We’ve developed marketing and social media strategies across many different industries, based in all different places around the world. But one that was very new to us was the fitness industry. We’re a tech startup. Exercise is a language we just don’t really speak.
So, here are the 6 biggest marketing hacks we learnt to focus on while working with the fitness industry.
Knowing your niche is essential
Gyms are in high demand. Last year, Australians spent $8.5 billion on fitness. This means that search terms like “gym Brisbane”, for instance, are highly competitive.
Narrow your services down for customers. This can be really simple. If you’re a gym in Jindalee, try “gym Jindalee”. If you’re a lone operator, focus on the suburb first.
Take it a step further. What are your individual services? CrossFit? Bootcamp? Leverage terms like these with your SEO and web copy. The more accurately you narrow down your niche, the less competition you’ll face on search engines.
You have to nail your landing page
Landing pages vary in importance from industry to industry, but for the fitness industry, they’re essential to your performance. They encourage potential customers to take action – they’re that first impression we actually mention straight away on our own landing page.
Integrating special offers into your landing page is a great way to trigger a response from a customer. Special offers make sure people are aware that you care about giving them a good deal.
Check out our hand-picked selection of online landing page tutorials:
- Learn The Principles of Landing Design (Tuts+)
- Ready for a Landing Page Tutorial? (Instapage)
- Pages Training and Tutorials (lynda.com)
- Building a landing page (Webflow)
Set up Facebook lead ads
Setting up lead ads can work wonders for your business. They’re great resources that connect customers to your business in a few simple steps – and sometimes, they work even better than landing pages.
Lead ads are designed to work in a very simple way. Let’s break it down:
- First, Facebook targets your lead ad to the people most likely to be interested in your products
- When someone clicks on the ad, all they need to do is click again to submit a form that Facebook has pre-filled for them
- Now, they’re signed up to your updates, and you’ve got a fresh lead
Creating a good lead ad is tricky and can take some mastering. You’ve got to think carefully about the information you want from customers and how it’s going to help you serve them. Check out Facebook’s definitive guide for more info.
Provide value by understanding your customers
Fact: every business is someone else’s customer.
So, as a business, tap into your inner customer to define your value. Ask yourself as many customer-minded questions as you can.
What would you, as a customer, really want out of a service like yours? Is it already provided by someone else? If so, what makes your services better than theirs?
Offer more than your competitors. Make your appeal tangible. Understanding your customer will drive home results.
Eat, sleep, content, repeat
Content. You need to get to the point where you’ve heard this word so many times that it generates crippling nausea. Then, work past it. Content is vital.
The most successful brands work across every social media platform, and tailor their content to each one. Produce regular content on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat, and maintain your email lists and website. We cannot overstate the value of this.
Establishing a tangible presence that identifies you to your customers is as simple as creating regular, high-quality content.
Exercise is important
We don’t want to just lecture our clients non-stop. We’ve learnt a few things ourselves, directly from the fitness industry. Namely, exercise. It’s really important!
Have you seen what happens to your body when you don’t exercise? It’s messed up.
Working with the fitness industry has seen us improve our game and score some great results for our clients – and also, CrossFit has changed my life. I do it eight times a day. Honest.
Thanks guys.
