The internet is growing and business is booming. As the baby boomer population ages, they are also looking for more information about health, wellness, fitness and how to improve all three. In every economic period, this age group also has more disposable income. Their children have graduated from college and they have often moved to smaller homes. Your disposable income has peaked.
And at this point in their lives, people are also more concerned about their health and well-being. How do you shed those pesky pounds you’ve been carrying around for the last 10 years? How can they attract a new spouse? How can you make your skin look younger? How can they better manage their diabetes? How can they live without chemicals in their house? How can they stop taking some of their prescription drugs by making lifestyle changes? How can they quit smoking before smoking stops them?
As people ask questions, there continues to be a need for others willing to research and develop solutions and answers. Baby boomers used to find computers dangerous or scary, but most are learning how to surf the internet, buy gifts, and get their questions answered. In fact, some of the newer notebooks made with the Chrome operating systems are perfect for the over 50s. Their advertising to children completely misses a whole population of mobile people who have learned how to use a computer and can slip this slim device into their purses and tote bags.
This means the healthcare industry is viable, growing and a very strong choice for online marketers. Health and wellness is one of three powerful evergreen markets – health, relationships and money.
1. The media continues to report new research showing that a healthy lifestyle helps reduce the risk of disease. When people are looking for information about a healthy lifestyle, quitting smoking, fitness, exercise or a vegetarian diet, they no longer go to the library. Print media are often already outdated before the book hits the library shelves. People are turning to the internet.
2. When someone learns they have heart disease, lupus, diabetes, arthritis, or any of the other hundred other stress-related health conditions, they turn to the Internet for information. How to reduce your stress… Yoga, exercise, meditation or the mind-body-spirit connection; You can be right in their way.
3. The insurance industry is quickly taking a bigger and bigger chunk out of the pockets of workers and employers. The day of the $5.00 office co-payment and $500.00 deductible was over decades ago. Today, say hello to the family deductible of $5,000.00 and the co-payment of $30.00 after you meet the person’s deductible in the plan.
Do you understand the pages of mumbo-jumbo presented to staff to describe what is and isn’t covered – when it is and isn’t – and who can or can’t be on the network? They can be there to reduce office visits by providing information to keep people healthy, or work with large companies to provide employee health information through the company’s intra-net.
4. People with medical conditions love to talk to people who have the same medical conditions; or family members struggling with the same conditions. Forums and content sites are great resources for these niches. Now you have a forum for people with celiac disease and they can easily choose what type of information they want. Next, deploy it.
5. People searching for health and wellness topics will be online until mind-melt replaces the internet. Until then, there is a place for you. The trick is not to offer everything to everyone, but to develop a content page specifically for people who are looking for specific information.
The healthcare industry may be competitive, but it’s BIG. There are niches that are not adequately covered and content that is pure junk. You can be the light for people looking for information to improve their health, well-being and fitness.
This is the time to explore those niches and build a healthy online business.
Thanks to Gail Trahd
