Boutique Fitness Marketing: How-to Leverage Search, Social, & Signage
Gone are the days when you had a steady stream of new customers for your boutique fitness studio because you’re the closest or best (or only!) option in town.
Maybe relying on referrals just isn’t doing as well as it used to? If that’s you, you’re not alone—there was a time when having a great reputation and great services was enough to bring new clients in the door. Many studio owners simply didn’t need to worry about a boutique fitness marketing plan.
Here in 2023, things have changed, and to stand out, you need to ensure you’re marketing so new clients can find you.
It all comes down to being visible, which starts with my three-step framework, which includes:
Search
Social
Signage
To help you create your boutique fitness marketing plan, we’ll look at those three areas and how those apply to your business.
Part One: Search
We’ll start with search. As a local business, it’s critical to be found in search results quickly and easily to get in front of new people.
Clients that find you via a Google search are some of the best possible clients to get as they have a specific problem and are usually ready to sign up or buy from you. Your search marketing needs to start with understanding your client's needs.
Understanding Local SEO
Before we can start putting strategies in place to get found in search, we need to define what the real people are typing into Google to find a business like yours.
What search terms do you most importantly want to get found for in the search results? The answer to that is usually a location PLUS a service. For example, they may type “Boise + Pilates” in the search bar.
Your turn: define what services and location search terms you want to be found for.
Google uses something called “local buying intent, " meaning it understands you’re looking for a local solution. In response, Google will show the “local pack,” the map with the pins and local profiles.
Those profiles are your Google Business Profile, and every business can have one (it’s free). In fact, if you don’t create your profile, chances are Google will create one for you!
Your Google Business Profile is a property that Google maintains and it stays on Google but will provide a link to your website and other key information.
Optimizing Your Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile is a valuable piece of digtial property for your business—Google shows these listings near the top of the search results page—so you’ll want to give it a little love.
First, you want to claim it if you haven’t already. Your profile is tied to your physical street address. You can go to google.com/business, or just find your profile in the search results if you don't already own it. You’ll find where you can indicate you’re the business owner and then claim it.
Once you've claimed it, you need to fill out every possible thing on your Google Business Profile, including:
Google search results page showing Google Business Profile listings above website listings
Add or update photos (don't replace old photos; just keep them in there, and add new ones)
Add service descriptions and “starting at” prices
Ensure hours of operation are correct
Add features
Add frequently asked questions and answer them yourself
Once that’s done, set a reminder for yourself to go back regularly and see if they've added any new questions you can answer. You want to show Google you’re an engaged and active business owner. By doing this, your boutique fitness marketing will benefit continuously.
Another way to improve your presence on Google is to regularly respond to reviews — good reviews, bad reviews, or whatever. They favor active and engaged businesses and want to show you higher in the search results.
Check Your Website SEO
Next, we're going to focus on website SEO.
In Google, below the search results, where you see the map, you’ll see a list of websites ranking on the search results page.
You want to ensure you’re coming up as high as possible in those results. You want to outrank your competition, so Google needs to know your primary service and location.
If your location or primary service words are hard to find on your website, it won’t help Google find you. I've been on a ton of websites where I have to go digging on their site even to find where they're located, so if that's you, then you’re literally hiding from Google.
To remedy that, you want to ensure that your homepage has your primary service and location keywords on them:
Your page title
The heading
Your location (this should be an exact match with your Google Business Profile)
Other Areas to Update
Map view on Instagram. Instagram is also a search engine!
Now that we've got the basics down with Google, you've optimized your Google Business Profile and homepage; what else should you look at? What are the other search engines?
There are a ton of search engines out there. Anything with a search bar that people might be looking for is a search engine, including social media platforms such as Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. You can rank in search on these platforms with your primary service keyword and the location, but you've got to make that information readily available to the platform.
Other search engines are local directories, so check with your local chamber of commerce to see if you can be included. Your specific industry may have a directory, so you’ll want to be listed there if they do.
We talk a lot about Google because it's probably the most important, but there are other local directories and other search engines out there that you want to ensure you have that combination of those keywords in place as well.
Part Two: Social
Social should be part of your overall boutique fitness marketing strategy—and getting this type of visibility is about connecting with people.
This isn’t just about your social media but building relationships in real life as well as online. This can take many forms, but here are a few places to start.
The first is local collaborations. This is where you partner with complementary businesses in your area for joint promotions. This can be anywhere if you're a fitness business partnering with a wellness business, nutrition business, or anything related. When considering co-promotions, the key is that your clients and their clients find value.
Another opportunity to be social is through media events. If you can contribute to local media, ask for a link back to your business website because that will help your SEO. Media opportunities help you get visibility with a new audience, from a local TV appearance to a radio interview.
Next up is referrals. You already know how powerful referrals can be, but you want to ensure you’re thinking of ways to ensure people keep bringing you new clients.
Here are two ways to help you boost your referrals:
Guest passes. Look at your guest pass process. Do you make it easy for people to bring a friend? Consider how you can get your happy clients to bring you new people.
