Got a fitness business? If your social media strategy consists of hoping that some of your followers become customers, then you need to re-think it. Lynsey Fraser explains how to generate the most relevant leads for your fitness business.
There’s more to lead generation than paid posts or sponsored ads. Users of social media – which is most of us, and
certainly most of your potential customers – are getting more discerning, and we need to offer more value. One way of doing this is by creating a ‘value exchange’, whereby prospective customers provide their details in exchange for something of value to them.
We create this value through clever use of our content, such as useful information, tips and training ideas. One of the best ways to do this is to start funneling your prospective leads using a series of social media posts and adverts in a sequence called a ‘lead funnel’. A lead funnel is a way of building a relationship with your potential clients and offering them some valuable content (such as a free ebook, trial session or ‘how to’ video) and then retargeting the people who showed interest in your piece of content with another offer or value exchange. You start to funnel the most interested people by retargeting and offering value before you hit them with an advert. This process allows you to focus your attention on your warmest leads.
So, what would a Facebook lead funnel campaign look like for a fitness business like yours? Here’s an example of using social media to help generate leads for a member event or a function hosted at your club or facility.
Stage 1: Sow the seeds with content (six to eight weeks in advance)
Six to eight weeks before this event, start delivering content based on the subject. If you are hosting an evening at a physiotherapy clinic, you could post shareable content about great core exercises for people with chronic back pain.
You’re starting to plant the seeds before even offering a workshop. An example would be a simple post saying, “Hey, this is a great exercise to do if you spend your whole day sitting down”, accompanied by the video content. This helps build trust in your knowledge and isn’t salesy or pushy – you are offering value to your potential customers. You may want to boost this piece of content with a small amount of money to increase its reach or create a series of similar videos and release them over a few weeks before the event.
Stage 2: Start promoting the event (four weeks in advance)
Four weeks before the event, start promoting it in an email, make flyers for your fitness business, SMS all of your members and make sure it’s shared across all social media channels. Now you can re-target the audience of everyone who has watched your previous videos relating to the same topic, and boost your event to these people. Because they have already shown an interest in your business, they are considered ‘warm leads’ as they are more likely to be interested in the event.
In the run-up to your event, use content again to create teaser videos, a little taster of what to expect at the event. Whet people’s appetite and entice them to want to find out more.
Stage 3: Host – and make the most of – the event
On the day or night of the event, take some great photos, video snippets and video testimonials from those attending, and don’t forget to collect attendees’ details, as these are highly engaged members and prospects. It is helpful to have a special offer, such as a free future PT session or posture assessment, to encourage those attending to sign up or join on the night.
After the event you want to capture the interest of people who didn’t attend the event or sign up and, again, start to funnel them. Use content from the event, like a short video of the talk or offer, and post it on your social channels, boosting it for extra reach if your budget allows. Again, you can retarget the people who watched the video with a special offer similar to the one you offered on the night of the event.
Remember to use social media channels in all of your referral and lead generation campaigns. It’s a great way of creating awareness of your fitness business and connecting with your audience, but it’s not everything – your knowledge, customer service and ability to convert those lead with a refined sales process are all key to keeping your fitness business firing.
Where next? Check out Top 5 fitness trends for 2018
About the author
Lynsey Fraser is the Director of FloSocial, a social media training agency for small businesses. Lynsey has an extensive background in the fitness industry in education and content development and now brings these skills to FloSocial to educate and upskill people on the power of digital and social marketing. flosocial.com.au
This feature is produced in conjunction with Australian Fitness Network.
