Tag: fitness

How to start a health blog

If you’re interested in health and wellness, you might consider becoming a professional health blogger.

Of course, starting a blog is difficult. You’ll need to be tech-savvy and take time to strategize how to promote your content. But if you want to share your knowledge with the world, being a blogger might be right for you.

Likewise, if you’re a health brand, starting a blog can improve your marketing efforts by helping you attract more customers. 

Health blog posts are similar to other types of blogs. For example, you can write an opinion-based blog or one that focuses on the facts. Health blogging is not the same as health writing. Blogs allow you to take a more personal approach and provide stories or anecdotes from your life, while health writing is based on facts. However, they can both make a blog with valuable content.

When starting a health blog, you’ll be the expert or authority on a topic, so if you’re not already a health expert in some way, starting a blog will be difficult. But you can interview other experts and use research to inform your audience about different topics.

Interested in becoming a health blogger? Let’s discuss everything you need to know about starting a health blog.

Get your blog up and running

Before you can start blogging, you’ll need a website. You can easily start a blog with a few platforms like WordPress or Wix. In fact, many platforms make it easy for you to design and implement a website in less than a day, depending on your skill set and how much time you want to invest.

Remember, the better the quality of your website design, the more users you can attract, so consider investing time and money into the process to ensure your blog looks its best. 

Creating a website is a process in and of itself, so we won’t get into all of the details here, but you can learn more about how to get started with a little research online.

Start a content calendar

content-calendar
To start a content calendar, you’ll need to have topic ideas.

Whether you want to write about supplements, exercise, diet, or a variety of health topics, you must have a content calendar to help you organize your ideas.

If you don’t start a calendar, you could get stuck not having anything valuable to write, preventing you from staying on schedule. A content calendar allows you to organize different topics and decide when you’ll write and publish them. They’re beneficial for new bloggers because they’ll keep you on a schedule so you’ll never forget when to publish your articles. 

Of course, to start a content calendar, you’ll need to have topic ideas. Since you’re starting a health-based blog, you probably already have some ideas ready. Keep a Google Sheet of all your ideas to help you see the different topics you want to write about. From there, you can start to brainstorm titles and begin research.

Check out our eight tips to create an effective content calendar.

Do keyword research

You’ll need to learn about search engine optimization (SEO) if you plan to become a full-time blogger and make money off of your blog.

Luckily, SEO is fairly easy to understand, and anyone can optimize their websites to help them rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Explore these 10 free courses online to level up your SEO skills.

One of the most important aspects of SEO is keyword research since search engines crawl your content and use Keywords in titles, subheadings, and body text to determine the topic of your article and its relevance to various search queries. Once you have a topic, you can enter a few keywords into Google and read the top results to help you get an idea of the types of content that rank highest.

If you really want to improve the odds of ranking higher on SERPs and increasing your website traffic, you should invest in SEO tools to make keyword research easier. These tools will tell you everything from search volume to top-ranking pages, and they can help you evaluate your competition. 

Check out these 11 free SEO keyword research tools that you should consider.

In addition, you’ll need to monitor updates in search engine policies and algorithm changes. Health and wellness blogs fall under the Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) category on Google, which refers to any type of content that can impact someone’s health, happiness, safety, or finances.

Since your blog may offer advice about disorders, medications, and other health topics, you’ll need to ensure your content follows Google’s EAT Parameters. EAT stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, and there are several ways to make your content all of these things.

If you’re an expert in your field, ensure your credentials are on your website. However, if you’re not an expert in the field of health and wellness, you should interview experts and provide citations in your articles to ensure Google understands whether or not your content should be trusted by users.

Check out our 12 SEO marketing tips for beginners.

Invest in marketing

Marketing is crucial if you want people to read your blog. You can write the best health blog in the world. However, if you’re not doing any marketing, it’s unlikely anyone will read it.

Definitely market your blog in many different ways, but we recommend having a robust strategy with different campaigns to ensure you can get as many readers as possible.

You can use everything from email marketing and social media to paid ads to attract new website visitors. What you choose may depend on your budget, so try to set aside some money for advertising in case you need it to attract visitors. 

Check out our 19 tips to drive traffic to your new blog.

Monetize

Blogging is time-consuming, and you deserve to be paid for your time.

Many people blog as their full-time career, but earning enough money to make a living blogging can be difficult.

Once you start getting enough visitors, you can monetize your vlog in a few ways. The easiest way is to allow for ads. However, you can also work directly with brands to offer advertising space, become an affiliate, or join their influencer program.

Check out 10 of the most profitable blog niches. Plus, see these four ways to sell advertising on your website.

Establishing your health blog

Building a successful health blog takes time. You won’t be able to establish yourself as an expert overnight.

Instead, you’ll need to continuously write valuable content and attract website visitors through the right marketing efforts. Building a credible blog can take months or even years, depending on your background and whether or not you have any marketing skills.

Monitor the performance of your blogs to help brainstorm new ways to improve them, attract new customers, and write valuable content to increase the number of visitors to your website.

While you’re starting your health blog, consider leveling up your digital marketing strategy. DailyStory specializes in automation, email marketing, audience segmentation and more. Level up your process, and schedule a free demo with us today.

About the author

Ashley-Nielsen

Ashley Nielsen earned a B.S. degree in Business Administration Marketing at Point Loma Nazarene University. She is a freelance writer who loves to share knowledge about general business, marketing, lifestyle, wellness, and financial tips. During her free time, she enjoys being outside, staying active, reading a book, or diving deep into her favorite music. 

11 fitness content ideas you can use today

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.

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.

6 things fitness professionals should know about marketing

Joining the fitness industry typically means that you’re passionate about helping people.

It doesn’t always mean that you’re a digital marketing genius.

Whether you’re the best personal trainer, group trainer and/or gym owner, you must be able to get the word out about your facilities, services and skills. Otherwise, your fitness business is only going to go so far.

Especially when you’re already contending against the natural industry trend of high turnover. About 50 percent of all new gym members quit going within six months.

So, while you’re honing your fitness expertise and becoming the best trainer you can be, take note of these six things every fitness professional should know about digital marketing. Embracing any or all of these tips will only strengthen your fitness business.

Know your target audience

This recommendation expands far beyond just fitness professionals marketing themselves and/or their gym. 

It’s imperative for successful digital marketing on any medium and with any campaign.

The obvious temptation when it comes to answering the question, “Who are you trying to reach?” leads to the answer: “Everyone.”

Resist this temptation. 

Striving to reach (and appeal to) everyone is generic and will yield lackluster results. When you’re trying to engage everyone, you might as well reach no one.

Why? A few reasons.

  1. You likely already have a specific niche within your own fitness expertise.
  2. Potential customers want to feel like you’re speaking directly to them and the problems they’re looking to solve. If your message is more of a broad stroke than a targeted bullseye, you won’t stand out from the noise they’re exposed to daily.
  3. No one converts “everyone.” So, step out of that mindset. You’ll find more success targeting a specific group of people. 

Now that we’ve addressed the “everyone” temptation, you need to ask yourself: “Who am I really trying to reach?” If that’s a difficult question to answer, then ask yourself: “Who is my ideal client?” 

Of course, the characteristics could cover age, gender, average income, geographic location, whether they have children or any other lifestyle demographics. If you already have an existing client database, dive in to find out more about who already is paying you. If you’re about to launch your fitness business, think about what makes your services stand out and go from there.

