Summary: Fitness studio owners are in a great position to leverage their following and expertise to increase revenue through affiliate marketing. The efforts to get this started are in line with digital marketing for the business. Therefore, this work can be repurposed in a way that creates passive income for the business.
Running a fitness business can be a rewarding and profitable career. However, financial stability and success are more likely when a business owner establishes more than one stream of income in the fitness industry. Studio owners look to find more profit centers for their business but fail to look beyond their existing client base.
The good news is that there are various ways for fitness businesses to increase their income beyond acquiring new clients and retaining existing ones. Some of the most ideal revenue streams are passive income (i.e., very little time or effort required). Affiliate marketing is an increasingly popular pathway to a stream of passive income and grow a personal training business.
So, if you’re a fitness business owner looking for a way to earn more money, keep reading because affiliate marketing might be the route you’ve been searching for. When used properly, you’ll be able to grow your business, making the need for scalability even greater. So be sure to implement a personal training CRM like Naamly. Start with the free software trial to see how it sets your business up for growth and expansion.
Affiliate Marketing Basics
If you’re on social media, you’ve likely already been exposed to affiliate marketing on numerous occasions. Celebrities, public figures, fitness professionals, and other people with a large social media following collaborate with specific companies to drive more revenue to the company’s product or service. Pictures, stories, promotion codes, and the use of an affiliate link are shared in an effort to increase sales or traffic to the partnering company. Don’t have a large following yet? Not to worry. You’ll easily get there as more clients see results (business operations), and you dedicate yourself to growing your online presence (business marketing). Therefore, this opportunity is out there, so it’s time to take it. On the flip side, you can be on the other side of affiliate marketing and use it to grow your business.
How Do People Make Money With Affiliate Marketing?
There are two primary ways a fitness business owner can make money with affiliate marketing.
- Another company rewards your business to promote its products or services: With this type of strategic partnership, your company is compensated for marketing a product or service to its captive audience. Typically, the products and services are non-competitive to what you sell but are closely aligned with your niche. You might send an email, share a link on your website, or post on social media. When a customer purchases via the affiliate link or promo code you share, the partnering company can track what kind of impact your post or messaging had on sales (i.e., clicks and purchases). Depending on the pre-determined details of the relationship, the partnering company may pay your company a flat rate for the post, a portion of the sales generated from the affiliate link or promo code, send you free products, or market your products or services to their audience.
Think of the adjacent opportunities your business might be able to support. Products like gym equipment and apparel can be easy wins. In your community, you can also form partnerships with healthy restaurants, retail stores, smoothie bars, and more. Even fitness or nutrition certification companies can be an option. Remember, this won’t be your main source of income (or energy), but it adds to the bottom line.
- You reward a person or company to promote your products or services: This is very similar to the above. However, instead of promoting another business’s product or service, you find other companies or influencers to market your products and services to their audience. Other non-competing companies and social media influencers within your niche can be impactful. They can be a powerful way to share your brand, stimulate more sales, and ultimately generate more revenue and exposure for your business.
You can consider the previous examples (equipment, apparel, restaurants, etc.). But you can also consider local fitness influencers or others with a strong presence that workout at your gym.
How to Get Started with Affiliate Marketing
Making money with an affiliate program seems simple enough, right?
Regardless of whether your company is the affiliate marketer or you’re paying someone to do the affiliate marketing, there has to be a captive audience. This means you (or your affiliate marketer) need to build (or already have) some sort of following on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, a fitness blog, or some other social media platform. And the captive audience needs to be within the same niche.
There isn’t necessarily a requirement regarding the number of followers a person or company needs to have, although some companies may have a minimum requirement to consider your business for their affiliate marketing. That being said, it’s commonly suggested for an affiliate marketer to have a minimum of 5,000 online followers.
Whether you’re looking for the right person or company for your affiliate marketing or an opportunity to become an affiliate marketer for another brand, there are a few steps to ensure success.
Step 1: The affiliate marketer should have a well-defined niche in the fitness industry
It’s important for an affiliate marketer and anyone partnering with them to have identified their fitness niche.
- Do they specialize in senior fitness?
- Is their target market youth fitness?
- Are most of their followers young moms?
