The Only Social Media Strategy Gym Owners Need

Tune in to get the exact plan for what to post on social media to grow your gym.

Today on “Run a Profitable Gym,” Two-Brain CEO John Franklin and founder Chris Cooper walk through the social media system that turns lurkers into paying members.

They lay out the big three content types every gym owner should be posting:

- Conversion content that moves prospects closer to buying.
- Connection content that makes people like and trust you before they ever walk through the door.
- Value content that helps your community solve real problems for free.

They break down each type with examples from real gym owners, and they present tactical steps you can take to start creating better gym social content today.

The pair also tackle one of the most underused tools in gym marketing: sell by chat (having real conversations with real people who interact with your social media).

You’ll walk away with a simple weekly posting strategy you can actually stick to.

This is episode 2 of 4 in the Marketing May series. Next week: the content funnel.

If you missed last week’s episode on referrals, check it via the link below.

Links

The Referral Funnel

Gym Owners United

Book a Call

0:37 - People buy from people

2:17 - 3 types of content

15:18 - Story strategy

19:24 - Sell by chat (DM)

22:31 - Your action steps

Transcript

0:03

Welcome to Marketing May on Run a Profitable Gym. I'm John Franklin, the CEO of Two Brain. Business and joined with me today is the founder of Two Brain Business, Chris Cooper. Chris, what are we talking about this week? Today, we're talking about social media and most gym owners fall into one of two camps. Either they're not posting anything at all or the stuff they are posting on social media is not getting them clients and so they were going to fix both of those. I love that. But before we get into that, we should talk about the biggest mistake that we're seeing on gym owner social media. And I want to preface that by saying something that people buy from people. We want to show that we're human. Like we've probably answered the question in Two Brain a million times. It's like, should I post social media from my personal or should I post social media from my gym account? The answer is you should just post, right? And figure it out later. But if you're listening to this, you likely fall into the realm of an independent gym owner. And one of the big advantages you have over the chains in the world, like a F45 or an orange theory, is that you can do you. You can show personality. You can be that local business that people want to support. And we see a lot of gym owners throw away that opportunity and hide behind Canva templates and static posts. And in reality, when I pull up a gym's Instagram, we should see who's at the helm here. Who's running this business? What are they about? Because in today's day and age, every one of your prospects is going to go to your social media. They're going to go to your. Instagram. They're going to creep. They're going to do a vibe check. And you want to make sure that you pass that vibe check. What'd I miss, Chris? Well, sometimes the vibe is a little bit off. And so you do have to post every single day, but you also want to be aware that you're standing on a stage when you're posting to social media. And so you do want to put your best foot forward. But that said, you don't need millions of views. No. Like the idea here is not necessarily... The idea here is to make the best fitness content in your little universe. And so a lot of our gyms struggle with what to post. So today we're going to give you a framework and a template to work through. So there are three types of content that we recommend when you're starting on social media. We call these the big three. There's conversion content, there's connection content, and there's value content. Just to build on what you said, John, like what stops people from posting a lot is that they think that they have to do what the influencers do and they have to be famous to get anything on social media. But the reality is you only have to reach 500 people in your local market and focus on helping them. And so the strategies John's going to share with you called the big three, TM, are going to be things that will appeal to the people who are actually looking at your gym right now, not the broader audience of bros who are telling you to, you know, chug a gallon of milk a day or whatever they're doing. You want to be five mile famous. You want to bring the truth to the people who are paying attention to you in hopes that they will one day pay money to you. And a lot of people get discouraged because, hey, this post only got three likes or this post was only seen by 300 people. But we'll put up a picture on the screen what 300 people actually looks like. And what you need to ask yourself is, you know, how hard would it be to go to a coffee shop and talk to 300 people about your gym? The fact that you can just do this from the comfort of your gym is a tremendous opportunity that you don't want to take for granted. In fact, going viral is the opposite of what you want. The intention of social media for most gym owners is to get business. It's not to get famous. And that's a completely different strategy than if you're trying to get a million followers and do brand deals. So when we talk about what we call the big three, these are things that are going to help you grow your business, not get followers, not