Internet marketing has become the best and most cost effective way to create awareness about your fitness business and increase product demand as well as generating leads for your business. As personal trainers and boot camps continue to understand the potential of online marketing, the demand for Internet marketing services and service companies should continue to increase.
Here are some of my prediction for 2013 in terms of online marketing for fitness professionals (any anyone else really).
Local Search to be more important than ever
About 5 years ago Google shifted towards providing searchers with locally relevant search results. The majority of searches at the time were found to actually be looking for results in their local area, so Google decided to service that need. This move reinvented the way people search and the way marketers approach their marketing strategies. In 2012, Google made the switch from Google Places to Google+ Local. 2013 will see the expansion and further implementation of search engine updates to better serve the demand for local results. If you own a local personal training business yo will need to maximise your local search marketing efforts in order to capture as much local market share for you fitness business as possible. You can check out my article on Google local from a few months ago for more information on this and also how to set up a Google local account for your fitness or personal training business if you don't already have one..
Just to reiterate that this is vital if you have a local personal training business or boot camp yo will need this to get any sort of decent ranking on Google pluse reviews from your happy customers and clients.
Tablets and smartphones on the rise
It’s no coincidence that Apple recently launched its iPad Mini while Samsung keeps coming up with varying sizes and models of its popular Galaxy range in the tablet category. Google has also entered the market with its Nexus 7 while even Microsoft decided to join the party with its highly anticipated Surface and Amazon are now on board with the Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD. Tablets are stealing away market share from desktops and laptops, with an estimated 90 million consumers in the US to own one by 2014. Your website must be optimised for these devices otherwise you are going to be missing out on a lot of business.
If you are looking at a new theme make sure its a reponsive theme, which means that it will workout what browser your visitors are using and display the best theme for them.
The death of Pinterest and the rise of Google +
Personally I don't think that Pinterst has caught on as much as many people had predicted, and I would recommend focusing your social media efforts on Facebook, Twitter and 2013 could be an important year for Google +, all of which will be important when it comes to your rankings in Google
Incidentally in terms of SEO you should be putting links back to your website on all social media sites especially linkedin which gives the best return in terms of link juice
Easy access to email, makes email marketing the best way to market to potential clients.
E-mail is still a big form of online communication. Every day, there are new and faster ways to communicate in the World Wide Web, but as we move into 2013, email are still be a big thing when it comes to communication. One might think that it is a passé thing but it will still occupy a big chunk of marketing campaigns of products and services. his is especially true as smart-phone use in on the rise and most people check their emails on them. Faith in email marketing as a customer acquisition channel will increase, so if you are not using email as a marketing tool you are leaving a lot of cash on the table. Check out my article froma few weeks ago on what tools you can use in the blog.
Also you are interested in learning more about email marketing check out this course from Andre Chaperon called Auto Responder Madness.
Ebooks and Kindle as a list builder
The Amazon Kindle store is not one the the best places to sell or give away your eBook I personally like the idea of using your eBook as a list builder which you should be doing anyway, however adding it to the kindle store can open up your business to a whole new audience.
Good luck with your online marketing efforts in 2013 or your fitness business and keep an eye out for the case study I will be putting together this year to show yo how to set-up your own online fitness product, launch it and successfully market it.