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If you're looking to drive leads, sales, and brand awareness for your health and wellness business - fitness content marketing is a must-have.
In fact, 70% of B2C companies and 73% of B2B organizations are already using it as an essential element in their marketing strategies!
Here's the scoop on how to get started with this powerful tool — read on to find out more!
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is a strategy that involves creating and sharing valuable and relevant content consistently to attract and retain a clearly defined audience -- driving profitable customer action.
Content marketing can help your fitness business build credibility, acquire leads and connect with potential customers.
By delivering helpful information to the right audience at the correct time, you will be able to start a customer journey that turns new visitors into loyal fans in no time! When done strategically, content marketing can create an effective sales funnel that brings impressive results for your business.
Utilizing this approach is a great way to draw in, hold and win over new customers. It allows you to gain trustworthiness, authority, and extensive reach. What's more remarkable is that there are usually no expenses (or low costs) associated with it - making profit margins generally high!
By creating engaging content that's both enjoyable and informative, you'll make sure your message resonates with readers.
How content marketing is different from conventional marketing?
The promotion and sale of products or services characterize conventional fitness marketing strategies. To garner interest and encourage purchasing, they prioritize communicating features and advantages through persuasive means such as adverts, sales promotions, and gym flyers.
These traditional approaches are essential, yet they cannot compete with the power of content marketing in today's fitness industry.
Content marketing is a way to distinguish yourself as an authoritative leader in your niche by offering valuable and insightful information that will make you the primary source for anyone looking for answers related to fitness.
This helps establish credibility within your field and can generate more leads than any other approach.
Surprisingly, content marketing has yet to be widely adopted by the fitness industry.
Although gyms like Anytime Fitness have ventured into this realm, most health and wellness brands still need to be bold in exploring its potential benefits or how they can get started creating relevant content for their audiences.
Why should I invest in content marketing?
Before we get into why you should invest in content marketing, let's get one thing straight - it will be a long-term investment.
Ultimately, the goal of any business is to gain and retain customers. If you want to achieve this quickly, invest in Facebook or Instagram ad campaigns as your primary solution.
Don't think content marketing alone will bring you success, but don't let it sit by the wayside, either. Content marketing should be something you begin to integrate immediately; eventually, it will pay off in terms of cheaper lead generation costs.
Consider this: your production of leads via content marketing could lower the cost for those generated through paid channels, and you can later use any created content for your advertisements. Start slowly adding content from day one: its payoff is guaranteed over time!
Fitness content marketing benefits
Content marketing is an invaluable tool for health and fitness businesses; here are some of the advantages it provides:
Establishes credibility
Content marketing enables gyms to build trust and credibility with their target audience by providing authoritative and accurate content.
Increases visibility
By regularly creating content, gyms can slowly increase the reach of their brand and make it visible to a larger audience.
Generates traffic
Well-crafted content helps draw in more organic traffic, eventually driving higher conversions for your business.
Strengthens brand awareness
Consistent content creation builds recognition among people who visit your website or view your content on social media platforms, helping to strengthen brand awareness over time.
Builds relationships
Content marketing allows you to build relationships with potential and existing customers and industry influencers through the content you produce. This can help establish your gym as a trusted source of information in the fitness community.
How to create high-quality and engaging fitness content
Content marketing is an excellent tactic that gyms can implement in their existing strategies to get the maximum output of their content.
Follow these five easy steps for creating exceptional fitness and health content, and watch your business soar!
Identify your goals & intended audience
Before starting any marketing campaign, the essential first step is identifying your target audience and what you want to achieve. To meet your audience's needs, it's necessary that the content you produce be pertinent, so pinpoint this clearly at the outset.
For instance, if targeting older adults as part of your strategy, then topics like flexibility and balance or the proper diets to stay healthy on a small appetite should feature heavily in your plan.
Select an engaging topic
To succeed in captivating your audience, you must focus on a topic they want to explore instead of the one that interests you. Fortunately, there are numerous methods for determining what content will draw them in, such as:
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Social listening: Monitor what content resonates with your target audience by actively listening to conversations on social media platforms.
