Is there a benefit of Social Media Marketing in the Fitness Industry?
To gauge the value of being a social media fitness personality a good example to look at is Joe Wicks and what he donated to the NHS during his lockdown fitness campaign. According to Leisure Opportunities “Wick streamed 78 workouts, achieving total views of more than 80 million” and made a donation of £580,000, the profits from the videos. It does show there is profit to be made.
Not all businesses can be the next Joe Wicks but there are opportunities for all businesses.
Social Media Marketing benefits all when integrated into your overall marketing strategy with clear goals and KPI’s indentified.
Benefits include:
Brand Development: You get to showcase your business values. If you want to highlight your community involvement you can show images and videos of events that highlight this aspect.
Social Media gives the platform to showcase knowledge. In the fitness industry it can be directing them back to your website where your blog or video content is hosted. For Joe Wicks fans you can sign up for the yearly, monthly or quarterly plan from his website.
You get to tell, and show the world who you are, what values your business stands for and create an emotional connection with your customer.
Increased Customer Engagement: You can interact with your customers in the space they are operating in; whether it’s on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or Youtube. If they have decided to follow you, it is because they are interested in what your business is doing. These can be long lasting relationships and if you continue to experiment with different videos, articles and content that interests your customers you will retain their interest.
Find out what your neighbours are doing: It’s what social media is for after all. Follow your competitors on Social Media so you can see what content their customers are engaging with, what products they are offering, promotions and what tactics they use. This will help any business indentify trends in the industry and might spark new ideas for new products or services to offer.
Practice Active Listening: Pay attention to the comments and engagement of not just your social but your competitors as well. Customers often identify problems and even offer solutions.
With billions of people on social media, can your business really afford to not try?
By Helen Mc Fadden
Great blog post, Helen! I love the point you made on fitting 56 million people in a class. It really shows just how much reach there is with social media - it's crazy! You've really highlighted all the benefits of using social media to market as a small business, but the one that stands out most to me is keeping an eye on your competitors. You're right - customers often identify problems and even offer solutions in the comments of online posts and this could be a great place to hear right from the source what your competitors weaknesses are and how you could offer something they don't.
ReplyDeleteHaving popular social media accounts is one of the top things people want these days, especially if you are a company or a personality – or at least strive to be done. As you mentioned in your post, the money in social media is insane, especially if you know how to use it right. In our context – gyms – not only will it bring traffic to the bricks but you might even not have to have them if you are doing well virtually. There are so many benefits to having an online presence, business’s of any kind would be foolish to think otherwise. In order to grow you need to be online posting content.
ReplyDeleteAre you reading seo? I glad you stayed awake. You could do a great post, I will definitely be using social media to keep an eye on competitors. Thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteYour insights on how social media marketing can help brand development really struck me, especially developing that emotional connection. Great point - "You get to tell, and show the world who you are, what values your business stands for and create an emotional connection with your customer."
ReplyDeleteWhen businesses do social media marketing well, it's the emotional connection that remains. Now more than ever, brands' ability to follow through for what they stand for, their ethos and how they conduct themselves is a barometer of success and resilience. Customers want authentic content and can easily distinguish between a business box ticking using a bland social media marketing calendar, or true, engaging posts that bring value to their customers, or potential customers.
Great post Helen! I enjoyed how you broke down the importance of Social Media in an overall Marketing Campaign. Your point on Social Media as a tool for curating brand development will be very insightful for businesses especially for those in the fitness industry! The Gym seems very daunting for beginners and for businesses to get potential new customers though the door they want to portray a friendly and welcoming environment and this can be done effectively through Social Media. Question boxes on IG stories allows followers to ask instructors questions on joining the gym giving that personal response that in tern may lead to conversions!
ReplyDeletegreat post
ReplyDeletegreat tips and some excellent takeaways and food for thought.
Caitriona