The influencer market has grown at an exponential rate and is set to hit $24 billion by 2025, and health and wellness influencers are driving that momentum forward. With 17% of companies now dedicating at least half of their marketing budgets to influencer marketing, the wellness influencer scene looks healthier than ever. Discover 10 wellness influencers at the forefront of this growing industry, plus influencer and brand collaboration examples to get your creative wheels turning.
What Is a Wellness Influencer?
Health and wellness influencers play a prominent role in inspiring and guiding people who want to regain control of their physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing in a stressful, rapidly changing world. There’s perhaps no better example than the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused many people to reassess their habits and environments and find a renewed appreciation for a healthy, balanced lifestyle. Wellness influencers create meaningful relationships with their followers, often by sharing eye-opening and relatable content like the topics below:
- Product reviews
- Daily lifestyle tips
- Positive affirmations
- Self-care advice
- Recipes and nutrition tips
- Fitness videos
- Mindfulness exercises
- Shopping or unboxing videos
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These types of content creators may use videos/vlogs, podcasts, photos, blogs, and more to engage their audiences. As you’ll see, the most successful wellness influencers clearly define their audience, focus on content that brings genuine value to the viewer, and use a variety of platforms. Instagram is the most popular wellness influencer platform by far, but they also lean on other websites and social media channels like Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook. Health and wellness is an integral part of our lives — and a broad category — which can open the door for brands to form winning partnerships with these influencers. For example, a yoga influencer may team up with a women-led brand that designs yoga apparel or creates all-natural vitamins and supplements. Travel companies and makeup brands are some other common examples. Influencers have to protect the integrity of their own brands, though, and will only align themselves with socially responsible companies that hold similar values. They often like to maintain complete control over their content, although many are open to working with brands to find the right content strategy to achieve the campaign’s objectives. Effective partnerships can cover a single sponsored content post or a long-term brand ambassador role. When a brand finds the right influencer, the benefits for brand awareness and lead generation are huge.
10 Health and Wellness Influencers To Watch This Year
The digital space is rich with hundreds of health and wellness influencers, but only a handful have the reach and notoriety to land on this list. Here are the standouts you should know about.
Melissa Wood-Tepperberg
New Yorker Melissa Wood-Tepperberg (@melissawoodhealth) is one of the most popular macro-influencers in this arena. She is a yoga and pilates trainer whose program (“The MWH method”) is known for its celebrity supporters. Her Instagram feed is filled with how-to workout videos, meditation tips, and general motivational advice. Her YouTube channel and website are two additional outlets that thousands of followers flock to each day.
Brands They’ve Worked With
Wood-Tepperberg works with a variety of brands that support healthy living and sustainable practices, including Mary Ruth’s Organics and Citrine Natural Beauty Bar. She regularly reviews products and generates revenue and user interest by providing discount codes.
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Raoum Alsuhaibani
Saudi Arabia-based influencer Raoum Alsuhaibani (@sukkarilife) is a certified nutritionist who produces an array of content related to healthy and sustainable living, with a focus on plant-based nutrition. She promotes her DIY vegan recipes while documenting her everyday life with frequent, colorful Instagram grids and highlight reels. As an authentic and authoritative voice, she makes a difference in the lives of her 100k+ followers and humanizes the brands she works with.
Brands They’ve Worked With
Alsuhaibani partners with brands that bundle positivity and healthy lifestyles. Sponsored posts by Hungerstation and Herbal Essence underline the versatility of her brand and the wide range of wellness topics. She chooses quality over quantity.
Recommended Reading: 25 Lifestyle influencers Your Brand Should Follow [From Instagram to Bloggers]
Jerrelle Guy
Dallas-based Influencer Jerrelle Guy (@chocolateforbasil) is a food expert — and food photographer, recipe writer, cookbook stylist — with a massive following. With a master’s degree in gastronomy and passion for all things food, her high-quality visual content easily stands out on Instagram feeds and hooks users, maximizing reach and brand exposure. With over 140,000 followers on Instagram alone, she is able to work with brands to create eye-grabbing content that keeps her followers hungry for more.
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Brands They’ve Worked With
Unsurprisingly, Guy’s brand partnerships focus on collaborations with media companies and businesses in the field of home cooking and nutrition. She’s collaborated with big-name brands like Bon Appetit Magazine and Le Creuset on content and giveaways.
Joe Wicks
English influencer and fitness coach Joe Wicks (@thebodycoach) has enjoyed a long career in the health and wellness influencer space thanks in part to his “Lean In 15” program. However, his P.E. with Joe YouTube series became a huge hit throughout the coronavirus pandemic, helping children in the UK and beyond stay fit and healthy. It even earned him a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) honor from the Queen of England.
Brands They’ve Worked With
Wicks, with over 4 million followers on Instagram alone, has worked with several brands over the years. Most tellingly, he is an ambassador for Lululemon, the athletic clothing brand that focuses on the power of physical activity to create a better quality of life. The partnership is still in its infancy, so it’s one to keep an eye on.
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Mark Hyman
Health professionals like Dr. Mark Hyman (@drmarkhyman), who practices functional medicine, are the reason 92% of audiences trust influencers over traditional ads or celebrity endorsements. His content, which predominantly comes via Instagram and bestselling books, covers a wide range of topics from meditation and stress management to healthy sleep and nutrition, backed by hard data and expert interviews.
Brands They’ve Worked With
With over 1.5 million Instagram followers, Hyman is selective of the organizations and products he promotes. His Mark’s Picks series on Instagram and e-newsletter curates five tools or practices that subscribers can use to unlock greater wellness, such as The Five-Minute Journal book or app.
