11 Content Ideas For Your Fitness Business Social Media (with examples)

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Marketing your business 20 years ago was different. We used to rely on flyers, posters, radio or, if you really went all out, perhaps a late night infomercial on local television.

In 2019, things are different. Social media plays a dominant role in the marketing efforts of most companies and this is especially true in the fitness industry where prospective clients will often go to your Instagram or Facebook page before your website.

Coming up with content can be tough and creating content can easily be a full time role.

If your struggling with content for your fitness business social media, these 11 ideas will help light up your pages - with 11 real examples of how we've walked the walk on our social media at BASE.

Prefer audio? Listen to episode 43 of the Fitness Business Asia podcast on Apple or Spotify

No.1 - Testimonials

We're starting with the biggest and best - client success stories and social proof will always be the best way to encourage others to get started.

The old classic one, which does still work, is before and after pics. Before and afters do work and have big impact, especially if it’s a very significant transformation, but I feel that if it’s just a picture you are missing a trick, which is telling the wider story.

The more of that clients story you can tell, the better. You need the viewer, the consumer of the content, to really relate to the success story.

To do this, we need to really dive deep into their journey – video is great for this or you can use the caption of the post to tell a little bit about the person’s journey. Were they nervous when they started? How did they feel when they achieved their goal. How did your offering and your team help them achieve your goals.

By effectively painting the full picture of your current client's successes and their full journey, others will be able to relate, they'll be inspired and will want to follow in their footsteps.

Final Tip: Focus on the emotional side of their journey, not just the physical.

No.2 - Profile your coaches

Profile your instructors, your coaches and tell their personal stories.

What kind of clients they like working with? Who they’ve helped in the past?

I like to add some quirky facts about them such as their favourite cheat meal or what they do on their day off.

This helps to humanize the coaches and makes the barrier to working out with them a little easier to cross.

People are naturally a little intimidated by coaches so anything that humanizes them is a good thing. Make your profile of them light-hearted and accessible and it’ll help people feel that little bit more comfortable.

You can profile them with interviews, whether that’s video or text, maybe a quote from them or a tip. Use your imagination.

One last tip on this one – show your coaches smiling!

No.3 - The Ubiquitous Motivational Quote

Yes, they are everywhere and they are somewhat cliched, but if they’re done right then they can have impact and inspire.

Some essential tips for doing motivational quotes right

1.    Make them branded! Use your colours, fonts and images, do not just lift them off pinterest. Reposting other quotes looks lazy and off brand which isn’t a good look for your social feed.

2.    Don’t overdo them. Once a week is fine – don’t put a motivational quote in the caption of every single Instagram post. Too many and they kind of lose their impact.

3.    Maybe this is just me – don’t go too cheesey, try and pick quotes that are really do mean something and don’t just sound fluffy or just happen to rhyme.

4.    Another idea that worked well for us – get quotes from your team, ones that they live their lives by. It’ll help with some extra content and you’ll also help with that client/coach connection, tooyour

No.4 - Action shots or videos

These don’t need to be ripped men and women doing muscle ups and human flags, just some inspiring pics or videos that highlight what clients can expect to do in your gym.

Pick subjects that are like your target client. If you’re a Crossfit box looking for beginners, show action pics of people who look like your target client, who look like people that are new to training. If it’s an advanced yoga class then athletes doing handstands and hitting tough poses is great, as you’re looking to appeal to these kind of people.

No.5 - Reposts from clients

This is an easy one. You should be looking through all the tags at your gym on Instagram and Facebook. If there are any great ones then repost them on your page. If you do so – add a little caption of your own, thanking them for joining, giving a little context to their pic.

Make sure it’s a post that tells a little story or can make the day of those consuming the content a little better. So a post-workout bathroom selfie probably isn’t going to do that, but someone posting a pic with their coach and telling the story of how far they’ve come could be good.

No.6 - Workout Tips

As an industry professional, this should be easy for you.

Simply offer advice to help your clients understand what you do and how to do it well.

If it’s rhythm cycling, it can be how to adjust your bike. If it’s yoga, it can be something on breathing correctly. If it’s HIIT it can be how to do a squat, or when you know you’re ready to do a squat jump. If it’s a chain gym it can be how to use your most popular 4 machines properly.

We’re in the fitness game and so this should be easy. The harder part is presenting it in a way that’s easy to understand and enjoyable to consume, but if you and the team get together you should be able to work on some good ways to present some workout and training tips.

No. 7 – Class profiles

At BASE we have 6 or 7 different classes so we periodically preview what each class is, who it’s for and what kind of exercises to expect.

If you’re doing this on Instagram you can save the profiles to highlights so new clients can access the info easily, as one of the most common questions you’ll get is what is this class? Or what is that class?

I think keep the class profiles crisp and clean – long descriptions or in depth analysis of what to expect isn’t needed and will only confuse people, unless perhaps it’s very advanced in which case you might want to go a bit deeper.

No.8 - Studio updates, holidays, closures

It’s important that you get these things out. A couple of times I’ve gone to studios and they’ve been closed for some reason and on checking their social media there’s nothing on there to inform me. This has left me pretty pissed off as you can imagine as it’s been a wasted trip, and I’d think twice about going back.

Schedule holidays and other important dates in advance in your content calendar for the whole year. Make up some nice graphics with ‘holiday schedule’, or ‘schedule change’ and your clients can be fully informed of what’s going on at your studio.

No. 9 – Slick Branded Pictures

If you have a slick brand like Soul Cycle or Barry’s Bootcamp there are tons of opportunities for a nice picture that displays the logo that can be somewhat aspirational.

For us, we use the neon sign of BASE which has become somewhat synonymous with our brand.

A few other types of shots we use for this: close ups of the logo on someone’s shirt as they train, some of our Adidas x BASE merchandise with a nice background, a close up of our branded kettlebells with our logo and fonts on.

For these kind of shots, a proper photographer really helps as the photo should look quite striking. A quick iPhone snap is probably not gonna cut it on this one.

No.10 - Partner profile

You can go back to our podcast episode on partnerships to hear more on how to develop good partnerships with businesses that compliment yours and vice versa but a few ideas are healthy restaurants, physios, leisure wear or sports wear brands.

Once you have these partnerships up and running then highlight them on your social media and show them a little love.

You can tell your clients about the discounts they get with your partners or highlight their services.

If you have a strong, healthy partnership then by helping out their business and offering them some value you should get some reciprocal help from their end, too.

No.11 – Highlight Your Team

Your clients will see your front desk team and your cleaners every day so tell their story, too.

You can do this in the form of a photo (remember, always smiling) or a quick video chat.

A quick and easy way to do this are Instagram stories which provide a great opportunities to meet the team 'behind the scenes'.

Featuring your whole team can help to build the community a little more and your team might enjoy being featured.

If you have a back end team such as marketing or admin maybe a little something every now and again to show the people that make it all possible will have people feeling warm about your business.

What did we miss?

We're always looking for more content ideas so please comment with what's worked for you and feel free to connect with me here on LinkedIn or our social channels.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jack Thomas is a Bangkok-based Brit and the founder and CEO of BASE.

Jack hosts the Fitness Business Asia podcast which releases a fresh episode each Monday.