Knowing your target audience for your fitness marketing also will save you time and money because you’ll only invest resources in the methods and mediums that make sense for who you’re trying to reach and convert.

Embrace social media

Whether you like it, love it, hate it or can simply co-exist with it, social media is a must for fitness professionals. Millennials and Gen Z now make up about 80 percent of gym goers worldwide.

That’s right.

And not surprisingly, most social media users also are Millennials and Gen Z.

So, if you’ve been lagging on your social media presence, now is the time to recommit. 

Of course, there are a number of social media platforms. Instagram and Facebook are obvious choices to focus on. If you need help deciding where to start, check out our guide.

But no matter what platform you focus on, quality content rules. It’s your personality, authenticity and expertise that will set you apart from the noise.

Plan out your content ideas in advance, using a content calendar if possible to stay organized. Ideas can include fitness tips (keep it simple yet visual), exercise or workout ideas, Live broadcasts, AMAs (Ask Me Anything posts), behind the scenes content and so on.

Social media is truly the space where you can project your expertise and set yourself up as an industry thought leader.

But the most important aspect of your content is that it reflects you. People can’t connect with you if you’re hiding behind a brand or pretending to be anything other than who you are.

Then, commit to a publishing frequency that works for you. You can also increase it if needed.

Yes, email marketing is a thing

Assuming that email is a marketing tool of the past? Think again.

In fact, we have 48 email marketing statistics that show this method is alive and well. Plus, the benefits are undeniable. Email marketing is affordable, easy to do and measurable.

Whether you’re creating and sending out a weekly email newsletter with fitness content or something else, you can start collecting email addresses even without a website (although a website can be very helpful).

If you do have a website, check out our 12 strategies to capture more email leads without annoying your visitors. 

Remember that you want to offer value in every email you send. That could be educational content or even promotional content (such as a limited-time discount).

See the anatomy of an effective marketing email so that you can make an impact from the start.

Consider offering premium content

While it might seem counterintuitive to offer premium content for free, it’s a fantastic way to generate client leads and establish yourself as an expert in the fitness industry.

Premium content can include ebooks, whitepapers and so on. It typically features a deeper dive into a topic and is of high value to your target audience.

Offering a 30-day nutritional challenge ebook, for example, can be appealing to your target audience, and giving it away as a free download can capture more email leads that you can follow up with.

No matter what, it will only boost your brand’s value.

Feature your credentials

The fitness industry is a crowded field with a lot of competition. Reminding your audience of your certifications and credentials as often as possible will help you stand out.

You’re not just another Instagram face in the crowd. You have real expertise through any number of certifications that you’ve worked hard for. And this knowledge can better help your clients achieve their goals.

Of course, your website can help feature those credentials, but you also can include relevant mentions in your social media content and social media bios.

Get creative! Your expertise (and the perception of which) is built on that foundation.

Have a fitness marketing strategy

Posting inconsistently without a thought-out plan is not going to help you achieve your fitness business goals.

It’s important to sit down and think through:

  • Who am I trying to reach?
  • What platforms are they using?

Then, think about what type of content they’ll find engaging (images, videos, articles, etc.) and what problems or needs you can serve with your content.

Start off slow and simple with your plan and measure everything along the way. What’s working? What’s not? Then, you can use those insights from the data to further inform your plan and overall strategy.

As you get more comfortable, you can add in more frequent content and additional platforms if you like.

As you’re exploring digital marketing for your fitness business, check out our Digital Marketing 101 Guide for Beginners.

Then, consider the strength of your digital marketing process. Is it everything you want it to be? DailyStory features automation capabilities, dynamic audience segmentation and more. Schedule your free demo with us today.

5 tips to help create successful hybrid fitness classes

Fitness studios pivoted to technological solutions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The online fitness market is expected to reach $59.23 billion by 2027, growing at a rate of 33.1 percent from 2020 to 2027.

And while your studio may be back to in-person workouts, you might want to continue the convenience of online workouts for your clients.

A great solution for this is hybrid fitness classes, where you’re teaching two sets of students (online and in-person) at the same time during a workout.

Sounds tricky? It definitely can be. However, if done well, you can exponentially grow your class sizes with only a fraction more effort than you’re already putting in.

The following are five tips to create successful hybrid fitness classes that leave all your clients wanting more.

Your setup is critical

Take the time to both setup and test your audio and video capabilities. Different instructors have different preferences, and even those can vary depending on the class type.

Video

For your hybrid fitness classes, you’ll want to ensure that everything in your studio is well lit and that the camera angle makes sense and can orient your online clients well. 

When it comes to camera angles, always be open to feedback because there isn’t necessarily the best way that trumps what works best for your clients. Some prefer seeing the class from the front (a very traditional camera angle), others might have an easier time following when the camera angle is in the back of the space and some instructors set up two camera angles for clients to choose from.

Your background is important as well. While every fitness studio is different, it’s important to ensure that no visual distractions are happening in the background. The cleaner, the better. Remember, the visual that you’re live-streaming is representing your studio as a whole. Anything distracting can diminish your brand and/or interrupt the overall focus of your online students.

Just make sure that no matter what the camera angle, there are no cut-off heads (or other important body parts) or awkward angles that won’t make sense for the viewer. A wide-angle camera or even a GoPro can help with this. And, of course, a tripod will keep your camera stable.

Audio

Then, it comes down to audio. We highly recommend a Bluetooth headset, but you might want to consider a mixer so that your voice is projecting into what your online clients hear as well as on the speakers in your studio for your in-person clients to hear. 

Inaudible audio is a death blow to any online fitness class. They need to hear you, but so do your in-person clients. You might have to experiment with your audio equipment to ensure that both your music and voice can be clearly heard by both sets of clients.

Either way, the best setup will require an investment of time (and possibly money if an upgrade is required) to execute correctly, but it is worth it and one of the most important areas of focus for successful hybrid fitness classes.

Engage with both your online and in-person clients

Just because you have a group of clients in front of you in your studio doesn’t mean that your group of online clients tuning in from home (or anywhere else) don’t matter or are less important.

Both groups of students matter. So, be purposeful with your time before class by welcoming both online clients as they sign on and in-person clients as they walk in. During class, this can be a practice-makes-perfect type of task. Rotate between eye contact with in-person students and your camera. Call out names from both groups. Focus on the movement, safety and motivation cues you’re giving that apply to everyone.

The more you do it, the easier this split attention will become.

Then, after class, don’t ignore either group. Thank individuals as they’re logging out or leaving, and be sure to ask for feedback in real-time. Feel free to unmute the entire online group and let them have their own conversations with each other. You also can send out follow-ups through text or email to show that you care long after class is over.

Of course, this engagement doesn’t have to just be from you. Consider encouraging your entire in-person class to say hello to the online group in the beginning, cheer on during and congratulate after the workout. The more you can unify these two groups, the better.

Consider privacy options

Privacy is actually important for both online and in-person clients. Just because a student shows up to your hybrid fitness class in person doesn’t mean that he or she wants to be seen on camera by your online students.

As you’re planning your camera angle(s), make sure you have a clear area that you can identify as a private, off-camera zone. You never want to make a big deal of anyone wanting to be off-camera or not, so approach it with a general announcement before class, identifying that area for anyone who might prefer it. 

