October 13, 2021
Instagram is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms nowadays, and it is a great starting point to develop your brand and make money as a fitness influencer.
But fitness influencers don’t just come out of nowhere. They work for it. Success on any social media will require you to establish yourself as a fitness expert and learn how to use the platform to reach larger audiences.
For this reason, we will provide you with very useful information that will give you the confidence you need to get started and become a fitness influencer.
First, how much money do fitness influencers make?
The truth is, the rates and compensations for Instagram fitness influencers (and any other marketing niche really) are a little bit all over the place. The rates range from a free product, class, or gym membership up to a flat rate per promotional post if you start working with a brand.
It’s kind of a standard to charge $10 per post for every 1,000 followers, but rates can change depending on the social media influencer marketing strategy you choose. Becoming a fitness influencer on Instagram can also help you grow your own business.
You can use your account to promote your own fitness brand and get customers. As your followers base grows you will be able to increase your rates and find other ways to monetize your Instagram fitness account.
Bottom line, with enough effort and patience, Instagram fitness influencers CAN make a living out of it. So, with that said, let’s get into the good stuff!
From having the right type of Instagram account to analyzing data and coming up with posting strategies, there is a lot that goes into becoming a fitness influencer. Here are the first few (but important) steps to start your journey.
If you are trying to become a fitness influencer, your ultimate goal is to make money out of your Instagram account. So, you need to start with an Instagram Business Account. Having a business profile gives you access to extra useful features that can help you convert more visitors into followers.
You can track your page’s performance to find out who your audience is, how many visits you have, as well as how many people are commenting, liking, and sharing your posts. Additionally, with an Instagram business account, you can schedule posts, share links in your stories, and access Instagram ads (you can pay to have your brand advertised by Instagram).
It is totally free to have a business account and you will not be required to have a specific amount of followers or share a certain type of content.
The first thing to do is to make sure your profile is set to “public” as private accounts cannot be converted into business accounts. Then, follow these steps
Ok, so now that you have your Instagram business account all set, it’s time to start growing your followers base and become a fitness influencer!
You must put all your efforts into growing a REAL Instagram followers base that is truly interested in what you have to offer. This is definitely an area where you don’t want to take the easy way out.
Yes, you can easily save yourself some time and pay for likes and followers (there are sites that offer 100 followers for $7… ) but, does that make you an Instagram fitness influencer? Not really. You will just have a bunch of random people following you, who don’t care about what you have to offer and will never engage with your posts.
So, the goal is getting organic followers, people who will actually visit your landing pages, and make purchases. An ENGAGED audience.
There are three things you should be doing in order to organically get more followers: Write a killer bio, engage with your followers, and master the use of hashtags. Let’s explore each of these in more depth.
Your Bio is the first thing someone sees when they land on your Instagram profile. You must focus on making it welcoming, as well as being very specific about who you are and what you do. Make the most out of those 150 characters to showcase yourself and leave a good impression on your profile visitors.
While the goal is to gain more followers, you want to make sure you are targeting the right audience. People who have interests that are relevant to your brand as well as the health and fitness industry. This is what you should be focusing on.
Your audience wants to know what your content is about. Do you offer a product or service? What is your fitness niche and exactly what are they going to read about when going through your profile? For example: “Passion for personal training”
You must describe your target audience. Who will benefit from your content? A good way to do this is to describe demographics like gender, age, lifestyle, or profession. If you specialize in bodybuilding, you can target the right audience with a line like: “Bodybuilders, welcome on board”
What is your visitor’s benefit? They want to know what they get out of following your account or even signing up for your services. This can be as simple as: “find your motivation” or “start a healthier lifestyle”.
Once you have their attention, how do they get started? The end of your bio MUST include a CTA to the next step. Let them know how to sign up, follow you on other social media, start the challenge, schedule a call, or even send you an email. Make sure to include a link to your business website so they know where they can find more information about your services.
A catchy bio is just the first step to get your visitor’s attention and turn them into followers (or even clients). So, what’s next?
Yes, top fitness influencers can make thousands of dollars with each of their posts, but even those with a small base of 1,000 followers have the potential to start making money. If they manage to keep their audience highly engaged. This is mainly for three reasons.
The engagement rate on Instagram is basically telling you how many people who saw your post, interacted with it by either liking, commenting, sharing, or saving it. Here are a couple of strategies that can make successful fitness influencers.
You probably follow many Instagram fitness influencers (even on other social media). It’s ok to use their posts as inspiration, but always try to bring something new to the table. Focus on creating content that is valuable. Something that your audience wants to see, and that they can relate to.
For example, you can share your favorite fitness books, and ask people to give their opinions or recommend a book they like. Maybe talk about where you found inspiration to start a healthier lifestyle, or how you manage your time to squeeze in a workout session.
High-quality content will get you more interaction with your audience. The more original, useful, and relevant your post is for your followers, the more they will want to engage and share it with their friends as well.
