By
Sarah Harris
Brands that positively engage with consumers foster loyalty. That’s the “social” part of social media. Simultaneously positioning yourself as an expert and a friend creates trust that you can leverage for your business.
If you’re a trainer, learning how to start a fitness Instagram account needs to be part of your overall strategy of driving consistent revenue.
1. Set a Goal and Define Your Audience
Who are you going to target? Stay-at-home parents? Busy professionals? High schoolers and college students?
Set realistic goals and expectations for your audience. Ideally, your workout Instagram should tie into your brand and help you make money.
Plan your growth strategy. How many followers are you looking for? What kind of return on investment — both time and money — are you looking for? Before you begin, decide whether making a fitness Instagram is worth your time.
2. Brainstorm Content Ideas
Plot out the kind of content you’re going to post. Videos showing workouts can be engaging but take time to view. Busy professionals might not have time to watch long videos.
You can post diagrams explaining workout techniques, recipes, exercise schedules and other healthy living information, but don’t forget to show followers some of your personality, too. Instagram users don’t want to follow faceless accounts. They want to follow people they like.
Make your account’s name simple and to the point. These are some real Instagram fitness account names:
Each name is easy to remember and gives potential followers a glimpse into what they can expect from posts.
3. Select a Visual Aesthetic
Research your intended audience to craft your brand to appeal to their sensibilities. Colors, fonts, graphics and other visual choices make a difference.
Going for an upscale look? Tall, thin, elegant fonts and rich, deep colors — or even some black and white — are what you want.
If you’re aiming for more natural, environmentally conscious demographics, greens and browns, hand-drawn fonts and shots of nature, sunshine and exercises that involve stretching, breathing and meditating are perfect.
4. Set Up Your Instagram
To create a fitness Instagram, you need to come up with a username and provide your email address and phone number. Also, look for fitness profile pictures that reflect your branding and look good as tiny square thumbnails.
5. Create an Engaging Bio
Tell visitors who you are and what they can expect from your page. Keep it factual, friendly and brief. Don’t forget to cross-promote with links to your website and other social media accounts.
6. Start Posting
Create a posting schedule to give followers an expectation of when they will see new content. Too few posts, and your followers will forget about you. Too many, and they’ll get overwhelmed.
7. Engage with Your Audience
Respond to comments and messages. Embrace the social part of social media by liking, commenting and sharing followers’ posts. This drives engagement and ensures you’re seen as a friendly presence.
You can reach out to your audience with physical mailers that offer coupon codes and personalized messages. Studies show that consumers believe direct mail is more personal than email, meaning they’re more likely to respond. If you want to drive engagement to the max, check out Print Bind Ship’s Mail Genius.
8. Build a Community
Remember, you’re learning how to start a fitness Instagram to drive connections with followers. Post questions, polls and story requests. Followers love feeling like they’re part of something larger, and if they can feed back into the enjoyment with their own ideas and stories, they’ll become great advocates for you.
9. Consider Promoting Your Account and Posts
Spending a little money on Instagram ads will help build followers. Promote posts that are getting traction so they have a chance to go viral. The more people see posts with lots of engagement, the more likely they are to follow your account.
While it’s possible to achieve high numbers of followers through purely organic growth, promoting your account and your posts is a faster, more reliable method.
10. Connect with Other Fitness Influencers
To stay relevant, follow other influencers to see how they deliver content. Watch for new trends, such as challenges or hashtags that are becoming popular, and stay on top of fitness news to make sure you’re giving your followers the latest, most accurate information.
11. Track and Analyze Your Performance
The great benefit of social media is that you can easily gather all your data and analytics to track page growth and engagement numbers and determine what posts are performing well. Analytics help you identify your followers and get inside their minds so you can tailor your content to them.
The more you provide winning content that gives the people what they want, the more your page and brand will be top of mind.
12. Keep Developing Your Brand
By monitoring your metrics and analytics, engaging with followers and keeping up with other influencers and trends, you can continue to grow.
After establishing your brand, you might want to expand your offerings or start a new account that caters to one popular feature or subject.
Build a Brand with Expertise from Print Bind Ship’s Mail Genius
Creating an Instagram account that will grow and reach customers long-term is not easy, but you can lean on the professionals at Print Bind Ship to make your branding stand out and win with users.
We help fitness brands like yours break through the clutter with our Mail Genius service, which you can use to boost your engagement, track your return on investment and attract more loyal customers.
Are you ready to see how Mail Genius can transform your business? Contact Print Bind Ship today.
FAQ
Yes, creating a well-designed, appealing account that engages with key users takes lots of research and analytics to get right.
Observe what other fitness instructors are doing, such as their visual design, posting schedules and content. Figure out what you do differently and better to gain an audience of your own. Make sure your branding, messaging and tone are on point for your intended users.
With a small account of 5,000 followers, a fitness influencer could conceivably earn between $1,500 and $3,000 every month.