You also can incentivize students for being on camera with you, whether that’s a free piece of swag from your fitness studio or a free class, whatever. Just gauge your group for what makes the most sense.

And, of course, attending hybrid fitness classes online doesn’t mean that you want to broadcast yourself (or your space). Zoom makes it easy to turn your camera off. Just be sure to remind your online clients of this option as well.

As far as muting, we recommend starting the class off with everyone muted. Otherwise, you (and your other online students) will be subjected to a lot of potential noise distractions. However, you can always let your online students know that they can unmute and then mute themselves again for questions.

Granted, instructors can get disoriented by the sudden unmuting. However, as long as you’re always thinking about both sets of clients, it should become more normalized.

Also, be sure to upgrade your waivers to include live-streaming as a factor in your hybrid fitness classes.

Account for different spaces and equipment options

Obviously, not all of your online clients will have the same equipment or floor space available to them.

As you’re instructing or offering cues, keep this in mind.

Online students might need stationary or no-equipment options at the same time as you’re instructing your in-person group. This requires a bit of finesse, but more preparation can help this flow as smoothly as possible.

Of course, you also always need to be aware that either group of students can have individuals with existing injuries. You can ask before class for them to let you know so that you can keep those needs in mind.

Option to add a co-instructor

Of course, if you have the budget to double up on instructors for hybrid fitness classes, you can do that. 

One instructor can focus on the in-person students, and the other instructor can focus on everything online. This includes individual modifications and corrections for both groups.

Granted, some coordination will have to come into play here. But it’s always an option if a single instructor isn’t able to keep up with the dual multi-tasking.

Hybrid fitness classes can require a bit of juggling. However, the more you plan, prepare and test, the more engaging your workouts will be, both in-person and online.

While you’re improving the quality of your hybrid fitness classes, 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. In fact, our platform can help you better target your contact database by segmenting your audience based on various characteristics. Schedule your free demo with us today.

8 tips to build your fitness brand from scratch

First impressions are everything, especially when it comes to your fitness brand.

In fact, it takes only 10 seconds for a consumer to cement his or her first impression of your fitness brand. 

Fitness is a crowded industry with many similar-sounding and similar-looking brands. It’s easy to get lost in the crowd.

Want to make an impact on potential customers? Then, you must create a fitness brand that is memorable and stands out from the rest.

The following are eight tips to help you build a successful fitness brand from scratch.

Identify your target audience

Audience is everything. Who you’re targeting, as well as what their needs and wants are, is the first step to creating your fitness brand.

However, it’s important to be as specific as possible.

This can be challenging because it’s tempting to want to target “everyone” because that will lead to more customers and greater success, right? Not so fast.

When your brand message is broad and directed to “everyone,” it usually resonates with no one and falls short of delivering the results you want.

Again, don’t be afraid to get specific:

  • Age, gender and other demographics
  • Lifestyle
  • Behaviors
  • Challenges
  • Needs
  • Interests

For example, you could target new moms between ages 25 and 35 who have limited time in their day and crave connection with a supportive community of other new moms.

Whatever it might be, nailing down your audience niche will go a long way to shaping your specific fitness brand.

Research your competition

Who else is targeting your ideal customers? What is their niche? How are they raising awareness about their fitness brand? What are they doing well? What are they lacking?

These are just some of the questions you need to ask yourself in a competitive analysis. The more you can understand your competition (especially for your target audience), the better you can decide what to do with your fitness brand so that you can stand out and appeal to potential clients.

One way to find similar competition is through Google searches. Type the queries you would want people to use to find your fitness brand. 

Set your mission

Once you understand your specific target audience and know what else is out there competition-wise, it’s time to settle on your mission statement. 

A mission statement explains what your company’s passion is and the values you offer to your clients. It’s your company’s reason for existence. Remember that the more you can relate to the wants and needs of your clients, the more likely they’ll choose you over a competitor.

This is an important step in creating your fitness brand because your mission will help inform all future strategies and marketing messages.

Your mission statement also will inform your logo and tagline.

Determine your unique benefits

As part of your fitness brand, you must decide on the benefits you can offer that no one else can. Think about your audience research, your competition analysis and where the two intersect. 

Where can you fill in the gaps?

For example, this could tie into the type of exercise equipment you feature, the affordability of your rates, a unique training environment, etc.

These benefits are integral to your fitness brand and should be thought through as part of your brand development.

Then, you’ll want to make sure that you highlight these both in writing and visually (images and videos). The videos especially will play into consumers’ first impressions of your fitness brand.

Pick the best name

This could be an obvious step (and maybe you already have a great name in mind), but nonetheless, you’ll want to consider all the key factors before settling on a permanent fitness brand name.

In addition to thinking of a word (or words) that accurately speaks to the services you’re providing and the clientele you’re targeting, be aware of:

  • Simple spelling
  • Easy pronunciation
  • Uniqueness (not sounding like everyone else)
  • If a domain name is available online

Especially when it comes to domain names, check out our beginner’s guide.

Once you’ve brainstormed and settled on a few top choices, run them by friends, family, colleagues, strangers, anyone.

Are they as easy to spell and pronounce as you think? Do they convey the right idea without any other information? This feedback will help you narrow your list down.

Design your logo

Whether you’re designing your logo or you hire someone else to, the fact remains that your logo is critical to your fitness brand.

About 75 percent of people recognize a brand by its logo, with 60 percent by its visual style, 45 percent by the brand’s signature color, and 25 percent by its unique voice.

Your logo will be used on your website, social media accounts, print materials and any additional advertising. 

Start by developing a specific and distinct color palette, with consideration of color psychology and how different colors impact us. For fitness, think about what colors (and color shades) will drive motivation and/or energy.

Of course, this also is the time to decide on your branded fonts, iconography, photo styles, overall web design and any other visual elements that can come into play.

The best visual branding will be recognizable after seeing it a few times.

Again, you’ll want to run your drafts by others for feedback, which is invaluable to going with the best possible visual combination for your fitness brand.

Discover your voice

Think of your voice as how you express your fitness brand and communicate with others. You’ll want to consider the wording, expressions and tones that can be brought together to create your style.

For fitness, ask yourself if your brand should sound motivating, authoritative, friendly, informative or even something else entirely.

Check out our eight tips for finding your voice and reflecting your brand’s personality.

Once developed, you’ll want to use it consistently across all platforms and in all instances.

Build your fitness brand personality

All of the above elements should come together to inform your overall fitness brand personality.

Ideally, this personality is a reflection of you and your own personality, whether that’s high energy, exclusive, educational, fun, so on. Build on your strengths and allow all the pieces of your fitness brand to stand on their own.

No matter what direction you go in, remember that brand currency online is authenticity and trust, where authenticity leads to trust from your target audience who eventually can convert into clients.

Never lose sight of the opportunities to connect in meaningful, honest ways.

In fact, common mistakes you’ll want to avoid while building your fitness brand in general include (but are not limited to):

  • Focusing on yourself and not others
  • Inconsistency in branding, messaging and/or visuals
  • Ignoring feedback

Your brand being a reflection of you is a great thing, but your mission is about improving the lives of others. That’s what will resonate most.

In conclusion

Once you’ve developed your fitness brand, it’s time to launch your website, strategize and promote. Consistent brand presentation across all digital platforms increases revenue by up to 23 percent.

See our seven tips to level up your content marketing.

While you’re working on promoting your new fitness brand, 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.

