"Give, Give, Give, Ask": Making Conversions in Online Fitness

Instagram is a phenomenal platform. Saturated, yes, but that's both a strength and a weakness. 

Let's take the fitness space, for example.

If you were to take your phone out right now and scroll through your Instagram feed, you would probably (read: definitely) be following someone or some company that you could categorize under health and fitness. 

That's because right now, fitness businesses (both individuals and large-scale companies) are at an arms race to reach you via Instagram. 

As I've learned more and more about social media marketing, however, one thing has become abundantly clear: Most fitness businesses on social media are shotgunning they're content and their offers - at the most. 

There's no plan, no scheduling, no sales funnel present in most profiles we see on Instagram. And that's okay! It's actually expected - in most fitness business subcategories, business owners are more focused on getting their clients results than putting together a perfect marketing strategy.

But here's an example of a company with a well-structured, well-executed marketing plan.

Precision Nutrition recently relaunched their Instagram, doing a complete overhaul of their content production. Scrolling through their profile, one thing is very apparent: they constantly churn out high quality content with high quality information. 

And every once in a while, they ask.

On a recent Instagram Stories post, they lead the customer through a small journey:

Precision Nutrition continues their story by giving a few more useful tips for fitness professionals:

Notice how they haven't mentioned anything about a service they're offering or anything on sale. 

Finally, however, after giving a solid amount of value, they STILL don't ask. They actually frame their social-->site conversion as another give.

Finally, after going to their article, they link to a presale list, where eventually, they will finally ask for something. 

This is a great example of a fitness company attacking their marketing with an integrated plan instead of just making a video and hoping for their best.

#Fitspiration: A Double Edged Sword, and How It Affects Your Health

As a personal trainer, I get to see just about ALL the barriers that keep people from achieving their goals. These barriers aren't just things that I see -- I study them, because it's my job.

I don't have the time to work out.

I don't have the money to eat healthy.

I'm really focusing on my work right now.

I have a FAMILY to take care of.

And these are all valid! Time is a resource you cannot get back. "Healthy foods"  often time take some financial finesse. Work gets crazy - life gets crazy. Having kids is a... good Lord that's a huge job.

But a lot of the time, these barriers are sort of more like beliefs.

And so as a coach, it's my job to help them re-frame those beliefs, and give them simple strategies to make taking care of their health doable.

As a marketer, I've noticed a lot of these beliefs come from the portrayal of fitness as something HARDCORE. As or do or die. "Be perfect, or else you're not good enough".

Y'all know what I mean. 

    

                   

Some say that the fitness industry runs off of ego, and there's definitely some truth in that.

For a long time, flash and entertainment and great pictures and glistening skin are what have won the war of attention for profit.

Luckily, a few companies have learned to change the conversation.

It's not about the outcome, of course. It's about becoming, and working hard, and making mistakes, and forgiving yourself so you can get right back into your flow. 

To me, fitness is about loving yourself and your life, and making the best of it - maximizing it. 

There's a ridiculous amount of noise going on in the fitness industry - but as someone who's obsessed with removing those barriers and changing those beliefs, here's two people on Instagram that are doing it right. 

Follow these accounts, and you'll actually learn a few things you can apply immediately - without all the fitness business hardcore weirdness.

Heidi Powell specializes in one year "fitness transformations", and has a TV show for it on ABC or something idk. She focuses on the entire lifestyle of being healthy and enjoying it, where you'll see a lot of other female fitness accounts only posting pictures of them in the gym or in a bikini on a beach somewhere. Follow this rad woman.

Achieve Fitness is Boston based gym that uses kettlebells as their primary tool for health promotion. I like their strategy a lot because again, their focus is on adding real value. Many "kettlebell experts" post videos of their own advanced circuits with advanced movements, because it looks cool and gets likes. Achieve Fitness posts simple, easy to understand videos/pictures that teach the correct form - ironically, they have a lot more user engagement than other so called kettlebell experts.