Website Design Dictionary

Think of your “brand” as the face and brain of your company. The face is the first thing that people look at, and if you do a good job, it is what they will remember when they think of you, just as your brand is what people will see and how they will remember your company. The brain controls everything your body does, just as your brand will control all the content you create and how you get people to the read the content in the first place (this will be your email marketing and social media optimization).

Imagine how many times you go online to research a product or service before you take any steps to buy anything? Content Marketing makes your business a resource, not just a place to buy stuff. When you’re a resource, you become the expert, and experts garner all the trust and re- spect that you need to sell people on your fitness product or service.

Email Marketing helps you instantly connect with people who want your information. In terms of this system, it will be a core com- ponent in gaining the traffic you need to sell your products and services. In relation to Content Marketing, the content you create will drive the information provided through your email campaigns.

I recommend that you choose between two different email platforms depending on your situation: Mad Mimi or Mail Chimp. Below are some of the advantages and disadvantages to each.

Mad Mini

Mad Mimi is extremely user friendly and will allow you to quickly create attractive looking emails whether you have graphic design skills or not. It uses a straight forward drag and drop system that can be quickly customized. If you are new to email marketing, this is the easiest solution. It also features a way to quickly design and embed sign up forms within your website. http://www.MadMimi.com

Mail Chimp

Mail Chimp may be one of the most widely used email hosting platforms online, especially with small businesses. While it has more features and flexibility for customization than Mad Mimi, the user interface is less intuitive and will take some getting used to. Even so, if you want to look like the bigger players in the fitness industry, you will probably need to use this platform to get the custom feel you’ll want to represent your brand. http://www.MailChimp.com

Innovation articles are interesting to everyone, both trainees and trainers alike. They can deal with using an implement in a way people haven’t thought of before (3 Ways to Use a Barbell You Haven’t Tried), trying a new exercise to hit an uncommon objective (Why Light Kettlebells are Good for Power Development), or a new movement all together (The Best Squat Variation Everyone Needs to Do).

Mindset pieces can be popular, but use them sparingly. Most new content creators make the mistake of thinking that their personal philosophy of fitness/health/etc. is what people really want to read (it isn’t). It will be when you’re big, but right now you should be working on content that Don’t worry about trying to get writing gigs with the big fitness websites/magazines at this point. Those jobs will provide you with some cred, but they will take a ton of time (also, those guys will ask you to write, not the other way around). When you’re big enough, they will come calling.

Creating new content takes a lot of time and effort, so you can’t let it go to waste by simply posting it on your website! The best way to get the maximum amount of traffic for any given piece of information is to release it on multiple channels over a set time period. The chart illustrates the most effective way to release your content online. Your goal is to maximize your traffic to the new page over the first week of its release. After that you’ll have to rely on organic traffic, internal linking, and your Day 90 promotions to get visits.

DAY BEFORE DAY 1

If you have an associated video, post it to YouTube prior to posting it on your new page. Embed the video on your page and make sure you optimize your video on YouTube.

DAY 1 TO 7

You’ll need to post your new page, promote it with an email campaign, and post your Facebook photo or video, Twitter post, Instagram pic/video, and Pinterest pic within the first week. Your email campaign should coincide with your regular schedule (if you send an email every Wednesday, include it in that).

DAY 90

It’s not dead yet! You’ve gotten new followers and they might like the old article. Promote it again on Twitter and create a new Facebook post (preferentially with a different image or video from the one you used last time).

While every social media platform has strengths and weaknesses, I’ve found that the following five hold the most potential in the fitness industry. The importance of each will vary based on the types of content you create, but in general, their importance goes in the following order: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Pinterest.

