The health and fitness industry is fiercely competitive but filled with a ton of opportunity for growth and success. Your fitness club must stand out in such a crowded market, and you might be struggling to do so. In the digital age that we currently live in, there are countless ways to market your fitness facility online. Your gym, health club, or yoga studio can use smart gym marketing ideas to raise awareness for your facility and help bring in new members. 

As people continue to become more health-conscious, establishing a powerful marketing plan that sets you apart from the competition can really help take your facility to the next level. Whether you’re a small, local yoga studio, mid-sized health food company, or a large chain of gyms, your marketing strategy is one of the most important aspects of running your business. 

For National Yoga Month, we want to help inspire a healthy lifestyle for you and your business and that’s why we’re sharing 5 effective health, fitness, and yoga marketing tips to help you grow your profits, promote your club, and drive new customer acquisition. 

Develop a Website

Roughly 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine and over 80% of users perform some type of online research before committing to a local business. This is a huge audience that you could be reaching with a user-friendly website. Your website is often a potential client’s first impression of your business, so make sure it’s a great one. To attract new clients, your website must be:

• Easy to navigate
• Mobile-friendly
• Informative with hours, club location, costs, and facilities listed
• Modern and professional
• Responsive and present in search engines 

Your website is also where conversion takes place, so make sure your content is simple and convincing. Incorporating an enticing call to action like a free seminar, class, or training when they sign-up can help seal the deal and show prospects why your facility is the one to choose. 

Pump Up Your SEO

To drive more traffic to your website, you’ll need to be ranking on fitness and gym related local searches. One way to dominate search engine results is to ensure your website is optimized. Having a smart SEO plan is one of the most cost-effective forms of marketing. To successfully optimize your website and crush the search results, you’ll need to:

• Research and utilize relevant keywords and links throughout your website content
• Set up and rank for Google My Business
• Create citations on local listing sites like Yelp, Facebook, and Tripadvisor
• Employ pay-per-click advertising campaigns 

Build Strong Rep(utation)s 

Recent research shows that over 90% of users regularly read online reviews, and as many as 82% trust these reviews as much as a personal recommendation. It’s hard to ignore online reputation today and reviews from existing members may be the most persuasive content about your business. Encourage clients to leave positive reviews on Google and Facebook if they’ve had a great experience with your gym. Your goal as a health facility isn’t to be the best, but to be reflected online as the best based on customer reviews.

Step Up with Social Media Marketing 

Fitness social media marketing is an easy, appealing, and inexpensive way to promote your business. Your facility’s social profiles are another place that prospective clients will use to feel you out. Try posting clear and compelling images or videos of things happening in your gym. Showcase workouts, classes, or seminars going on in your studio for the week. Share client success stories, health tips, and what life is like in your space. Your social channels should show what is unique about your gym and why potential members would want to join. Remember to engage with your community to leave a lasting impression.   

High Impact Instagram, Facebook, and Remarketing Ads

Whether your yoga marketing strategies just aren’t going with the flow or you’re looking for a fresh, new concept to add to your plan, online advertising could be the answer you’ve been searching for. Utilizing high impact Instagram and Facebook ads should be included in your marketing playbook. When properly executed and analyzed, they present a ton of growth and opportunity for your gym or studio. Remarketing ads are designed to bring back visitors who have already viewed or are interested in your business but didn’t convert the first time. This type of advertising is a great tactic to keep your promotion and brand in front of the user as they browse the internet.   

If you’re looking for the best fitness marketing company around, look no further than BrandHive. With over 20 years of experience in the health and wellness industry, we can guarantee we will bring your gym marketing ideas to life with our comprehensive solutions. From helping your yoga club stand out with a fresh new logo to sharing smart fitness social media marketing tips, we are your one-stop-shop for creating a buzz in the natural marketplace. If you’re ready to get started on a project, contact us today.

It’s a known fact that unhealthy foods and beverages are heavily marketed to children. Using social media, toys, games, sports, music, and apps, the food industry largely targets young people as a whole. Chances are your child can already identify a box of sugary cereal based on the character adorning the box or pass by a fast-food restaurant and recognize the logo (even before they can read). Food marketing is everywhere and it’s particularly powerful and effective for vulnerable children and young teens. That’s why food and beverage companies spend a whopping $1.8 billion each year on food marketing to children as young as two years old.   

