Instagram is fast becoming a marketplace where consumers and businesses converge. For this reason, it is absolutely worthwhile to boost your fitness brand’s Instagram presence and investing time in creating a marketing strategy around it to showcase your gym’s services.
However, just getting content out there, does not quite do the trick. It must be done right.
First you must learn how to optimize your account and make sure that you post ONLY compelling Instagram content, increase your exposure to get more conversions AND discover a few tools of the trade that will help you measure your success.
This is just a picture of what you need to do to make Instagram work for your fitness business’ marketing and get more sales. But in a nutshell, there are 3 simple steps to follow that will make help you get more clients in the door only by using Instagram:
Step 1 : Get More Followers
Any effective strategy will be useless if you don’t have any Instagram followers, and that is why the first step to getting more clients through Instagram is to grow your Instagram following.
Instagram is an awesome strategy to get your business and your message in front of people that are like-minded at one blow.
The more followers you have, the more of your target audience you can reach each time you post valuable content.
So how do you grow your following? There are 2 strategies to achieve just that.
- Using an influencer to introduce your fitness business to the public – The fastest and most effective is to use to your advantage the reach of other Insta users who have a large following. Being recommended by one with authority and an influencer creates a great leverage because you are getting your name and message in front of your target audience all at once. You can achieve this by paying them to share your content (paid shout out) or offering your service for free in exchange for a shout out.
- User-generated marketing – Have your current client base do the work for you. One great way to increase your Instagram followers is to build social proof. It is more likely for people to trust content that came from actual customers. So, encourage your clients to check-in or mention your gym and post photos of them while working out.
Step 2: Keep your Instagram Followers Engaged
Now that you have grown your following, its time to grab their attention and get these visitors to visit your website.
Use your BIO to stand out. First impressions count. Here a couple of things to keep in mind to make a killer bio.
- Keep everything short and sweet.
- Use a memorable URL to create a CTA
- Showcase what you offer
- Use some playful emoji that fits your content
Use lead offers to draw in people. Offer free content that will entice potential clients to join your gym’s mailing list and through your sales funnel. When using lead pages, remember that you are offering value first, so make sure that the free resource that you are offering is useful to your potential clients.
Ask your follower to tag a friend. When it makes sense, take the opportunity to ask your follower to tag a friend. You could include statements such as: “Tag a friend who needs this.”
Instagram Stories. Using Insta Stories is a very powerful tool in adding the human touch to your business brand. Followers will humanize you and not think of your business as a faceless one. Use Stories to engage followers by creating polls or using the swipe-up feature.
Step 3: Convert those Followers into Clients
There is a huge difference between content that gets a lot of likes and comments and one that actually converts.
Posts that generate more sales are those that triggers an emotional reaction from your potential clients.
You may offer the best service in your area, but if you don’t show that in a way that sparks interest and emotions, chances are, its not going to sell.
Using visually stunning designs and imagery are effective ways to elicit a positive response. No matter what type of content you are posting, make sure that it is exciting, triggers a response, and makes your audience want to delve more into your service.
After following the 3 basic steps, how do you track your success? This is an essential part of using Instagram for marketing so that you can figure out if what’s working and what’s not. Here are some ways to monitor that:
- Look for spikes in sales and traffic to your site and go back to Instagram posts during that period
- You can use tracking links to measure which content are generating the most traffic
