Heally Takes a Step Beyond Medical Marijuana with Holistic Patient Health at its Core

Today’s hyper-competitive markets mean companies need to develop strategies to help them stand out. Building a brand identity is more important than ever.

Of course, it’s a task that is easier said than done. It can be difficult to know where to start or what’s effective.

If you’re looking for inspiration, you’re in the right place. We know how tough it is to make a brand shine, so we wanted to highlight one company that’s doing it right: Heally. We’ll take a look at what makes this brand unique in the market and how they’re innovating. Then we sit down for an interview with Laney Frid, Chief Financial Officer of Heally. She gives us the inside scoop on brand development and marketing at Heally.

Why We Love Heally

Heally is a great example of building a unique brand in a crowded, competitive market. Based in California, Heally works with doctors and patients across the country.

There are plenty of companies focused on medical marijuana, but Heally is different. Their platform allows them to connect doctors and patients in a way that other companies don’t. Beyond that, Heally has worked on moving beyond being a “medical marijuana” company. They’ve broadened their view to holistic health and wellness solutions for patients.

When we chatted with Laney Frid, Heally’s CFO, this broader vision became plain. “We don’t see ourselves as a cannabis company,” she says. “We are not in the cannabis industry.”

The company sees cannabis as another alternative to pharmaceuticals. This view of cannabis as one of many plant-based remedies goes hand-in-hand with a focus on wellness.

“We saw patients struggling with pharmaceuticals,” Laney continues. She notes patients were working with treatments that focused on solving one issue. These “solutions” weren’t working for patients. Often, it was because they weren’t addressing all symptoms.

Some pharmaceuticals even cause more side effects. They can reduce quality of life and exaggerate other symptoms. When this happens, it’s often back to the drawing board with traditional medicine. Underlying issues at the root of a patient’s condition are often ignored.

These treatments often act in direct contrast to a patient’s desire to be functional and desire to be well.

Heally’s team makes sure they “see the whole person [and] provide full-body treatment [with] everything nature has to offer.”

What Makes Heally Different?

As we noted, Heally’s different from your traditional medical marijuana company. They’ve moved the focus from specific ailments or symptoms to the big picture of health and wellness. With this focus, they aim to provide more comprehensive care than you might otherwise expect from a doctor’s office.

One of their strengths is their software platform, which connects doctors and patients. In our interview, Laney stressed that Heally acts as a partner for doctors. “Doctors are independent,” she says, “our platform empowers them.”

That’s one of Heally’s goals. Unlike the usual medical marijuana clinic, Heally focuses on easing the administration. Doctors can then focus on patient care and getting to those root causes. The Heally partnership provides the tools doctors need to deliver this holistic care.

Laney says the approach to patient care is a little different too. “Our #1 priority is allowing people to take control,” she says. She adds that they focus on helping patients make small changes to improve well-being. “We’re not going to suggest you go to the gym for several hours each week. This is not about drastic changes.”

The platform empowers people to make those key changes that will help them feel better. For some, the focus is on preventive medicine, which will help them stay healthy longer.

Challenges in Addressing a Broad Audience

Heally’s focus on holistic health and wellness is far-reaching. People who are looking for a medical marijuana doctor may be pleasantly surprised. With Heally, they’ll discover a partner dedicated to helping them achieve better health. People who are seeking alternatives to traditional pharmaceutical-based solutions are curious too.

Heally’s audience is thus broad and diverse. They may be talking to a middle-aged person with diabetes, an athlete who wants to use cannabis for workout recovery, and a college student who wants to take steps to improve their health—all at the same time.

Laney says the biggest challenge with an audience this broad is creating content. “Providing great content is more of a goal,” she elaborates. “We want people to engage with us, to see us as an ecosystem where they can find help.”

Part of the problem, she notes, is the amount of work that goes into creating great content. She points to the difficulty in finding credible research on natural substances. “The space is not yet mature,” she says. “You have to spend more time researching.”

She says this is a priority for Heally. People are looking for information, but it isn’t always easy to find. The goal is for patients and other curious people to be able to turn to Heally to answer their questions. Heally will do the research and find those credible sources. Then they’ll distill the information to make it more accessible.

Solving the Content Creation Puzzle

Great content like comprehensive blog posts is key for Heally. They want to offer resources to anyone who wants to improve their health.

It’s the time factor that usually limits a company’s ability to produce this kind of high-quality content. Your team may have the information or the research skills, but they may not have time to write it all down. And since Google loves fresh content, the schedule crunch can be magnified as you need to blog on a regular basis.

Even when time constraints are clear, outsourcing content creation might not seem like the right solution. Some blog-creation companies use teams of non-expert writers. Different writers may take on each blog, so the quality of writing will never be the same.

A different approach is needed for a company like Heally. Working with the same writer on every blog post ensures the writing always meets the same high standards. Over time, as the relationship develops, the writer will also develop expertise. They become less of a contractor and more of a team partner.

Where Heally Is Going

Heally has already done plenty of work to make their brand stand head and shoulders above others. The road hasn’t been without its twists and turns, of course.

So, where is Heally’s brand headed from here?

Laney says Heally wants to be a key player in the maturation of the research literature on natural substances. Heally’s well-positioned to do this through its partnership with doctors. She says they’d even like to contribute some of their own research. They also want to offer insights using data analysis from their platform.

She also predicts legalization of cannabis will continue to change the landscape. “Legalization will lead to people seeing cannabis as an alternative to pharmaceuticals,” she says. “They won’t be as afraid of it.”

She sees this as an opportunity for Heally. It’s also an amazing opportunity for patients themselves. Interest in cannabis could lead to more interest in plant-based medicine and holistic medicine.

The end result? Care that’s focused less on bandaging symptoms and more focused on helping people live their best lives.

Get to Know Heally:

Website  – Heally Marketplace – Facebook  – Instagram – Twitter