Are you tired of constantly shifting from one social media channel to the other, checking your likes and comments but not getting any sales in the end?
Do you feel frustrated to keep up with the algorithms?
If this sounds familiar then this would be the most important thing you read online today. Because once you discover the power of email marketing I am about to share with you…
You will be able to engage with your audience, get your classes sold out, get feedback and know more about your customers without.
Because the truth is that many fitness professionals are already doing it and generating thousands of dollars in sales while not overwhelming themselves with every social media channel out there.
We have created this guide to help you build an email list, generate ideas for what kind of emails to send, and best tips to help you succeed. This covers everything you need to achieve your goals with email marketing even if you don’t have any prior experience with it.
So let’s read on.
When someone visits your website for the first time and likes your content or wants to stay connected to what you do, they would want to sign up.
So make sure the subscription form or field is accessible right where people expect or need it.
Here are 3 ideas:
SendX offers professional-looking, ready-to-use email pop-up forms that you can use on your website. You can customize these to fit the look of your brand. You can check them out by simply signing up with your email address.
Give your followers on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter an incentive to sign up for your email list. E.g. promise them free content, a sneak-peek into your active lifestyle, discounts on classes, or free trials.
Or simply put the link to your website in your bio.
If you are organizing classes or workshops, go the traditional route of noting the emails from interested people in an excel sheet or on paper.
When you are surrounded by people who relate to what you do, they would want to sign up and stay in touch online.
Run ads on Facebook or Instagram with your free content, which might compel people to check out your website. Once they are on the website, your sign up form will collect their email addresses.
Running ads is not a cheap way to build an email list that hasn’t even started generating any returns, but once they are in your list, you know that they are your target audience. Later, you can smoothly recover this cost when you would run your offers for this email list.
This is one of the most important emails you will send to your customers. This will be the first impression of your emails in someone’s inbox and if you manage to ‘wow’ them or just provide a clear experience, they will remember to open your next email too.
First of all, thank them for joining your list.
Then, let them know what to expect from you in their mailbox: type of content, announcements, promos, etc.
If you are going to run promo emails, don’t shy away from mentioning that. Remember, it’s the first impression. It will only help build trust if your first communication is open and true.
Then, ask them to add your email address to their contact list so your emails don’t accidentally go into the spam box.
It might seem daunting to come up with new ideas every week or thrice every week to send to your subscribers. But this is the most natural part!
Do you give people tips on healthy food habits all the time? Write about it.
Do people ask you about the best protein supplement all the time? Write about it.
You have to write about the same thing that you talk about with people in your gym, class or with your clients. Any valuable tips or tricks that will help your audience get better results.
People always get motivated when they see that change is possible. Especially with fitness and health.
So you should share success stories of people you have helped lose weight, gain weight, or get ready for that marathon.
Along with getting people motivated, it will build your credibility. When people see the stories of change from your gym, class or workshop, they will contact you to do the same for themselves.
When you have nurtured the relationship with your customers and provided them tons of value, it’s time to turn this into a transactional relationship.
And you should know that by selling what you know or what you can do for people, you will actually be doing a service to them.
So don’t shy and plan that series of emails to launch your promotional offer, free trial, video course or book on fitness.
Emails are the best way to gather feedback because…
Most people feel scared of email marketing because they feel it’s time-consuming. It’s not as quick as snapping a picture of your abs and putting it into your IG stories.
But, that’s only because they don’t understand the power of automation. With automated emails, you can just create your message once, put the rules about when, and to whom it should be sent. And the rest is taken care of, forever!
Here are some ideas on automation:
People on your email list will have unique interests, different locations, or different age groups. Sending the same messages to different groups of people might hurt your engagement.
For example, a person interested in yoga might not be interested in marathons. Or a person in LA is definitely not interested in your class being organized in New York.
So how do you keep both the groups engaged and not spam them with content they wouldn’t want to receive?
The answer is segmentation: dividing your subscribers into different groups and sending content tailored to those particular groups. You can segment based on interest, demographics, location, or even engagement level.
If you have a segment of people who haven’t opened your emails in the past month, you can send a re-engagement campaign specific to this group. Similarly, you can send pre-launch content to your super-engaged audience (your most loyal fans) and get their feedback.
If your emails don’t reach the inbox, then all your email marketing efforts can go in vain.
So before you obsess over subject lines, templates, or images, ensure that 90%+ of the emails you sent are reaching the inbox.
To stay out of the spam box, you just have to avoid showing the same behavior as a spammer. That means, avoiding:
This is definitely not an exhaustive list, so read more; you can check out this blog on email deliverability.
Email marketing can give you the exact information on who is opening your emails, what kind of emails get the most engagement, and why people unsubscribe. Find your hottest leads and drill down on their exact requirements.
The key metrics to find these insights are Open Rate, Click-Through Rate, Unsubscribe Rate, Bounce Rate. You don’t have to start comparing yourself to some ‘industry’ benchmark right away. But you can create your own benchmark and just keep an eye whenever you observe an anomaly.
Basically, use the data to do more of what works and less of what doesn’t.
Gmail, Yahoo or other email clients are good for work and personal use. But they are not practical to use when you are connecting with your customers.
If you want to leverage the full potential of email marketing, you need to use an email marketing software that can manage your list, tell you about engagement, automate your emails, all without your constant intervention.
And of course, it shouldn’t break your bank and cost you more than the other channels. A good option is SendX. They have all the features a fitness professional will need to execute email marketing efficiently, easily and quickly. Their plans start from just $7.49/mo and before you pay even that small amount, you can try it for free for 14-days with just your email. Not even a credit card is required.
Building an email list from your website visitors, social media followers gives you a golden ticket to stay on top of the minds of these people without depending on algorithms or pumping constant money into advertisements.
The tips and ideas we shared above will be only helpful if you take the first step.
So what’s the easiest thing you can do right now? -- It’s to take a free trial of an email marketing software and just explore it.
I would suggest signing up for SendX. Why?
You don't even have to commit anything before you are sure. You just have to give it a try with the 14-day free trial: no credit card or any long-form filling process involved. Sign up here.