Marketing
How To Stand Out In A Crowded Fitness Market
Learning how to stand out in a crowded fitness market is a key requirement for gym owners and personal trainers who want to grow and scale their fitness businesses. The branding strategy you select will be the lever for growth that will determine your market potential and, more importantly, your earning potential.
Following are steps to help you identify and capitalise on the ideal fitness brand that best represents your unique strengths, skills, and opportunities.
Choose your fitness niche
Learning how to choose your fitness niche might be the single most important way that you can stand out in a crowded fitness market. You are, after all, competing with gym owners, Personal Trainers, fitness influencers, fitness coaches, and other fitness professionals marketing themselves online. Clarifying your niche is important if you wish to stand out in your space.
IMPORTANT
If you think your fitness marketing appeals to everyone, as the saying goes, your fitness marketing appeals to no one.
Go deep. Drill down into a niche that is so specific, so granular and detailed, that only you know the customer persona well enough to speak directly to their hopes, fears, and dreams.
Different fitness niches
And there are so many different fitness niches to pursue. Here is a list of broad categories in which you could further specialise:
- Weight loss coaching
- Muscle building and strength training
- Sports performance training
- Functional fitness and CrossFit
- Yoga and Pilates
- Senior fitness and active ageing
- Pre- and post-natal fitness
- Nutrition and wellness coaching
- Group fitness classes
- Rehabilitation and injury prevention
- Mind-body connection and meditation
- High-intensity interval training (HIIT)
- Endurance and marathon training
- Flexibility and mobility training
- Corporate wellness programs
- Martial arts and self-defense instruction
- Dance fitness and Zumba
- Bootcamp and outdoor fitness training
- TRX suspension training
- Postural correction and alignment
- Kickboxing and boxing fitness
- Aqua fitness and water aerobics
- Cycling and spin classes
- Other group fitness classes (e.g. StickFit)
- Mindfulness and stress reduction programs.
Which fitness niche is right for you ?
This is a question that only you can fully answer, but it starts with the intersection of your unique strengths, skills, and opportunities. What are you uniquely good at? What unique capabilities can you bring to the table? What unique opportunities are before you that maybe only you can see, or that you are best suited for capitalising on?
The key to success is to choose your fitness niche and go deep.
Developing a unified fitness brand
After identifying your fitness niche, the natural next step is to develop a unified fitness brand. Because what good is having a fitness niche if no one knows what you are all about and what you stand for? Choose a fitness brand that resonates with your target audience and then go deep with that audience.
Keep it simple
Avoid the overly clever marketing that might sound cool to you, but which is not a simple or straightforward explanation of your value proposition. Remember, your target audience is evaluating everything they see through the lens of “what’s in it for me?”
Building a strong online presence
Ah yes, building a strong online presence. This goes without saying these days, but often we need to be reminded more than we need to be taught!
Lean hard into turning your unified fitness brand that appeals to your fitness niche, into something that is findable online. Engage with your target audience. Learn how to make money selling workout plans online. Learn how to market yourself as a fitness influencer, even if you are just starting out with minimal social media followers. Own your audience directly and engage with them through your own custom-branded fitness platform.
Where to start
Which channel and platform is best for you? Well, the best advice is to find where your audience is congregating and then go there; but you can also analyse your own strengths and weaknesses. Are you a great writer but not so great on camera? Start writing a fitness blog. Are you a natural in front of the camera but dread writing content? Start making videos on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.
Choose something and stick to it. Success will come from consistency, rather than any one-time effort.
Get started
So, what are you waiting for? Remember this quote: “life rewards action, not intelligence”.
To stand out in a crowded fitness market you need to identify your fitness niche, develop a unified fitness brand, and build a strong online presence. If you do all of this with a strong technology platform that allows you to offer your audience a best-in-class memorable brand experience, then success is inevitable!
Joel Ohman
Joel is the CEO and Co-Founder of Exercise.com. If you’re ready to grow and scale your fitness business to take it to the next level, then check out the only true all-in-one software platform from Exercise.com. This comprehensive fitness business management software platform powers everything from bricks and mortar sports performance gyms that train professional athletes, to TikTok fitness influencers that sell women’s weight loss workout plans, to personal trainers who do personalised online fitness coaching with macro guides, and everything in between! And all of this through custom-branded fitness apps so that your brand remains front and centre the whole time.
