In recent years, the fitness industry has been faced with the complex aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic. During this time, many businesses faced difficulties, with some even becoming subject to bankruptcy. In fact, the UK gym, health and fitness industry market size dropped drastically from £2200.6 million in 2019 to £1362.1 million in 2021, according to Statista.
For the fitness brands that survived the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic, growth is now of utmost importance. Using strategic fitness marketing can help to achieve this and secure the future of your company. With expert marketing strategies, your fitness business can build a strong brand image and stable customer loyalty. This will help to protect your company from unpredictable challenges.
According to research by Forbes, the top converting marketing channels for fitness include Facebook, Instagram, Google Search and email. With this in mind, let’s discuss fitness marketing tips from the experts at our award-winning marketing agency, VerriBerri.
Grow Your Social Media Presence
Productive use of social media is an essential piece of the fitness marketing puzzle. Optimised usage can enable your business to reach your target demographic with content that promotes your brand effectively.
The first step to ensuring your posts are impactful is researching your intended audience. It’s crucial to understand exactly who your audience is, where to target them and what content will be most effective. For example, if your fitness business targets a younger cohort, utilising TikTok with collaborative posts is a great option. Alternatively, for brands aligned with an older demographic, educational content on Facebook may be a better choice.
Social media provides businesses with an opportunity to share their narrative and shape their brand image. This will support the growth of your company by increasing awareness and establishing a reputation that encourages customer loyalty.
Collaborate With Relevant Industry Leaders
Another way to enhance your fitness marketing is through widening your exposure. By partnering with individuals that possess a larger following, your company can be introduced to potential customers. Selecting who to work with will require a similar set of questions as those asked when choosing a social platform. For example, decisions should be based on who aligns with your brand and audience and what form of collaboration would be most successful.
The industry leader you choose to partner with could be a celebrity, social media star or any individual with influence in the fitness sector. The most important part of this choice is the alignment of the influencer with your branding. For example, if your messaging centres around accessible, beginner fitness then you should choose a partner within that category.
The nature of the collaboration could take various forms, depending on what your brand offers. For example, if your business sells products, you could send your partner items to promote. On the other hand, if your fitness business provides a service, you could collaborate with a sponsored post. Other types of association include live or in-person events, co-branded product lines, social media takeovers and more. Effectively integrating this marketing strategy can significantly improve the overall growth of your brand.
Optimise Your Online Position
As reported by Forbes, Google is one of the top channels in fitness marketing. Because of this, it’s imperative to utilise the various ways that Google can boost your business growth. This includes strategic search engine optimisation and pay-per-click advertising. These marketing techniques can harness great results and return on investment, when executed well.
Search engine optimisation supports your site ranking and can be broken down into three areas: technical, on-page and off-page. Firstly, technical SEO refers to the performance and crawlability of your website. This could include the speed, navigation, mobile optimisation and more. The sufficiency of these factors will heavily impact how well Google, and other search engines, can crawl your site.
Secondly, on-page SEO is the content within your webpage, including copy, images and other related features. By ensuring the content on your site is of high-quality, you can increase the chances of satisfying user needs. In the example of a fitness brand, this could improve the likelihood of a customer purchasing a product or service from your company. Off-page, on the other hand, refers to SEO features that aren’t on your website and improve your credibility. A key example for this is backlinks from other pages which demonstrates your reputable position. Social media can also support off-page SEO by contributing to your authority.
Get Help From Our Experts At VerriBerri
The assistance of our award-winning agency, VerriBerri can ensure your fitness marketing strategies are maximising the growth of your business. With a team of holistic experts, we are available to provide in depth advice and support for all marketing channels. If you would like to elevate your brand image, build a loyal customer base and grow your business- get in contact with us today!