WellnessFX Launches Mobile App featuring Aisle7

May 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

WellnessFX just released their first app to the iOS store today and we’re proud to part of it.

We started working with WellnessFX months ago to provide science-based nutrition recommendations based off the biomarker analysis their platform provided to their customers. Brilliant!

This is the first consumer appropriate feedback tool to help consumers find the supplements that may be most helpful, track progress through bio-marker feedback, and assess goals with a WellnessFX health coach. There is a lot of hub-bub around proactive health care apps like this one and we believe this will only increase the need for our content and decision tools to help consumers make sense of the data.

Read the press release

Made possible with Aisle7 Appstream

Filed Under: Aisle7 News, Mobile Tagged With: , , ,

Dr. Google Will See You Now

May 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Is there such a thing as too much information when it comes to health and wellness? I’m sure the doctors will say, “Heck, yes!” After all, they are the ones who have to deal with patients who have Googled the phase ‘rash in armpit’ and have come away convinced they have Ebola.

You can override bad decisions formed from questionable sources by providing top-notch, unbiased content as close to the point of purchase as possible

On the flip side, the access to quality, science-based, information has to be a good thing. Right? It empowers people to take control of their own health. With good information people can learn, plan and maintain good health. They can make smart, confident purchases. Good information=happy, healthy living.

So, maybe it isn’t a question of quantity, but quality.

The problem is there is just so much BAD (and dangerous) information available. And it is way too easy to access. Just look at this:

Do we really want some guy who calls himself Big Mang Chang giving supplement advice to a 14-year-old. No, of course not. But guess what? It’s happening.

As Health and Wellness content providers, this should scare the ever-livin’ brussel sprouts out of us. Bad information leads to bad decisions, which lead to bad purchases, which leads to unhappy customers.

Timing and Context
But, here’s the good news: You can override bad decisions formed from questionable sources by providing top-notch, unbiased content as close to the point of purchase as possible. Whether they are standing in the aisle or shopping online shopper’s crave guidance all the way up until they place a product in their cart. And, trust us, information placed in context of their decision will beat Dr. Google every time.

Filed Under: General Interest, Wellness Marketing

Hitting the Target

May 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Archery seems to be the hot new thing – Hawkeye in the Avengers, Katniss in the Hunger Games, Pixar’s upcoming movie, Brave. I even read that archery is a growing sport for kids based on the popularity of these movies. I see the appeal of aiming for a target and hitting it. (True story – I’m not a bad shot at clay pigeon shooting.)

Did you know that Aisle7 has a product that allows our content to hit the bull’s-eye? We call it Dynamic Content Targeting and we’re pleased to have recently launched this product with GNC. Dynamic Content Targeting service systematically delivers the best match of Aisle7 content to products and pages on your website.

Look up a product on the GNC site and you’ll find the Healthnotes article with supporting informational content:

 

Aisle7 content views have gone through the roof since the launch of Dynamic Content Targeting. Even more important though, initial feedback indicates that product sales have been boosted since the launch of Dynamic Content Targeting.

So tell us, do your customers have access to information at the point of purchase? And did you see The Avengers this weekend?

Filed Under: Health & Wellness Tagged With: , ,

Don’t Just Check a Box

April 30, 2012 By

No one has spoken to more Aisle7 customers than me. Not even close.

As a Web Solution Consultant, I check in daily with our customers, new and old, to make sure that they are getting the most from our platform. These are fun calls: we bounce around ideas, plot strategy, and occasionally talk technical.

I always close my sessions by inviting any questions. Most of these are softballs that I knock out of the park. But just last week a potential customer wound up and threw a screwball my way:

“What’s the biggest challenge I will face if I become an Aisle7 customer?”

Whoa. That put me back on my heels. But the answer came to me, “Your web venture won’t succeed if you are simply trying to ‘check a box’ by tossing in some health content.”

Ok, so what does that mean? Aisle7 Online is so much more than just a page on your website. It is a marketing platform built to support your unique goals. And those who use it as such tend to run successful online ventures.

These companies, from the tiniest e-commerce start ups to massive global enterprises, focus on these three pillars of customer interaction:

  • Acquisition: Using health and wellness information to attract needy customers
  • Engagement: Ensuring that customers, once onsite, can find the exact guidance they need
  • Conversion: Driving that bottom-line with the perfect mix of commerce and content

And that’s what our products are all about. Helping your business every step of the way, captivating shoppers, inspiring decisions, and driving sales.

Yeah, so I dodged a weakness question by turning it into a strength question. Interviewing 101!

Filed Under: Best Practices, Shopper Marketing

Disrupt Yourself #1: What does it mean?

April 18, 2012 By

Disrupt Yourself #1: My Personal Challenge

Everybody in business is talking about disruptive innovation and disruptive business models. What about disrupting yourself?

Well, over the last few months, I’ve found myself in a routine that has been steadily eating away at my frontal lobe. Every day begins to feel the same. Sleep, eat, work, play drums, write my book, watch TV, go to bed. Repeat. Snooze. Blah.

While reading an article in Wired last month, two words on the page lit up. They weren’t even in the same sentence—they were on separate lines but they made a connection. Those words were “disrupt yourself.”

I thought, “How can I? On a day-to-day basis, what can I do to disrupt myself?”

That drummed up something I learned during my years at the Second City conservatory in LA, where I studied improvisational acting and writing sketches, and was encouraged to experiment both on and off the stage with the unexpected. Interestingly enough, I learned that the unexpected doesn’t have to be bizarre, otherworldly or radical.