Top 7 traits of online fitness personalities

Personality is everything in the fitness industry, both online and in-person.

However, the need to convey your personality is even more important when marketing yourself and/or your fitness brand overall online.

Since the fitness industry in the U.S. is estimated at about $37 billion as of 2021 (and still growing), it’s a known crowded market. Every successful fitness professional has to find a way to stand out from the crowd. A lot of that can come down to personality.

The power of social media and the internet at large is that you can feel connected to people you don’t know in real life. How does this happen? And how can you leverage this potential to connect for your fitness marketing?

The following are seven traits that successful fitness professionals exude online. This isn’t about changing your own personality, of course. Keep these traits in mind as far as how you’re strategically expressing yourself and sharing content online.

#1: Motivational

Being motivational might be an obvious personality trait for a successful fitness professional. In person, you have to use your physical energy to push your clients to do things they otherwise wouldn’t do.

However, online, you have to be able to drive that energy through the screen at anyone coming across your social media profiles, blog and/or YouTube channel. Motivation is often conveyed by focusing on others, not yourself. Make your followers feel important.

Think about how you’re speaking in videos (the energy in your voice). Even the captions can include all caps (within reason) and energetic emojis to help convey motivation.

All that being said, self-motivation is also important for you to not only practice what you preach, but to stay the course with the online marketing of your fitness brand because it does take time, effort and consistency to see results. (Just like fitness.)

#2: Being upbeat

While somewhat similar to being motivational, being upbeat still stands alone as a great personality trait of a successful fitness professional. 

Positivity is infectious, especially online when your followers could be seeing a lot of negativity in their social media feeds (and even in their regular lives) otherwise.

Smiling is so simple but so effective in your images. Project a welcoming energy every chance you get as well. Being standoffish won’t just lose you online engagement and following, but also actual business. 

While every post is an opportunity to be upbeat and welcoming, you can regularly spotlight a client’s success story and how excited you are to be part of that transformation.

Again, it’s not about you specifically but more about what you can do for others.

#3: Relatability

Being a real human online is a must. Sharing those moments that are a little less glamorous (and not perfect) makes you relatable to your following. 

We’re all real people with real struggles after all.

These are the moments where you can dig deep and share pieces of your own story and the challenges you’ve overcome, plus the challenges you’re still working to overcome.

The more real you can get about yourself and your experiences, the more your potential (and existing) clients will relate to you. This can be in the form of live videos, blog posts, etc.

#4: Confidence

You can’t tell your clients to “go for it” without doing so yourself, right? Lead by example and embrace that you are an expert in your field.

In-person, you must be the leader in your space and garner respect. This is no different online.

Lean on your expertise in your posts, and remember that you are the expert whenever speaking in a video or responding to questions or comments on your posts.

#5: Nurturing

You’re in the fitness business to help others become the best versions of themselves. So, your ability to support them and care about their success along the way is worth its weight in gold.

A nurturing personality can be demonstrated in your engagement with commenters on your posts. Even if they’re not a paying client, you’re rooting for them. Over time, you’ll be the one they’ll want to pay for your official support.

#6: Great listener

This is another personality trait where everything is not about you. Not only do you need to understand a client’s needs, you also must be sympathetic.

Fitness journeys are just as mental and emotional for your clients as they are physical. 

Listening is critical. Sometimes, all a potential client needs is to know that you care.

Invest time in thoughtful conversations with any direct messages, and know that any back-and-forth on a comment thread can be transitioned to direct messages so that you both can have a deeper conversation in private.

#7: Integrity

As a person, a business and a fitness professional, integrity is imperative for long-term success.

Offering some free premium content, no-risk trials and money-back guarantees can all help convey this online. 

Just keep in mind that integrity can also show as simply as how you respond to any negative comments on your posts. Acknowledging the negative commenter’s thoughts or opinions but not engaging in a fruitless back-and-forth that will only look tacky and unprofessional to your other followers.

In conclusion

The most important thing about online fitness marketing is to simply be you, but don’t miss the opportunity to showcase any of the above personality traits throughout your content marketing efforts. 

Also, find out our tips to become a successful fitness influencer.

While you’re working on showcasing more of your personality in your fitness marketing, 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.

18 of the best fitness affiliate programs to boost your income

The benefits of fitness are vast, but beyond the health improvements, fitness professionals can earn additional income through fitness affiliate programs.

Affiliate marketing is the process where an affiliate (you and/or your fitness business) earns a commission for marketing another’s products or services. In other words, you promote, and when others buy it, you get paid a percentage of each sale.

The health and fitness industry is worth an estimated $3.7 trillion. It’s an evergreen industry that is always in demand because people are always looking to feel and/or look better, so the opportunities are big.

See our four tips to become a successful fitness affiliate marketer.

However, finding the best affiliate programs among the thousands that exist can be difficult. While many have the potential to make you money, most will be a waste of time.

The following are 18 of the best fitness affiliate programs for you to consider (with some brands you’ve likely already heard of). Remember that the true key to a successful program is that it matches your personal brand and what your following wants or needs.

ACE Fitness

ACE Fitness is one of the most trusted names in the health and fitness certification industry. The organization has an Impact Fitness Affiliate Program, where you can place ad banners and text links on your website, in your social media posts and elsewhere.

When your visitors click on the web banners and text links, they will be directed to ACE’s website, where they can learn more about our exercise and health certification programs, and purchase both study materials and an exam sitting. 

Upon purchase, you receive an 8 percent commission.

Bowflex

Bowflex is a well-known brand in the home fitness equipment market, with everything from Trainers to Climbers.

What makes the Bowflex Affiliate Program unique is that it runs through a top affiliate management platform, called Impact Radius. All of your performance (traffic, sales, commissions, etc.) is tracked and displayed in real-time. The program also is fully managed, which means you’ll always have a dedicated resource to help you troubleshoot any issues.

The commission starts at 3 percent but will increase as you sell.

PaleoPlan

Nutrition is a big part of getting and staying fit. PaleoPlan focuses on the paleo diet with weekly meal plans and shopping lists, hundreds of recipes and bodyweight workouts that customers can do from home.

The company’s fitness affiliate program offers quality cookbooks and wellness-products that you can share with your audience. 

You’ll make a 75 percent front-end commission on all sales when you promote their guided health challenges, and physical or digital products.

Lululemon

Popular for its yoga and other athletic apparel, Lululemon is a popular brand in many fitness circles. They produce high-quality leggings, crop tops, tees, sports bras and yoga accessories. 

By signing up for their affiliate program, you’ll earn 7% commission on sales of yoga and fitness apparel, as well as early access to our products and events.

Fitbit

Fitbit is well-known for its fitness trackers, but did you know about its affiliate program? The company offers sleek and stylish wristbands that are an ideal fit for many fitness affiliate marketers.

You’ll only earn a 3 percent commission, but Fitbit’s high-converting website may balance out that lower percentage with more sale conversions.

ProForm

Offering a unique way of selling fitness equipment, ProForm offers a three-year training subscription that includes the customer’s choice of free equipment and access to thousands of studio and destination workouts. 

After those three years, the equipment is the customer’s to keep.

As an affiliate, you can earn between 8 percent and 11 percent commission.

Titan Fitness

Titan Fitness specializes in gym and fitness equipment, and its fitness affiliate program comes with a dedicated program manager. You also frequently receive updates, promotions and banners to make it easy to create promotional content for publishing and sharing.

