W.I.T.S. is excited to invite Jennifer Cario to be our guest blogger this month. Jennifer will also be presenting our December Webinar Series on Social Media Marketing and Strategy. To find out more about these presentations and to register, contact evaughan@witseducation.com.

As many fitness professionals are finding, Facebook is quickly becoming a natural part of their business. Whether it’s engaging with clientele, serving up fitness tips or pushing classes or specials, trainers and gym owners recognize their clients are on Facebook and want to capitalize on the opportunity.

The challenge is that, as Facebook has grown, taking advantage of this opportunity has gotten harder. Not only is Facebook itself trying to be more profitable and continuously making changes to how it operates, but also more and more businesses are competing to get in front of their part of the 1.35 billion users on the platform. This is why Facebook’s paid promotion and advertising options are becoming so enticing for businesses.

Yet, society today has associated a certain stigma with advertising. We often equate it to old-school methods, and specifically, local television commercials, used car salesmen and other very aggressive and, quite honestly, very annoying and unappealing content. But, the game of advertising has changed. It’s gotten very sophisticated and actually compelling, believe it or not. Just think about the success of the “Got Milk?” ad campaign and Super Bowl ads – this is the type of advertising we’re becoming accustomed to. It’s sleek, fun and targeted. The latter is the winning ingredient in successful advertising and is why Facebook’s options are a logical fit for businesses looking to take their endeavors to a higher level.

Making Facebook Ads Work for You

The first step in making your ads work is having the very best content. What are the most frequent questions you get asked? What specific issues do your clients face? This is the type of content you need to provide on your Facebook page. Save the seventeen ideas for using kettlebells and the daily workout soundtracks for your Pinterest or your Twitter feeds. Facebook content needs to be incredibly useful to your audience. This content could range from a series of photos of doing exercises correctly and incorrectly to recipes for foods that will help to burn the most calories.

Putting together a great piece of content and giving it a simple budget of $10-$20 can often provide a huge surge in exposure and an accompanying boost in engagement. Here are some basic facts related to Facebook ads:

• Facebook ads can reach as many people, and most of the time, more than radio or TV ads can reach
• The minimum ad spend is merely $1.00 per day
• The average cost to reach 1,000 people in a magazine is $20.00. For Facebook, the average cost is $.25

What’s more, Facebook counts engagement on promoted posts toward your overall engagement score, meaning that a short-term financial boost ensures your posts are getting into the News Feed of users.

If you’re new to Facebook or simply haven’t built up the following you want, you can also use Facebook advertising to target the perfect audience for your page. Facebook’s targeting options are unparalleled, and as with boosting posts, the costs don’t have to be high. By walking step-by-step through Facebook’s self-serve advertising system, you can limit your audience by gender, age, interest and geographical area and then set a price point for your campaign. As little as $100 could make a significant difference for a local gym or trainer in getting a business up and running or taking it to a new level.

Like it or not, Facebook today is a key driver in getting people to your website, which further leads to getting them into your gym or class. Even brands such as Target see Facebook’s value by investing a hefty chunk of its more than $1 billion dollar marketing budget on Facebook alone. According to market research firm eMarketer, digital ad spend is at its highest increasing rate since 2004 and is expected to grow even further in coming years. Mobile is mostly responsible for this trend since consumers are spending more and more time on their various mobile devices. Since Facebook is a favorite pastime for many, the reason to embrace Facebook advertising for mobile speaks for itself.

While Facebook business pages can be very effective with a strong organic strategy that pushes valuable and engaging content, the marketplace has gotten much more competitive. The question now is, do you want to coast along doing the same old routine that you’ve always done to simply maintain your status, or do you want to dig a little deeper and push yourself into a new class? If you equate this to your own fitness goals, the answer is obvious.

 

 

 

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