How to Work with Fitness Coaches

There are five levels of health and fitness businesses on social media:

1. Big audience, targeted content, big money.
2. Big audience, unfocused content, okay money.
3. Medium audience, “hit and miss” content, average money.
4. Small audience, targeted content, great money potential.
5. Small audience, unfocused content, jack all money.

The problem with this entrepreneurial fitness “ladder” — most accounts don’t know how to move up to the next (let alone the TOP) level.

That’s where copywriters can help.

Small tweaks can yield huge results.

There are plenty of things fitness accounts think they need. The “marketing system.” The techie stuff. The creative and graphics. The reporting. The planning. Implementing strategy.

But none of this matters if you don’t get this first bit right.

Of all the people and businesses I’ve worked with and all the words I’ve written . . . it’s the one thing still remains almost totally overlooked by most.

Yet the moment you fully grasp the implications of this one driving principle, your attitude about building a health and fitness business will change forever.

Fitness Positioning

When you get your positioning right, you don’t need to make bigger and better claims. All you have to do is offer a result you are confident you can deliver. If your positioning is tight and speaks to your target market, price objections vanish.

I’m going to show you 5 ways you can help health and fitness specialists position themselves to win.

But first, here’s what NOT to do:

I’m giving examples, not calling people out. Still, here are some bios that are great examples of bad positioning. Or worse, no positioning. No differentiation whatsoever:

“Tips and facts about stretching”

“I write on fitness and lifestyle design.”

“Nutrition and fitness coach.”

“I teach people how to build muscle, lose fat, and create the physique of their dreams.”

“Online fitness trainer.”

“Helping men lose fat and build muscle.”

“Online fitness and nutrition coach.”

“Unlock peak performance.”

“Biohacker.”

“Turn on my post notifications.”

I could go on, but you get the jist. The confusing thing? Some of these accounts have respectable followings, despite having no positioning.

Why?

Because they are attractive people with wholesome content. Followers come easy. And they appear to be doing well. But are they making good money?

No.

I know this because I’ve spoken to them. They have big followings, reach and influence. But there is so much that can be improved. Case in point: one fitness specialist I spoke to had a combined audience across social media (Twitter, Instagram and Facebook) of nearly 1 million followers. How much money had he made in the past year from these accounts?

Less than $35,000.

That’s about 0.035 cents per follower per year.

Tragic.

If they have something about them and have put together a digital product at a sensible price, they’ll do okay. But most of their businesses amount to nothing more than scrappy payments from affiliate links on their Linktrees. Or they’re obsessed with building a YouTube and using other social media accounts to funnel people there.

Criminal.

Okay, here we go . . .

How to Work With Fitness Coaches

Health and fitness is a sophisticated market, so people don’t respond well to “bigger and better” claims. What they do respond to is different. I don’t recommend being different for different’s sake. It’s more about massaging what’s already going on in their heads.

You need to re-tie old loops.

If, like me, you like playing the long game, you understand that true power or “influence” comes from traits such as honesty, compassion, and dedication to enhancing other people’s lives.

So no tricks or gimmicks:

Here are some direct, honest, and simple ways of helping fitness accounts position themselves in a way that will make people want to follow and buy.

Common Resentments

There are many ways to lose weight. Counting calories works, but it’s not much fun. In fact, if it weren’t so fiddly and soul-destroying, more people would do it. There are millions of people out there who’ve tried to lose weight by counting calories and failed. So when always shirtless 5% bodyfat Alex Feinberg calls himself “The Calorie Ignorer,” it’s winning positioning.

Ultimate Triumph

People don’t want to lose weight just for the sake of it. They want the secondary emotion that losing weight brings, whether its self-confidence or status or power. Mostly, it comes down to fear and desire. But for some there is a single vision. A great example if this is Gabe Pluguez, who is “getting men healthy for their family.” Another example could be getting women back into their wedding dress for their ten-year anniversary.

Objection Handling

In his bio, P.D. Mangan does a great job of crushing three of the main objections people have about losing weight. He says, “Get lean, fit and 2x your energy without counting calories, doing cardio or going keto.” You don’t have to do any of these 3 things to lose weight and yet they remain popular for reasons we don’t need to get into here.

Missing Pieces

Credit to my friend JK Molina for bringing this one to my attention. For every ten people who hate the idea of counting calories, there is one who’s quite into it. In fact, they love a good spreadsheet. They love tracking calories, sleep, and body fat percentage on their digital scales. They are sold on the idea of the quantified self. Peyton Cox positions himself as “An engineer using data to help men lose weight.” If you’re an engineer, you’ve been waiting for someone to say the way to lose weight is to use data. Peyton’s now your guy. You don’t want to buy from anyone else.

Big Ideas & Devices

One of my favorite health and fitness accounts (and someone who’s trained me personally) is Alex Bernier. Great guy. You’ll notice he doesn’t build his bio around a detailed offer. There’s no specific promise or timeframe. But there is a BIG IDEA: “Sovereign Fitness.” This works because it suggests a unique service with an emotionally compelling result. With devices, you’ll often see a unique name attached to the method. An example of this you are free to steal and adapt: “I make fitness businesses healthy by turning followers into high-paying clients with my “3P Framework.”

Conclusion

If you’ve seen the Copy Custard video about working with coaches, you’ll appreciate the point I make about certain offers being sub-optimal unless you first work out the positioning. Coaches can be great people for copywriters to work with as long-term clients. My top recommendation? Focus on improving their positioning before you write any fresh copy or get into the recommended offers. 

This is the real gateway.