Titan Fitness also offers free products to its affiliates in exchange for a review, as well as exclusive coupons that you can pass along to your followers to help encourage them to convert.

You’ll get 5 percent commission on all sales and paid by the 15th of every month.

Aaptiv

The fitness app, Aaptiv, has more than a thousand trainer-led, music-driven workouts for every fitness level, which has the potential to widely appeal to everyone in your following. 

The company offers advertising tools and custom banners to help you in your content promotion. Its affiliate program features three payout tiers:

  • $15 per sale for up to 100 sales per month
  • $20 per sale for between 101 and 500 sales per month
  • $25 per sale for at least 501 sales per month

Evolve Fit Wear

What’s a workout regime without the right clothing and accessories? Evolve Fit Wear sells more than 50 brands of workout clothing, such as Teeki, Onzie, Spiritual Gangster, Ultracor, Goldsheep, Beyond Yoga, Hardtail and more. About 85 percent of their business is women’s workout clothing, 10 percent is yoga mats and accessories, and 5 percent is men’s clothing.

Evolve’s overall marketing is considered “inclusive” rather than “exclusive,” focusing on balance, body positivity and a healthy attitude toward fitness. 

The company has a large number of international customers since they can buy all brands on one website with one shipping fee. 

Partnering with Evolve as a fitness affiliate marketer gets you up to a 10 percent commission on all sales that you help generate. 

GNC

GNC is a global brand that has an extensive selection of nutrition supplements that could appeal to your audience.

The company sees its affiliate program as an opportunity for you to build your own “online nutrition store.” 

By signing up, you’ll receive a 5 percent commission on all sales.

International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA)

ISSA also is a world leader in fitness education, delivering comprehensive, cognitive and practical distance education for fitness professionals, grounded in industry research, using both traditional and innovative modalities. 

ISSA now offers 24 fitness certifications and has certified over 400,000 trainers in 174 countries.

You’ll earn at least 7.5 percent commission on every sale.

TRX

Known for its popular suspension training products, TRX could be a great fit for personal trainers and fitness bloggers. For example, you can create videos that highlight various TRX exercises that people can do anywhere.

By signing up for its affiliate program, you’ll earn a 5 percent commission on orders that average $200.

Reebok

Another popular athletic brand, Reebok creates sports and lifestyle products, also partnering with both CrossFit and the NHL. 

Reebok’s affiliate program offers monthly newsletter updates on promotions, contests and sales opportunities and a dedicated affiliate management team.

You’ll receive a 7 percent commission on all sales, where the average order size is $100.

The Vitamin Shoppe

Another leading retailer of vitamins and supplements is The Vitamin Shoppe. Their mission is to inspire, nourish and help customers thrive every day.

By joining their program as an affiliate, you’ll earn up to a 10 percent commission on all sales.

Miracle Noodle

Miracle Noodle offers a line of food products consistent with the health goals of their customers, making healthy eating easy and delicious. All of Miracle Noodle’s products are non-GMO, vegan and grain free with an ever-expanding option of organic options as well. 

Its affiliate marketing program is two-tier, which means that you can earn commission on your sub-affiliate sales. You’ll receive customized banners and coupons to help your convert your following, and Miracle Noodle features a dedicated affiliate support team.

By signing up, you’ll earn between 10 percent and 20 percent commission on all sales.

LifeSpan Fitness

Selling fitness equipment not just for the home or gym but also for the workplace makes LifeSpan Fitness unique. Think treadmill desks, standing desks and bike desks.

In addition, all LifeSpan equipment comes with a dedicated app that enables customers to track their workout statistics.

Their fitness affiliate program also uses one of the best platforms, Impact Radius.

By signing up, you can earn a 6 percent tiered commission on every sale, which increases based on performance. High-ticket items range from $99 to $2,500 or more.

Keyto

Keyto is a breath sensor for ketosis as part of a larger keto weight loss plan that’s supported with its premium app. In addition to the sensor, Keyto offers keto recipes, personalized meal plans, a food guide and access to in-app groups.

Each person you refer to purchase Keyto receives 10 percent off their purchase when they use your discount code. You then receive a 10 percent payout of their basket size before shipping and taxes.

Life Fitness

Providing fitness equipment to both health clubs and athletic facilities, Life Fitness also features home exercise equipment. The products they offer are related to:

  • Cardio, such as treadmills
  • Group training
  • Strength training
  • Accessories
  • Digital, such as the Halo fitness cloud

If you have a fitness or health-related blog, it’s easy to get approved into this fitness affiliate program. You’ll earn an 8 percent commission, where the average order totals more than $3,000.

In conclusion

Of course, these are only 18 of the best fitness affiliate programs out there. Be sure to keep looking until you find the best fit both product- and/or service-wise that meshes well with your own online brand and makes sense monetarily.

It will make a difference in the long run.

While you’re exploring passive income opportunities through fitness affiliate marketing, 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.

4 tips to become a fitness affiliate marketer

As a fitness professional, you likely are well aware that there are only so many hours in the day.

Hours to train clients, hours to plan for those sessions and so on. This finite capacity of time restricts your ability to grow your income through training sessions and classes alone.

That’s why earning passive income by becoming a fitness affiliate marketer has become increasingly popular among those in the fitness industry.

Affiliate marketing is the process where an affiliate (you and/or your fitness business) earns a commission for marketing another’s products or services. In other words, you promote, and when others buy it, you get paid a percentage of each sale. In the fitness industry, the possibilities for affiliate partnerships are vast.

Affiliate marketing spending in the U.S. is expected to reach $8.2 billion by 2022, more than triple what it was 10 years earlier.

Benefits include earning passive income with little risk. (Passive income is revenue you earn without actively working.) If a fitness affiliate marketing program doesn’t work out, you can move on and find a new one. Find out more about affiliate marketing with our guide. 

The following are four tips to help you become a fitness affiliate marketer (and earn extra income passively).

Determine what your following needs, wants

This is critical. You can promote a fitness affiliate partnership all you want, but if it doesn’t fit or make sense for your audience, it’s not going to go very far.

Also important to keep in mind, there are a ton of fitness affiliate marketing programs out there, so you can afford to be picky. You definitely don’t have to pick the first one you find.

Think about the characteristics and demographics of your following as a starting point: age, gender, interests, challenges, goals, etc.

As you begin to look through the programs out there, ask yourself: “Will my following really want to buy this?”

In affiliate marketing, you get paid when you generate sales, so if your audience isn’t interested from the beginning, what’s the point?

Consider your expertise and who you’re reaching online. What complements your fitness brand and could be of benefit to your following?

There are extra bonus points for going with products and/or services that you use and approve of personally. That authenticity will go that much further with your audience.

Remember that what you want to offer should be quality and something you approve of. You’ll find plenty of junk out there when researching affiliate marketing programs. Make sure you’re going with something that won’t ultimately ruin your online credibility or reputation.

Become a fitness affiliate with your chosen program

Once you’ve done the research and settled on the perfect-for-you fitness affiliate marketing program, it’s time to sign up.

Each program has different registration processes, so it wouldn’t hurt to have a top three programs that you’d consider applying for, just in case.

More likely than not, there will be an online application form. After submission, you’ll have to wait for the program to accept you as an affiliate. This typically will take up to a day or two.