Katie Wells
As the face of Wellness Mama, Katie Wells (@wellnessmama) shows how influencers can discover an industry niche, build a team, and win long-lasting loyalty from their followers. She is one of the top wellness influencers for parents, uploading content covering topics like parenting tips, healthy recipes, DIY household products, fitness, and more. She creates plenty of short-form content for social media, as well as longer content in the form of podcasts.
Recommended Reading: 25 Fitness Influencers Your Brand Should Know About [From Instagram to YouTube]
Brands They’ve Worked With
In addition to featured advertising space on her podcast, Wells partners with brands to offer honest product reviews. For example, she shared her simple, easy-to-digest analysis of products like AirDoctor filters and Clearly Filtered water bottles in 2021 with her 220,000+ followers.
Kim Kine
Australian Kim Kine (@kim_kine) is a popular Instagram influencer, but she’s also grown a large, active following on TikTok. The app’s reach in the U.S. alone has shown a year-over-year growth of around 80% for the past two years, and Kine has made the most of it with short videos that engage her audience while giving physical and mental health, self-love, and happiness advice. Her content covers everything from posture improvements to beauty tips and nutrition, opening the door to a plethora of TikTok advertising and brand partnership opportunities.
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Brands They’ve Worked With
Kim Kine focuses on creating content that gives insight into the products that have improved her life with the hopes of helping others. Recently, she brought exposure to growing brands like the Hello Cup and Cymbiotika vitamins.
Recommended Reading: 25 Fashion Influencers That Will Excite Your Brand’s Followers
Khrys Speed
Khrys Speed (@kdotspeed), a British weightlifting and performance coach, is a great example of what influencers can achieve even with a modest following. The micro influencer is an authoritative voice thanks to his silver medal in national weightlifting and sports science degree. Meanwhile, his training and coaching videos motivate his athletic-minded audiences on Instagram, Apple podcasts, and more.
Brands They’ve Worked With
Honest product reviews supported by interesting photos and videos are shown to get great engagement for Speed. Reebok Europe’s Nano X1 campaign is probably the most powerful example.
Amy Michaels Koberling
Amy Michaels Koberling (@the_skinthusiast), AKA “The Skinthusiast,” discusses all things skincare, beauty, and wellness on her website, Instagram feed, and other social channels. The blogger and social media influencer aims to offer unbiased reviews and research-backed products recommendations, and dives deep into health topics such as the impact of screen time on your skin. Another standout feature is that Koberling’s content is supported by consistent branding that uses relaxing, positive color schemes. Brands can achieve those traits by association.
Brands They’ve Worked With
Koberling’s content is open to many partnerships and sponsored content opportunities. For example, sponsored posts by Hismile and Invisalign have shown how brands in a similar field can work together with an influencer for stunning results.
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Alan Filauro
New York-based fitness expert and personal trainer Alan Filauro (@alan_filauro) uses his feed to show the benefits of fitness and how it can be incorporated into daily life by the average person. His high-quality content, particularly rich photos and other visual storytelling tools, includes advice on fitness, recovery, and managing daily life. The focus isn’t on fitness for athletes, it’s on fitness for life. This philosophy — and his personality — resonates with an audience of over 30,000.
Brands They’ve Worked With
Of course, physical wellness brands are a perfect fit for Filauro. His Instagram account has featured ads and voucher codes that have driven followers to businesses like Restore Hyper Wellness + Cryotherapy and Lenny & Larry’s, a plant-based protein cookie seller.
5 Brands Leveraging the Power of Wellness Influencers
Brands of all sizes and backgrounds are leveraging health and wellness influencers for sales and marketing success. Here are five examples for inspiration.
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L’Oreal
L’Oreal prides itself on promoting beauty in a diverse manner, so the brand focuses on connecting with influencers from a wide range of backgrounds, with follower counts ranging from micro to mega. The company has recently confirmed a new partnership with award-winning French singer-songwriter Yseult who says, “It’s a message of self-confidence: believe in yourselves, don’t ever give up and trust your sorority.” The campaign increases brand awareness while simultaneously promoting their commitment to inclusivity for all.
Olly
Olly successfully partnered with From Popular Pays to create a range of content for its owned media channels, increase the speed of campaign production, and improve their output and customer reach. They also use a team of brand ambassadors to further promote their wellness products to new, relevant audiences. For consumers that follow multiple influencers, the continued exposure will increase the likelihood of conversion.
Urban Remedy
Wellness influencers are often born from the digital age. But sometimes, they’re established celebs who have already built trust with a large fan base. Cindy Crawford is a prime example — her brand ambassadorship with Urban Remedy, a food delivery company, has worked wonders for a brand that now boasts around 50,000 followers on Instagram. The company also uses influencers like Calyn Brooke, whose sponsored posts bring further awareness to the brand’s whole food focus.
Fabletics
Actress and Fabletics co-founder Kate Hudson tapped into the power of influencers to promote the brand’s line of workout attire. Their campaign with Sarah Rae Vargas across Facebook and other social channels was the brand’s fourth-best campaign ever. Crucially, it underlined a commitment to wellness for all, breaking down previous body image stereotypes. Fabletics boasts a solid track record of using the top wellness influencers, inviting them to apply for brand partnerships via their website.
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Genentech
Collaborations with health influencers aren’t limited to selling products. Genentech, a biotechnology company, teamed up with content creators like Danielle Smith for its #NotOneType movement. The campaign was launched to educate people about how breast cancer affects every patient differently using real stories.
Energize your brand with an influencer collaboration
Influencer marketing is dominating in 2021, and wellness influencers are at the heart of it all. Health and wellness creatives can support brands with active, engaging content — from quick video posts to product collaborations — that directly influences consumer habits and opinions. Wondering what an influencer partnership can do for your next campaign or launch? Use the Popular Pays influencer network, with over 6,000 experienced content creators, to discover influencers now.