Unfortunately, not much of this investment goes to healthy food advertising for kids. The current diet of children today is full of sugar and fats and too little of fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and whole grains. Research shows that the food environment is largely responsible for this, with over 80% of the advertisements viewed by children and teens marketed towards foods high in saturated fats, trans fat, sodium, and sugar. This high exposure to unhealthy foods can actually increase a child’s risk of obesity. Today, we’re creating some buzz and sharing some healthy food branding tips and strategies to spread awareness during National Childhood Obesity Month. 

Update Packaging

Incorporating well-known cartoon characters or fun cartoon produce personalities into your healthy food advertising for kids increases the healthy foods’ appeal, studies show. Adding stickers or banners with these amusing characters onto the food (like an apple) or where food is being served (like in a school cafeteria) can be used to promote healthier food choices in a positive way. If your packaging is fun, it will speak to younger consumers. 

Consider Placement 

When marketing healthy foods to children, consider placement. This means choosing places where kids congregate, like schools, in stores, parks, playgrounds, and recreational centers. Today, many children spend a lot of time online, so marketing in the digital world is a must. Many reports show on average, kids ages 8 to 12 spend about 6 hours in front of a screen, and teenagers spend over 9 hours a day online. Whether you’re referencing your brand in an article, social media post, blog, or video clip, make sure it is designed with a child in mind. Colorful, interactive, and engaging advertisements can really help your brand get noticed. 

Have Fun with Promotions

Nearly 70% of children encounter food marketed to them at their schools. From fundraisers, incentive programs, company-sponsored classroom materials, lunchroom banners, and logos on snack machines, unhealthy food branding is everywhere. When marketing to children, consider other options like healthy fundraisers, 5k runs or walks, taste tests, and fun holidays like National Granola Bar Day or National Peanut Butter Day to participate in. 

Community Connections

Partner up with people in your community who share the same mission! Look to your local grocery stores, foundations, colleges, and schools to share ideas, provide trainings, and come up with new recipes as a fun way to market and advertise your brand of healthy foods. Participate in giveaways or contests where kids can get involved. You’ll not only be spreading the word about the importance of consuming healthy foods for children, but you’ll also be able to network and meet potential partners and customers along the way. 

At BrandHive, branding for healthy food lines is what we do. Through logos, new packaging, engaging videos, and advertising campaigns, we can guarantee our healthy food marketing to children will catch your prospect’s attention, communicate your message, and get you noticed. Getting kids to eat healthier is a lot tougher than just saying “no” to junk food, but with our healthy food marketing strategies, you’ll definitely create some buzz. Contact us today to get started. 

Earlier we shared how some of our clients are responding amidst COVID-19. Below are four additional stories from our clients and how they’ve had to adapt to this pandemic. Do you have a story to tell? We can help. See Part 1 for more.

“We started out in the field of organic chemistry synthesis and now create scientifically backed dietary supplements. Because we are a small company, we’re able to be nimble and pivot rapidly to meet ever-shifting consumer needs. We utilized our past expertise and facility capabilities to manufacture thousands of gallons of hand sanitizer to help fulfill the needs of medical facilities and hospitals who were quickly running out. We’re striving to fulfill the basic required needs of our local health care facilities by also providing masks and gowns. We’re here to do our part on behalf of those on the front lines.”  

“At Eevia Health we have strived to take care of our employees by implementing strict protocols and safety procedures. We have kept production running, however, we have set up a project to counteract the possible disruption of closed borders. A significant part of the annual berry harvest in Finland is done by foreigners and if the borders are still closed in August, that will disrupt the national harvest volume and have a significant impact. We are therefore ramping up our own harvest force of several thousand people, recruiting from domestic workforce, including students who will not get summer work this year, those who are unemployed, pensioners who have time for this (and often are very experienced pickers), and people with available free time looking for additional income. Finally, because we have the ability to handle ethanol in our manufacturing factory, we have begun producing pallets of disinfectant for those in need. We are also working out how we can contribute to the hunger crisis in local communities due to the impact of COVID. We are doing our best to keep up with the demand of our immunity ingredients while keeping everyone involved healthy and safe.” 

