Like the arts, Instagram is the premier social network for the fitness industry. With a focus on photos and images, Instagram allows fitness brands and personalities to show —rather than tell—their followers what it is they’re trying to communicate. More so than artists, though, fitness professionals occupy a particularly powerful space in marketing and social media in that all of us want to be in shape, fit, and healthy—therefore we want see ourselves in the likeness of the fitness icon. If presented correctly, it makes for some extremely formidable marketing. Below we’ll detail tips and potential marketing strategies for leveraging your fitness brand on Instagram.
Know Yourself and Your Audience
Knowing your target demographic is crucial a element for fitness brands. It functions as the entire basis of your online presence. As we’ve noted elsewhere, your ROI greatly diminishes when your audience is obscured, so developing a clear, explicit target demographic is key before setting out. There are a wide variety of fitness brands out there—from bodybuilding to healthy eating. Narrowing and specializing your audience allows you to produce more engaging, higher quality content, which we detail further in following paragraph.
Quality
Quality is an important aspect when it comes to all social media campaigns, but it’s absolutely essential when it comes to fitness brands. Just take a look at some of the top Instagram accounts: Lululemon, Crossfit, Anytime Fitness; for them quality content is king. Think about it: consumers follow fitness brands because they aspire to these presented images. As mentioned above, that’s some powerful marketing. Consumers want to see themselves in the likeness of these high end fitness brands. In short, quality accounts will attract quality consumers. Quality consumers, over time, spend money and become highly effective advocates for your brand.
Experiment
There’s always room for experimentation in social media. As a digital marketing agency working with numerous clients we often find ourselves experimenting with short videos. In fact, Facebook gives preferential algorithmic treatment to video, especially Live streaming. Experimenting with different hashtag sets is also beneficial when trying to tap new segments of your audience. The point is to Try, Measure, and Try Again. Meaning that you should experiment as often as possible, evaluate the success of the experiments, and use that data going forward. Adaptation is the crux of a successful digital marketing campaign
Emphasize a Lifestyle
As we’ve stated throughout, the key to an effective Fitness brand is to emphasize a lifestyle. Offering products and propping up personalities is good, but presenting values that consumers identify with will allow you to connect with followers on a deeper, more psychological level. Selling to your audience is good, but motivating them is better. Fitness brands on Instagram should strive to create communities, not just drive traffic and sales. It should also be noted that if you nurture a palpable and engaged community, the sales in time will come. It’s a win, win!
In Conclusion…
Fitness brands on Instagram have a great deal of power and potential influence. And through effective marketing, these brands can leverage their position to generate massive traffic, engagement and ultimately, profit. The primary goal is to create a community, a space where followers and advocates can rally behind your brand. This, though, doesn’t happen organically. It takes disciplined, pin point marketing. If you’re looking for our consultation, contact the folks at Socially Buzzing today.
