You’re more than halfway to securing a successful digital coaching business if you’re already creating fitness content, teaching, motivating and monetizing in your home or gym studio! You’ve already done the hard work, creating compelling content, connecting with a niche market and charging for your well thought out and motivating services of sweat and body transformation.
If you’re coming at the digital coach gig from the other end, creating something new and now for the digital space, as long as you have a clear concept of your offer, your personal brand, and the unique modality you are offering your target market, you can create the class or session and plug and play into the digital space.
Whether you’re a seasoned FitPro taking your in-studio offerings online or starting your career as a digital coach, remember you can’t be everything to everybody. You need to find your unique value proposition, be specialized and specific on what your offer is, who it’s for and what sets you apart from everyone else in this busy space. What is your unique selling proposition? Do you have props and products that you can rent or sell with your classes, are you a brand among yourself or are you affiliated with a club, what are you offering that other brands are not? Once this is clear you are ready for your close up!
One good piece of data we have received is in fitness, people are loyal to their coach! They will keep coming back to their fitness “guru” who motivates, inspires and truly knows them. Once you bring them in as a client, as long as you continue to do your job as a guide and leading your tribe through their body transformation journey, you can count on high retention. The tough part is growing your fanbase and continuing to market yourself to your target audience.
Know WHO your “avatar” or “client persona” is. This person is your MAIN source of income. Who are you selling to? Who is going to eat up what you’re serving on a daily basis? There are many creative exercises you can do to help you drill down on who this person is. Create your IDEAL persona, then add one or two additional ones, but try to keep it to a minimum of three. What are their demographic traits such as age, sex, education, marital status, religion…what are their psychological traits, what do they look like, what are their names, what does their fitness journey look like? Get creative and detailed, this will help with your marketing efforts.
Once you have your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and know your client persona, which CHANNELS are you using to promote yourself and your brand? Which social platforms are they on? SOCIAL MEDIA is the number one tool (with over 3.6 billion users worldwide) to reach your target market. Social media as we like to call it is an audience plus tool. Think of FB, IG, Twitter and even LinkedIn as a powerful tool packed full of users that match your avatar. This is a great platform to showcase your brand and in a creative way educate people about WHO you are and WHAT you’re all about. We suggest using social to offer FREE content, shorter teaser sessions or fit tips to draw people in, give them some valuable bits of content, then over to your website and converted into fans. This is how you can grow your tribe! Social is a great tool for promotion, fun giveaways, connection and community building.
Don’t go it alone! A key tip is to partner with other brands and associations to get your name out and be exposed to other company’s contacts to expand your reach. So many companies within the fitness space want to offer their clients other services that they don’t supply, whether it be fitness apparel, equipment, props or even classes. You could even link back to them from your website announcing your partnership or co-branding efforts so you’re giving your clients added value as well. Another way fitness pros are getting their name out is by presenting their class as the opener for an online webinar or fitness conference. This is a smart way of reaching people and potential clients that you normally wouldn’t have access to and getting the benefit of having these conferences market your class to all their attendees.
Organic reach will go a long way! Don’t be stingy, offer your classes for FREE to those with a vast network. Word of mouth and referrals are a great way to reach more people and introduce yourself to them outside of your social media or digital marketing approach.
We all know technology is your friend. From creating a website that best represents you, your brand, and unique offer to email marketing software and payment processing systems that will streamline your business. If you’re going to be creating an online fitness business as a digital coach you’re going to need to invest time and money in software and platforms to be able to better promote, manage, track prospects and accept payment.
Last, but most important tip, BE CONSISTENT! Don’t get stale, keep offering up fresh, new classes and sessions and keep challenging your clients to keep people on their toes and coming back for more. Think outside of the group fitness box, what other information or education within the health and wellness space can you offer? Today many fitness brands are offering a more holistic approach, so what else can you offer that would benefit your tribe?
Stay informed with what’s going on within the fitness industry as well as what’s happening around the globe. The more you’re in the know, the more smart and effective content you can offer your clients the happier and healthier they will be.
For more information on HOW to create a Digital Fitness Business. Fill out our Contact form or give us a call at 833-227-4469 to get started! We’re here to help you help others!