“It can be a challenging time for start-ups like Comet Bio given the economic uncertainty in this pandemic. Fortunately, the nutrition and food industries are less vulnerable to this market instability than the foodservice, hospitality and other sectors. We are in a good position with a fully-funded business plan, a history of prudent financial management, and the support of our investors to continue our growth. And as COVID-19 puts a spotlight on consumers’ health, we are concentrating on how our prebiotic dietary fiber ingredient, Arrabina, can help consumers maintain a healthy microbiome and support immunity. During these unprecedented times, our company’s mission to provide nutritious, sustainable, and high-quality ingredients remains unaltered.”

“We at TriNutra and our partner, NS oils, are taking decisive action to minimize the impact of the COVID-19 virus on our employees, partners, customers. As an essential business, we have been able to sustain full employment of our team and are operating our site according to the Israeli Ministry of Health Restricted instructions. We have implemented extensive measures and precautions to ensure the safety of our employees and partners and to protect the supply of our cultivated raw materials. We have adopted specific procedures to minimize and manage any future disruption to our ongoing operations. These include expanded safety stocks of raw materials and Personal Protective Equipment, as well as ongoing monitoring of our suppliers’ stock levels to assure future deliveries. We are also continuing our biological R&D work on our cold-press black seed oil, ThymoQuin, which includes testing the antiviral response and amplifying the immune system by using in-vitro and in-vivo modules. We will continue to put the customer first and do everything possible to keep our people safe and healthy while we continue to strive to meet the needs and expectations of our customers.”

At BrandHive, we have the pleasure of working with great clients taking extraordinary measures for improved health, wellness and nutrition. Over the past 24 years, we have seen a lot, but nothing quite like COVID-19. As we are all adapting and changing our everyday operations, we reached out to our partners to see how they’ve had to adapt. 

Unsurprisingly, we found that our clients are rising to the challenges of these difficult times. Below are just a few examples of how they are responding to COVID-19. Do you have a story to tell? We can help.

“Being based in New York, we have taken extreme precautions and safety measures, and although we’ve been working from home for some time now, our communication and ability to provide quality products to our customers has been incredibly strong. We are so proud of our team’s dedication, and their ability to adapt to this changing climate. We have seen first hand the devastation COVID-19 has had on our community and the dedication of our health care workers, which is why our team came together to donate funds to the NYC Health + Hospitals organization which provides meals, groceries, hotel expenses, laundry services and more to healthcare professionals in our area. In addition, Kyowa has also partnered with one of its customers, in a program dedicated to helping fitness professionals impacted by the complete shutdown of all gyms and training facilities across the nation.  Overall, despite this pandemic, our team and operations remain strong.” 

“We have taken precautionary measures to ensure our team’s safety through working from home and implementing extreme cleansing processes in our facilities. Recently, I participated in the charity challenge Run 5 Donate 5 Nominate 5 on behalf of Gencor. I ran 5km, passed the challenge to five people, and donated €5 to the National Health Service (NHS) which went towards its COVID-19 fund. Additionally, our offices in India are providing food to stranded migrant laborers affected by COVID. At Gencor, we are continually working with our customers and employees to ensure a safe working environment while continuing to keep up with the demands of our ingredients.”

“Valensa formed a COVID-19 task force by March 2020 to ensure the health & safety of all employees and strategize business continuity to serve our customers. We immediately took action to ensure the health and safety of our team by implementing new sanitizing and cleaning procedures in our facilities. We also gave employees the option of working from home where the job function allowed. We understood that production and manufacturing needed to take place to continue providing our customers with the quality products they have come to expect, so in addition to social distancing and limiting the number of team members in the facility, Valensa gave its front line employees a pay increase to thank them for their dedication in keeping our company strong. We’ve accelerated the development of a digital marketing strategy for engagement continuity with customers and industry partners. We are adapting to the new normal and are extremely proud of our team and its quick response to implement safety and ensure supply chain excellence.” 

“With a personal connection to the emergency facilities in our area, we understand firsthand the impact of COVID. Our company came together to purchase numerous masks, gloves and gowns, which we then donated to the local hospitals and prospective essential workers. We are beyond grateful for all of the work they continue to do and how they are helping our neighbors get through this together.” 

When the unknown dominates conversations your customers need help from reliable sources. Communicate your competency and tell them clearly how you can help them through this time of uncertainty.