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Analyze your competitors’ content: Check out what content your competitors are producing and use it as a benchmark for crafting yours.
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Leverage keywords & trends: Use searches related to fitness content, such as "gym content ideas" or "fitness content topics," to gather insights into the types of hot posts.
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Survey your audience: Ask existing customers about their preferences and interests regarding fitness content through surveys or polls conducted on social media platforms.
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Monitor online communities: Investigate content-related discussions on forums, blogs, or other online communities to find content ideas that resonate with your users' needs.
Choose your format
After you've selected your content's subject, it is time to decide which format best suits it. A variety of fitness-related ideas are available, including
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Blog posts
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Infographics
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Videos
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Ebooks
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Webinars
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Online courses
Before determining the best way to communicate your message, consider how your target audience will likely absorb content. Establishing a blog would be fruitless if writing is something other than something that appeals to you, as it's unlikely that you'd post regularly.
Whether specific topics are best understood through visual content, audio, or written formats will depend on your particular focus.
To ensure you create the most valuable and credible content possible, select the best format and make it easy to read. Above all else, choose topics relatable to real-life scenarios and tackle a specific need.
Generate attention-grabbing titles
Crafting a captivating title for your content is crucial to its success. Your title should be descriptive and attractive, clearly conveying what readers will learn from it in an engaging way.
In this competitive digital world, you need something that'll outshine the competition - why not include a 'hook'? You could make waves by taking on an unexpected stance or being provocative.
It might involve saying something startling or overcoming doubts, possibly even offering up some guarantee! Whichever method you choose, keep your target audience's interests at heart when constructing your eye-catching headline.
Increase the visibility of your content
If you want your content to be seen, you must ensure it's adequately promoted. Make a checklist of promotional actions for every content you create and consider leveraging partnerships; they are a practical yet often overlooked tool in content promotion.
Learn more: Gym promotion ideas
Seek out companies with similar target audiences and agree to promote each other's content mutually. Doing so will increase exposure to new people while at the same time providing valuable resources for your audience.
Additionally, this is an excellent strategy when promoting events or driving membership locally!
6 proven content marketing strategies to transform your gym’s blog into a lead generator
Writing content for your gym blog can be a great way to engage potential customers and stand out from the competition. Here are six content marketing strategies that you can use to turn your blog into an effective lead generator.
Consistently produce content that resonates with your target audience
Content marketing is a long-term investment that requires dedication and consistency. To ensure local people think your gym offers the best service, you must consistently engage with them over time.
Think of it this way: if you spent two years creating three blogs per week, after 24 months, 312 pieces of top-notch content will be waiting for local audiences to discover!
Content creation is about more than just writing - it's about crafting the right content your readers will be able to relate to.
To ensure you're reaching out to the ideal target audience, consider this: If you write articles on fitness tips and strategies that don't interest your reader base, do you think they'll stick around?
Although this misdirected content isn't a complete loss of time and effort, it doesn't meet its purpose. Content marketing should entice customers by providing them with what they want to draw them in - so use the best "bait!"
Once you have everything in place, your website will be full of informative content that will boost your search engine rankings and authority as an expert.
You'll soon see an influx of people visiting the site who view you as a fitness guru—and when it comes time for them to make fitness-related purchases, they'll trust no one else but you!
Publish “evergreen” content
In media, evergreen content remains relevant regardless of how much time has passed. Your pillar posts- or essential pieces you create- should have a lasting quality, or they won't be considered "pillar posts" for long.
Of course, it's vital to produce timely materials based on current interests and trends, yet having a collection of evergreen items will ensure your blog continues driving leads even after those waves die down.
Want to make sure your content endures for the next five years? Take extra time crafting blogs containing topical information and utilizing keywords that search engines will love. That way, you'll have four blog posts ready today - and in another five years!
Make a real difference
When it comes to sales and marketing, the key is solving problems. By successfully addressing your potential customers' issues or taking away their pain points, you'll be able to get what YOU want - clients!
