5 Tips For Creating Sales Content For Your Fitness Business

How do you develop fitness content marketing that actually sells?

The fitness industry is an insanely competitive battleground.

I get it.

Content creation can be a real pain to produce.

You have a product to promote and sell.

You spend hours tapping out words on your keyboard producing beautiful content and then…

Not much happens.

You may hear the company directors saying content marketing is a waste of time.

Don’t listen to them.

A well thought out content strategy (when used correctly) is an incredibly effective pre-selling tool.

In this article I’m going to give you 5 of my best tips to help you improve your own content so you can generate more sales and leads for your health club!

Let’s dive in…

 

#1: Curiosity Is The Precursor To ALL Sales

Mess this up and you’re done.

Have you ever had to do cold calling?

Ask any sales pro and they’ll tell you you that if the person on the other line is not curious about what you have to offer the call is over.

If someone is not curious about what you have to say it doesn’t matter how great your solution is they’re not listening to you.

When I was cold calling I used to spend most of my time coming up with openers because if I didn’t get them interested the sale was gone right there and then.

Same is true for your content.

Regardless of whether you’re writing a social media post, article, video, email or even an SMS try to create curiosity and avoid the generic.

For example:

Someone searches for a topic on “how to lose weight”.

They click on an article that looks interesting and it starts with “if you want to lose weight then first you need to eat the right foods…”

Wow…I thought I needed to keep eating potato chips!

Unless the reader has only just now made contact with the human race chances are they already know that they need to eat healthy.

Instead, start with something that piques their curiosity, for example:

Question: Are you burning fat OR storing fat at this very moment?

As you’re reading this you’re either in fat storing mode or fat burning mode.

Did you know that most people (contrary to mainstream nutritional advice) are accidentally spending most of the day storing fat instead of burning it?

In this article, I’ll show you my number 1 bio-hacking tip that guarantees 24/7 fat burning.

Basically, I’m going to tell that person that they need to make healthy choices but my goal is to approach it from a different angle so it feels like new information.

 

Tip 1: March Against Conventional Wisdom

Last year I accidentally lost 13 kilos in just over 8 weeks without training and by overeating (5,000 to 6,000 calories per day).

According to conventional wisdom, I was eating over two times the number of calories for a person my size, I didn’t plan to lose weight, I just decided to start eating natural foods and the weight kept falling off.

People don’t want to hear the same old information, they want to hear new information especially if it is counter to what the mainstream masses are preaching.

 

Tip 2: Target Specific Problems

People are looking to solve very specific problems and so when you address these you achieve a few things:

  1. Create curiosity
  2. Create demand
  3. Differentiate yourself because few (if any) others are talking about it

People don’t want to “get fit” they want to prepare for their first half marathon and get in the top 10 – if your article was titled:

“How to prepare for your first half marathon (…and actually place top 10)”

Do you think you would have piqued their curiosity?

 

Tip 3: Create Open Loops (Teasing)

In a few moments I’m going to share with you my 3 step process to help even your worst performing fitness consultant close sales in one singe call but before I do I want to discuss how to best clean gym equipment…

Would you keep reading to learn the 3 step sales process? That’s an open loop.

News anchors will say: “after the break we show you raw footage of a man fighting a grizzly bear and the hilarious ending…”

If you want to know more you going to have to stay tuned.

 

Summary:

  • If you haven’t created curiosity you’ve lost the sale – curiosity is the first step of the sales process.
  • Challenge yourself to present different ideas and attack problems from different angles to create curiosity.

 

 

#2: Write Epic Content

Unfortunately for us slow typers Google now prefers that your content be longer in word count.

The reasoning is that long form content has a better chance of helping the reader get a satisfactory answer to their question.

This means you need to write articles at least 1200-1500 words in length.

Yes, there are articles around 300 – 500 words that have #1 position in Google but these are far and few between.

Infographics also do very well although I’d advise writing at least 500 words to accompany the graphic to give Google more keywords to work with.

Remember this:

Great content is at its core: helpful.

Focus on making your content super helpful to the reader.

The more helpful your content the more people will read, share and comment which tells Google your stuff is google and will then start to move you up the ranks hopefully to position 1.

Here’s Neil Patel’s post on Why 3000+ Word Blog Posts Get More Traffic (A Data Driven Answer)

Don’t think it’s worth it? Here’s how Mailshake Spent 6 Months Building One Piece of Content. Now It’s Driving 6 Figures in Sales.

Summary:

  • Google likes long 1500+ articles so it’s best to keep your articles at least within that range.
  • It’s not enough to have along article it must also be incredibly valuable i.e. helpful to the reader.

 

 

#3: Useful, But Incomplete

When it comes to creating content that generates leads you only want to solve part of the bigger problem.

Think of it this way:

At a restaurant you are served an entre the job of that entre is to stimulate your appetite and to prepare your pallet for the main course.

Your content needs to work in a similar fashion.

In the example below we follow 3 steps:

  1. What are we selling?
  2. What is the main offer/benefit we are presenting?
  3. What content do we need to produce?

We always start with the offer then move backwards from there so our content has a clear direction.

This is about “completing a story”.

