Health and wellness brands know self-care matters more today than ever. Learn how to understand the current landscape and connect with customers at home.

No doubt, the coronavirus pandemic delivered a tough blow to many parts of the beauty and wellness industries. As an example, concerns over hygiene and social distancing measures hurt the incomes of professionals who need to touch people to perform their jobs.

Locally, these kinds of professions could range from hair stylists to massage therapists. The problem also spread to these professionals’ support staff, landlords, and suppliers. Of course, the coronavirus has also impacted companies that sell health and beauty products in stores.

On the other hand, both the beauty and wellness industries have proven themselves adaptable and resilient during past downturns. People might consider beauty even more of a luxury than wellness. Yet, according to McKinsey, the beauty industry grew seven percent during the worst years of the Great Recession.

During the current crisis, growth may have slowed in some sectors. During the Great Recession, businesses did not need to contend with social distancing and shutdowns. Even so, from the vantage point of a beauty and wellness marketing agency, many of the strongest brands have pivoted rapidly during this downturn as well. One way they’ve adapted includes helping their patrons attend to self-care at home.

Why is self-care a perfect marketing niche during the pandemic?

Even the Mayo Clinic and other health experts have emphasized the importance of self-care during these times. People need to take care of themselves to strengthen their immunity and to deal with the sometimes overwhelming nature of additional social isolation and abrupt change.

So, creating a wellness brand can tie into measures that average folks already know they need to take. For examples of areas that beauty and wellness brands could help people with, consider some of the steps that the Mayo Clinic suggests for self-care:

• Maintaining physical health: The Mayo Clinic suggests getting plenty of sleep, enjoying physical activity, eating well, staying hydrated, and taking the time to relax.
  
• Maintaining mental health: The Mayo Clinic urges people to maintain social relationships through phones and computers, focus upon things they can control, and look for ways to help other people.

Examples of pivoting health and wellness marketing to self-care

If customers can’t or won’t visit a salon or store, businesses have cleverly found ways to deliver at least some of the benefits of their services at home:

• At-home dye kits: When one colorist couldn’t serve his clients in the salon, he began taking orders for at-home delivery of dye kits that he customized for each client from professional products.
  
• Virtual massages: The Motley Fool published a story about a massage therapy clinic that successfully offered virtual therapy and coaching sessions to replace in-person massages.
  
• Hand sanitizer production: It’s tough to find a wellness or health marketing agency that didn’t advise clients to start marketing high-demand items during the coronavirus outbreak, like hand sanitizer or face masks.

Glossy brought up the example of digitally-native Nécessaire. The brand noticed that not only had engagement risen on social media posts about self-care topics, sales of these products had also increased during the pandemic. To their credit, they didn’t just ride the wave of increased online sales.They also worked to focus their social media posts on having conversations about self-care at home.

Social topics include self-care tips and quizzes. They also included mentions of their own self-care products and even those of other companies. Their strategy has paid off with an engagement spike of 200 percent. To maintain momentum, the brand intends to expand its presence to YouTube and email marketing. Plus, they want to engage additional features on Instagram and Facebook.

According to Randi Christiansen, the CEO of Nécessaire, businesses like hers can’t just talk about the benefits of their products. They also have to engage in some creative storytelling and conversations. This way, they can let customers know why taking care of themselves matters so much and that it matters to the brand, too. They’ve focused upon branding themselves as more of a self-care and wellness brand than they even viewed themselves as before. 

Creating a wellness brand during coronavirus

Any beauty or wellness agency should consider the times and the state of mind of the people they’re trying to connect with. The pandemic has created a situation where self-care really matters, but it’s hard for many customers to visit the businesses that delivered their products and services in the past. That means smart businesses have striven to understand the situation and helped customers bring self-care home.