Free events. Free events like open house events or out in the community, like working out in the park, are amazing promotional opportunities. These things might take time to plan, but they are a great way to allow your current members and clients to invite their friends.
Your Social Media Presence
Great boutique fitness marketing is all about getting seen; of course, social media can play an important role.
Social media comes down to two different types: organic and paid. You're probably most used to organic, and it’s all about community building and connecting with people.
For organic social, time is the primary resource required here, as you must consistently create and post new content.
On the other hand, paid social ads target a specific group of people focusing on getting them to take a specific action. With ads, the biggest resource needed is a budget.
Remember that organic and paid social are very different, which means whoever does one may not be skilled with the other. If you find someone who can do both, that's amazing, but just to be aware, it's two different strategies, and most service providers who offer social media work only do one or the other.
So, how do you ensure your social media efforts get results?
It starts with thinking about who’s seeing this content right now. What are you trying to sell? Why would they care? What you want to do is match the messages to the right people so that you grab their attention.
You need to be different to get people to stop their scroll. The easiest way to be different is to get specific, and you can only do that if you’re clear on who is on the other end. Focus on figuring out who uses your services and why they use them. That will help you ensure you’re creating content they want to see, cutting through the noise.
Audit Your Website
Next, you need to audit your website through the lens of your social visibility or social marketing efforts. If you’re sending people to your website from everything you're doing in the world socially — referrals, community events, media hits, social media — what’s the path for people to become new clients? Is it clear to them?
Keep in mind that they could be coming from various sources, so when they land on your website homepage, is the path to becoming a new client clear? Look for that path and make sure it's clear and it walks people through becoming new clients.
Your website should be client-focused, trying to reach out and connect with the visitor. Even if someone comes from the best referral, they won't be excited about your business if it doesn’t resonate with THEM, and they might just click away and find something else to do.
So, are your photos showing real people in your classes experiencing your services, and do you have memorable messaging that will also interest them? If not, it’s time to make some updates.
Part Three: Signage
The last boutique fitness marketing tactic we're looking at is signage.
Signage is all about being seen. It's really fun because it's old-school but can still be very effective. It's usually a fairly low-cost investment that can be around for years to come.
Best of all, signage can amplify a good location or help a bad one.
Photo Walls
A modern take on signage that I've noticed recently is that the strongest brands I see on the internet all have a photo wall in their studio. This is a well-lit corner of their studio where they have something on the wall that will connect with their ideal customer.
You'll notice with these examples that none of them are business logos; they're all sayings or inspirational images, places to hang out with their friends, or something that connects with the ideal client. The goal is to get the client to take a picture of themself and share it on their social media feed.
If you can find a spot in your studio for this, and it's readily available to take pictures, you'll find that people take pictures of themselves in front of it and share it on their feeds. That's free marketing for you!
It can be a great way to get your business's signage out there in a modern way that's not just your logo.
The Power of QR Codes
Right now, we're seeing a lot of creative QR code use in the industry. QR codes can be used in a ton of different ways, including:
On posters
On flyers
For how-to videos or guides
Basically, a QR code is just a direct link to a specific URL, so if you have a page on your website that you want them to go to, you can put it in a QR code. Then you can use that QR code wherever you want. You can even use them to send people directly to things like Google review request links, Spotify playlists, or guided meditations.
Auditing Your Signage
landing page example for yoga studio promotion
Think about if you were to have a QR code on a postcard or a poster — where would you send people to your website? Where would you send them with that link?
More often than not, a landing page is a great idea for this. A landing page is a focused page on your website with one goal where the prospective buyer can get all the information they need to make an informed buying decision. For most studios, you will first want to create a landing page for your intro offer, as it’s the first step for new clients to engage with your business.
Your landing page should include things like:
Why would someone want to choose your studio?
What the introductory offer is, and what’s included
Client testimonials
Frequently asked questions
A call to action
If you’re not just starting and have an established studio and website, consider how to add to or improve the “Start Here” page. Review your current page and quickly see if you have the right content. If not, create a plan to add to the page and make it a one-stop shop for new clients to get all the information they need to get started with your studio.
Get Your Boutique Fitness Marketing in Order Starting Now
Now that we’ve covered so much about boutique fitness marketing, you might feel overwhelmed with where to start.
So let’s prioritize what you should focus on.
#1. Build out your Google Business Profile. This is free; this is top-level real estate on Google. This is where people are first going to find you if they're searching to find more about your business or if they're searching to find a business like yours in their area, so we want those people to know about you!
#2. Optimize your website homepage. Focus on the three areas we covered above. I've had plenty of clients who didn't have their keywords in those three spots, but once they added them, they jumped way up in the search results. It’ll only take a few minutes, so add that information right now!
#3. Optimize your social media profiles. You’re already engaging people on those social media profiles and probably putting a lot of work into them. So make sure you close that loop and bring them back to your website by putting those keywords in there so they know you're a real business. Also, put a link back to your website so people can easily learn more.
By focusing on these three quick-win tasks and working out from there, you’ll be well on your way to leveling up your boutique fitness marketing and ensuring your business gets seen in all the right places.
Looking for ways to improve your boutique fitness marketing?
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