In fact, it was more likely to be right in front of me, such as:

  1. Taking a different route to/from work
  2. Rather than seeing the latest Hollywood blockbuster, watch a foreign film
  3. Instead of eating Chunky Monkey (no!), try munching on an apple with peanut butter
  4. At the magazine store, buy something I would never read (i.e., Leg Wrestling Monthly)

It wasn’t easy, but I began at that time to incorporate these ideas into my daily life, which rewarded me both by breaking up the monotony of my routine, and by stimulating my brain to access new characters and sketch ideas (oh, if you only could have seen me as a hunchback!).

So, time to make a healthy decision: I’m gonna bring disruption back to my life. Starting now, I will find at least one thing a day that I can do differently to stir things up, and will share them with you in the weeks to come.

If you’re feeling up to the challenge, what can you do today to disrupt yourself, too?

Filed Under: Disrupt Yourself Tagged With: , ,

I Research Health on Your Website (Yes, Yours)

April 11, 2012 By

Can we get a little personal here? We talk a lot on our blog about our products and our customers but I want to get a little more microscopic than that. I am an avid consumer of health products (as are many of my coworkers). Here’s my story of why:

This time last year I had just gotten out of the hospital after a 5 day stay. I have Crohn’s disease and had failed on the medicine I was taking. (On a side note, I hate failing anything.) I was put on high doses of prednisone to try to avoid having surgery and to give my doctors time to figure out a new medicine to try.

I’m a researcher by nature so I turned to the content put out by my trusted colleagues here at Aisle7 to learn as much as I could to regain my health. I learned that fish oil and a daily multivitamin are great for Crohn’s. When my blood work came back showing I had anemia, I learned that I should take iron and Vitamin C to help with absorption. I learned that the prednisone I was taking causes calcium depletion and that Vitamin D helps with bone health. I started cutting gluten out of my diet. And a Newswire article came out during that time that said walking was good for me.

Do you see all those links? That is my personal journey through the Aisle7 content – and the resulting monthly purchases I make (just for supplements) come out to over $80:

Over $80 of supps!

A year later I’m feeling great, thanks in part to all of these tips and supplements. I’m grateful to work with our retail partners who want their customers (like me) to have access to quality products AND to feel empowered to learn more about health.

Filed Under: General Interest, Health & Wellness, Shopper Marketing, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Upward (Usage) Mobility

April 3, 2012 By

There are a lot of trends / statistics / lecturers out there saying that mobile is the future. You know it, and we know it. But man, sometimes the reality of smartphone usage is just staggering.

GNC recently launched a new app (check out the GNC Live Well app in the App Store) featuring Aisle7 content in the Health Center:

 

Watching the usage numbers jump after the introduction of the app was incredible. In the week following the launch, Aisle7 content views from GNC jumped 450%. And 70% of those page views were mobile traffic. In only one week the nature of engagement with the GNC customer had drastically changed (for the better, of course). Those numbers just keep on growing.

Interested in using Aisle7 content in your mobile strategy? We’d love to talk more.

Filed Under: Mobile, Mobile, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , ,

Expo West. It’s that time of year again….

March 9, 2012 By

We’re so excited to be back where it all started: Expo West.

If you’re there too stop by our booth and check out our latest stable of health and wellness marketing programs for your website, store and mobile initiatives. Some of the new capabilities were’ debuting are:

  • Wellness Shops – ultra-targeted online health destinations to help you build an audience
  • Vitamin Advisor – a  tool that determines which vitamins to consider, and boosts conversion rates in the process
  • Mobile decision tools – see the first release of the Boiron Medicine Finder via mobile phone in action

And much more…Everybody that stops by can get a free 30 day trial to our new in-store program for iPad. You can also enter our contest to win the latest iPad, everyone is talking about.

You can find us at booth #1861 Hall B.

All set and ready for the crowds at Expo

Hope to see you soon!

 

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

February 8, 2012 By

Looks like we’re not the only ones admiring the new Max-Wellness website. Congrats are in order for the recent write up in Drug Store News on the launch of their expanded website and the introduction of their new Wellness-in-a-Box concept.

Highlights from the article feature Max-Answers:

The company’s Max-Answers knowledge base, available in its stores in the form of a computer tablet or iPad, has been incorporated into the site as well. Visitors to the site can utilize this feature to search the database for self-care information, including health conditions, vitamins and supplements, and drug-nutrient interactions.

We’re excited to be part of Max-Wellness’ continued innovation with the Max-Answers program.

Filed Under: Aisle7 News, Wellness Marketing Tagged With: , , , ,

Fortune 50 Retail Business Boosts Conversion Rate Four-Fold w/ Aisle7 Online

February 2, 2012 By

In the fourth quarter of 2011, a large club warehouse retailer (Think: Giant jars of pickles!) came to Aisle7 with one simple question:

How can we improve our e-commerce conversion rate?

It was a typical story – they had a huge, happy customer base clicking through their online health and wellness catalog, but were struggling to push these shoppers all the way through to checkout.

Our solution: place expert written, relevant, and informative Aisle7 content directly on product pages, adjacent to “Buy It Now” and “Add to Cart” buttons. Brilliant!

Our years of experience in the wellness marketing game can be boiled down to this:

Consumer focused content drives decisions in e-commerce.

What Happened?

The retailer listened, and built a new product page (like the one above) with a targeted Aisle7 article embedded, to mirror their “standard” shopping page. During the two-week test that followed, conversation rates were four times higher on their content rich product pages. Previously, just 2.4% of shop browsers were reaching for their wallets. Now, 9.9% were converting! Here’s a graphic featuring creepy silhouettes to help hammer this point home:

vs.

Acquiring new customers is great, but, don’t forget you have a huge chunk of pie already on the table. Dig in. Explore the offerings of Aisle7 to learn more!

Filed Under: Aisle7 News, Best Practices, Shopper Marketing Tagged With: , ,
« Older Posts