Many companies have changed in the past year, due to the pandemic. We talked about some of the clothing companies that were launched and ways other fashion entrepreneurs can do well during the pandemic.
However, there are more important business ideas that deserve attention during the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn more attention to the crucial role played by physical exercise in boosting immunity against illness.
As collectively revealed in studies referenced by The Conversation, physical inactivity leads to over five million premature deaths every year – but exercising for 30 minutes five days a week slashes the risk of becoming ill and dying from infectious diseases by 37%.
Still, if you run a fitness brand, you should heed that health-conscious customers can be a surprisingly elusive bunch for marketers. So, what should you do?
Build a profile of your target customer
According to a study mentioned by Delaware Business Times, Generation Z – generally, people currently aged about 20 or younger – is the age group most concerned about wellness. Most members of your brand’s target audience will be in the 18-34 age bracket.
You should keep this in mind when trying to discern where to place your advertising. Which places – both online and offline – do these people tend to spend a lot of time even when not purposefully exercising?
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You also need to make sure that you can keep in touch with these customers. Therefore, it is important to make sure that this is a customer demographic that can be easy to stay in contact with.
Don’t say anything you can’t back up
In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulates claims companies can make when marketing fitness products. Hence, if you are marketing any such products in the US, you can’t make any claims about their benefits if you are unable to cite supporting evidence, Neil Patel warns.
However, no matter where your fitness brand advertises, it must take note that the health-conscious demographic is accustomed to independently checking the authenticity of marketing claims anyway.
Find out what sites your target customers frequent
They might use certain social media sites more than others; the image-heavy focus of Instagram, for example, is an obvious place for people to show off muscle they have built in the gym.
There might also be certain influencers who, on social media, often give fitness tips to their followers. Why not contact these influencers to see if they would be interested in enthusing to their followers about your products?
Advertise in places where people work out – or are likely to do so
There could be many fitness centers perfectly filling to advertise your products on video screens and at information desks. Naturally, though, people don’t always have to visit a dedicated fitness center to exercise; they could, for example, go for a run along a footpath.
For this reason, you shouldn’t overlook the potential of what is called ‘out of home advertising’. This includes advertising on the roadside, at bus shelters and on high streets.
Include a strong visual element in your advertising
It might sound like a cliché to include, say, a close-up of someone’s six-pack in a fitness ad – but fitness buffs do want to know how your products could help them. So, why not literally show them – such as by posting instruction videos and, where they are permitted, before-and-after photos?
While Facebook has banned the use of such transformation pictures in ads posted on the platform, you should investigate where you would actually be able to show these images.