If you actively work in the fitness industry and love to keep up with the daily hubbub, then you are probably aware of the presence of fitness influencers on social media. Learn how to grow your gym with fitness influencer marketing!
Learn how to grow your gym with fitness influencer marketing!
Everyone has their preferred fitness influencers. Whether you actively keep up with them, or your social media platform’s algorithm occasionally serves up their content. Fitness influencers play a vital role in modern-day marketing outreach.
If this sounds like you, then an influencer marketing strategy may be just what you need to expand your gym’s reach, marketing efforts, and to grow your business.
Finding it hard to promote your gym to a wider audience? Or maybe you’re just looking for a way to expand your current marketing structure.
In this article, we’ll go over how you can implement a fitness influencer marketing strategy in your gym and the steps you’ll need to take to make it successful.
What exactly is a fitness influencer?
As the term suggests, influencers are people with a highly engaged following. Coupled with their large audience, influencers’ ability to direct their attention to products and services makes them a unique asset.
What makes influencers such a great marketing strategy is their ability to share information and authentically engage consumers.
Influencers take the notion of word-of-mouth and multiply it through the use of social media. This marketing method takes advantage of high-traffic digital platforms where people are more likely to encounter and engage with your content.
Here are a few examples of influencer personas specific to the fitness industry:
- Personal trainers or nutrition coaches
- Health professionals and doctors
- Local entrepreneurs
- Key athletes from local sporting teams
- Coaches of sporting teams
- President of local school’s parent councils
- Popular social media personalities
- CEO or high-level managers of small-medium enterprises
Essentially, anyone with high engagement can be the right fitness influencer to grow your brand. The goal of using fitness influencer marketing is to reach a larger target audience, promote brand awareness, and improve engagement rates with authenticity.
Use the following 7 steps to learn how to grow your gym using fitness influencers.
Step 1: Establish your fitness influencer marketing goals
Firstly, what goals do you want to achieve through working with a fitness influencer? Is it improved brand awareness? Generating higher engagement with your services?
Establishing a clear set of goals will properly equip you for a productive partnership with a fitness influencer.
Step 2: Lean into your fitness niche
Influencer marketing is an extension of branding. In order to find a fitness influencer that aligns with your brand, take their target audience into consideration.
Do they match the demographics of your target audience? It is important to narrow down your niche and find the right representative for your brand. Choose an influencer that is representative of the values within your shared niche, and that thereby caters to your ideal audience.
Step 3: Choose your social media platform
Deciding which online social media platform to use can simply be a process of trial and error.
Choose a set period to track engagement rates to decide which platform works best for you. This can look like comparing the amount of website traffic three weeks after your fitness influencer campaign launch. This will tell you if the platform you chose is connecting you to your target audience.
In addition to this, remember to look at your fitness niche. Which platforms does your audience typically use? Is there an online platform that is more specific to your industry niche than the typical Instagram or Tiktok?
Whichever route you take, don’t forget to maintain your own online presence. The next step after brand awareness is accessibility. Give them a landing page that is easy to navigate and offers straightforward information about the products and services your gym or studio offers.
Step 4: Engagement
Influencers will generally fall under two categories: macro-influencers and micro-influencers. Popular social media personalities are an example of a macro-influencer whereas a student-athlete is an example of a micro-influencer.
Regardless of their number of followers, micro and macro influencers show a great return on investment. When deciding which fitness influencer to invest in, taking a look at their engagement insights is far more productive than measuring them by their follower count.
Although a high school student-athlete may have a smaller following than a popular social media influencer, the student-athlete is just as likely to generate genuine engagement.
Step 5: Fitness influencer budget
Another benefit of micro-influencers is that they are more affordable than macro-influencers. But if your goal is to create as much awareness of your brand as possible, then partnering with a bigger online persona may be the right choice for you.
Step 6: Create a content plan with your fitness influencer
Influencers can share content in a variety of formats. For example, sharing an Instagram story, posting a video on Youtube or Tiktok, or creating a post on Meta. Choose an online platform, or a combination of platforms, that best suits your brand. Additionally, consider if a photo or a video best serves the information you want to share.
Share an action item. Whether you choose to have an influencer use your product in a video or give your brand a shout-out, it is important that the content triggers an action in the viewer. Learn how to make your social media posts stand out as a gym or fitness studio.
Moreover, the goal is to redirect the fitness influencer’s audience to your online presence. Make sure to keep your website, or digital hosting platform, up to date and easily accessible. The content your fitness influencer shares should encourage their audience to engage with your brand.
Make sure to maintain transparency both with your influencer and their audience. Authenticity is a big factor in deciding which people and brands to support. Be loud and proud!
Step 7: Measure your success
Finally, how will you know if your fitness influencer marketing campaign is successful? There are a few general metrics you can use to measure your success.
- Higher website traffic
- Increased sales revenue
- More sign-ups
- Increased brand awareness
- Higher engagement
Use this checklist as a guideline for setting your metrics. Further build upon these by taking a closer look at the goals you decided on in step one. Completing your goals is the best way to measure your return on investment.
Are you getting the hang of how to grow your gym using fitness influencers?
Reach out to fitness influencers!
Fitness influencer marketing is all about building relationships. Grow your audience by creating authentic relationships with the fitness community around you. Use this guide to grow your gym using fitness influencers!
