If you’re responsible for marketing a fitness brand in any way, it might be challenging at times to think of creative fitness content that not only tells your brand story but also attracts and retains clients.
The goal is to produce high-quality fitness content that’s consistent.
The COVID-19 pandemic reduced the fitness industry’s market size by about 16 percent, so it’s more important than ever to invest at least more time and effort into the effectiveness of your fitness content.
Of course, you’re always going to want to keep your target audience in mind with all content that you produce and publish.
Keep in mind that about 81 percent of Millennials exercise or would like to, compared with only 61 percent of Boomers. So, if you’re not considering Millennials as a group you should target with your fitness content, think again.
The following are 11 fitness content ideas that you can start using today to engage with your audience and grow your fitness business.
Offer tips and advice
You are an expert in your field, so what bits of advice can you highlight in your fitness content? For example, three ways to get more steps in per day or explaining when to stretch (before or after a workout).
You can easily brainstorm ideas by starting with the topics that you get asked most about.
Then, it’s all about considering where you want specific pieces of content to go. For example, you can dive into a topic with a blog article, but a vibrant infographic would do well on Instagram and so on.
Share your story
Whether you’re representing an entire gym or acting as an individual fitness trainer, it’s important to share who you are and what drives you.
Perhaps you have a fitness journey to share, or maybe it’s more about you as a gym owner. You could create a video interview diving into your story as a whole and/or post little snippets on different platforms.
The key is that clients and potential clients have an opportunity to relate to you and form a bond with you.
Of course, if you’re more than a team of one, you’ll want to share the stories of your gym employees as well.
Share client stories
Client testimonials are a powerful form of social proof. Essentially, you’re highlighting different people who are happy with your brand for whatever reason (their results, your customer service, etc.) so that others can see the value of your fitness brand firsthand.
A simple way to go about this is sharing a photo of the client with a quote, either on the image or in the caption (or both). This could even include before-and-after photo collages. But you could also expand this into short video clips across platforms.
Check out these five reasons why your business should be creating more videos.
Create workout videos
Now, we’re not referring to a full-on Jane Fonda-style workout video. But you have the built-in opportunity to create and share video clips from before, during or after a workout that be used to inspire viewers and show them a tiny piece of what your fitness brand is about.
There can be a lot of apprehension for a newcomer when arriving at a gym for the first time. Giving them a peek at what they can expect can be helpful and reassuring.
You also can focus on breaking down a single exercise and talking through good form and modification options. This also adds to your credibility as a brand.
Offer healthy recipes
Nutrition is a big piece of anyone’s fitness journey, and there is no shortage of healthy recipes that you can highlight and share with your target audience.
Consider making the recipe a graphic image on social media platforms. You can even take it a step further and do a cooking video on YouTube.
In fact, you can share what online tool you use to calculate your BMR, track macros, etc.
Share fitness articles
All content does not have to come directly and uniquely from you. Lean on curated content and share relevant fitness and industry-related articles that you think your audience would appreciate.
The fitness industry is full of evolving trends and research that can be very engaging fitness content. Leveraging it also shows you to be an industry leader.
Just make sure that whatever articles you’re sharing are from a credible source.
Check out our four tips for finding curated content to share on social media.
Show your personality
Consumers don’t just want to connect to a business. They want to connect with the human behind the business. While you want to ensure that your branding offers its own sense of personality, you shouldn’t be afraid to share your own as well.
Clients want to trust you. They’re putting very important personal goals in your hands, so your authenticity is important.
But a “great personality” can be subjective. Focus on being you, and check out these seven traits of online fitness personalities.
Dive deeper with our five steps to determine your brand personality.
Post inspiring quotes
When thinking about creating engaging fitness content, was inspiring quotes your first thought?
It’s a popular go-to because it really can work. Just make sure that you are:
- Picking relevant quotes for your audience.
- Designing the quotes in a graphic illustration so that they’re shareable on social media.
- Not over-posting quotes. Mix them in but don’t let a majority of your fitness content ride on quotes. Your engagement can trail off without a good mix of content.
Lead a Q&A
Q&As are popular with many audiences, and they give you the opportunity to be the expert in an engaging way.
There are a number of different ways to structure your Q&A based on the platform you decide to use, but just keep in mind that you want to promote your Q&A in advance, accept questions in advance (to fill any gaps or holes during the Q&A itself) and set an engaging topic that drills into what many of your target clients must deal with or face.
In case you’re interested, check out these seven tips for marketing on Quora and other Q&A websites.
Explore promotions
First things first, you should aim to have a majority of your fitness content be organic and non-promotional. But promotions are key to moving the needle toward your goals, especially when done in an engaging way.
Promotions include:
- Discounts and coupons
- Contests and giveaways
- Freebies (otherwise known as premium content), such as workout guide, healthy eating plans and more
Check out our tips for keeping your giveaways legal.
Collaborate with other brands or influencers
Brand or influencer collaboration is a great way to not only reach a new audience but to develop creative content inspired by your partnership.
Of course, you don’t want to dive in with just any brand or influencer. It’s important to do your research on their:
- Company mission (if it’s a brand)
- Branding
- Audience
Then, you can decide if everything that they are and have to offer meshes with your fitness brand. From there, you decide what your partnership will look like and commit to a plan.
Check out our seven tips to know before starting your first influencer marketing campaign.
In conclusion
Ideally, you’re planning regular brainstorms to generate as many fitness content ideas as possible that you can pull from along the way. To stay organized and ensure a great content mix, consider using a content calendar.
While you’re working on creating and sharing the most engaging fitness content, consider DailyStory. Our digital marketing platform integrates with Mindbody and Rhinofit to better serve fitness studios and gyms and offers such features as SMS text message marketing, email marketing, automation, dynamic audience segmentation and more. Schedule your free demo with us today.