If, for any reason, your application is not accepted, you’ll already have your back-up choices to try.

Time to promote

Once you’re an approved affiliate, you can begin to promote the related products and/or services. This includes the sharing of your affiliate link, which is provided by the program to track any sales you generate so that you can get compensated.

But be careful here. It’s not as simple as it sounds.

There are a few considerations you should make when it comes to strategy. The first is straight-forward: Go multi-channel. This includes (but is not limited to): 

  • Emailing your client list
  • Creating posts across your social media accounts (such as Facebook or Instagram posts, tweets, YouTube videos, Pinterest pins and so on)
  • Talking to your clients in-person
  • Publishing a blog article (or articles)

The second consideration is a bit more nuanced, but it goes back to the point where you should be authentic. You want to promote products or services that you can personally vouch for, of course. But you also should factor in this authenticity when you’re actually promoting for your fitness affiliate program.

In other words, the more salesy you are, the less successful you’ll likely be. Strategize some angles for your promotion. Some ideas include (but are not limited to):

  • An unboxing of the affiliate product
  • Daily review updates of you using the product/service for the first time
  • Hosted Q&A where you answer questions about your experience with the product/service
  • How you use the product/service in your regular daily life

Measure, analysis and pivot as needed

If you’re committed to growing a strong passive income stream, then you’ll have to do more than simply post (even if you are executing a planned strategy behind the content and promotion).

Measure the performance of your posts on whatever social media platforms you’re using, watch whatever analytics are available from your fitness affiliate marketing program and monitor your overall audience growth and demographics as well. 

To stay relevant and effective not just with your affiliate promotion but your overall content as well, you must be aware of your metrics. 

If something doesn’t perform well, dig into the possible reasons why. If something performs exceedingly well, you’ll want to dig into the reasons why there as well.

This will help you adjust and pivot as needed according to the objective data, not just whims of what you feel might perform better.

And in the long run, monitoring your performance will help you decide on a bigger level which fitness affiliate programs are worth your effort and which are not.

While you’re exploring passive income opportunities through fitness affiliate marketing, 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.

7 tips to become a successful fitness influencer [plus examples]

A fitness influencer promotes an active and healthy lifestyle on any given social media platform.

Sounds simple enough, right?

But there is so much more to becoming a successful fitness influencer who not only offers advice and support but also works with brands to promote products and services for compensation. This influencer is trusted by fitness consumers, which means his or her opinion carries a lot of weight.

Whether you’re a fitness professional who wants to level up your social media presence or an individual who would like to break into the fitness industry via social media, the following are seven tips to help you become a successful fitness influencer. 

(We also have included links to 11 fitness influencers you can browse and follow for inspiration.)

Choose your niche as a fitness influencer

In the fitness industry, the successful own a niche. Fitness is a crowded arena, so you need to stand out. But identifying your niche also will help you hone your expertise.

Remember, to know a little bit about everything makes you an expert of nothing. It takes expertise and some level of specialism to grow a significant following on social media.

If you’re an expert at bodybuilding, then ideally, you’ve not only coached others but participated in a few shows yourself. Maybe you have your own weight-loss journey to share. Whatever it is, own that specific angle to the health and fitness world.

Being an expert means that you can offer content that will bring value to your followers’ lives. It’s about building trust.

A few ways you can build your expertise include (but are not limited to):

  • Stay on top of the latest research. Fitness, health and nutrition studies are constantly being conducted and are frequently shifting our perception of the “best” ways to get fit. You can share snippets that are relevant and understandable for your audience.
  • Share the latest industry news. You can sign up for press releases from leading brands or even create Google alerts that are related to your niche.
  • Answer audience questions. While you might have to conduct your own research to appropriately answer a follower’s question, this is a straightforward way to establish yourself as an expert.

Of course, once you’ve established your expertise in one area, you can then expand to another niche if you choose to do so. (But this should not be done too soon.)

Find your voice

Once you’ve determined your niche, it’s time to explore your voice. What does that mean?

Your voice determines whether your message comes across as motivational, sympathetic, powerful, etc. 

Ideally, you’ll want to go with whatever fits your personality and your target audience best. Remember, your goal as a fitness influencer is to help people push through their fitness challenges. Your voice in that effort will either help or hurt that.

Voice also includes whether you use emojis and even what emojis you use. The typical length of your captions also can be reflective of your posts. Are you short and to the point? Or, will you treat each post almost like a mini-blog?

Once you’ve decided on your voice, be consistent. Consistency will help you brand yourself and build trusting relationships with your following. 

Tell your story authentically, consistently

Take a look at your existing social media profiles. What would someone’s first impression of you be by looking only at your profile? Are they getting your whole story just from your posts?

Think of your profile as a storyboard of your fitness life. This means that every post is a piece of your story as a fitness influencer.

In addition to constantly thinking through how to add a piece of your story every time you post, always be as authentically you as possible.

Authenticity is a form of currency on social media. Anything less than being truly authentic will turn off your audience. It’s about giving people an honest peek into your life, that you’re a real human being that they can relate to.

As you begin posting, keep in mind that you’ll want your face in your images as much as possible. Photos with faces on Instagram, for example, get 38 percent more likes.

Even when promoting a product, for example, you’ll want to come at it as a human who has tried it and give your honest opinion about it. As soon as you get salesy and detached from your own experience, that’s when you’ll lose interest.

Posting regularly is a must for any fitness influencer. Consistency in your presence and engagement builds trust as well. This might take some planning in advance, but that planning will be worth it. Think through your overall content, which should be a mix of inspirational, educational, networking and sponsored posts. When in doubt, lean toward a heavier mix of organic, unpaid posts. 

Planning will keep your messaging and content on point in a way that your followers will appreciate.

Again, people want to trust you. Never give them a reason not to.

Obsess over engagement, not followers

As you’re looking to establish your status as a fitness influencer, it’s hard not to focus on your number of followers.

But we’d like to challenge you to focus on your engagement rate instead. (Roughly the number of engagements on a post divided by number of followers.)

Yes, the size of your following can lead to higher pay for sponsored posts. However, brands are also becoming more and more savvy about the engagement they’d like to see (versus just the number of your followers).

It’s important to keep in mind that you don’t have to reach “Kardashian level” with millions of followers to be a successful fitness influencer. In fact, the larger the following, the lower the engagement rate can get. 

Having 1,000 engaged followers is better than having 10,000 followers who never interact with your posts. In fact, reaching 1,000 followers roughly qualifies you as a nano-influencer.

Instead, prioritize engaging with your audience above all else, building that back-and-forth conversation with them. Great content leads to high engagement, and high engagement leads to organic following growth.

Simply, treat your followers as individual friends. Have two-way conversations, where you ask questions, respond to comments, run polls and take an interest in them and their thoughts.

(Hint: This engagement should happen outside of your own posts and on your followers’ posts as well.)

Be patient, and keep focusing on the influencer you naturally are and the people you want to serve.

Connect with other influencers

While you are actively seeking to grow your influence, consider connecting with other fitness influencers.

It’s helpful to contact those who share your nice and starting a conversation with them that includes:

  • Showing them support
  • Sharing their content
  • Mentioning them in your own posts
  • Networking with them to gain visibility

Just make sure you’re connecting with influencers who complement your message. Equally important is to make sure you have something to offer them as well. It’s not all take, take, take.

