Instagram without a doubt, is the most important social media channel for fitness professionals to further their brand in the market. The social media channel has an advertising influence of 1.16 billion people with an active user base of 125.5 million people.
To add to this, 90% of the users follow at least one brand or business. Such figures make the channel all the more lucrative for fitness brands. Being one of the most pivotal social media platforms, it is essential to create an Instagram strategy for success. In this blog, the attempt is to spell out a marketing strategy for fitness professionals:
Tips for Successful Instagram Strategy for Fitness Business
Fitness professionals can utilize Instagram to connect with their audience, maximize awareness and drive value. It is among the most popular platforms for fitness brands. Let’s try to enlist the tips:
1. Business Vs Personal Account
Initially, when setting up the Instagram page, you are given the choice to opt for either a personal page or a business account. With a business account, you get access to business insights, Instagram ads, and special features which are not found on the personal page. Besides this, Instagram allows businesses to display their contact information more efficiently.
If you are only keen on a business account, you can free up the bio to display more valuable information that is likely to drive up the search and find more audience for the page. The main advantage of owning a business account is that you don’t need to stuff all the contact information in one place as Instagram gives you a good amount of space to display it effectively. Also, you tend to gain crucial data that helps in creating a valid strategy that will create a significant impact.
2. Engagement is Everything
All your posts, Reels, Stories, IGTV, and Lives should be created with the sole purpose of generating engagement. The active engagement through comments and likes should translate into a community of active followers with resonance to your core values.
With the platform moving away from traditional likes and followers. Engagement can now be measured with the help of metrics like reach, direct messages, website clicks, views, comments, and saved posts. Engagement with the audience is the lifeblood of growing your audience organically on Instagram. That being said, in recent years, the platform has become more pay-oriented and the scope of organic growth is limited but not yet dead.
3. Find your Aesthetic
Before creating content for Instagram do some research and follow some established players within the social channel with the sizable followings and whom you want to emulate. By following them, create content with consistent visuals and colour schemes, and create content consistently until you find the content that clicks with the audience.
Add a professional touch to all the content with the help of consistent graphics and fonts. Remain conscious of including yourself and your clients in the content as much as possible. Also, acknowledge the popularity of videos on Instagram. With the explosive success of short-video content – Reels, there are enough reasons to utilize the Instagram video editor to create fascinating video content for the audience.
4. Use Relevant Hashtags
Hashtags can be one of the main reasons for your content getting discovered by the audience. If you are in doubt about the hashtags that need to be used. Then take a peek at your competitors and research the tags they are using in their content. Instagram accommodates up to 30 hashtags per post.
While generic hashtags may be popular like #fitness and #personaltrainer, it is the specific hashtags that work better for fitness brands. This could include #mumbaipersonaltrainer or #zumbaworkout. By including the location and the type of fitness regimen, the probability of your brand being discovered are high.
There is even the prevalence of unique hashtags, this is especially used by brands to stand out from the clutter. While using unique hashtags, it is prudent to encourage your clients to use the same for the word to spread around. This can be a great way to build your brand with the right type of followers.
Another bonus tip for hashtags pertains to avoiding usage in the caption area and trying to include them in the comments section. A neat trick is to keep the most used hashtags in the “notes” section of the mobile phone and to paste them when required with a few edits per the post going to be published.
5. Provide Value to your Followers
There is a misconception that you need to post something all the time to receive high engagement. Well, that is certainly not the case, if you can create high-quality content with alluring imagery that people want to consume. There need not be any doubt that people are going to follow.
Always think from the perspective of the audience and share the content that will help with their fitness goals. Inspirational, educational, and entertaining content will always find takers amongst the audience and try to remain within the purview of these three-pointers while creating content.
In case your static posts are not working then switch to short video format with Reels. Create videos with the help of the Instagram video editor and create mesmerizing videos that find traction amongst the audience.
6. Connect your Instagram to your Website, Facebook and Twitter
One of the best tricks to increase followers on Instagram is to simply install a widget on the website to display your Instagram photos. Meanwhile, with this, you can even share your photos through Twitter or Facebook too. This will allow your audience on different platforms to find and follow you on Instagram. At the end of the day, it is the follower count that matters.
Final Thoughts
The blog would have given you enough reasons to up your Instagram to the next level. That being said, fitness brands need to remain true to their core values and let their personal and business vision shine through their Instagram account. Else, aping some successful brand would not simply make the impact you wish for on the platform.