Did you know that one third of all online activity constitutes video streaming? People spend more time online watching videos than reading articles or browsing the net.
Videos have enormous power in your ideal online training client’s psyche. Not only do they help improve sales and CTRs but they also make service delivery more effective.
As an online personal trainer, your fitness business benefits massively from an effective video content strategy.
From coaching videos, through fitness assessments to simple cooking lessons, videos are the best channel to educate and communicate in the most efficient way with your online training clients. Videos are also indispensable to marketing your online fitness business because without the tools you have in person, video is the closest to show people your personality and be relatable to your clients. It’s important however, to find ways to make videos engaging and fun for your audience.
Here are 6 easy and efficient ways to keep your videos interesting and of value. Improve client engagement, increase leads and coach more effectively for a continued online fitness marketing success.
The most common type of video which never goes out of style is the practical demo or How-to videos. You can ask someone to help you or you can record yourself performing the exercise you’d like to demonstrate. Think about how you do demos in person and focus on what and how you say to ensure the viewers will understand you.
Explain how to hold the weights, show, and give clues to the right technique and explain the exercise in detail including the muscles they work and common mistakes people make when doing them. You can even have your fellow-trainers perform variations of the same exercise to give your clients multiple options of varying intensity.
You can even make instructional videos where you teach your clients how to purchase the right equipment for home, how to choose the right clothing for specific exercises, and how to break-into equipment/gear before a major sporting event.
A great way to retain the interest of prospective clients is to interview experts you trust and well-known names they will recognise and respect. Think about nutritionists, obesity experts, athletes, fitness celebrities and fellow personal trainers, even other celebrities if they have anything fitness or achievement related to contribute. What’s important is that clients can learn about training, fitness, health, mindset and lifestyle.
If you can swing it, conduct a live-streamed interview with a local sporting celebrity from your neighbourhood. You can improve engagement by hosting a live Q&A session where your clients can ask the interviewee any question they want.
Research shows that customers spend up to 31% more on brands that have excellent customer testimonials. In fact, customer reviews have been found to be 89% more effective than any other type of marketing content.
This applies even more to personal training services. In the online fitness space your ideal clients can only see the results you can help them to achieve via the success of your existing clients. You can ask your clients to record a short video about their journey with you: what are their goals, how you’ve helped them to achieve those fitness goals and what made the biggest difference in their progress.
Another excellent option for client-made videos is self-transformation videos. You can ask your clients to document their journey on pics and videos, once achieved their goals, edit them into an appealing diary and make it public. Allow them to express their trials and heartaches, along with their victories and happiness. These videos will be a hit with clients as they make your intangible service more real and powerful.
Basic psychology dictates that people love to see humanity’s triumph against adversities. Your clients will love to see videos where people have struggled and have overcome challenges on their journey to good health and fitness.
There is an abundance of motivational videos available on YouTube and Facebook and you can’t go through a day without seeing at least one or two. Mainly because people will share what they think may help others or their friends overcome their problem.
You can make these videos as part of your content strategy assigning a certain day for instance in your group. Whenever you see something that you think could help your clients struggling with a specific issue, save that video and use it with your own comment. #MotivationMonday is a cliché but when it comes to accountability, structure may be important for many clients.
While understanding and seeing where you work is not essential for online training clients to achieve their goals, it can help you build trust in people who are considering hiring you but haven’t made their mind up yet. Seeing your real fitness facility will encourage them to trust you and your expertise.
It doesn’t matter as much whether you work out of a converted warehouse, a chain gym, or your garage, so long you can demonstrate how you can help them achieve their goals. Your clients, existing and potential, would love to get to know the real you and they will certainly be interested to see the place where all the magic happens behind the scene.
Show your clients the equipment you use. Introduce them to the process you follow when creating and editing your videos. They will love it.
Have you ever seen The Popeye Show’s episode A Day at Muscle Beach? If you have, you know why that would be highly-entertaining to your online clients. People love stories, especially those in the form of cartoons and comics and animated videos. Combine the fun of exercising with the excitement of cartoons.
If you’ve run out of ideas for training videos, animated content related to exercises can make a very great filler. Just add the video and ask your clients to post their thoughts. Trust us; this will help you build a strong feeling of community and prevent you from showing up empty-handed in front of your clients.
There you have it, 6 easy and efficient ways to include videos in your online personal training marketing strategy. As a take home message, keep the below 5 tips in mind to keep your video content user friendly and interesting:
- Keep the videos short and interesting. Under 5 minutes works best for training videos.
- 92% of videos are shared between audiences on their mobile devices. Mobile-optimise the videos as most of your clients
may access your archives through mobile devices.
- Choose the best video editing software to create a stunning viewing experience. VSDC, OpenShot, iMovie, VideoPad and
Freemake Video Converter are some of the best free video editing software available today.
- Make your videos interactive by adding a short quiz or survey at the end or even adding a CTA to encourage engagement.
- Add captions and subtitles to each video to help non-native English speakers follow what you say.