FACEBOOK

RECOMMENDED POSTS: 2-3 Daily PRIMARY POST TYPES: VIDS/PICS MINIMUM OBJECTIVE: 10,000 Likes SUMMARY: In regard to posting, remember that Facebook prefers original posts, not shared links to vids or pics. Uploading a video directly to Facebook will have a much greater impact than sharing a YouTube link. Your goal is to increase your following on Facebook and to convert your followers into website visitors. QUICK TIPS: – Never post links without pics or videos. – Never post text without associated media. – All posts can be enhanced by pics or vids. – You can share other people’s vids, but it should only be 10% of the time.

INSTAGRAM

RECOMMENDED POSTS: 2-5 Daily PRIMARY POST TYPES: VIDS/PICS MINIMUM OBJECTIVE: 5,000 Likes SUMMARY: Not all of your videos need to go on YouTube. If it’s something simple, or just a Feat of Strength, you’re better off just using it for Instagram. Consider Instagram as your show-off location. To keep your marketing and branding effective, every picture you take needs to be on point. QUICK TIPS: – Try to post pics from a similar location often. – If you’re the primary trainer or feature of your account, make sure you’re in at least 50% of your posts. – Don’t be afraid to get goofy/funny with your posts sometimes; it will endear you to your followers. – Only share unoriginal content once for every ten posts if you’re trying to build your brand and not just your audience.

YOUTUBE

RECOMMENDED POSTS: 1 Weekly PRIMARY POST TYPES: VIDS MINIMUM OBJECTIVE: 5,000 Subscribers SUMMARY: YouTube is where you should be putting all of the media that is going to be embedded in the content of your website. In this way, each video will be doing double-duty for promoting your business: you get followers and views on YouTube AND you get traffic by posting more interesting content on your website. QUICK TIPS: – Never disable comments. Instead, set comments for “Approved only.” – Always write a description. – Always put a link to associated content on your website as the first line of your video description.

TWITTER

RECOMMENEDED POSTS: 5-10 Daily PRIMARY POST TYPES: TEXT/LINKS MINIMUM OBJECTIVE: 5,000 Followers SUMMARY: Consider Twitter your “news” platform for everything related to your business. Whenever you post something new or have upcoming events, gym schedule updates, time-sensitive deals, etc., you need to inform your following using Twitter. People who constantly review their Twitter feeds are looking for bite-sized chunks of useful information that they can apply instantly. Remember this when you set up your tweets. QUICK TIPS: – Don’t just target your primary market. Use Twitter to promote complementary businesses and potential partners. – You can’t tweet too much. Whenever you can, post something new on Twitter. – Be sure to follow competitors and other feeds that your target market may follow in order to identify evolving trends in the marketplace.

PINTEREST

RECOMMENDED POSTS: 5-10 Daily PRIMARY POST TYPES: PICS MINIMUM OBJECTIVE: 5,000 Followers SUMMARY: If you’re looking to target 30-40 year old moms, Pinterest is probably going to be your bread and butter. 80% of users are women and they are extremely active on boards related to DIY. You can take advantage of this by providing graphics that feature exercises and workouts that they can do at home using minimal equipment and time. This is the only network where I recommend sharing other people’s content as much as you share your original content, as you’ll have to in order to keep up with the demand for frequent daily posting. QUICK TIPS: – Think of your graphics as something that would be useful as a poster on the wall of a gym. – Always include a description that is between 200-300 characters and follow your typical SEO writing guidelines. – Always include a link to your related webpage, and make sure you use the full URL Slug rather than a short link.

Responsive Website Design refers to a website’s ability to be easily viewed across multiple platforms and screen sizes. A responsive website will automatically rearrangement itself to make it easy to view whethere you’re viewing it on a 20″ screen or your old iPhone 4. The most common example is a table going from 3 columns across on a large screen to 1 column across on a small screen. If you’d like to see how your website behaves on every platform, use the Screenfly Test Your Website tool.

There are literally a million different ways to promote your business on social media (try looking for a book online and you’ll see what I mean). For our purposes we are specifical- ly interested in how social media integrates with our Content Marketing efforts.