get likes, because those are secondary metrics that ultimately don't matter because you can't pay your rent with follows and likes. So let's talk about the big three. We have conversion content, we have connection content, and we have value content. We're going to start with conversion content. And conversion content is anything that takes people from familiar with your brand to closer to buying. And one of the things that I like to talk about when we talk about conversion content is your pin post. So on Instagram, you have the opportunity to pin three posts to the top of your profile. Like I mentioned, most prospects are going to creep on your Instagram. So this is a great opportunity for you to put your best foot forward and put a series of videos that move prospects down the funnel. The first post I recommend making is a video that explains who you are, what you do, and who you train. The second video you pin should showcase what a training session looks like in your gym. Walk people through the experience of doing an actual workout. The third video should detail how to get started. That can be your scheduling, your pricing, and the exact next step that you want a prospect to take. Another incredible piece of conversion content is social proof. So the way most gym owners do social proof now is they'll take a photo of a Google review, maybe take a quote of it and put it in a Canva template or just post a picture of the Google review. And while that is a great first step, if you're doing nothing, it's only marginally better than doing nothing. Me personally, when I'm scrolling through a business that I'm looking to purchase from, if they have those type of testimonials, I just kind of assume they're generic and don't really take the time to read through them word for word. One way you can elevate that type of testimonial is with a simple whiteboard. So what you'll do is you'll get a picture of a member and a coach, and they're literally just holding a blank whiteboard like I'm showing here. And afterwards, you can literally write whatever you want in the whiteboard. So you can see in this example that the images, like the text on the whiteboard was added digitally. So you can make an infinite combination of social proof and testimonials using this as a template. Another great way to do that is to host a podium week at your gym where you're just setting up a place for your clients to test their fitness and win. And then you stand them on a plyo box, like it's a podium and hand them the whiteboard and they put their biggest win on there. And we recommend something called Bright Spots Friday in two-brain business, where it's something when you're doing the warmup in your gym, you're just going around the circle and saying, hey, what's one win you had? And naturally things within the gym are gonna surface. And after class, you can just say like, hey, Sally, come here. And coach and Sally holding the whiteboard, boom, you got the picture, you have the template that you can use there. You can even have a list of all the bright spots, all the wins from the week on a bigger whiteboard at your gym and just take a picture of the members standing and pointing to their back squat PR or their first pull-up. Another great form of social proof is before and after testimonials. And when I say before and after testimonials, a lot of people think like, you know, someone who's like overweight and bad lighting to like the digitally altered six-pack abs. And while that is incredibly effective, most gyms don't have that type of social proof. One of the easiest things you can do is member interviews. One twist that I recommend for these member interviews is having the coach in the frame with a client. Because a lot of times if you take a camera and you point it at one of your members, they just freeze and kind of stutter and stammer and doesn't lend itself well to great video content. And by having the coach in the frame, it makes the member more at ease and it can have more of a natural conversation vibe. And you can ask simple questions like, what brought you to my gym? What were you struggling with before you got here? What's the vibe like? How are you feeling now that you've been at the gym? What would you say to yourself if you were thinking of starting again? Like what's one word you would use to describe the gym? And you can just pepper them with questions and you don't have to publish the whole thing. You can cut these and kind of stack them back to back to back to back. So then you can showcase like 10 members asking the same question. And that becomes a raw material that you can cut up and distribute in a million different forms of social proof. My favorite way to get these is when I'm doing a goal review with somebody and I will say, are you completely satisfied with your progress? And they say, yes. And I'll pull out my camera and say, I really feel like your story is so inspirational that it might help somebody else. Are you comfortable sharing that story? And then they'll say, okay, okay. And then I'll fix their hair or whatever. And then I'll say, what brought you to my gym? What's your favorite catalyst memory? And what advice would you give to the person you were a year ago? And quite often that one elicits tears. People forget what they felt like when they were joining the gym, but that is exactly what the viewer is feeling right now. And that storytelling really helps them bridge the gap. So to summarize, conversion content is