Let's face it for the last couple of years its been really easy to market on Facebook if you were a personal trainer or gym owner.
You could easily set up a landing page with an application form, throw up a few before and after pictures and voila…..
Anyone could do it, but then Facebook decided to change the rules and I personally think that this is a good thing.
The Facebook grim reaper is currently pulling the plug on lost of ad accounts because the rules are changing and a lot of fit pros don't even realise why and it got the whole fitness industry into a blind panic.
It's like a sort of Facebook apocalypse
Things that you used to be able to get a way with are now 100% out.
- Before and after pics
- You can't make claims about weight loss either in the ad or the landing page
- Ads straight to application forms are in my opinion a no no.
- Ads to certain types of squeeze and landing pages
- Ads that don't give value before they ask for information (huge).
It's not even just the ads that are under scrutiny.
It's the websites and the landing pages, they must have privacy policies and contact details.
Facebook want to know that you are real business serving real people and they want to make sure that Facebook users are not being duped or misled, which is fair enough because it's their playing field and they make the rules up.
Huge Changes
I honestly think that we are on the cusp of some huge changes in the way we have market our fitness businesses especially on social media.
Facebook marketing in particular is changing at an unrivaled fast pace and the future of this is that we have to give before we ask.
Nothing New
We have to give before we ask, but then that's nothing new.
Marketing, especially online should always be about giving before asking for something, even if you are just asking for an email address.
The trainers that put out great quality content that engages their readers are going to be the winners in this game. In fact, if you don't put out great quality content that engages your target market then you can forget about even playing this game. This isn't a new concept, it happened with Google a few years ago when it was really easy to rank sites with poor quality content stuffed with keywords.
I know this because I was able to do it. Google decided, just like Facebook is now that it wanted its users to be directed to the stuff they actually wanted to find, so they pulled the plug on a lot of accounts and banned a shed load of sites from being indexed. (Including some of mine) Facebook is just following suit. It's a case of history repeating itself.
What can you do?
Blogging is going to become even more important if you want to build your business online. Tracking and retargeting people who have been on your blogs and on your website is gong to be really important especially if you want to keep your cost per lead down and play the Facebook game.
The good news is that those of us who do this and give value and learn this stuff will benefit even more because most of the industry will give up on Facebook and that in itself will create more trust and more opportunities for the rest of us.
Update:
- I don't recommend that you send cold Facebook traffic (people who have never heard of you ) to squeeze or landing pages, instead target people who already know who you are using your blogs and Facebooks custom audience and tracking feature.
- When you do send people to a squeeze page, make sure you have enough on there to keep them engaged, so if you are sending them to a landing page for a 3 part video series then why not show them video 1 before you ask for their email address.
- No auto playing videos allowed on landing pages in the heath and fitness niche so make sure your video has controls.
I really believe that this is a great time to be learning this stuff and anyone doing this now will be way ahead of the most of the competition in your town because most wont even bother.
Liam
InternetFitpro.com
Helping Personal Trainers and Fitpros Build Their Businesses Online