Reach out to brands for sponsorship, advertising opportunities

We’d love to tell you that once you reach a certain level of fitness influencer that sponsorship and advertising opportunities will just fall out of the sky.

Unfortunately, while you might be approached here and there, the fact is that you’ll have to do a lot of the leg work.

First, create a media kit that summarizes:

  • Your brand. This is your introduction that should include your niche, expertise, a touch of your personality and the type of company/products you’re looking to partner with.
  • Your audience. Share how many followers you have, your engagement rate and even a breakdown of their demographics (depending on what you’re using, this should be easily available, whether its Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or another platform).
  • What you can offer to companies should they choose to work with you. Remember that you have to show this company why they can’t pass up a chance to work with you. Sell what you have to offer to them.

Then, you’ll want to compile a wish list of the top 10 to 20 companies you would like to work with. Before you even send on your media kit, be sure to start the relationship by following their social media accounts and interacting with their posts. 

Once you’ve been interacting with a company’s accounts for a while, then you can direct message them a link to your media kit or send a more traditional email.

Do not be afraid of following up if you don’t hear back. The worst thing they can say is no.

Remember that your media kit can constantly evolve as your online presence evolves. Take any feedback you get from possible rejections to adjust your pitch for the next company.

Track your performance

Becoming a fitness influencer takes a lot of passion, but data can be equally powerful.

Take the time to track the overall performance of your social media account(s). These metrics and growth trends can be added to your media kit to help secure additional sponsorships and advertising.

Of course, once you do land a sponsored post, you’ll want to give that post everything you’ve got. The best imagery, boosting the post if necessary, running a related ad campaign and so on. You can then report those results back to your partnering brand. 

You’ll want to include in your report:

  • Reach numbers
  • Engagement numbers
  • Click-throughs
  • Sampling of positive comments
  • Total time users spent consuming the content (which typically is connected to video posts)

The more you can show brands a return on investment (ROI) for their partnership with you, the more likely that partnership will continue and grow.

Examples of fitness influencers for inspiration

The bad news is that you’re not the first to want to become a fitness influencer. The good news is that you’re not the first to want to become a fitness influencer. 

In other words, there are others in the industry you can follow and learn from. Take note of their posting frequency, the various types of content, the overall content mix, who they’re tagging and networking with and so on. All of these observations can inform your own approach and strategy.

The following are just a few examples of successful accounts on Instagram you might be inspired by:

Not sure which social media platform is right for you as a budding fitness influencer? Check out our guide.

While you’re leveling up your status as a fitness influencer, 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.

7 tips to offer addictive live-stream workouts

The COVID-19 pandemic turned the fitness industry on its head, thrusting gym owners and instructors into live-stream workouts.

Teaching fitness virtually is obviously very different from teaching in person.

And live-stream workouts don’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon.

“Due to [the] COVID-19 outbreak, [online fitness] is expected to witness [its] highest growth rate … mainly due to the shutdown of gyms and fitness studios around the globe and leading people to stay indoors,” according to Allied Market Research.

Specifically, the global online fitness market was estimated at $6.04 billion in 2019 and is expected to hit $59.23 billion by 2027.

Successful fitness classes can make or break your bottom line moving forward. And they depend on the experience being delivered by the instructor. That experience will make your live-stream workouts engaging and successful.

The following are seven tips to offer addictive live-stream workouts that will engage your clientele and boost your bottom line.

Get comfortable with the equipment, process

Practice makes perfect. You’ve likely heard this before, but it’s especially true for live-stream workouts.

A great online fitness class doesn’t require the most expensive equipment. Truly, you could use a laptop computer and/or smartphone to host your class with great results. But anything more, such as a tripod, will only improve the overall quality.

The key is that you are familiar and comfortable with the setup and use of the equipment for your workout.

Plan to practice before your first live class. You can create a to-do checklist to reference so that you never miss a step. Also, anticipate what might go wrong and how to troubleshoot that on the fly. Such issues include (but are not limited to):

  • The audio failing (or is hard to hear)
  • WiFi connectivity problems
  • Camera failure

Easy solutions won’t always be available, but the more you can practice, the better you can prepare for such issues should they arise. 

More practice also will help you feel more comfortable in front of the camera, understand where the best shot is (and where you should always be standing within it), even test different lighting so that everyone can clearly see you and so on.

As far as the best platform to use for streaming, this might depend on your fitness studio, but great options to explore include (but are not limited to):

Set yourself up for success

Your lighting and audio are the two most important factors of successful live-stream workouts. 

It’s critical that you are well-lit and that there are no echoes or significant background noise while you’re teaching. In fact, acquiring a ring light and Bluetooth earbuds (such as Apple Air Pods) will dramatically improve both your lighting and your audio.

In addition, you’ll want to stream your music playlist for your attendees for an optimal experience. Zoom and other streaming platforms offer this capability. Keep in mind that your music is your co-instructor. It’s there to help drive energy and set the atmosphere for your live-stream workouts. Simply playing music in the background likely won’t get picked up consistently by your mic (especially when using Bluetooth earbuds), so take the extra step to ensure that both your voice and music are balanced with each other.

Be sure to pay attention to music rights and what you have the legal ability to stream online in your live-stream workouts. Check out:

You’ll even want to be mindful of the clothing that you’re wearing (basic colors that aren’t too bright and contrast with your background). Speaking of background, the cleaner the better. Avoid having any clutter behind you that can serve as more of a distraction for your clients.

Test different spaces that are available to you. What looks the most professional? Refer to these additional tips for professional-looking live-stream videos.

Consistency matters in your live-stream workouts

Once you dial in the perfect lighting, audio, camera placement and even clothing, do your best to set up the same way every time.

Doing so provides an air of continuity that your clients will appreciate. This reliability indirectly boosts the professionality of your live-stream workouts.

Be mindful of equipment, modifications, progressions

Always consider your client first. He or she could have a lot of workout equipment available to use or none at all.

When designing your workout, keep that in mind. 

For example, if you’re directing clients to use their dumbbells for bicep curls without offering any options for those who don’t have dumbbells, that can lead to some frustration for those attendees. 

Also, remember that modifications may be needed by various clients who could have any number of old (or newer) injuries. Offering modifications up-front shows your attention to detail and will be of value to attendees. On the flip side, you’ll also want to automatically offer progressions for any advanced clientele to increase the intensity of an exercise.

You’ll need to talk more throughout live-stream workouts than you would in person. Focus on those form, modification and progression cues so that what you’re saying is diverse and not too repetitive.

In addition, your clients could be working out in a small, cluttered space with a number of distractions around them. Be understanding and think ahead to deliver the best virtual experience possible.

Keep community top of mind

Just because you’re not in the same room as your clients, that doesn’t mean that your live-stream workouts have to feel disconnected.

Now more than ever, people are seeking connection.

Provide time before and after your live-stream workouts to chat with your attendees and/or answer any questions they might have in real-time. (Giving enough time before the class also offers the benefit of non-panicked troubleshooting should there be any issues.)

During the workout itself, be sure to cheer on your clients. Perhaps someone’s form in an exercise is particularly good. Maybe you spotted someone using a heavier weight or pushing extra hard. Whatever it is, be specific and use names. Also be mindful of calling out something positive about every single attendee (as best as you can, depending on class size).

Request feedback and send follow-ups

Just like with in-person fitness classes, you’ll always want to encourage feedback from your clients and send follow-ups afterward.