anything that is more likely to take someone who's just familiar with your business and turn them into a buyer. The next piece is something my friend, Mr. Chris Cooper is really good at. It is called connection content. Chris, explain what connection content is. Connection content is showing people who you are because before they'll buy what you're selling, they'll buy who you are. And so this is the place where you get to humbly demonstrate things that you're into, the client journey, like the gym owner journey. You get to show yourself doing other things. You get to show your dog, you get to show maybe your kids, your family. And what you're doing is you're demonstrating your humanity. That's what connecting is really all about with your connection-based content. So while you are bragging up your clients in the previous content that John just talked about, you're not bragging up yourself. If anything, you're laughing at yourself. What stops a lot of gym owners from putting their own face on their content is like, well, geez, I'm not the fittest person here. I'm not the fastest cyclist, or I'm not very good at this. That's what you want. You want to show yourself screwing up, failing. The people who followed. Two Brain Business from the beginning, the earliest blog posts were all everything that. I had screwed up. And to this day, those are some of their favorite things. And so my own. Instagram feed is usually me falling down on things. And I have some fun examples here that we can talk through. So if you look at the first video here, it is someone who had a staff meeting, and then they brought out a vertical jump plate to see who on the staff could jump the highest. The second video is one of our tinkers talking about his love for white monster. And then the third video is another Two Brain tinker singing karaoke and just showing just kind of their fun side. In this next example, a Two Brain client has been doing a day in a life series. So once a week, he showcases an entire day of what it's like running the gym. So he talks about what he's eating, opening the gym, who he's training that day, what type of stuff they were working through, setting the gym up, what the workout is, and just showcases a behind the scenes that makes you like the guy because you're seeing how much he cares about the client and how hard he works. That's really the key here is you want to show people things that will help them like you. Nobody wants to be around an unlikable person. So you don't want to have a thing of like, here's how hard it is to be a gym owner or make posts about how hard gym is for you. Nobody wants to be around that person. You want to show yourself being fun, laughing at yourself, and just being easy to be around. And you can do this with carousels too. I know a lot of you struggle with talking on camera. Carousels are a great way to showcase a story over time. The one I have up here is an example of why running a gym is hard. And it showcases all the different milestones. So like getting their first member, hiring their first staff member, getting their first thank you note. And it ends with running a gym is hard, but it's the most rewarding thing in the world, and it performed really well. Another example of a carousel that I've seen is before and after. So here's a gym in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and you can see the improvements and the money going back into the gym and the equipment that the gym owner was purchasing, and stuff like that just makes the gym owner likable. So it's not just going to this evil corporation. You can see that the money's going back into the gym to make the member experience better. Yeah, you don't have to go overboard to prove that you are a good person. You are a good person. You're a kind person. People like you. They want to be around you. Just show yourself doing things, and more people will understand that. So let your freak flag fly. So show us who you really are. That's what connection content is. The next piece is value content. Chris, what is value content? Value is basically helping people first by giving them value before they return that value with money. So you help them by giving them tips, knowledge, information, because that's not what we sell. Tips, knowledge, information, these things are free, but you're the filter for giving them the truth. So you're going to give them, here's recipes. Here's how to shop for yourself. Here's the first three exercises that you can do at home. Here's how to avoid the common mistakes that people make when they're joining a gym. Things that your audience wants to hear. Then the next step is that they return that value by coming into your gym and being coached, which is what you actually sell. We call this help first. I wrote a book about it. And the key is understanding what it's like to be in your client's shoes and giving them the information that they need to take the first step. So what's the source material for these value posts? It's the clients themselves. It's doing the client interviews. It's doing the goal reviews. I tend to overthink things and I want to write podcasts about metabolism and mitochondria. And my clients don't care about that. They care about not looking stupid the first time they show up to the gym. So for example, if you have 15 members ask you, how do I eat protein in the airport? A great reel is, here's how I eat protein when I'm traveling. Another example is if you train golfers and you know like a