If you are passionate about fitness, you can make money as a fitness influencer. Influencers earn millions every year, with some earning six figures monthly.  

 

Getting paid to work out and stay in shape might seem easy, but once you venture into the field, it could get less dazzling. Becoming a fitness influencer is a process, and the market is extremely competitive. So, you need to set yourself aside from other fitness influencers. Fortunately, our guide contains everything you need to start your fitness influencer career.

Who is a Fitness Influencer?

 

A fitness influencer is a fitness enthusiast known and trusted by their customers on social media and other fitness enthusiasts. Influencers are influential, and their opinions matter to their followers in the online space. To be a fitness influencer, you need to be a credible fitness expert. Fitness influencers use their credibility and personal experience to influence others and promote fitness products or services through advertising for brands.

How to Become a Fitness Influencer

 

Here is a step-by-step guide on starting your journey to become a fitness influencer:

 

Choose Your Niche as A Fitness Influencer

 

You probably think becoming a fitness influencer is narrowing down a niche. However, the fitness industry is overcrowded with people seeking to achieve different goals. While some people are looking to work out their general body, others reduce cellulite, while others want to lose belly fat. Therefore, you need to stand out by choosing your niche further as a fitness influencer. Having a niche helps you stand out, attract more clients and outdo the competition.

 

When choosing a niche, you reduce competition because you target a specific audience. It also separates your target audience, helping you to stand out. Narrowing down on a niche also enables you to become an expert in the area. 

 

You can choose your niche by taking some time to think about what fitness areas excite you most. Do some self-reflection and answer these questions:

 

• What area of fitness am I passionate about?
• What area have I specialized in?
• Do I have a network of prospective clients in this niche?
• Do I have any specialized knowledge I can use to help my clients?

 

Answering the above questions will give you a better understanding of if a niche is right for you. As you figure out a niche, remember having too much information on a topic doesn’t necessarily make you an expert. As a fitness influencer, you will need to encourage your clients to live a healthy and active lifestyle on social media platforms. 

 

Your clients will trust you. So, ensure you have the right training and skills, not just information. After choosing the niche, you can share some pictures of your fitness journey to win your clients over. 

Research More on the Niche

 

After selecting the niche, research more about it. Ensure you start your influencer journey with as much information as you can. In your research, find out how influencers in the niche engage with their audience.

 

Some questions to guide you include:

 

• Which fitness influencers are also operating in the niche?
• What content in the niche does the audience prefer?

 

 

Identify Your Goal and Come up with a Strategy

 

Most people think the ultimate goal is to have as many followers as possible. While getting followers is great, they don’t count for much. As a fitness influencer, you need to have clear goals and a strategy. 

 

• What do you want to encourage?
• How many followers would you want to have, both short-term and long-term? 
• How will you measure engagement? Who is your target audience?

 

Answering the above questions can help identify your goals and align your purpose to meet these goals. Beginning your influencer journey without defined goals could contribute to failure since you won’t have a plan to guide you.

 

Once you define your goals, come up with a strategy on how you will fulfill these goals. The strategy should be clear and include every step of the process. How many times will you be posting on social media? At what time? And on which platform? How will you build engagement and find sponsorships or get brand partnerships?

 

Get an Audience

 

After settling on a niche, the next task is to build a real audience. The best place to start is with the people you know. So, if, for example, you are a fitness instructor in a small gym, you can build an audience starting with your current clients. Let them know about your social media channels, and start there.

 

Social media is influential, and you can leverage it to build a broad audience beyond your demography. While it can be hard at the start due to less engagement, you need to be consistent. Post content daily, and let people see you are a fitness enthusiast and expert. Consistency builds trust and reliability and grows your brand.

 

Tell Your Story Authentically, Consistently

 

It can be hard to get an audience, so some influencers resort to telling fabricated stories to attract clients. However, you need to tell an authentic story and be consistent. Tell the story of your journey to reflect your brand, purpose, and values. 

 

First, remember your origin. Where did you start before becoming a fitness enthusiast or influencer? Show your before pictures to the audience to show authenticity. Second, use an authentic voice. The audience is always intuitive, and they can tell apart an authentic voice from a fake voice. An authentic voice helps the audience believe your message, backed by your actions. Third, maintain audience trust by being authentic. You cannot convince an audience and win them over through a foundation of lies.

Obsess Over Engagement, Not Followers

 

A common mistake influencers make is focusing on the number of followers rather than on engagement. Engagement is better than followers for numerous reasons. Engagement is a measure of quality, while followers are a measure of quantity. You can have thousands of followers, but few who engage with you, buy from you, or are loyal to you, thus, a low ROI (return on interest).

 

Engagement can be in the form of likes, replies, shares, comments, mentions, tags, number of watchers, etc. Social media engagement is two-way. You need to engage with your followers for them to engage back with you. While it may not be possible to replay every comment, you can hire a social media manager or assistant to help with it. People love to feel considered and thought of, so replaying back can build trust and loyalty. 

 

You can get more engagement in five ways. First, come up with a content marketing strategy. A strategy will serve as a blueprint that helps you establish the right content and outlines how to achieve your engagement goals. Second, focus on creating quality content. The audience needs stellar content, so give them quality content relevant to their fitness needs. Your content should engage them, add value or offer a solution to a challenge they are facing.

 

Third, you should be more active on your social media channels. Post consistently, interact with your audience and offer customer service. Answer their questions promptly, hear their views and make amendments, and offer them tips for problems they may need help with.

 

 

Connect With Other Influencers

 

As you try to grow your audience, focus on connecting and interacting with other fitness influencers in your niche. Find other influencers, share their content, tag them in your posts, network with them and show them support. 

 

Identifying with other influencers can increase your audience and engagement. Contact a fitness influencer to build a rapport, and you can ask them to put in a good word about you on their social media channel. However, only connect with influencers who share your values, and ensure you also have something to offer in return.

Reach Out To Brands For Sponsorship, Advertising Opportunities

 

Once you have built your brand, you can find additional sources of income, like advertising opportunities. Reach out to potential sponsors and brands. You need to prepare for your pitch and meetup adequately. Ensure you have a media kit that summarizes your brand, offering, and audience.

 

Create a list of companies you would like to work with or advertise for and research them. Identify values that you share, and understand their goal and vision. Engage with their social media posts and follow back. Be ready for negative feedback and use it as a stepping stone to craft better pitches next time. Remember to edit your media kit as your brand grows.

Measure Your Performance

 

It is important to track whether your results are helping you meet your goals. Collect data on your results to track performance from your social media accounts. Have you reached the desired engagement or the number of followers you were targeting?

 

Additionally, you might need to occasionally track your result, especially if you get a sponsored post. Record the statistics and send the results as agreed to by the brand as a report. Sharing results with brands helps enhance customer satisfaction and encourages repeat business. It can also help you get more sponsorships and show brands what they paid for.

Keep Growing

 

Besides your numbers, you also need to keep your brand growing. There is a lot of activity, research, and new information surrounding exercises and fitness. So, you need to be active and stay abreast of these changes. 

 

Stay on top of the new happenings, and share new techniques, latest research, and techniques related to your niche. New information helps your audience come back as they yearn to know more. Besides, it builds your credibility and makes you look attractive to brands that partner with you.

The Bottom Line

 

There are a lot of perks to becoming a fitness influencer. However, a lot of hard work behind the scenes doesn’t come to light. If you are convinced you would like to become a fitness influencer and have what it takes, follow our steps above. Remember to be patient, and give it time before achieving success.