Influencer Marketing Best Practices That All Fitness Brands Need to Know
The fitness industry is a very saturated market. There are hundreds of activewear companies, workout apps, gym equipment manufacturers, and protein brands that all need to find creative ways to market their products. So, how can you leverage influencer marketing to break through the clutter and get people excited about your fitness brand?
In this blog series, we’ll look into influencer marketing strategies specifically for fitness brands. In part one, we’ll work through four influencer marketing best practices that we’ve gathered after examining hundreds of successful collaborations on Aspire.
For more information on influencer marketing best practices, including influencer relationships, management, payment, and contracts, check out the Ultimate Guide to Influencer Marketing.
Now, let’s dive right in!
1. Emphasize your brand’s unique identity and story
Sharing your brand story through authentic and dynamic influencer-generated content will put a unique spin on your products, allowing your brand to stand out from the crowd.
People follow fitness influencers for product discovery, reviews, and inspiration. When it comes to fitness brands, you’re not just selling a pair of trainers or a post-workout shake, you’re selling the will to keep going, body positivity, and a feel-good lifestyle that comes along with it. Lucky for you, fitness influencers have a unique talent for bringing otherwise mundane products to life in a way that’s difficult to replicate in-house. These influencers are in direct contact with your ideal customers who look to them not only for motivation, but also for finding trendy activewear, the best post-workout drinks, and new workout routines.
Having a strong brand message that people want to share will increase the likelihood that influencers will want to work with you, as well as their audiences feeling compelled enough to check out your brand. When you connect with an influencer who is already excited about telling your brand story, you can be sure to have an authentic partnership.
2. Utilize video to create high-performing content
For examples of some amazing influencer content generated for AspireIQ fitness clients, check out our Pinterest Board.
According to a study by Simple Strat, 82% of daily Instagram users prefer to see live video content from a brand rather than regular posts. So it’s no secret that video content is an excellent marketing tool, but it works especially well for fitness brands. Why? It’s simple. People want to see workout routines demonstrated, activewear tried on, and gym equipment used.
Instead of trying to explain how easy it is to use your newest treadmill model, an influencer can show the step-by-step process of them using the equipment in a video, and maybe even throw in a new treadmill workout for their followers to stay extra engaged.
Aaptiv, a fitness mobile app, commissions YouTubers to show their workout routines, showing how easy their app makes working out at home.
3. Aim for long-term partnerships with influencers
Long-term partnerships work particularly well in the fitness industry because people want to see results over time. People are more likely to engage with a fitness brand when an influencer they follow promotes a product over a long period of time and they can see noticeable changes in their photos and videos.
After all, what’s a better way to market a fitness product than with the demonstration of an actual physical transformation?
One way to form long-term influencer relationships is to build a brand ambassador program. Recruit a few influencers to be brand ambassadors and see which of them will work for your brand. Then, re-invest in influencers who generate the highest engagement and lowest cost per lead.
4. Test various markets for your product
There is a wide array of niches within the fitness industry, from yogis, powerlifters, runners, to those who are addicted to SoulCycle. Don’t limit yourself to one community when there are so many different kinds of fitness influencers to collaborate with.
Testing many different niches allows you to understand who your target market is so that you can more accurately resonate with them in subsequent campaigns. For example, if you’re an activewear brand and you know your customers range from avid SoulCyclers, yogis, and powerlifters, you can partner with influencers within these communities in order to hyper-target each of your unique audiences with content that will resonate with them.
Not sure who your ideal customer is? Try working with fitness influencers from a few different niches and use performance data to determine the type that works best for your brand. Then, re-invest in similar influencers during your next campaign.