As social media continues to penetrate our daily lives and routines, it’s commonplace to find brand ambassadors for just about anything, especially when it comes to fitness influencers for gym marketing. But with the rise of all these social media stars, are they worth investing in, or are they a flash in the pan? Let’s dive into this hot topic and see when, where, and why it might make sense to bring on ambassadors or fitness influencers to market your fitness facility.
Where Fitness Influencers Came From and How They Work
To begin with, let’s consider where influencers came from. This concept dates way back in time, even before Myspace (lol). Jokes aside, influencers have always been around as it’s more of an idea that people apply to commonly used mediums. From town travelers and newspaper writers to the modern-day YouTube and Instagram sensations, these positive-speaking attention fiends have been seemingly everpresent.
Positive or negative your views of them, there is a reason their presence transcends time and technology. These sudo-salesmen have honed an ability to sell products and services through soft (and almost natural) sales tactics that sometimes don’t even feel like they are trying to sell something. And they work. While charlatans or scammers will always exist, for the most part, the concept of influencers has continued to exist throughout time because it works.
Fast-forward to modern times and fitness influencers for gym marketing only make sense. Between the industry’s vanity, constant struggles with self-image comparisons, health and wellness pushes, lifestyle movements, and habit hacks, there are plenty of ways that people can make a name for themselves and grow a following based on their target audience’s values.
Benefits of Using Fitness Influencers for Gym Marketing
Again, whether you love them or hate them, fitness influencers can bring tangible value to the clients they take on. From the added impressions of your social media content to website traffic, fitness ambassadors can help you move the dial in crucial areas of focus within your business.
New facilities looking to open with a bang often consider hiring influencers to help spread the word about their studio opening or drive people to the opening celebration. Ambassadors can help promote events, drive membership promotion pushes, or even support lead generation. Further, these icon-like figures can also enable networking opportunities with other businesses and services that they may have contacts with.
When and How to Use Ambassadors and Influencers
There is no definitive playbook on when to utilize the services of influencers. However, we can help outline some occasions when you can leverage them as a tool in your list of available marketing options. Please note that, in general, we always recommend thoroughly establishing your business growth goals and understanding your gym budget before getting too far into any substantial marketing campaign spending.
- Awareness—Driving impressions and general interest in your business is always good, especially when cultivating leads for your sales funnel. Finding credible people who align with your facility’s target audience and values can be an excellent opportunity to amplify the level of awareness of your business directly to your ideal customer base.
- Affiliates—Running an affiliate program has become prevalent in recent years. Gyms can utilize ambassadors through these programs by instituting an official affiliate program or designating a specific promo code for them and paying out commissions based on new accounts signed utilizing their code.
- Conversions—Like running affiliate programs, conversion-focused programs work from specific goal metrics such as new qualified leads, new client sign-ups, or additional program sales. These can be a fantastic option to leverage; however, they aren’t as popular. These structures tend to fare better as an inside sales role or commission-based plan for trainers.
- Word-of-Mouth—The holy grail of marketing and the baseline idea behind influencer marketing. While this premise is the core of why you may be considering introducing ambassadors or influencers, there are other ways to help boost your gym’s word-of-mouth marketing.
- Following—Whether your facility is new to social media marketing or just getting into it, influencers tend to have a solid social following on these platforms. Utilizing them in a strategic campaign to grow your following and interest in their local fan base could be beneficial when looking to work with them.
- Impressions—Very similar to awareness, impressions focus on the number of views your various marketing elements receive. These metrics may include websites, social media pages, posts, or even email opens.
- Networking/Connections—You can leverage local influencers to help connect with other influential people in your area or market. Working as a networking bridge, you can work with them sometimes to help foster relationships, partnerships, or introductions to others that may help.
- KOL/Credibility—Another possible reason to hire an influencer is their status. Sometimes, you may consider hiring a big-name person in a specific field, industry, or specialty as a key opinion leader (KOL) who could spark interest in your facility and help boost your credibility.
- Consultation—Sometimes, getting an outsider’s perspective on ways to improve your business or facility can be a good idea. You can bring on influences in this capacity to help get an alternate perspective on facility, pricing structure, or even program offering.
Supporting Fitness Influencers with Gym Marketing Campaigns
Similar to any type of advertising, if you plan on hiring an ambassador or influencer for your gym, we recommend developing a proper gym marketing campaign first. Getting a campaign developed before signing any contracts is critical. It will help you set your goals, understand your budget, know who you need to target, and ensure you have all the supporting resources and materials needed to drive leads successfully into (and through) your sales funnel.
Further, when you design a campaign, you have a guide on how things should operate. By monitoring your campaign results and metrics, you can quickly make adjustments, fix issues, or even pivot tactics to help maximize overall success. Due to the nature of establishing a campaign, these adjustment options and tools are more available. Similarly, understanding the campaign’s operations and goals gives you the baseline of success to compare your results.
Cautionary Considerations
When working with outside agencies, contractors, or freelancers, it’s usually wise to have a few safety nets and considerations made. Therefore, working with influencers and ambassadors should be no different.
Contracts are the first thing you should implement, review, or negotiate before doing any work together. Contracts will help designate the project scope, payment terms, and any additional terms either party wants to establish. You can also develop a statement of work (SOW) if the influencer is being brought on for specific projects. Similar to the contracts, a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) may need to be implemented to help shield the terms of your relationship.
Outside of contracts and agreements, it’s also intelligent to have goals, budgets, timelines, and measurement factors in place before engaging. Ensuring that you are able to track their efforts to quantify the relationship and verify a return on investment (ROI) for your operating purposes is critical for growth. Additionally, understanding the goals and timelines can help establish plans as well as start, end, and renewal dates.
Making A Splash
Fitness influencers for gym marketing can be an exceptional option for fitness facilities looking to grow or improve in strategic ways. While it is not often a golden ticket to successful marketing efforts, these individuals can be a great tool to implement into your overall gym’s marketing efforts. But before jumping right into hiring individuals, it can be helpful to ensure you have your goals, budgets, timelines, marketing objectives, and tracking tools established and fine-tuned to help promote the overall success of your collaborative efforts.