A defined niche is crucial because it plays a critical role not only in the marketing process but also helps determine which companies and products are most ideal to collaborate with. A person or company could have thousands of followers but without the right followers, the affiliate marketing efforts likely won’t get positive results.
If you’re still navigating which niche is ideal for your fitness business, you can narrow it down by asking yourself some of the following questions:
- What type of fitness client is my business best at serving?
- Which members are naturally drawn to the programs my business offers?
- What health and fitness topics are my strengths?
- Who is your dream client for your studio?
Step 2: Building a following (and defining the brand)
If you’re looking for a company or person to become an affiliate marketer for you, it’s important to look for those that have a strong following and brand.
However, if you want other companies to offer you affiliate marketing opportunities, you will need to build your company’s following. To do this, you’ll need to consider the following information.
Generally speaking, one of the keys to organic growth is patience, consistency, and authenticity in your posts. Building an organic following takes time. You’ll also want to:
- Respond and engage with your followers
- Ensure your social media account is set up as a business or professional account
- Use appropriate hashtags
- Share relevant, valuable content that your followers want to view
- Be innovative and try new things
- Refrain from purchasing followers
- Consider paid or sponsored posts when appropriate
These are all digital marketing basics that will help grow your brand anyways and increase the clientele base. As you work to expand your following, you will also want to refine your brand. You can do this by ensuring the things you post are aligned and consistent across all platforms. The colors, language, content, and vibe you share with the world are all crucial components of your brand. Your purpose, passion, and value are also important elements that should be embedded in the things you do and say.
Step 3: Connect with the right people or companies
Some companies in (or outside of) the fitness industry may stumble across your profile and reach out to you for affiliate marketing opportunities (for you to become the affiliate marketer or for them to affiliate market for you). Don’t underestimate a brand or person that closely aligns with you but has a small following at first. If done right, theirs will grow too. Regardless, it’s critical to take a proactive approach.
You’ll want to consider brands, products, and services you love and then select the products and services that are also valuable for your audience. You’ll also want to consider non-competing companies that target the same niche. Once you narrow down the companies or people you want to collaborate with, you can explore whether or not they already offer an affiliate program (for their products or services) or are an affiliate for other companies. Regardless of whether or not affiliate opportunities are established, you can reach out directly and ask if they are interested in collaborating.
When you reach out, be clear, concise, direct, and humble. You’ll want to articulate who you and your business are, why you love their product(s) or service(s), share details regarding your audience and engagement, and explain how you’d love to help them reach more of their target audience (i.e., some of your followers) or vice versa.
Tips For Success
Affiliate marketing can be an incredibly lucrative opportunity, on both sides. However, in addition to the information above, here are a few tips that are crucial to success.
1. Alignment with your brand
When you are defining the companies and products you want to collaborate with, it’s vital to remain in alignment with your brand. For example, there are a plethora of “health” supplements on the market. You may come across an opportunity to get paid to promote one or many of them. However, if the ingredients, claims, and research aren’t aligned with your fitness brand and what you believe, the short-term payout will likely cost you in the long run. Customers buy from companies they trust and when mixed messages are sent, the company is sure to lose potential and current customers.
2. Promote products and services you believe in and use
In tandem with the tip above, actually using the products or services you promote is crucial. For example, if you share a link for discounted at-home suspension trainer, you should likely also have (and use) the suspension trainer in your facility.
Similarly, when looking for an affiliate marketer, you will want to seek those that use, follow, or support your brand. This allows the affiliate marketer to not only speak more authentically but provide more educated insight regarding the product or service.
3. Stay within your niche
If your target audience is stay-at-home moms, they probably aren’t going to jump at the idea of buying a bunch of fishing gear that you love and want to promote (unless, of course, your target audience is moms that love to fish). The point is, as a personal trainer (and as a human) you have a variety of interests and products and services you love. But, you should only promote those that are aligned with your target audience. The same thing applies when you are seeking an affiliate marketer for your products or services.
4. Think outside the box
Affiliate marketing isn’t just limited to fitness equipment, supplements, and other health or fitness products and gadgets. Your “mom” audience may also be interested in non-toxic cleaning options, healthy resources for kids, or mom’s night out ideas. If you have a passion for it, it aligns with your brand, and your audience could use it, there may be some potential for collaboration via an affiliate opportunity.