UPDATE: December 2022 This fitness marketing that works post was originally posted 7 years ago. The reason I’m updating it is this: there are hundreds of thousands of certified health coaches now. The vast majority are unemployed, don’t need all fingers on one hand to count their clients, and it’s not for lack of people who need help.
You do have to have focus, a marketing plan, and communicate the words that make someone want to get out their credit cart. These are the tools I use to deliver those words.
Need help identifying the words?
25 Tools I Use Weekly, If Not Daily, for Fitness Marketing that Works
..And Why You’ll Want Them Too
This is not an all-inclusive list. I’ve left off some of the obvious that you use too…social sites..and the nuts and bolts with in them: Facebook and ads manager, custom audience creator; Twitter and ads; Pinterest for work and the image pin; Youtube and advanced optimize, annotations; and running in the background always is Amazon3 for hosting videos, audio and ebooks for online course fulfillment and iMovie editing.
- Go to Webinar – for hosting free and paid webinars and recording online courses. I use this year round to host a live weekly class. Everything starts small, right? Yet, weekly it’s grown from a dozen to 25 to 50 to hundreds on the weekly call and registered for the webinar that I market to and request consults and become customers.
- Start Meeting – hosting and recording group teleseminars or private conference calls for free! Who can beat that. I provide a recording for private clients and for private groups. Zoom has replaced this (and potentially become your Webinar platform too). While there are reasons why you may want something else for fitness marketing that works, Zoom has become a household word and you may feel more comfortable there.
- Skype – for conducting international client calls. OK, nothing fancy about this but under-used. Need a client to see you? Need to work with someone in Trinidad, Italy, Okinawa or England to mention a few? Simple. I’ve also guested on webinars recorded on Skype.
- Calendly – online scheduler that allows me to provide a link for others to schedule without additional back and forth. Cutting down on tasks that don’t use your highest level of creativity and require your thumbprint is just smart. (I’ve used Appointment Core for years, and Calendly is my current. Both work but loving Calendly more)
- Hootsuite – social media scheduler that I used to use weekly to do a bulk of scheduling. I no longer do. I haven’t touched it in about a year. I don’t use Twitter. And that would be the one place I’d consider using it if this platform works for you.
- Libsyn – third party podcast hosting site that serves as my intermediate between recording and releasing to iTunes and social media. Both for She Means Fitness Business and for the Flipping 50 podcast this automated the job. I also add these shows to my website for additional SEO and traffic but the iTunes show status boosts listening.
- Infusionsoft – email and customer management software for automation of nurturing and customer experience. I’ve used AWeber, Constant Contact, and MailChimp. Each has its individual starting rate. $19/mo to $239/mo so it depends on where you are and where you intend to grow and when.
- Click to Tweet – for blogs and articles online that encourage a Tweet of a quote. If you use Twitter – or your customers do- I encourage it. I don’t use this much anymore in 2022.
- Google Trends – spotting the phrases that are in the news for use in blogs, articles and subject line selection. Set up to Google Alerts if you want to go a step further. This is a yes!
- Google Analytics – who, how and how many visitors to my site and where they come from. If you do ads, you’re using social media, you absolutely have to do this or you’re not really in business!
- Lead Pages – In 2015 I absolutely used these pre-tested, pre-designed templates that get results without distraction and take minutes to create, for integration with social media. The conversion rate has a big increase over landing pages elsewhere including my own custom template. In 2022, we create our own, custom opt ins and sales pages. I’ve used Click-Funnels too but with a robust system already in place we found this didn’t work and broke too often.
- ScreenFlow – for recording screen during webinars for replay, online course creation and staff training, allows editing and the addition of other media ($49) This has been replaced with the platforms recordings and with Loom for short tutorial videos for my team demonstrating how to do a task for a new hire or what’s wrong and I need fixed for my tech team.
- QuickTime – recording audio for podcasts with ultra simplicity for the non-techie that I am. This too is no longer used. Loom is easier and fewer steps to share it.
- Blue Yeti Microphone – the big dog of podcast desk mics ($$) I have upgraded. Though the Blue Yeti is no longer the expense it was in 2013 when I started podcasting seriously, it doesn’t meet my set up needs any more.
- Sony HD Handy Camcorder (and Tripod and audiotechnica mic) – perfect for the job of shooting videos. Sound is crucial- even in video, they will forgive a poor image…but not poor audio: Do Not Shoot outdoors without a mic. No one is that good. I use my iPhone far more these days. 4G is good but big files requiring space, but the steps to editing it are so few that it’s a winner.
- Vimeo – for private videos just for high-end customers Once you grow a video library and have customers you’ll likely pay quarterly fees for high use.
- Wistia – easier to upload to sites and fulfillment of courses ($) I started with this and no longer use it. Either Wistia or Vimeo, you won’t need both.
Photo editors – Canva replaced the need for another editor!
- PicMonkey-simple photo editor sometimes my fast choice for video thumbs. My first, you never forget the first. This is no longer needed, Canva solved so many problems in the last 7 years!
- Canva – design-friendly photo editor for those who don’t design
- Pickochart – infographics creation that I use for illustrating systems, showing recipes, exercise sequences… changing up the usual ho-hum image. Canva does this too!
Free Stock Photos – We practically don’t need anything but Canva
- Flickr – using creative commons, modifications allowed and giving credit to the photographer you can find a photo of most anythng. Canva provides all you need.
- Morguefile – also free, no attribution required which is nice, though there are fewer images to fall in love with here.
Royalty-Free Photos – $$ Each of these offers beautiful images for a fee. Invest in a few regularly for use with your target market. Avoid the “cheap” ones because everyone else is using them too! If you can get someone to take nice shots in your environment or community – a real authentic photo is always better than a stock image. And $ for $ the investment for a photographer to send you some amazing shots taken over a couple hours is no more and likely less than investing in stock photos. But in a pinch- nice to know that at midnight you can get the perfect photo for that last minute ad. I will still search these and belong to two unique sites, but the images are better and easier to access on Canva.
- Istockphoto.com
- Thinkstockphotos.com
- Fotolia.com
That’s it…my update on tools for fitness marketing that works. One, by one… start somewhere. You’re life is waiting to get easier! And your marketing better! If you’ve got a good message…you know your brand and your story…get the tools to deliver it so it speaks of your value.
~Debra
P.S. My college junior son told me this morning he is a doctor for Halloween. I’m closing my eyes and not opening again until Sunday.
“Have fun but not that much” were the last words out of my mouth.
P.P.S. Reading that… miss those days.. just like the first loss tooth! The first bike ride! And this last Thanksgiving we celebrated his girlfriend passing her boards.
You can be a business owner AND a family woman too. Enjoy it all.
