11 Ways to Increase Online Visibility for Fitness Business

Marketing Oct 6, 2020

The fitness industry is a crowded and competitive environment, so for your business to thrive, you need to know how to stand out.

This can be achieved through creating a online visibility strategy.

Online visibility is your overall presence as a business, brand or product for consumers to find on the web.
If your website isn't visible online, new users won't be attracted to your site.
New daily visitors to your website are customers supporting your business.

Having good online visibility supports your business by promoting your brand reputation and helps you stand out from the competition. But, without the right knowledge, users may be unable to find your fitness business online and your revenue will suffer.
For successful online visibility, understanding online marketing and presence is imperative.

Before you start, consider what your goal is. Is it to attract new customers? Receive better reviews? Start partnerships with nearby businesses?
Once you have your goal in mind, you need to implement a strategy. We have some tips to help you with this.

Here are 11 top tips on how to boost online visibility for your fitness business:

Create a Niche to Stand Out

What does your fitness business have to offer that the others nearby don’t? What makes your fitness business better? Why should clients choose your services over anyone else?

This is why you need to choose a niche to differentiate your business from all the other fitness entrepreneurs fighting for the spotlight.

Here is how you can start to define your fitness niche:

Reflect on what your strengths are. What are you brilliant at?
Identify client pain points which you can solve with these strengths.
Locate your ideal customers, that is, the ones who need your specialist knowledge and help to realise their goals.

For example - if you identify that one of your strengths is motivating clients to reach their goals with effective strategies, and many of your existing clients are men, you could identify as the go-to “muscle building for men” fitness business.

With an attractive niche that offers a solution to a target ideal client, you will boost your online visibility.

Create Quality Content

Creating meaningful content for your website will boost your ranking on Google. Combine this with good SEO and you will increase your online visibility.

There are some things to consider:

Don't just cram your website full of keywords, as this can actually damage your Google ranking. Instead, focus on creating good quality content on a regular basis for your audience to access
Create content which is enjoyable and gives genuinely helpful information
Try to use value-added media, such as images or videos, to boost engagement
Consider hiring a content writer or creator to outsource some of your work, that way you can concentrate on the business side of things while your blog is kept up to date

For example:

Fitness influencer Kayla Itsines - aka the creator of Bikini Body Guides (BBG), supplements her Instagram success by keeping her blog up to date and jam-packed full of interesting and useful articles not just about fitness, but also about education, lifestyle and recipe ideas.

Once you have the basics of your fitness business website organized, you can branch out onto other social media platforms.

Hold Webinars or Workshops to Demonstrate Your Expertise

Webinars are like the online version of a workshop - you can still interact with your audience but with a much further reach as attendees can join from any location.

Here's why you should host a workshop or webinar to boost your online visibility:

Webinars can easily be hosted on platforms such as Facebook and aren't too difficult to promote.
You can interact with your audience before, during, and after your presentation, making it a brilliant way to engage with potential new clients.
Offer exclusive offers "just for viewers" to encourage webinar sign-ups and follow up with an email promotion to maximise client retention.

By hosting free workshops and webinars, you will provide value to those interested in improving their health and ultimately consider becoming a paying client for your fitness business services.

One type of workshop you could host includes a “How to Keep Fit Whilst on Vacation”. You could then demonstrate home-style workouts, or no-equipment workouts that can be performed poolside or in a holiday villa so that clients can stay fit whilst on holiday.

Organise Challenges and Contests for Visitors

Engage your email subscribers and social media followers with fitness challenges and contests. This is a great way to spread awareness of your business and increase your online visibility.

Some challenges you can organise to boost online visibility could include:

Weight loss challenges.
Hydration challenges.
Distance challenges.

Introducing fun challenges to your social media and email newsletters will engage followers and create a positive association with your fitness business.

Devise a Referral Program

Creating a referral program is an easy and affordable way to boost your fitness business’ online visibility.

Not only will a referral program encourage existing clients to spread the good word about your services, you will also build credibility and trust with people you meet.

