Fitness Professional Marketing | Fitness Branding

In this eye opening episode we discuss multiple strategies on how to grow our Instagram following and utilize it to increase your sales. We find out why quality over quantity matters, what differentiates Instagram from Facebook and we also get some brilliant, actionable advice on how to easily create content that engages your clients. Be sure to download your free social media checklist at fcm.com/episode68

What You’ll Learn from this Episode:

• Instagram’s strengths and how to use your Instagram profile efficiently

• Identify, find and target your ideal client

• What kind of content to post and how to convert

Here’s the Complete List of Tips:

1. Differences between Instagram and Facebook (2:00)

Generally speaking, Instagram is more popular with the under 30ies while Facebook is more actively used by the over 30ies. But even if your target group might be people over thirty you should invest some time into Instagram as it might become a future market for you. While Facebook is a very “personal” platform, Instagram is more casual and therefore less intimidating: this can work to your advantage as people are a lot more open to follow you on Instagram than “befriend” a stranger on Facebook.

Action Tip: Instagram is a fast medium with limited durations for video and stories so you should keep your content short and sweet.

2. Know your target audience (7:25)

The aim is to grow your followers and convert them into paying clients. Always focus on your target market: “Having a higher quality of followers is better than a higher number” since the final goal is to increase your sales, and that will only work with followers who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer.

3. General tips (10:50)

Using your personal account and name can be beneficial as most people prefer to interact with an individual. The most important place in your profile is the link in your bio! What’s more effective than simply putting your website link there is to offer a free give away (lead magnet) and then send them to a landing page to collect their details. Once they get your email with the free give away you can promote your website or an additional (ideally cheap) offer to make a sale.

Key Term: a lead magnet is something you give away for free in exchange for an email address and phone number.

4. Direct Messaging (14:45)

Most sales on Instagram occur via Direct Messaging (DM). Not everyone will look at your bio, so another way to get people to click on your link is to send a private message. If someone follows you, look at their profile to see if they match your “ideal client” profile and then send them a private message.

Action Tip: Personally engage with your target audience through DMs. If you get a large number of followers every day and can’t message each one individually, you could use a software like “Instazoo” that sends and an automatic message as soon as someone follows you or you could invest in hiring a virtual to help write and answer messages.

5. How to increase your Instagram following (20:25)

This is of course the prerequisite for DM marketing. Here are a couple of ways you can grow your follower base:

Action tips:

By following someone else they might follow you back, even more so if you like and/or comment on some of their pictures. But it’s important that you follow and target the right people who resemble your ideal client.
Depending on whether you’re running an online business or local business you’ll need to target your audiences differently, according to interests or location. When posting, check into your location and use hashtags that help you to be found by others. To find your ideal clients, you can either search people (follow the followers of specific businesses and people that have the same client base as you), hashtags (don’t use hashtags that are too general, go for something more specific) or location (find the people who’ve checked into places near your area).
Come up with a strategy! Who is your ideal client, how do you search for them (name, hashtag, location), how do you get them to follow you (follow, like, comment), how do you DM them. The most efficient way to get people to follow you is to engage them in different was.
Do a collaboration – sharing is caring!
For instance, by doing a shared live video every one of your followers (and the other party’s followers) will be notified and you need to create less content – both parties profit! You can also promote each other through a story takeover, another great way to get in front of your ideal target market. Just make sure the stories are adding value to your audience.
An Instagram competition (e.g. planking challenge) can be a fun way to engage people. Engagement leads to more traction which leads to more people seeing your content.

6. How to increase your Instagram sales (43:95)

There are different ways to post on Instagram, we will focus on stories and feed posts.
Feed: Not everyone will read your post description, so in order to create a lot more interaction add a header on top of your picture or video and a call to action at the bottom (e.g. through VONT app). If you want to create easy content experiment with quotes (using just the quote, a quote on top a picture of you, a twitter quote etc), with reposting other people’s content (e.g. InstaSay app) or post interesting videos with headlines and subtitles (e.g. Veme.ly App) to catch your followers attention even when their phone is on silent. (Find all our links under “References”)
Story: Stories help you interact with your audience! Ask questions and for people’s opinions, make them curios or create a poll – then DM those who engage with you!

Action Tip: Don’t forget using headlines and a call to action!

7. Converting followers into sales (58:17)

Your strategy can be similar to your Facebook marketing (as discussed in Episode 67): Build a list (database) via lead magnets and then use use email marketing and sales calls to convert.

Action tip: The more specific the lead magnet is, the higher the conversion rate.