three exercise routine that'll help them drive 15 yards further. That is a great example of a value-based piece of content. We have a lot of gym owners in Two Brain who are new parents and they struggle to work out. And if they have members who are new parents who are like, I'm having trouble getting to work out. And it's like, here's how I work out as a busy business owner and new parent. These are all simple things that you can speak from experience. Or if it's something where you've answered a member question 30, 40, 50 times, just make a reel, put it on the internet and try and be as helpful and succinct as possible. If you commit to doing this every day, you'll find that you're actually looking for these things in your gym. And so when somebody raises their hand and say, how come I feel dizzy every time I deadlift? That's a piece of content that will help everybody else, not just the person asking it. And so very soon you'll be just overwhelmed with ideas. Speaking of overwhelm, we've thrown a lot at you right now. And this is Marketing May. It's meant to be tactical. We want to give you a framework for implementing this in your business today. And while Chris said you should be posting every single day, the first step is posting anything. Where we recommend starting is three pieces of content for the entire week. You're going to do one conversion-based piece of content. This can be a social proof post, or it can be one of the big three videos that we talked about for your pin post. One connection-based piece of content. So this can be showcasing something fun about you or your staff, or showing a day in the life behind the scenes of running the gym. And then a value-based piece of content. So this can be just answering a question that you receive a lot from your members. Now that you have your posting strategy, we need to talk about your story strategy. Posts are all about reaching new audience in your area, where stories are about connecting with your existing audience. It's showing behind the scenes, a little personal story. I became much more active on Instagram when. I took over as CEO in January. Before that, Chris was the star of the show and we let Chris shine. And my first month of posting, so if some of you aren't super active on social media, you can expect similar results. I got 100,000 views. 50,000 came from my posts. 50,000 came from my stories. So almost as many views from the stories as from the posts. And why stories are great is in posts, it feels like, there was a tweet I saw, it was like, it feels like it's dropping an album. There's a lot of pressure where stories are very low pressure. You don't have to deliver that information in the most succinct way possible. And the best thing is all you really need to do is show your work. There's so much happening in your gym day-to-day that you can showcase and share. With your member base. Chris, what are some examples of stories that gym owners can do to give the members a peek behind the scenes and make them connect a little more with the gym owner? I've got five ideas you can start with. The first is behind the scenes. People are always curious about what goes on in business and they can find themselves watching your story about, here's me opening the gym. Here's what I ate for breakfast on a busy day. Here's how I fit my own work in, et cetera. Another great one is member moments. Just pulling out your camera and recording. Somebody achieving something like brag them up. There's nowhere else in your client's life where they get to feel famous or even here you're doing a great job and you've got the platform to do that. So put a spotlight on them. A third idea is coach personality. When people are signing up for a coaching gym or even before they even understand what that is, they need to see who is the person who will be working with me. Do I want to work with them? Are they fun to be around? And I think like that's a great one to do too, is just highlight a coach's personality. Here's. Zachary doing something funny or something, you know, really awesome. It can be something as simple as like fun facts. So we did this at the last Tinker meetup and it's like one of the gym owners had a collection of 200 bobbleheads. Another one was a professional golfer previously. The other one was a bassist in a metal band. And these are all things, these are people I've worked with, you know, for three to five years in some cases had no idea about them. And so it's just like a fun way to help your members connect with coaches in a way they otherwise wouldn't in a class setting. Yeah. A fourth one that I really love is community and culture. So a lot of us after a group class, everybody just goes around and high fives everybody else. Way to go. I mean, that's an amazing story to tell that you're getting something out of this other than just the workout. And when we, we talk about community, most people don't really know what that means, but showing them everybody's supportive. Everybody wants you to win. That is really what's going to sink into their unconscious. And then the fifth one is micro education. And that's, it's basically like, Hey, it's coach Chris here. Here's something that I see happening a lot with the teenage athletes I coach or, Hey, it's coach Chris here. And you know, three times this week, I've had this question. How do I talk to my kids about food? This was literally a post that I made last week after a parent emailed me to say, I'm worried that my kid