In Part 1 and Part 2 of this three-part series explored the role nutrition professions play in supporting nutrition brands in product development—from formulation to refinement and now, in Part 3, the final stages of promotion and selling.
Firstly, your nutrition professional may be able to be the public face and voice for your product. Website copy that has been written by a credible professional in their field is essential for consumers and healthcare professionals to buy into your brand. It is also helpful to select a nutrition professional with expertise in the field that you are working in. This will mean that they have insight into the questions and problems of your target market so that you can connect with them more easily.
Nutrition professionals who have worked with your target audience will have a good understanding of their needs, brands they associate with and other accounts they follow on social media. They can support in all aspects of promotion and marketing including search strategies and consumer behaviour.
It is also likely that they will be well connected with other professionals and suitable influencers in the same space allowing for expansion of the team and development of the promotion strategy in a cost effective way. Onboarding credible people is always easier when you already have someone that the scientific community trust.
As your product begins to sell, you will have questions from customers that need to be answered and your PR team will need a contact person to direct press enquiries to. Your nutrition professional can be really helpful here and may also have press contacts and ideas for press releases that might gain traction.
Keeping up to date content online and engaging with customers via newsletters and social media is key to continued consumer investment in products, particularly in such a saturated market place. Having a nutrition professional retained to generate this content will improve efficiency and commitment and keep up the momentum.
You may want to consider putting on educational events or webinars to spread the word about your product and a nutrition professional can support you in engaging the right audience and other speakers.
As your product begins to sell, you may want to think about a second product or refining your original offering. With a trusted nutrition professional onboard you will be able to maintain progress with your product development and will have a future strategy for the brand.
Working with a nutrition professional in the product development industry does not necessarily require a salaried role if this is beyond the reach of the company. Nutrition consultants can usually offer a day rate to start ups and they may be available for a retained contract of a few days per month depending on your needs. You may also be in a position to offer shares in your company which may enable you to secure a reduced day rate.
While expertise in the right filed of nutrition and in the product development process will undoubtedly be valuable to a new nutrition business, connections and an online presence can also be extremely useful to marketing and selling. Furthermore, particularly for small start ups, a nutrition professional who is a good fit personality wise can make all the difference to the working relationship. There are many databases for freelance dietitians and nutritionists including Nutrition Hub, The Freelance Dietitians page (UK) and LinkedIn, use these to refine your search and make connections.
The product development process for nutrition businesses can seem complex and the market saturated but with the right expertise, a good team dynamic and the commitment to produce an efficacious product that has an impact on the health and wellbeing of the end user, there will always be opportunities for success.