Remember, you are not just a brand that’s looking to make money off of them. You are a real person looking to build relationships and share your life with them. The best way to build trust is to participate in your audience’s discussions.
If you go out of your way to interact with your community, they will return the favor. As much as you can, respond to comments, like their posts, follow them back, react to stories, reply to direct messages, and re-share content that was useful for you or for your audience.
It’s important to do this in the most human possible way. Use your favorite emojis, and don’t only answer their comments but ask questions back. Don’t be afraid to start a conversation! This might seem time-consuming, but trust me, building these relationships can make the difference when you start looking for sales.
You can create the most interesting, engaging, and inspiring content, but if you share it at the wrong time, nobody will see it. Many blog posts or studies out there will tell you that there is a specific day and time at which you should be posting. But in reality, you need to be looking at YOUR followers to figure out when’s the right time to post. How do you do this?
Your Instagram business account gives you an option called “Insights”. You can get your audience’s most active times broken down by the day and hour. Just go to the “insights” button then scroll to “your audience” and tap “see all”. Keep this information in mind when planning your posts.
You must also consider the type of content you are posting as it can be more relevant at certain times of the day.
For example, if you are posting a step-by-step recipe video, you might want to do it outside of working hours when people are most likely to be cooking. Or, if you are posting a 5-minute workout at home you could do it early in the morning (6 am) or after 6 pm to try to match the most popular times to work out.
Once you know your audience’s most active times of the day, you want to make sure your content is up in their feed at the right time. With Instagram’s native tool “Creator Studio” you can save some time and schedule your posts. Here’s how to do it.
Experiment with scheduling posts at different times and use the tools that your business profile offers you to track engagement rate and adjust your future posts. It takes time and effort to get it right, but eventually, you will start understanding and mastering the art of effective posting.
You can use the “Insights” option to monitor the engagement rate of each of your posts and overall account.
Under the content tab, you can filter by type of post, and the tool will show you its engagement rate. But not only that, it will specifically show how many people liked, commented, visited your profile, or even started following you because of that specific post. How do you use this to your advantage?
Let’s say for example you are analyzing your last post, from 3 days ago, and you notice it generated quite a few profile visits. However, for some reason, no new followers. This tells you that your post content may not be in sync with what your profile offers.
This is where you can start making changes. Start experimenting with different types of content (videos, carousels, q&a sections, tip of the day, etc…) adjusting your posts until you obtain the results you need.
Using hashtags on your posts and stories is one of the best ways to reach new audiences. Instagram hashtags are used to organize and categorize posts. This means that if you share a recipe that includes a #superfoods hashtag, other users interested in superfoods can easily find and potentially engage with your post. That is how you guarantee that your content gets to the right audience.
Here are 3 tips you can put into practice when looking for relevant hashtags for your posts
An easy way to find relevant hashtags is by following Instagram fitness influencers with the same (or similar) audience as yours. Find out who your industry’s key influencers are, and find inspiration in their posts.
Of course, you are not going to copy their content, but this can help you get a good idea of what’s working in your fitness niche. Browse through different influencers or fitness brands to identify the most successful hashtags (relevant to your brand) and start using them.
If your audience is already using a certain hashtag, then other people with the same interests might be doing it too. Try to keep an eye on your top followers to see what kind of content they are sharing and the most popular hashtags they relate it to.
You can also use Instagram’s search tool to get some more information about what hashtags your audience (and people you follow) care about. If you do a hashtag search, the tool will tell you if it’s followed by anyone you follow.
If you want to promote your own brand, you need to create your own hashtag. If you do it right, and it clicks, you can start spreading your brand to reach more people. Think of a short and memorable phrase that perfectly represents your brand, then look it up to make sure it’s not being used already (you want to build a community from scratch around your hashtag).
Once you have created it, start using it on all your social media channels, website, apps, and any other branded product you may have. You want to start creating fuzz around it and give people a reason to start using it.
While you can use up to 30 hashtags on a post, and up to 10 on your stories, always stick to relevant hashtags. If you can find 30 super-relevant hashtags for your post, then go for it. It’s ok to experiment and see what gets you better results. You can start with an average of 15 hashtags per post and see how that works for you.
Avoid using the same hashtags over and over, as well as using hashtags that are not related to your content (some do this to reach as many people as possible). This can get your content labeled as spam and your posts will no longer be published or they might be “shadowbanned” by Instagram (your post is not visible, without you being notified).
As you work your way up to become a fitness influencer you will bring so much attention your way. Do something with it! This is a great opportunity to expand your brand and make money by giving your audience more of what they like. You could be creating unique workout routines, branded motivational content, or even start an online personal trainer business.
In System2 we are ready to help you make it happen. Our done-for-you influencer marketing solution can give you what you need to turn followers into customers. What does that look like?
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