Not only will you continue to improve as you teach more and more online, but your follow-ups afterward show that you value your clients and are open to continuing your engagement with them (and support of them) outside of your live-stream workouts.

One such tool that can help with follow-ups is FitGrid.

Be you! Show off your personality

Despite all the equipment and planning required for successful live-stream workouts, you are the most important asset.

The more you can show off your personality, connect with your attendees and more, the better. It’s definitely a big transition to go from in-person to live-stream workouts but embrace the opportunity to connect with people beyond whom you might see in your fitness studio locally. Online workouts make it possible to reach and help people across the country and even the world. 

Plus, the better you get at teaching virtually, the better you’ll be in-person moving forward.

While you’re upping your live-stream workout game, 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.

6 ways to market your fitness blog

Whether you’ve already started a fitness blog or are considering it, there’s more to success than just writing and posting.

Blogging itself is definitely a valuable strategy for your fitness business, whether you’re a personal trainer, gym owner or influencer. In fact, about 80 percent of companies that use blogging as a part of their marketing strategy said they acquire customers through their blogging efforts. And about 82 percent of businesses say that blogging is critical to their business success.

But what can you do to ensure the success of your fitness blog (and therefore your business)?

The fitness industry, in general, is full of tons of people and companies offering their take on how to lose weight, live healthier and so on. It’s a noisy arena that you must cut through to find and grow an engaged audience.

First things first

Of course, key considerations to have a quality fitness blog to promote in the first place include:

Understanding your audience

Who are you writing for? What problems or obstacles are they facing? What do they care about?

Determining your niche

A fitness blog that tries to be everything for everyone is going to connect with and engage very few. What is your expertise? If you’re a nutrition expert, for example, what unique angle can you focus on? Meal planning for families? Paleo eating? Something else? Don’t be afraid to get specific. The more uniquely you can leverage your expertise, experience and even personality, the better.

Establishing your target keywords

Once you know the niche you’re pursuing, it’s time to start researching relevant keywords. Don’t get distracted by the most popular keywords. Big websites are already targeting those. Focus on long-tail keywords that might have a lower search volume but also are more easy to rank for. Need help? Check out our list of 11 free keyword research tools.

Committing to a consistent publishing schedule

Inconsistent fitness blogs will struggle to gain traction. Set a schedule that you can stick to. You can make this easier by planning topics ahead of time (i.e. a content calendar). A general rule of thumb is to strive for at least three posts per week, but ultimately, the commitment has to be something you can keep. Feel free to refer to your competition for how often they are posting and use that as a gauge as well.

Quality over quantity

While you should be posting consistently, you also have to be hyper aware of the quality of content you’re offering. In the fitness world specifically, you have to be extra cautious about offering health advice. We recommend that either you’re an expert (with a diploma or certifications) or you focus only on sharing your experiences as they pertain to health and fitness (like how you lost weight, for example). Of course, you can always hire or interview experts as well. With every post, ask yourself: “Am I helping my audience overcome their problem(s)?” The goal is to create content that is as good or better than what’s already available online.

It’s important to take your time on each of the above factors because even the best marketing strategies in the world are only going to take an unengaging, unfocused blog so far. 

The following are six ways that you can market your fitness blog.

Your SEO matters

Great search engine optimization (SEO) will reward your fitness blog with organic website traffic.

There are loosely three types of SEO techniques:

  • Technical SEO, which involves the indexing and crawling settings of your website. It’s about search engines being able to read and index your website properly. Check out our 13 tips to get Google to index your website faster.
  • On-page SEO, which involves making your web pages search-engine friendly. This involves page titles, page descriptions, text formatting, mobile optimization and so on.
  • Off-page SEO, which involves everything that’s happening outside of your website. For example, other sites linking to yours and even social media posts directing users to your fitness blog. Check out our nine tips and tricks to boost your off-page SEO.

Learn more about the difference between on-page and off-page SEO, and see if you’re making any of these 13 common SEO mistakes.

Just remember that great SEO takes time and consistent effort. There are no worthwhile shortcuts that will serve your fitness blog in the long run.

Promote on social media

This method is likely obvious. Most fitness bloggers share their content on social media platforms.

Where to post

The trick is to optimize your presence on the social media platforms you’re already on, prioritize those existing accounts by where your target audience is (and is engaging with you) and decide if there are any platforms you should be on that you aren’t on yet.

(On the flip side, are you wasting your resources on any given social media platform? For example, Twitter isn’t the best platform for every business.)

We can help you determine the best platform(s) for your fitness blog promotion and goals.

How to post

As far as posting, go beyond the simple sharing of links. Identify opportunities to promote your content with visuals, whether they’re eye-catching photos or designed graphics. Canva is a free tool that can help even the self-declared non-designers design compelling images.

Just as you want to be consistent with publishing your fitness blog, you also want to be consistent (and engaged) on your chosen social media platforms. Remember that social media is a space for conversations, not just broadcasting links.

These 11 social media management tools and seven social media automation opportunities can help.

Consider an app

Creating apps for iOS and Android devices is a great alternative way to get your fitness blog discovered. While there’s definitely competition, you’ll find that it’s not as intense as the intense noise you’ll find on the world wide web.

Be sure to connect with a knowledgeable app developer that can best reflect your needs and branding.

Another bonus of this method is that anyone who downloads your app can be notified when new blogs are published.

Email marketing a must

Creating and publishing consistent content naturally leads to the need for establishing an email newsletter that website visitors can subscribe to.

Email marketing is a powerful tool. Simply refer to these 48 statistics.

Treat every email you send as an opportunity to engage with your subscribers and deliver on the promise of value your newsletter offers.

Here’s a breakdown of the anatomy of an effective marketing email. And if you’re in need of building up your subscriber list, here are 12 strategies that will help you capture email addresses without annoying all your website visitors.

Once you solidify your email marketing rhythm, consider any sale opportunities that can be mixed in. Refer to our 14 best practices for email drip campaigns for inspiration.

Look into trust badges

Because of the noise in the fitness content space, any sort of verification you can obtain to reflect the quality of your content will build trust with website visitors (who will be more likely to return if they trust you).

Regarding health and fitness specifically, consider working with Health On The Net, which is an independent nonprofit organization that promotes transparent and reliable health information online.

While trust badges won’t directly grow your fitness blog traffic, they do boost the perceived value of your website and better establish your authority in the fitness industry.

Find out more about the types of trust badges you can embed on your site. 

Explore what the competition is doing

The best digital marketing strategies are constantly evolving, and the fitness industry changes at an equally fast rate.

Take the time to follow your competition and other thought leaders in the fitness industry. 

How are they promoting themselves and their content? What appears to be working for them? What doesn’t seem to be working? In addition, take note of:

  • Top-ranking websites on Google in your niche
  • The type of content the top sites publish
  • How often new content is published
  • The average length of blog posts
  • What they share on social media (and how they share it)
  • Any multimedia assets used (video, images, etc.) 

This type of competitive analysis will only help inform you on alternative ideas and tactics that can influence your own fitness blog marketing.

Being engaged in your niche industry is a great way to stay on top of trends and continue to be creative with your own blogging.

To more efficiently conduct your competitive analysis, tools like Buzzsumo and Semrush can help.

In conclusion

While you’re looking to better market your fitness blog, 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 segmentations and more. Schedule your free demo with us today.