If you’re looking for online marketing advice it usually means good news for your business.
As a health and fitness instructor you’re probably dealing with a growing business. Maybe you’re adding new instructors to your classes and you’re getting lots of new customers through word of mouth.
Now you want to grow your business even more and see how far you can take this thing.
That’s where online marketing comes in.
In this post we’re going to review each of the details you’ll need to know to get started with your online marketing strategy.
These are actionable steps that you’ll be able to follow as you begin growing your business by attracting new customers via the Internet.
Online Marketing: General Overview
You’ve probably read quite a bit about online marketing.
There is a lot of information out there. Much of it talks about the benefits of social media marketing. Facebook and Twitter are two of the main focuses when it comes to social media marketing. Pinterest and Instagram are two of the new kids on the block.
The reality is that online marketing isn’t much different from offline marketing. You start with a great product, which you have with your health and fitness business.
With a great product you’ll always do well with word of mouth, but if you really want to grow you have to do some sales.
To really take advantage of online marketing you have to have a central hub for your business.
That is where your business website comes in.
The Website is the Central Hub
Making your website your central hub (credit goes to Top Rank Marketing for the hub and spoke concept) online.
What people seem to have done the last couple years is to put effort including making Facebook, Twitter or other social media profiles their online hubs for information.
The issue with that method is you don’t own the information. The social media sites give their users access to large audiences, but in return the sites own all the content. The sites have freedom to do pretty much anything they want when it comes to design and functionality. Usually this means making changes to enhance advertising campaigns.
Paid advertising is another animal all together, but let’s get back on the concept of your website as the central hub.
When you create a website you’re essentially creating an online salesperson. There are people spending time online just like there are people spending time offline.
You’ve been the salesperson for your business in the offline world.
The great thing about the online world is that you don’t always have to be around to sell your business. You can put all the information on your website and it will do the selling for you.
We’ll talk more about how to get people to your site in just a bit, but a couple more points on your website.
By putting all this content on your site you maintain ownership. It’s yours. You’re in control of the design and the functionality. You can make changes and adjustments as you learn how to effectively sell your business to your target audience.
Take the questions your customers ask you in real life and put the answers on your blog. Take new visitors to your site through the entire sales process.
Online and offline are no different. People are people. Your customers want the same information on your website that they want from you in person.
The Blog is the Fresh Content Source
Blogs seem to still get a bad reputation.
Blogs started out about ten to fifteen years ago as places for people to kind of keep an online personal journal for everyone to read.
Today, business blogging is booming and the reason is that blogging is a profitable way for businesses to earn new business. The term “blog” kind of got broadened over the years to mean any site that has a form of new content being published to the site on a regular basis.
People still relate “blogging” to a hermit sitting in their basement hacking away at the keyboard. It’s more advanced today although I’m sure a few of us are still hacking away in the basement.
Business blogging keeps your website fresh.
This has two benefits.
The first is that when new visitors come to your site they see that you are active. In the online world your website can seem dead if there is nothing new published on the site regularly.
When people are looking for businesses they will analyze everything and that includes fresh content.
The second benefit is that search engines know that people like fresh content. Search engines reward websites that publish quality content on a consistent basis.
Think of it from the search engines’ perspective. They need to provide a service to their users. They need content. It’s to their benefit to reward great content producers.
That’s where your business blog comes in, creating fresh content all the time that’s valuable to a target audience.
At this point you’re probably asking, what do I blog about?
The answer is easy.
Think back to the way we discussed your website as your online sales person.
As people we’re always gaining knowledge. You can answer the questions you typically get from your current customers on the site when it goes live, but as time goes by new customers will have new questions and you will have new answers.
Take your ongoing knowledge and answer questions with your blog.
Your target audience will find your blog posts and will read through everything. By giving them answers they seek you’ll be earning their trust and eventually their business.
Search is a Source of New Customers
Search remains a big source of traffic for websites. Engines like Google still give significant space to natural search results.
There is some thought out there – mine included – that feels Google is moving toward an all paid model. It’s in their best interest. They want to provide the best results and if they can do that with all paid ads they will do it.
Today, though, we still have natural search results and as we talked about earlier Google wants the best content for its users.
You can use tools like the Google AdWords Keyword Tool (meant for AdWords users) to learn about what your target audience might be searching for online.
Look for things that relate to health and fitness. Figure out what your customers are searching for and answer the questions with blog content.
Google is really good at finding your content and if it’s good they’ll rank it for the terms you target.
You probably don’t even need a keyword tool because you already know what your customers are asking.
For example, you know your customers are asking themselves or others what the cost to benefit ratio is for joining a fitness class.
In a blog post you can answer this question.
Social Media is Broadcast Channels
Not only will those blog posts be great for search, they’ll be great for social media as well.
This is where the Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. strategies come into play.
You need things to share on those sites in order to build an audience. The content you create on your blog and on your website is perfect for sharing on these sites.
People on social media like visual things like videos and photos. If you can create lots of this type of content on your site and share it on social media people will notice and you’ll get more exposure.
One quick note on social media – Google+ is a little different. Google is using Google+ to fuel some of the indicators is uses to rank content.
Of all the social media sites out there, Google+ is probably the one you want to start building an audience on because it will affect your search rankings in the future.
Final Thoughts
There is a lot of information out there about online marketing.
For your growing health and fitness business it would be easy to waste a lot of time if you don’t know what you’re doing.
The good news is that there is an opportunity to grow with online marketing. The framework laid out above is what the best companies are doing to grow their businesses.
Remember to own your content and to focus on your customers.
Follow those two general rules and you’ll be just fine.
Bonus: Health & Fitness Blog Post Ideas
I didn’t want to end without sharing a few other actionable items.
If you’re still confused about blogging for your business here are a few formats for posts.
These are formats I use for my clients and on my own blogs.
They work.
Customer Question: It’s spring, what is a new exercise I can do outside?
[Number] [Season] Exercises You Can Do Right at Home to Get in Shape
Or…
[Number] Simple Ways to Enjoy the Outdoors and Get Your Daily Workout In
Customer Question: How do I feed my family better food on a budget?
How to Prepare Healthy Meals for Your Family on a Budget
Or…
[Number] Healthy Ideas for Family Dinner That Kids Will Love
Customer Question: How to I get rid of fat around my hips?
The Secret to Shedding Those Belly Pounds
Or…
[Number] Ways to Losing Belly Weight This Winter
Play with these to create your own post ideas.
Remember, it’s about answering questions your customers have.
Photo Credit: Herald Post
