4 minute read
Create a Winning Instagram Fitness Profile
Five must-haves to start your relationship with the clients you want to serve
By Sean Greeley
The challenge: You only have 150 characters, room for one picture, and a few call to action buttons. Your profile needs to attract attention, be professional, make viewers feel welcome and confident in your authority, and trust you.
Whew! Can you really do that? Yes, you can! And with the right guidance, setting up a winning profile is simple and easy to execute.
NOTE: PLEASE don’t make the very common mistakes that hurt your business and brand with your profile. We’ll call these out in the article below.
1. Your Instagram Photo: Think smiles, eyes, close, light.
Too many fitness professionals fail to attract viewers with their photo. The lighting is dark and shadowy, and they’re far away from the camera. They use a selfie (that’s unprofessional), or they don’t send the right message.
For example, one massage therapist used a picture of himself looking like a bodybuilder. That sets up a disconnect of expectations for the viewer, and they may move on rather than figure it out.
Your profile photo needs to represent you in a way that feels trustworthy. That means they need to see you clearly, so take a very clear head-shot. Have a warm and/or enthusiastic/energetic smile. Have the photo close up enough to show your eyes (they’re the windows of the soul, after all).
For inspiration, here are some before and after Instagram profile photos that work. In their original photos, the images are far away. You can’t see their eyes, they aren’t smiling, and the background is distracting. The after photos are well lit, close up, and they all have genuine smiles.
2.Upgrade your bio’s title.
It only takes a few seconds for someone to decide whether they’d like to follow you or not...and you have only 150 characters total to make your case.
To stick out in a sea of sameness, it’s going to be important to tell them why they should follow you. Make sure your bio tells the problem that you solve and the benefit the client will enjoy. Example: “New mom home workouts in under 20 minutes with one piece of equipment.”
3.Answer who your account is for.
Be specific as possible on Instagram because, as they say, “the riches are in the niches!” It’s true. Fitness is a massive category on Instagram with millions of accounts.
You will have a better chance connecting with the right people if you are specific with your niche, for example, you might be a wellness coach for postpartum mothers.
4.How can they contact you?
Too many people neglect contact info. Set up a contact button and use it to make it easy for your followers to buy your product or service.
The business account offers the extra ability to add a physical address. We recommend that if you are a brick-and-mortar facility that you upgrade to an Instagram business account and list your address.
5.Offer them a free gift.
What does your audience NEED? Leverage Instagram to be a list-building tool by giving a free gift, typically a discount or something actually free. This is your opportunity to capture email addresses. (All sales happen with emails.)
Your gift can be anything that your ideal customer would find valuable: ebooks, PDFs, checklists, video tutorials, and discount codes.
Summary
Start with a great photo. Be professional, make sure you are close up enough to see your eyes, smile, and it’s light enough.
Use the 150 characters to hammer home the five keys to your bio: Capture attention by saying who you serve and what benefit you provide, give your contact info, and offer a free gift to capture email addresses.
Following these steps will set your profile apart and start your relationship with the clients you want to serve.
Want to learn more about how to use Instagram to build your fitness business? Register for our free training “The 60-minute Instagram Marketing Guide for Fitness Business Growth in 2021” AND discover seven types of content that powerfully builds your brand on Instagram, PLUS learn the proven hashtag strategy to get your content ranked and discovered at www.NPECANFITPROTRAINING.com
Sean Greeley, Founder and CEO of NPE, has an unrelenting passion for empowering fitness business owners to grow their business and create the life they want. Since 2006, NPE has helped over 45,000+ fitness professionals and studio owners to grow their business, take home more money, and have the time freedom to enjoy it.
