If a picture is worth a thousand words, then just imagine how that principle could be applied to your marketing machine.
That’s why I suggest taking a good, long look at using Instagram. In fact, the vast majority of this image-based social app is accessed through mobile devices -and given how mobile internet traffic volume has just recently outpaced traffic from that of desktop/laptop computers, this makes for a solution that’s got some serious growth potential.
But how can Instagram benefit and build your fitness coaching brand? If anything, I find that this app might actually have an even greater marketing impact potential than Facebook. There are a few reasons why this is the case, but for starters, the nature of the fitness industry is dominantly image-based…
Why Image-Based Social Media Is AMAZING For Fitness
Think about it. While there might be a broad range of motives among our respective client-bases (depending on your particular niche), what is usually the primary goal of most of those we train or coach? Whether they’re looking to increase their endurance, energy, muscle mass, or feelings of self-empowerment, there is a very common thread amongst 99% of them: they’re want that toned, fit, beautifully sculpted beach body.
When a client gets closer and closer to their fitness goals, it’s entirely likely that they’ll take a selfie or two. And hey, who could blame them? They worked hard for the way their body looks! I say, they deserve a few compliments here and there. And that’s why Instagram makes PERFECT sense for fitness trainers or success coaches. It is true, we all want our clients to achieve better health, but we’re also in the image business (self-image, that is).
So, here are a few ways that you can harness the power of Instagram for your fitness or coaching business -because the power of pictures is just that important for trainers.
What Clients Can Do: Tag Your Fitness and Coaching Business
The social media marketing gurus at Wishpond have absolutely stellar tips and tricks on how to use Instagram for small business, but this one was my favorite out of all of them. Take a look…
“Ask followers to submit photos of how they use your product. This could help your business gain customer insight, and future product development research. It’s pretty easy to do, but you may need to up the ante.”
The reason why this method could become an incredibly powerful endorsement for your fitness business is because you’ll be leveraging two critical marketing advantages:
- Human nature
- Social proof
People naturally want to showcase their monumental achievements and also attract attention from others like them. Studies have shown that ‘the selfie’ appears to be largely responsible for many newly fit bodies these days, and most of these pictures will show up on Instagram first. In addition, the lionshare of Instagram photos are of food, which means that your clients will likely be snapping pictures of their healthy meals for the world to see. And you don’t even have to lift a finger, because your clients are probably already doing this.
At this point, all you need to do is offer small incentives for your clients to tag your business’s Instagram account in their beach-body selfies and super healthy dishes, and you’ve just generated a powerfully magnetic case of social proof for your brand.
Simply engage their gracious accreditation to your excellent guidance with encouraging comments, then rinse, and repeat.
What You Can Do: Share Diet/Workout Tips N’ Tricks
As your clients continue to interact with your brand on Instagram, you can also keep the momentum moving in a positive direction on your own. However, this is where you’ll want to get creative, as I’ve mentioned quite a few times before on this blog.
On your user profile, you can post anything from workout tips to diet pointers to inspirational and empowering memes -really, the sky’s the limit. Just remember to follow a couple guidelines for this part.
- Make sure you’re not posting too much content too often, as this can get your stuff lost in the news feed if it’s not getting enough social engagement to justify its ranking.
- Keep your content RELEVANT (ie: no pictures of cats or random ‘epic fails’, please.)
- Get permission before you tag somebody, because …manners.
- Feel free to repost content from feeds that you follow when you’re running low on your own image content. Just try not have this compose more than 50% of the images you post.
Also, Bufferapp’s blog has a fantastic piece on how to maximize your Instagram performance. As with any social media platform, it’s important to remember that timing is everything, Bufferapp uses the coined term, ‘The Burrito Principle’:
“SumAll also mentions the Burrito Principle, a concept introduced by Darian Rodriguez Heyman at the Stay Classy blog. Basically, you want to catch people during down time, when they’re eating a burrito for instance and have the freedom to check social media or pop onto Instagram.”
The highest times for Instagram traffic is between 5-6pm, so depending on your strategy, you might want to consider avoiding this time for posting if possible. However, the jury is still out on whether the Burrito Principle is ideal for all industries, so be sure to track your progress and adjust your timing as necessary.
Easy Like Twitter – Engagement Like Facebook
Quite frankly, one of the most obvious indications that Instagram isn’t going anywhere anytime soon is in how it’s experiencing a quickly expanding number of active users. When you’ve got a social media app that’s replacing Facebook’s popularity among teens (many of which, will be your future clients), then it might be time to take Instagram very, very seriously. The numbers are in, and according to Marketing Land, Instagram now holds 76% of teen mobile traffic …as opposed to Facebook’s 45% in 2014.
That’s what happens when you’ve got an app that’s as easy as Twitter to use, but experiences the same engagement that Facebook did back in 2013. With stats like that, your fitness business could see a huge benefit with little effort …for free.
Tracy Sohl says
I heard that Instagram is the new way to market from others, but your post really helped me see that. Thank You!
from Tracy, author of the book i-matter; available 2015
Nathan Jordan says
Good tips however everytime I post to Instagram it says my profile contains a link to a website that is not allowed. Do you know of how to get Insatgram to approve and allow the link to my website? Thanks, Nathan
JSE says
it may have https: and not just http: see if that’s it.