4 Influencer Marketing Best Practices That All Fitness Brands Need to Know
The fitness industry is a very saturated market. There are hundreds of activewear companies, workout apps, gym equipment manufacturers, and health supplement brands that all need to find creative ways to market their products. So, how can you leverage influencer marketing to break through the clutter and get people excited about your fitness brand?
In this 3-part series, we’ll look into influencer marketing strategies specifically for fitness brands. In Part 1, we’ll work through 4 influencer marketing best practices that we’ve gathered after examining hundreds of successful collaborations on Aspire.
Let’s dive right in.
1. Play up your brand’s unique identity and story.
When it comes to fitness brands, you’re not just selling a pair of training shoes or a post-workout shake — you’re selling the will to keep going, body positivity, and the feel-good lifestyle that comes along with it all.
Lucky for you, fitness influencers have a unique talent for bringing otherwise mundane products to life in a way that’s difficult to replicate in-house. These influencers are in direct contact with your ideal customer, who look to them not only for motivation, but also for finding trendy activewear, high-protein snacks, and new workout routines.
Having a strong brand message that people want to share will increase the likelihood of influencers wanting to work with you, which will also compel their audience to actually check out your brand. When you connect with a creator who is already excited about your brand story, you can be sure to have an authentic partnership.
Sharing your brand story through dynamic influencer partnerships will put a unique spin on your products, allowing your brand to stand out from the crowd. Plus, it’ll boost brand recall if you share a compelling brand message through authentic storytelling.
2. Lean into video content.
It’s no secret that video content is an excellent marketing tool, but it works especially well for fitness brands. Why? It’s simple — people want to see workout routines demonstrated, activewear tried on, and gym equipment used.
Instead of trying to explain how easy it is to use your newest treadmill model, an influencer can show the step-by-step process of them setting it up and using the equipment in a video, and maybe even throw in a new treadmill workout for their followers to stay extra engaged.
NordicTrack, a leading workout equipment brand, commissions video creators to show their at-home workout routines, using NordicTrack’s advanced treadmill and its easy-to-use app.
HOT TIP: Short-form video is all the rage right now, but don’t neglect long-form video. There are plenty of fitness YouTubers who create engaging long-form video content that consistently get thousands (or maybe even millions) of views!
3. Aim for long-term partnerships with creators.
Long-term partnerships work particularly well in the fitness industry because people want to see results over time. People are more likely to engage with a fitness brand when an influencer they follow promotes a product over a long period of time and they can see noticeable changes in their photos and videos.
After all, what better way to market a fitness product than with actual physical transformation?
One way to form long-term influencer relationships is to build a brand ambassador program. Work with a handful of fitness creators and track your campaign performance. Once you find your top-performing creators, re-invest in them and turn them into brand ambassadors to keep seeing high engagement and low CPM.
HOT TIP: Be sure to provide your ambassadors with affiliate links or codes to incentivize them to drive sales and to streamline the path to purchase for their audience!
4. Test various markets for your product.
There is a wide array of niches within the fitness industry from yogis, powerlifters, runners, or those who are addicted to Soulcycle. Don’t limit yourself to one community when there are so many different kinds of fitness influencers to collaborate with.
Testing many different niches allows you to understand who your target market is so that you can more accurately resonate with them in subsequent campaigns.
For example, if you’re an activewear brand and you know your customers range from avid Soulcyclers, to yogis, to powerlifters, you can partner with influencers within these communities in order to hypertarget each of your unique audiences with content that will resonate with them.
Not sure who your ideal customer is? Try working with fitness influencers from a few different niches and use performance data to determine the type that works best for your brand. Then, re-invest in similar influencers during your next campaign.
Check out Part 2, where we dive into 3 fitness brands with powerful influencer marketing strategies, and discuss what made their campaigns successful.