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

• Communicate with customers often, make sure to share helpful and reliable information.
• If your business is open – remind people so they know you’re still there for them.
• Check in with team members often and give them each a specific focus.
• Share with customers and employees how they can stay in touch.

Communicate with Empathy and Authority

• Authority : Your customers need help from competent sources. Communicate your competency and tell them clearly how you can help them through this.
• Empathy : Communicate your awareness of their concerns and how your services can help them. For example: “We know these are uncertain times. Here’s something you can count on…”

Let Us Help You Focus Your Messaging

• How does this crisis affect my business?
• How can I survive the current conditions?
• How do I keep my customers informed and maintain relationships?

Most importantly – Don’t Go Dark On Your Communications

Don’t miss out on this conversation – you’ll be forgotten – and when you come back, people will wonder where you were during the crisis.

Contact us today and let BrandHive help with your messaging.

Like you, the team at BrandHive is concerned about the spread of the coronavirus and we are all working from home as much as possible to take actions in social distancing. While you’re working from home and sheltering in place, we’ve curated our favorite ingredients to help ease the 5 most common conditions you may experience during this time.Read more below for more ingredients and tips!

https://mailchi.mp/brandhive/your-quarantine-health-kit-3706197?e=501491c710

BrandHive, a global branding firm that specializes in the healthy lifestyles industry, has announced the promotion of key team members as directors. The new directors will oversee the account management, communications and creative teams effective immediately.

“I’m happy to announce the promotion of these key team members as directors of the organization”, said Andy Yorkin, President of BrandHive. “I very much appreciate the important role these individuals have played as both advisors and insightful contributors to the success of BrandHive. I believe that they will each provide tremendous value to the team and better serve our clients as we continue to grow.” 

BrandHive’s new directors include:

Meet Nagar, Account Director 

Meet is a seasoned marketer with nearly a decade of experience in brand strategy, advertising, and project management. As account director, Meet will serve as the senior point of contact for BrandHive’s customers. He will coordinate the resources required for building strategic operational plans, as well as the execution of creative work and marketing outreach. 

Kandice Randal, Communications Director and Senior Public Relations Counsel 

Kandice brings over a decade of communications experience to BrandHive. As communications director and senior public relations counsel, Kandice will manage and direct BrandHive’s internal and external communications programs, including public relations and social media.  

Erika Lowstedt-Granath, Creative Director 

Erika has worked for international branding agencies, applying her versatile design capabilities in the creation and implementation of corporate identity, packaging, and advertising campaigns. As creative director, she will be responsible for overseeing copywriters, art directors and designers to deliver high-quality creative content for BrandHive’s clients.

James Fagedes, Digital Creative Director 

James provides over 20 years of creative-based leadership with designing digital experiences. As digital creative director, James will be responsible for managing and conceptualizing creative projects across digital platforms to provide clients with a solid and informed brand presence. 

Founded in 1996, BrandHive will embark upon its 23rd year in business as a leader within the healthy lifestyles industry. For more information, visit www.brandhive.com.

BrandHive, a global branding firm specializing in the healthy lifestyles industry, announced the appointment of Andy Yorkin as President. The announcement was made today preceding the 2019 SupplySide West event at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada. Yorkin joined BrandHive as Account Director in 2014 and his appointment as President is effective immediately.

“I look forward to building upon the BrandHive legacy,” said Andy Yorkin, President of BrandHive. “BrandHive offers a team of highly skilled professionals and strategists in the healthy lifestyle industry. I plan to leverage this expertise to deliver results, exceed the expectations of our clients and continue growing the company and brand.”

Yorkin developed highly successful campaigns for multiple major accounts, including Lehi Mills, Quantum Health, and DuPont. Before joining BrandHive, Andy established himself over 20 years of experience managing strategic B2C and B2B marketing for companies like Black Diamond Equipment/Gregory Mountain Products, CHG Healthcare, ExtraSpace Storage, Subway and Intel.

“Andy has been a top contributor to BrandHive’s growth and expansion since he joined us 5 years ago,” said Jeff Hilton, BrandHive’s founder. “His leadership ability and skill set make him the ideal choice to lead BrandHive’s future growth.”

Andy holds an MBA from the Bill and Vieve Gore School of Business at Westminster College in Salt Lake City as well as a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Connecticut School of Business.

