If you want to acquire new gym members, you need to get in front of more people. In 2024, the best way to reach those people is with social media images.
Your gym members are spending 2.5 hours per day on social media. And more than ever, they’re not using it to post selfies and memes, they’re using social media to:
- Be inspired
- Be entertained
- Get recommendations from friends
- Find help
- Learn ways to improve their lives
As a gym owner, you can fulfill those needs. And you can do it in a way that will do more than pass the time for them. You have the potential to change their lives for the better.
And what will that lead to? More members, better member retention, and organic growth for your business.
So what’s the best way to become a go-to source of inspiration, entertainment, help, and learning for your current and potential members?
You do it with visual social media posts that speak to them right where they’re at. Create beautiful images as a regular part of your social media marketing strategy.
We’re not talking about uploading images from stock photo websites. We mean engaging images that compel people to participate, propelling your content strategy with viral marketing.
Your social media images need to be powerful enough to stop the scroll, make them pay attention, and leave them hungry more.
And if social media is one of the channels you use to market your fitness brand, pay attention. In this post, we’ll show you why social media images matter and how to use them to defeat the competition.
You’ll also catch a few extra social media tips along the way.
Let’s get to work!
Images Make Your Social Media More Memorable
On average, people retain 10-20% of the information they read and hear online.
But add images, and that percentage climbs to a whopping 65%. Engaging the visual cortex of the brain with imagery gives you 550% more memorability.
It’s the difference between claiming that you’re fit to be a personal trainer and showing your workout routine.
People love seeing proof, and they retain what you tell them with visuals. This is why you’re seeing so many fitness pros posting pictures of their bodies on social media, and not pictures of sample workout plans.
It’s more motivating to your members to show and tell. It drives them to recognize you as an authority.
Social Media Images Get More Reach
Content with photos or infographics receives 94% more views on social media, as opposed to content without it.
You’ll do better with visual content that that is engaging than with long blog posts. People don’t have time to read about all the health benefits of going to the gym. So give it to them in an image post (or several).
Study after study has proven that adding an image to a social media post gives you more reach than plain text. And with limited time and resources, why wouldn’t you want to get the most bang for every social media post?
Oh, and did I mention that visual content on social media is more than 40x more likely to be shared?
In other words–your audience is more willing to spread your marketing for you.
Additionally, great images have proven to get higher Click-through rates, especially on social media networks such as Pinterest or Facebook.
Each social media platform is different in its results. Far and wide, images perform better than any other type of social media post (apart from video).
Visually Engaging Content Tells Better Stories
In addition to visual content working better for gyms because it’s just plain fun, you should also consider storytelling.
The best storytelling utilizes as many sensory elements as possible. If you can engage multiple senses, you can tell a better story.
Think about it: why do so many more people enjoy watching a movie than reading a book? Because it engages their senses of:
- sight
- hearing
- touch (vibrations of the sound)
This is why video is one of the most dominant forms of social media content. And also why text and images will always be better than plain text.
And think about what you actually do. You do more than help people reach their weight goals. It’s not about numbers on a scale, right?
You help people live a better story.
If your member lost 20 pounds, the dial on the weighing scale isn’t the only thing that has changed.
They got the opportunity to reimagine themselves, to feel better in their bodies, and that has an effect on every person in their life.
That’s a lot of change and a lot of emotions.
Or as Lexi Reed, the wife in the duo whose weight loss pictures went viral, says:
“I made that person on the inside match my outside. …we gained a whole new life together and evolved together instead of apart.”
This kind of story is what ultimately makes your visual content powerful. It drives the emotions behind the purchasing decision, which will help you sell more memberships.
Your Competitors Are Already Using Social Media Images
Fitness is one of the most crowded niches. If you take a look at fitness hashtags on any social network, you’ll see that plenty of gyms are vying for attention.
From blurry photos to visuals you swear need a whole team of graphic designers, everyone’s upping their social media image game. They have to find their next customer.
In fact, 80% of marketers and business owners use visual content.
That’s a lot of competition in the space–especially when you consider that gym owners and personal trainers are competitive by nature.
This gives you the perfect opportunity to stay ahead of the curve.
Although a lot of gyms are using social media images, only a few of them are doing it right. Most of them are using generic stock photography from photo websites.
Even worse than cheesy stock imagery, they’re using Low res photos from their phones that they took haphazardly and look amateur.
There may be thousands of pages providing visual content, but the majority of them lack the skill to be effective. Stock images are not going to cut it–you need to produce organic-looking, visually engaging posts.
Make a Difference with Exceptional Visuals
At the same time, people are used to seeing images on social media, so it’s easy to get drowned out. Your social media images need to be extraordinary.
Your members want authentic stories from people like them. They want encouragement packed with emotion in a few quick lines. They want to be compelled to participate in an active conversation.
Most importantly, they want to be inspired to stop scrolling and start working out.
On top of all of that, our attention spans are shrinking. You have less than 5 seconds to grab people’s attention as they scroll on their phones.
Once you grab their attention with your social media images, you want to make sure you keep it. Regular posting is imperative as much as 2-3 times a day should be your goal.
Being a fitness professional while making sure that your brand is on point isn’t as easy as it seems.
Seriously, who has the time to learn the different social media image sizes or fiddle with graphic design apps?
Coming up with something motivating and engaging for your audience every day can take its toll.
Oh, and you’re supposed to be doing all of this while running an entire gym.This is all on top of managing the intricacies of your day-to-day business.
It sounds impossible.
But if you work smart in marketing, you’ll be able to create social media content your customers need (and want).
Get Help with Done-for-You Social Media Images
Your clients crave exceptional content packed with emotions that will drive them towards success.
But you shouldn’t let the fact that you’re not a graphic designer stop you.
SoVisual.co was created to help fitness professionals like you attract and retain more customers with social media images.
No image editing software needed. You get access to our expert-crafted collection of images templates to instantly boost your social media strategy.
When you create an image with our web app it automatically creates the most recommended sizes. So forget about Googling Instagram image sizes.
After signing up you’ll get instant, unlimited access to every single template in our library! Add your logo, customize the caption if you want to, and just share.
Your social media campaigns have never looked better.
It’s as simple as that!
For as low as $9/month, you’re going to be:
- Saving time
- Getting the graphic design team you deserve
- Wowing your new and existing members alike
Focus on doing great work. We’ll take care of your visual social marketing content.
SoVisual.co will take care of everything else.