JV Brokering in the Health & Wellness Niche

[Gregory Simpson]

Hi Guys,

I have a question for you. What do you think is the biggest challenge to forming successful JV partnerships in the Health & Wellness niche?

[Mike Merz]

Welcome to JVNP, Dr. Simpson ..

You'll get more of a response in this category, Gregory ... I'm sure.

Well folks ... before I get a chance to respond, I'd like to hear from others.

We've had questions on this topic before ... don't be shy.

Best,

Mike

[Gregory Simpson]

Hey thanks Mike. Glad to be here. Looking forward to the response.

Gregory

[Todd Lamb]

Hello Dr. Simpson,

I have done promotions in the Fitness/ Health niche and my experience has been it is much more difficult to create partnerships in this niche in comparison to the IM niche.

I have used a similar approach...i.e. offering help, promoting offers etc however it has produced limited results in forming solid JV partnerships.

The push in the fitness niche seems to be (my opinion only) a partner would promote for you if you were a student in their mastermind group etc. where they can use your results to promote their success.

This is not a bad strategy, it simply can be cost prohibitive.

[Gregory Simpson]

Hi Todd,

Thanks for the feed back. I did recognize the challenges in the Health & Wellness niche and know that there is much more of an appeal for JV partners in the IM niche, primarily because of the greater level of control JV IMmers have over the marketing and distribution of digital products to their lists.

There are a few more key issues that make JV's unattractive to strong IM based JV partners. These are

1. Health and Wellness niche products require a different mechanism for establishing validity and credibility to make them successful. In other words, if the digital products are backed by established physicians or heavily credentialed health care professionals, fitness trainers, dietitians, nutritionists etc, coupled with high profile endorsements such as Oprah with acai berry juice, they are more likely to be successful or at least attractive more interest. This is very true of digital products in the fitness and weight loss niches, the two areas that find the most activity with JV partners. As a rule it seems that prevention doesn't really sell, unless you either are forced to have it i.e. car insurance or a deep need was created for you to have to have it!

2. In many cases, products that are successful in the Health & Wellness niche are physical not digital products. These include supplements (of all forms), alternative medicine practices like reiki, acupuncture etc or beauty products. There is an extremely large number of readily accessible and free medical web sites that individuals can find information on practically any disease, condition or treatment approach whether traditional or alternative. Developing a successful information product that will do very well through a IM JV partnership will require creativity, lots of re-purposing and testimonials.

3. Supplements, health juices, organic foods, personal care products etc are sold to consumers through either traditional marketing or multi-level-marketing (MLM) platforms. The distribution through traditional marketing channels make these types of products best sold through websites such as eBay, amazon etc - warehousing becomes the main issue here, the very thing that IM JV partners seem to want to avoid like the plague in their business models! Reviews are mixed on MLM approaches, but from the JV partners I've spoken to they won't touch these models, mainly because of the legal and ethical issues surrounding this form of marketing.

4. Health care systems or membership sites are far more attractive as a business model for IM JV partners because of the recurring income potential. The only challenge here is to keep members coming back. The question that has to be asked about membership websites revolves heavily around the exclusivity of the content and how do you charge for that if there are so many free competing sources of the information? Mike's JVNotifypro web site is a really good example of what can work, but for JV partners this type of site would not generate immediate income. There are obvious benefits down stream, as a list building tool etc, but in the context of a health & Wellness membership site there will be challenges to penetrating the market and keeping membership growing. We already know that membership sites generally keep patrons for about 3 months, so the e-marketing plan would have to bear this in mind.

I do have one question for you though. I didn't understand why you used "cost prohibitive" in your comment, could you explain this a little more for me please?

Gregory

[Todd Lamb]

Some of the larger affiliates in the Fitness side will only promote for you if you are a member of their Mastermind Group and some require a 10,000 dollar admission fee...thus for many it is cost prohibitive

[charleskirkland]

Hi Gregory

Drop me a line. I have a lady in my master mind group who might be able to
get you a foot in the door with some larger players.

Thanks
Charles

[Gregory Simpson]

Hi Mike ,

What's your take on this issue? You did mention you had some thoughts about the subject.


Gregory

[Mike Merz]

Seeing as H&W is your expertise, Gregory ... and my experiences in the niche are a small percentage of which is largely IM targeted, I'll simply supplement your post ... and those of the other partners, with my individual experiences ...

Totally agreed that approaching potential partners in the H&W niche ... and other niches that are growing in popularity such as Real Estate and Investing, you must be patient and selective ... I also recommend joining newsletters, forums, and taking the initiative to promote the wares of those you wish to hopefully start a reciprocal relationship as either an affiliate or even straight out to show how serious you are. Also do your best to get in touch with an affiliate manager/JV manager, etc. ... building a rapport with them is a great way to work your way into an endorsed mailing slot without even getting to know the owner all that well (of course, if you're lucky enough to get your foot in the door with the latter, go for it by all means. )

The IM niche is so jaded to endorsed mailing relationships that I feel we may come on a bit to strong in our attempt to start business relationships ... I do believe merchants in other niches need to be courted a bit more patiently, but I also think that once you do develop and nurture these alliances ... the possibilities of success to a much more wide open market that hasn't been as heavily exposed to this form of marketing may be very high, so it should wind up being worth the extra effort.

In lieu of your mention that physical products are largely MLM based, I find that a smart way for a H&W based merchant to work their way into the IM niche is to go with a digital product (ala ClickBank). Once the relationship shows positive results, an agreement to work together on the physical end has a better chance ... if not, the digital infoproduct market is strong enough to keep things going ... and growing, IMHO.

Cheers,

Mike

[Gregory Simpson]

I have been quiet for a bit, getting new systems and infrastructure issues sorted out. I wanted to comment on the fact that Joint Ventures in the health and wellness niche over the last few months have been dominated by weight loss and fitness products.

No problem though since this is were the buyers are anyway. The question I have is are there any other types of information products in the Health and Wellness sector that are looming on the horizon? Maybe in pregnancy related areas, hypertension or diabetes?

One of the obvious challenges for information products is this niche however is the wide availability of free information from sources like WebMD, NIH, AARP and so on. There is a unique opportunity, however, but the products need to be at a different level and maybe very well researched to really penetrate the market. What say you?