Instagram is a powerful tool that can help your business stand out and even find new leads. For example, you can use it is to grow your following, demonstrate your expertise, and represent your brand. So let’s dig in and discover some tips and best practices for using Instagram for your fitness business.
But first, what is instagram marketing and how do you use it anyway?
What is Instagram marketing?
Instagram marketing is the strategic use of the popular social media platform, Instagram, to promote and grow a business or brand. It involves creating and sharing engaging content, like photos and videos, to connect with your target audience. Instagram marketing is also used to increase brand awareness, drive website traffic, and generate leads or sales. Additionally, Instagram’s dynamic platform helps businesses showcase their products or services, interact with customers, and build a loyal community of followers.
Why use Instagram marketing?
Instagram marketing has become an important tool for businesses for several reasons:
- Visual Appeal: Instagram’s visual appeal is ideal for showcasing products, services, and your brand’s unique personality through images and videos.
- Broad Reach: With over a billion active users, Instagram let’s you connect with potential customers from various demographics.
- Engagement: The platform’s interactive features, including likes, comments, and direct messaging, let businesses engage with their audience directly. Therefore helping build a strong rapport and customer loyalty.
- Brand Exposure: Instagram’s user-friendly interface and the potential for posts to go viral can significantly boost your brand’s visibility.
- Advertising Opportunities: Instagram offers lots of advertising options. For example, sponsored posts and stories. These help businesses target their niche and achieve specific marketing objectives.
- Analytics and Insights: Instagram provides valuable data on post performance, follower demographics, and engagement, helping businesses refine their marketing strategies.
Finally, by harnessing the power of Instagram marketing, businesses can ultimately achieve their marketing goals. Now, let’s dive into our 15-step guide on Instagram marketing for fitness professionals.
15-step guide to Instagram marketing for fitness professionals:
1. Fill out your profile
First things first—fill out your profile ALL THE WAY. This means adding your email, your website (more about that below!), your location, and your business category. A little known fact is that your Instagram NAME (not your @handle) is a key searchable field in the app—so make sure to identify your niche in the name so people find YOU if they are searching for your niche!
For example, something like “Jak | Personal Trainer” is good, but “Jak | Houston Personal Trainer” or “Jak | Trainer for New Moms” is better! Remember you only have 30 characters here.
People like Instagram because they can get to know the people behind businesses, so make sure to include a photo of YOU as your profile photo. And don’t be afraid to throw in emojis.
Lastly, remember to share what you do and how you do it in the bio section! How else are people going to discover that you provide online personal training?
2. Post high-quality photos and videos
If your feed is just a thrown-together mish-mash of blurry photos, screenshots, and quotes, it’s not going to look aesthetically pleasing to someone new to your brand.
Therefore, the more beautifully and engaging the grid, the more people are going to want to follow you. Stories, Videos, Reels, Photos, IGTV, Live—there is a lot you can do here, but you need to do it well.
Finally, use natural lighting, appealing backgrounds, and upload high-resolution images! Use light colours and build your content in 1080×1350.
3. Find your aesthetic
Branding is a powerful tool. So, do some research and follow some brands or fitness professionals that you would like to emulate. Try to create consistent visuals, stick to a set color scheme, and create consistency with your other channels.
Keep your logo and your brand colors in mind here. Choose a few fonts for graphics and use your brand colors in Stories (use the color picker to get it exact!). Remember to include yourself and your clients as much as possible in your posts.
4. Find the best apps for editing
If you want some extra ‘zing’ to your photos, some pre-editing before you edit in Instagram goes a long way.
Some of our favorite photo-editing apps here at ABC Trainerize are Aviary, VSCO, Snapseed, and PicTapGo. But there are literally thousands to choose from–and most of them are free! Same goes for videos like Stories and Reels. For this, try InShot or Lumen5,
5. Post before and after photos
Before and after photos are your best form of marketing. They are proof that the clients you train are actually seeing progress with your personal coaching.
ABC TRAINERIZE TIP: Always, always, always get permission from your client first before posting their photos.
BONUS: Use Instagram’s carousel feature to display your Before and After photos, so your audience swipes through your photos. Instagram will also show carousels to your followers more frequently than single image posts, which gives them more chances to engage. You could even include a quote or testimonial on one of the slides!
6. Use relevant hashtags
Hashtags are great; they help people discover your content in the app. If you’re not sure which hashtags to use, start by investigating what your competitors or doing, or what other brands in the fitness space are using.
And, while generic hashtags like #fitness and #personaltrainer are alright, specific hashtags are better–think #hiitworkout, or #miamipersonaltrainer. Try to include location and industry hashtags too!
Additionally, try making a list in a spreadsheet and try lots of different hashtags to see which ones work the best. You can even come up with your own unique hashtag to share on all your posts, and encourage your clients to use it, too.
Or, use hashtags commonly used in your community. This can prove to be a great way to build your brand, and with the right kind of followers you’re looking for. For an exceptional example of this, check out lululemon’s #thesweatlife hashtag on Instagram.
Finally, don’t use the same hashtags every time, unfortunately Instagram’s algorithm does not like this. So, be sure to be post relevant and switch it up often.
7. Tag people!
If you share a photo of a client, tag them—both in the photo and the caption. If you train influencers, share a photo (with their permission) and tag them!
An influencer could be anyone from a celebrity, to the lady that owns the juice shop in your neighbourhood, to your local news anchor. If they have a large number of Instagram followers, it will help to have them featured on your feed. They might even re-share your photo to their followers!
Finally, people are most likely to re-share Stories, so remember to always share posts to your Stories and tag the relevant accounts there too!