Some ways in which you can devise a referral program include:

Offering discounted fitness coaching sessions.
Give a free session to a family or friend from a referring client.
Offer 10 sessions for the price of 8, or similar.

One of the most efficient ways to boost your online visibility is to increase your email subscribers.

Creating an email list by providing website visitors with news, articles and discounts for your services will help you grow your fitness business revenue.

Some ways in which you can increase your email subscribers:

Create call to action buttons on the landing pages of your website.
Offer freebies and discounts for newsletter subscribers.
Host webinars and offer places to subscribers.

By reaching out to subscribers regularly with valuable content and exclusive offers and discounts, you will boost customer satisfaction and boost your online visibility.

Your Website: The Cornerstone of your Online Visibility

Having a professional and attractive website should be the foundation of your online visibility strategy. 81% of consumers search online before they make a purchase, so it is important not to miss out on potential clients with bad website design.

You should consider:

How to improve online visibility through your website

Making your website attractive and easy to use to engage visitors
Optimising your content for mobile and tablets. Visitors are five more times likely to leave a website which isn't properly optimised, costing you potential new buyers
Creating valuable fitness content to generate traffic (see number 3 for our tips)
Ensuring your website is linked to your social media as well as including internal and external links

SEO - Search Engine Optimisation

You want your website to appear at the top of the search results when customers search for fitness products or services related to your business.

To do this, you need to understand and use Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

SEO is not just about search rankings, but also improving the user experience and usability of your website
Most searchers will only consider the top five search results , so you need to aim for the top position for the keywords your user is searching for
Make sure you link to external high-authority websites to boost your Google ranking. Using a tool such as Moz Pro will help you identify high-ranking sites
Make sure you optimise keywords on your pages

Implementing an SEO strategy will help you achieve organic search traffic and user trust, and ultimately boost your online visibility.

Get on the Map

Perhaps one of the most overlooked online visibility strategies is to get your business on Google Maps.

Imagine your potential clients are searching for "gyms in my area". These searchers are showing an "intent to buy" by looking for fitness services and products, so you want to appear at the top of these results.

Ensure your fitness business is listed on Google Maps so that clients can find you.

Once you're on the map, you want to have a good rating to be considered amongst the competition. Which brings us to...

Encourage Online Reviews

When your fitness business pin pops up on Google Maps, you'd like it to come with a rating so that your potential buyers will be persuaded to choose you over the nearby competition.

Reviews work as "social proof" that your brand is reputable and worth buying.

Our top tips are:

Encourage existing clients to leave a review, for example, via email upon receipt of purchase
Don't let negative reviews go unanswered - engage with these reviews so that future customers show you are actively listening and solving any potential issues
Sign up to Yelp for additional reviews

Don't forget to periodically review your reviews. Take on feedback and engage with customers after their buying journey has finished.

Having reviews boost the value of your online visibility.

There are endless social media options, so you need to consider where your clients are usually active.

Ultimately you want to create a fanbase or community for your business, which will - in turn - produce organic feedback and sharing of your fitness product or service and boost your online visibility.

For optimum online visibility, consider:

Instagram, which is brilliant for interacting with clients and generating organic sharing of your brand
YouTube. Videos are great for digesting information quickly as the brain responds to visuals fast, and learning through videos is much more efficiently than by reading text
Facebook. It is easy to reach your target audience without them actively following you by using social ads
Creating sharing links for social media on your website. This encourages natural links back to your website from any social media platform

Social Media channels are also great for hosting online competitions, and this can be achieved on any of your chosen platforms.

When you have established a loyal following, these clients will share your product with others online. You want to encourage interactions as online "word of mouth" is very powerful.

Visible Success

Good online visibility is vital for the growth and success of your fitness business. Using the strategies in this article, from building the foundations on your website, to ensuring that your brand is reachable on Google, Yelp and social media, you have the tools to boost your revenue.

Credits - Charlotte Osborn