is addicted to working out. That's fantastic content. You're not just helping that parent, you're helping everybody. And if you're looking for a place to start, I recommend the three by five method. So three stories a day, at least five days a week. It's some of the easiest content you'll ever make and your members are gonna love it. Like we mentioned in the beginning, the goal of social media is to grow our gym. I have a saying within T-Brain that's more conversations equals more conversions. So the more people you talk to about your gym, the more members you're going to get. Now, a lot of people think social media is the stuff you see, the posts, the stories. But the reality is that's the tip of the iceberg. Where the real magic happens is the conversations that happen in your DMs. This is called sell by chat. And it's not as hard as a lot of people make it out to be. It's just having natural conversations with prospects about your gym. Chris, what are some ways gym owners can go about sell by chat? Well, if you've got a new follower, for example, the human thing to do is to reach out to them and say, hey, thanks for following. How's your fitness? Or thanks for following. Is there something that specific that you're looking for? Some advice that I can give you. If I was standing in a coffee line and somebody turned and introduced themselves and. I said, yeah, I'm Chris and I own Catalyst Gym, the natural follow-up to that introduction would be, do you belong to a gym right now? That's just how you make normal human conversation. What we need to understand is that coaching doesn't begin when they book their first session and pay for a membership. Coaching begins the first time you meet somebody and you have the opportunity to change their lives. And you can take them by the hand and guide them on a path eventually showing up for your gym. And that's what conversation and human communication is for. Now we're just using a different medium, which is selling by chat. You're texting with them. So as soon as you have a like, a comment, even a new follower, introduce yourself, ask a question about how you can help them. And social media is instinctively social. And it doesn't need to be with prospective clients. It can be with old clients. So reach out to your alumni. You probably follow all your previous members and you see what they're accomplishing. Shout them out, ask how they're doing, shoot them a message. Hey, the noon class was thinking about you today. How's it going? And a lot of those conversations can lead to reactivations. Also, you have all your existing members. Don't be shy about reaching out to them and having a conversation. It's not necessarily sales-based. You're literally just connecting with the member base and good things happen when you have those conversations. If you're looking for a starting point, we recommend three new conversations a day. So my favorite example of bringing a client back into my gym was we used to send Christmas cards to every single person who'd been at my gym all year. And what I used to do was put a funny nickname into the mailing address of the card. So one of this was Chris Hitman and then his last name, right, in quotation marks. And he loved that so much that he immediately came right back to the gym. They called me Hitman there. But you can do that every day. Like every day can be a Christmas card that you send for free now. And just this morning, my GM at the gym printed out a list of clients who had deactivated their memberships in the last six months. And we started just reaching out to five a day. How's it going? Is your fitness better or worse than when you were a member at the gym? And one of the members immediately sent me back a picture of her four-month-old baby, which was amazing. Her name's Leslie. And so we had a conversation. I said, you know, where's your older kid? And she texted me a picture of her older kid. And, you know, of course, that's naturally, at some point, going to lead to her coming back into the gym because she feels cared about. And we're still paying attention, even though she's not paying us money. So we covered a lot. Let's go over the entire playbook. So we're going to do three posts a week, one conversion content, one connection content, one value piece of content. Then we're going to follow the three-by-five method. So we're going to post three stories a day for at least five days a week. And then we know more conversations equals more conversions. So we want to reach out to three people a day to have a conversation about the gym. This doesn't have to be new followers. It can be alumni or existing members. The idea is just to build a genuine connection and talk about fitness, which is your area of expertise. John and I obviously get really excited about this stuff. We've been doing it for a long time and we like to go deep. But if you're in that camp of never posting anything to social media, 80% of your gains are going to come from consistency. What I want you to do is book three appointments with yourself this week, block 15 minutes in your calendar, post something. Three times this week, use the method that John shared, post a story, make a post, whatever that is, get in the habit and build that consistency first, and then you can worry about perfection later. And that concludes this episode of Run a Profitable Gym. If you got value out of this, please like and subscribe. And we'll be back next week to talk about Chris's favorite topic, content.