8. Provide value to your followers
You might feel as if you have to start posting something all the time to achieve high engagement. That’s not necessarily the case. If you produce quality content and imagery that people want to consume, the followers will eventually come. (If you think “value” is just sharing gym selfies, then you’re not getting it yet.)
Think of what your target audience needs help with, and share content that will support them. Educational, inspirational, and entertaining content are the three core pillars. Try offering a mix of all three types each week!
9. Create a schedule, but feel free to mix it up!
You can create a schedule of the different types of posts you would like to share, so you are not always posting the same thing. This applies not only to the content type, but also the post type. Change it up!
MONDAY: Post a quick workout Reel with a song you love to jam out to!
TUESDAY: Share a carousel of a client’s progress (make sure you get their permission)!
WEDNESDAY: Share a “Day-in-the-Life” of your typical day in Stories!
THURSDAY: Provide a workout tip or demonstrate proper form for a move.
FRIDAY: Share a testimonial.
SATURDAY: Share a healthy meal option (preferably one of your own meals from your meal plan!).
SUNDAY: Re-share a great post from one of your clients, and celebrate their success.
Or, you create a schedule that includes several different types of posts and repeat it:
1: A workout photo from the gym.
2: A healthy meal.
3: Progress photos—make sure to discuss physical progress but also emotional!
4: A workout video.
5: A motivational quote or a quick tip. Create these in Canva!
6: Share something personal about your day that will inspire or entertain your audiences (your first coffee of the day, a mistake you made, or a meeting with a friend).
7: Promote a new service or program you’re offering.
Finally, you don’t have to post something every day, but these are ideas you can steal from and customize to make your own. If you want to start scheduling your Instagram posts ahead of time, you can sign up for Hootsuite or Later.
10. Lay out your photos in advance
When people visit your profile, it should be visually appealing. Using an app like Later, or UNUM, helps you visualize what your next few photos will look like in your feed. This way, you avoid placing two very dark photos next to one another, or for example, two motivational quotes only three photos apart (they will stack on top of each other in the feed and look weird).
If you want to try to follow a pattern, like a checkboard or columns, you’ll need to be more organized. If you want to be able to post as you like, then go for a more relaxed vibe! Just remember to keep your feed consistent so people know what they’re going to get when they land on your page.
11. Create Instagram Stories and Reels
Instagram Stories and Reels are a great way to keep your brand top of mind. Here’s how to use them:
Instagram stories
Instagram Stories are a great way to keep your brand top of mind, as the story appears right at the top of the main feed! If your followers regularly engage with the photos in your feed, your story will appear near the beginning.
It’s the best way to give your clients and other followers a sneak peek into your life as a trainer. So don’t just use it at the gym–share stories from the grocery store, of you working on their training plans, and share some personal stuff, too, like from your home life or while you’re on vacation. It makes your loyal followers relate to you as a person and feel like they are getting to know the real you.
People like doing business with people they can relate to.
BONUS: Add Highlights to your profile (populated from your Stories). Include highlights for your key fitness services, client testimonials, press coverage your receive, and info about upcoming events and programs. They’ll be one of the first spots new followers go, so make it count! Consider your highlights a mini website.
Instagram Reels
Instagram Reels is a dynamic feature within the platform that allows fitness professionals to create engaging, short-form videos. With Reels, you can share quick workout routines, fitness tips, and motivational content, all in a fun and easily digestible format.
These short videos are a great way to capture your audience’s attention, showcase your fitness expertise, and keep your followers coming back for more. By incorporating Instagram Reels into your marketing strategy, you can take your Instagram game to the next level and stay at the forefront of your audience’s minds.
12. Add a link to your bio
Instagram is one of the least link-friendly social media platforms out there, turning any links added to posts into flat, un-clickable strings of text. But there is one place where you can add a clickable link: your profile bio.
To make the most of this precious real estate, use a Linktree link. Or, create a custom landing page on your site at yoursite.com/bio. Instagram only provides data for 30 days, so if you’re going the yoursite.com/bio route, create a UTM redirect so you can track that data!
13. Host a contest
Partner up with a local business and offer your followers a cool prize for commenting, liking, sharing, or tagging friends on your posts. Or instead, make the prize a free trial of your personal training. You’d be surprised at how many new followers you will get out of this, and you’ll also end up with a bunch of new people that are interested in your training services, which means more leads! If you follow these best practices, you’ll definitely see some results. 1
14. Connect Instagram to your website
Facebook, Twitter If you want more of your audience to follow you on Instagram, you can install a simple widget on your website displaying your Instagram photos. Once in a while, you can share your photos through Twitter or Facebook, too. This allows your followers on different platforms the ability to find and follow you on Instagram (the more followers the better!).
15. Switch to an Instagram Business Profile
A business account will offer you extra tools and features—like choosing a category for your account and offering an email CTA on your profile. You’ll also be able to use promoted posts to increase your profile’s reach and generate new leads. It also gets you access to analytics, which you can use to track your growth and engagement. Check post insights to analyze which content works best for your audience and to choose posting times!
Lastly, by following the comprehensive 15-step guide on Instagram marketing for fitness professionals and leveraging the power of the platform, ABC Trainerize can help fitness professionals significantly enhance their online presence, connect with a broader audience, and ultimately grow their fitness business.
With strategic practices, consistency in content creation, and engagement with followers, ABC Trainerize empowers fitness professionals to optimize their Instagram marketing efforts, leading to increased brand recognition, more leads, and the opportunity to showcase their expertise in the fitness industry.
So, whether you’re just starting out or looking to level up your Instagram game, ABC Trainerize can be your trusted companion on the path to Instagram marketing success. Download your free 30-day trial to get started today.