The reader begins the story with the content but it’s the solution that completes the story for them.

 

What you want to sell The Offer Content
Nutrition Plans Nutrition Plans For Diabetics 3 dangerous ingredients hidden in everyday food that are making diabetics sicker
Personal Trainer 12 Week Personal Training For Men Over 40 That Want To Build More Muscle 40+ Males! Try This Routine To Build Muscle Like A 20 Year Old
Spin Class Spin Class For Rapid Fat Loss 5 Reasons Why Cycling Is HUGE For Fat Loss

 

Case studies are also a very good way to achieve ‘helpful but incomplete’ content.

Not only does it provide proof and progress but it shows the reader what the world will be like once they become a member of your gym.

 

Summary:

  • Start from your service and work backwards to your content so everything lines up perfectly.
  • Your content begins the story but the reader needs your solution to complete the story.

 

 

#4: Help The Reader Experience An Epiphany

Remember when you had an amazing insight about something or you solved a complex problem?

We call this the AHA! Moment or having an epiphany.

Did you know that when you have one of these “AHA! Moments” your brain makes brand new neural connections.

That “new idea” is actually making physical changes inside your brain!

If you can help a reader come to an epiphany you make it easier to sell your solution.

This is why the best copywriters on the planet spend most of their time coming up with the “the big idea” because they know that big ideas create big sales.

Here are a few tips you can use:

Tip 1: Become a connector of dots

Great ideas come from connecting dots.

If you can find a connection between seemingly unconnected worlds it can make for an interesting idea.

Here’s an example:

This single, weird piece of advice from a poor person can make you insanely rich.

How can a poor person help you become insanely rich?

Rich and poor are opposing worlds and because of this it’s more interesting than something like “how to become rich”.

Read blogs from different industries.

Listen to people and ask more questions.

Watch things you wouldn’t normally watch.

You kind of need to be a renaissance to make this work.

 

Tip 2: Listen in on sales calls

Often times the greatest ideas come from your customers.

Jump on sales calls with your sales team or interview them yourself.

Listen to the questions they’re asking.

Listen to how they describe their problems and the result they want.

By compiling this information you may see a recurring insight that no one has addressed before.

 

Tip 3: Collect great headlines and marketing campaigns

Turn off your ad blocker and start watching ads.

If you see what that you like, take a screen shot and try to work out what you liked about it.

Click on it and go to their sales page and see how they’re positioning their solution.

Collect interesting ads, go through funnels, join email lists from different industries to see what angles they use for their customers.

By compiling an advertising swipe file it’ a great way to take an idea and convert it over into your industry.

 

Summary:

  • Big ideas create epiphanies inside the reader’s mind.
  • Epiphanies completely reframe the problem and also your solution making selling a lot easier.
  • When a person has an epiphany, they see their problem under a completely new light.

 

 

#5: Create ‘A Greased Slide’

Legendary copywriter John Carlton used a phrase that he called ‘the greased slide’.

It means that once a person begins reading your content they can’t stop until they get to the end.

One critical way to pull this off is by formatting your page so that it’s effortless to read.

Let me give you a quick example:

Which would you rather read?

THIS?

Remember when you had an amazing insight about something? Did you know that when you have one of the “AHA! Moments” your brain is making new neural connections. That “thought” is making physical changes inside your body! If you can help a reader come to an epiphany you make it easier to sell your solution. This is why the best copywriters on the planet spend most of their time coming up with the “the big idea” because they know that big ideas create big sales. Here’s an easy way to create an epiphany: Speak to the surface problem that the reader is facing. Solve that problem for them BUT introduce a deeper problem that if they can’t resolve will forever prevent them from losing weight. Present the new solution.

 

OR THIS?

Remember when you had an amazing insight about something?

Did you know that when you have one of the “AHA! Moments” your brain is making new neural connections.

That “thought” is making physical changes inside your body!

If you can help a reader come to an epiphany you make it easier to sell your solution.

This is why the best copywriters on the planet spend most of their time coming up with the “the big idea” because they know that big ideas create big sales.

Here’s an easy way to create an epiphany:

 1. Speak to the surface problem that the reader is facing.

2. Solve that problem for them BUT introduce a deeper problem that if they can’t resolve will forever prevent them from losing weight.

3. Present the new solution.

Same words, different format.

By organising your words, sentences and paragraphs in an easy to read way you make it easy for the reader to consume the article.

Here are a few formatting tips:

  • Use short paragraphs – I rarely go over 3 sentences.
  • Use short punchy sentences or even use one word sentences.
  • Edit out filler words.
  • Avoid insider jargon.
  • Use ellipses (…) to break up sentences.
  • Avoid needless repetition.
  • Write like you’re speaking to one person.
  • Write in a way that a 12 year old could understand.
  • Choose short words over big words.
  • Use subheads that tell a story so skim readers understand what’s going on.

 

Summary:

  • If the article looks too difficult to read then they won’t bother reading it.
  • Formatting is designed to make it easier on the brain and eyes of the reader.

 

Integrating sales-focused content into your overall marketing strategy is incredibly important in terms of growing your fitness brand.

Start implementing the ideas in this article and see what happens.