Regarding fitness specifically, people always have queries about gyms and workout routines which a savvy marketer can quickly solve.
Show off your expertise and provide helpful advice on anything.
Some may be worried that if they give away all their secrets, will people still pay them for coaching? Absolutely! Providing valuable information gives those seeking help a good starting point.
But to achieve faster success with tailored guidance, working directly with you is the best option. It's like this: Anyone can learn how to do biceps curls just by watching any video online.
But only when viewers watch YOUR video will it end with something like, "If you're one of my clients, I'll review your lifting progress after every session so we can keep pushing weights at the exact right moment, getting them closer to sculpting those arms!" That's what really matters!
Be genuine
Creating a positive connection with your target audience is essential to success, but many individuals are unable or unwilling to do so.
If you haven't got the knowledge, don't pretend you have! Instead, focus on what you are an expert in and produce content of this nature - staying true to yourself will benefit your readers more than attempting something else entirely.
Moreover, there's no use in trying to sound like someone you're not. Use your authentic voice when writing, and don't try too hard—it's easy for readers to pick up on insincerity!
Before hitting the publish button for any content marketing pieces, ask yourself: Am I using fancy language just to seem smarter? If so, make it more straightforward. Your audience will thank you!
Craft bite-sized content
If you want to increase your rankings on search engines, it's a wise idea to compose long-form articles. At the same time, however, crafting short and sweet content can be just as effective.
Podcasts and videos should also follow this rule of thumb - create easy-to-digest media that only requires a little effort from viewers or listeners!
Infographics, memes & GIFs are perfect examples because they pack a punch in such small frames; their bite-sized nature makes them highly addictive due to their quick gratification!
As fitness professionals, we can be tempted to flood content that displays our extensive knowledge. However, readers sometimes prefer a more straightforward snack over a nine-course meal. Therefore integrate bite-sized content into your website frequently.
Track critical data metrics to assess your content marketing success
Ever wonder if your content is truly doing its job? Numbers don't lie; in this case, they will show you what pieces are performing.
Dive into Google Analytics or another analytics program to investigate the interests of readers on your site. You may be astounded by the outcomes, even when the numbers align with what you expected them to say!
Harnessing the power of data to gain valuable insights into your performance is a must. After you review it, you'll be able to quickly determine the following:
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What content search engines favor
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Your audience's preferences
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Topics that keep visitors engaged for longer periods
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Content that encourages people to share it with others
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How certain pieces relate to lead generation and sales
Without relying on the precious data you obtain, creating content for your blog is like throwing darts while you're being blindfolded — you will miss the target. Yet with the proper insight, you can craft compelling material that will serve as a powerful lead machine!
Takeaway
Content marketing for gyms is essential for any fitness professional who wants to stand out from the competition and gain more customers. It's important to stay true to yourself when creating content and consider making content that caters to short attention spans, such as infographics, memes & GIFs.
Additionally, it's crucial to track critical data metrics to assess content performance and gain valuable insights that can help you create more compelling content.
By utilizing content marketing wisely, gym owners can build relationships with their target audience and ensure that when it comes time for them to make fitness-related purchases, they'll trust no one else but you!
With the right content, you'll have the opportunity to foster a loyal and engaged following who will support you through thick and thin. So take the content marketing plunge today!
Frequently asked questions on content marketing for gyms
How do I market my gym marketing ideas?
To market your gym effectively and get maximum results from content creation, you should use channels like blogs, podcasts, video content, and social media. Tracking key metrics can help pinpoint what type of content resonates with your audience the most for future success.
How do I create gym content?
Creating content for your gym should focus on the needs of your target audience and what content resonates with them.
How do you attract customers to a gym?
Attracting customers to your gym can be done through content marketing by creating content that is both educational, engaging, and shareworthy for them.
What are the 5 rules of content marketing?
The five rules of content marketing are:
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Understanding your audience's needs and pain points
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Creating value in your content
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Focusing on SEO to rank high in search engines
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Track key data in your analytics and adapt content as needed
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Promoting content across multiple channels for maximum impact