For more information on BrandHive, visit www.brandhive.com.

BrandHive, a leading healthy lifestyle branding agency, announced that its co-founder, Jeff Hilton, will be a featured speaker at the SupplySide Workshop “Claims & Certifications: What Do They Mean and Who Cares?”. The workshop will take place on Thursday, October 17th from 9-11:00 AM on Level 3, South Seas B, Mandalay Bay Expo Hall.

The Claims & Certifications workshop will be moderated by Informa Markets Associate Editor, Charlie Bastiaans. Jeff’s presentation will address the reality of “certification fatigue” and what can be done to avoid it by applying best practices. Jeff will be joined on the panel by fellow experts Lisa Mabe-Konstantopoulos (Green Purse PR), Marcia Moll (US Pharmacopeia), Eric Pierce (NEXT Data & Insights, Informa Markets, Anne Malleau (Global Animal Partnership) and Maryellen Molyneaux (Natural Marketing Institute). The following topics will be discussed during the workshop:

• What market and consumer data shows about consumer interest in certifications
• The most popular claims on the market and whether they impact sales patterns
• Determining the best certifications to showcase on packaging.

For more information on the session, please visit: WORKSHOP: Claims & Certifications: What Do They Mean and Who Cares?

Jeff will also lead an interactive session on the SupplySide Central Stage (Booth #5759) called “New Ingredients Driving Marketplace Growth”. The session will preview emerging branded ingredients driving consumer interest in the marketplace, including guests from Kaneka, Ingredients By Nature, and Alfasigma. The session will take place on Thursday, October 17th, 2019 from 2:30-3:00 PM.

First time SupplySide West attendees will also be able to meet Jeff and other SupplySide “rockstars” at a reception on Wednesday, October 16, 2019 from 5 to 7 pm. The reception will take place at La Fleur at Mandalay Bay.
 
For more information on Supplyside West, visit west.supplysideshow.com.

Newark, CA (September 17, 2019) Kaneka Americas Holding, Inc. based out of Newark, California, is thrilled to announce its marketing collaboration with BrandHive, a leading healthy lifestyle branding agency. BrandHive will develop and implement marketing support for the launch of Kaneka’s new proprietary probiotic line, Floradapt. Floradapt’s unique clinical strains provide highly bioefficacious effects for specific health applications through all stages of life.

“Our strategic collaboration with BrandHive will elevate our outreach and generate awareness of our new probiotic line, Floradapt,” said Mike Kolifrath, Vice President of the Probiotics Division. “BrandHive has extensive knowledge and experience in the dietary supplements arena, and we are looking forward to optimizing our footprint and engaging with customers and partners in greater depth.”

Kaneka has an extensive bank of over 1,000 clinical probiotic strains extracted from human origin and fermented food samples which have not been affected by western lifestyle, diet or medicine. The new line, Floradapt, will officially launch at SupplySide West this year and offers distinct solutions for diverse health targets such as children’s colic, cardio, digestive, oral, immune, vaginal and urinary tract fields.

“We are excited to represent Kaneka who has a rich history within the industry and is known as a leader in the research and development of scientifically based ingredients,” said Andy Yorkin, Account Director. “We look forward to supporting their growth in North America for this unique and innovative line of probiotics.”

For more information, please visit the Kaneka booth #1743 at SupplySide West or contact BrandHive directly.

About Kaneka

Kaneka is a leader in the development of scientifically based ingredients for the global nutrition industry. Kaneka is the exclusive supplier of Kaneka Ubiquinol®, and offers the premium form of ubiquinone known as Kaneka Q10®. Kaneka probiotics will be found in its Floradapt™ branded product line. Kaneka is committed to promoting business development to provide solutions that support healthy and energetic lives. For more information, visit us at www.floradapt.com.

About BrandHive

BrandHive is branding the natural, organic world. Like any good hive, we’re collaborative and work closely with our client partners to achieve remarkable results for natural brands. BrandHive can help you strategically position your brand within the healthy lifestyles industry. BrandHive clients benefit from our long-standing relationships and decades of experience crafting messages that engage natural businesses and consumers. We specialize in finished goods and raw materials for dietary supplements, personal care, healthy foods and healthy beverages. For more information, visit us at brandhive.com.