Content marketing plays an important role in building brands. It's not about content quantity or content quality, but content strategy.
If you're wondering how to outsmart your competition by using content marketing, here are some tips for what content marketing is and effective ways to use it.
What Is Content Marketing?
Let's take a better look at content marketing.
Content marketing is a type of marketing that involves content creation and distribution for the purpose of building an audience and gaining their trust in order to sell them products, services or ideas.
Although content marketing aims to build a business's credibility and increase its exposure, it does so while offering value to your customers.
In other words, content marketing helps brands establish their expertise and become a leader within their industry.
Why You Should Use Content Marketing
Content marketing has many advantages – its low cost and ease of use make it an effective choice for many different types of businesses and organisations. Here are some reasons why content marketing is beneficial:
- Builds trust
- Increases content marketing credibility
- Builds brand awareness
- Helps position your business as an industry leader
- Enhances content marketing SEO for key phrases and keywords
How to Create Compelling Content for Your Business
Before you can learn how to create content that attracts members, it's helpful to understand the reasons content marketing works.
- Clients and members appreciate content that helps them make decisions and solve problems (which content marketing often does)
- People like content that's entertaining (this may not apply to all businesses, but you can certainly include content that has an interesting aesthetic or is otherwise engaging)
- Members enjoy content that's educational (content marketing lets you inform prospective clients and members about your industry, products or services)
As you can see, content marketing is an effective strategy for growing your member base and increasing conversions.
But if content marketing can be educational, entertaining and persuasive, why isn't everyone using it?
Well… let's examine 6 gym and studio owners content marketing strategies.
STRATEGY #1: Define your target market.
This is arguably the most important step. Who are you trying to target? Content marketing isn't just blogging - it's identifying your audience and writing content that they will engage with.
Before creating your business content marketing strategy, ask yourself the following:
- Who will be reading this content?
- Who is my ideal client?
- Why should my audience read my content?
- What content will my readers engage with?
As you can see, content marketing is not just sending an email blast of your class schedule. In fact, content marketing requires more effort from a business than traditional advertising. While content marketing takes time and energy to produce, the results are worth it!
STRATEGY #2: Divide your target market.
The content you create for your target market will depend on their demographics, location, and content preferences.
Using market segmentation, divide your audience into categories based on different characteristics. For example, you may have three types of clientele: those who work full-time jobs, those who have families and take children to sports activities after school, and those who are retired and only work part-time or don't currently work.
You should create different types of content for each of these groups, since they have different preferences and needs.
STRATEGY #2: What about social media?
Tools like Facebook and Twitter, will help you share your content, get feedback, and get new clients.
Social media is best used in conjunction with your content marketing strategy , to expand the reach of your content and increase sales.
"If content marketing can be educational, entertaining and persuasive, why isn't everyone using it?" - Andrew Wallis, CEO & Founder of Andrew Wallis Consulting
Through social media, you can build a great community of gym and fitness enthusiasts, and use it as a platform to share your content.
STRATEGY #4: Create content regularly.
You should consistently create and publish blog posts and other content (newsletters, videos, etc.) to share with your target market.
The best time of year to start your content marketing strategy would be right now because you can plan out a full calendar of content at once. You can also use off-peak seasons as an opportunity to create content before an especially busy time.
STRATEGY #5: Focus more on video content.
One of the most engaging types of content is video. Videos can be shared on social media and embedded in blogs for maximum exposure.
Video marketing nowadays attracts more customers due to its ability to show rather than tell. It also adds personality to your business.
STRATEGY #6: Get help from industry experts and influencers.
Industry experts are the ones who really know their stuff. They can help you create blog posts and other content to educate your customers on relevant topics.
In the fitness industry, it's especially important for new clients or members to understand everything from how your gym or studio works to what specific workouts they should be doing.
If you don't have a ton of knowledge about something, ask an expert! Influencers on the other hand, are people who your target market looks up to.
For example, in the fitness world, you might consider partnering with a trainer or fellow gym owner to develop content together.
In conclusion
Content marketing is just one tactic you can use to market your gym or studio.
A strong content marketing strategy will help attract new customers and lead them through the sales cycle by showing them the right information at the right time.
Fitness content marketing helps gyms and studio owners increase their presence on social media, build trust among their target market, and show off their expertise.
Drive the growth of your business by publishing high-quality content regularly and finally get the attention you deserve.
