Strength Matters
The Strength Matters podcast is a weekly show for health and fitness professionals who want the systems, tools, and resources to grow and scale a successful fitness business. Hosted by Head Coach Josh Kennedy and Strength Matters founder, James Breese.
Join the world’s leading experts in helping personal trainers and coaches uncover cutting-edge training solutions and share them with you.
Strength Matters is a system of training and education for fit pros and experienced enthusiasts who want to optimize performance and enhance their health span.
The central question that drives our work is, “How can we train smarter?” To answer that question, we like to talk about science-based ways, made simple, to solve practical health and fitness problems.
However, science doesn’t always have the answers. That’s why our work combines both science and practical real-world experience. What works in a textbook, doesn’t always work in real life.
This is why we like to talk about and share our client results with you… the good, and the bad, so that we can all learn from them, move forward to live, and perform better.
Strength Matters
The Future of Content Marketing for Fitness Businesses
In this episode, James Breese, Josh Kennedy and Andrew Wallis dive deep into the rapidly evolving world of content marketing for fitness businesses, highlighting the crucial role of authenticity and the strategic use of technology to stand out. Whether you're a fitness entrepreneur eager to amplify your brand or a content creator seeking fresh strategies, this episode is a treasure trove of insights and actionable advice.
Timeline Summary:
- [00:00:06] The Future of AI in Marketing
- [00:00:22] Avoiding AI Pitfalls
- [00:02:17] The Rise of Short-Form Video
- [00:03:24] Personalizing Your Brand
- [00:05:32] Building Trust Through Content
Key Takeaways:
- Authenticity Over AI: The conversation kicks off with a critical look at how AI-generated content, while prolific, often lacks the unique voice and authenticity that truly resonates with audiences.
- Short-Form Video's Dominance: Short, engaging video content on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube is highlighted as a non-negotiable strategy for capturing attention in the digital age.
- The Essence of Brand Building: Through humor and candor, James and Andrew stress the importance of infusing personal flair into your content to cultivate a brand that's both memorable and trustworthy.
- Trust as the Ultimate Currency: The trio converges on the idea that trust, cultivated through consistent, high-quality, and personalized content, is foundational to converting followers into clients.
- SEO and Platform-Specific Content: A pivotal strategy discussed is the balance between mastering SEO for broad visibility and creating platform-specific content that engages and retains the audience.
Websites and Links Mentioned:
Quotes:
"In a world of AI-generated content, be true, be authentic." - James Breese
"Short-form video content is not optional; it's essential." - James Breese
"Lean into your personality; that's your brand's secret weapon." - Andrew Wallis
"Trust is built on consistency, reliability, and authenticity." - James Breese
"Optimize for Google first; dominate locally, then expand." - James Breese
Show Your Support: Rate and Review Us!
If you enjoyed today's episode, please consider giving us a 5-star rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Your support helps us reach more people and bring you even more quality content. Click the link below to rate and review us now!
Rate and Review us on Apple Podcasts
FREE Downloads
To learn more about Strength Matters and our high-performance training system, download your FREE copy of The Strength Matters System of Athletic Development. Get it at - www.strengthmatters.com/system
[00:00:00] James Breese: Strength Matters Media, Video, Print, Podcasts. Today's
[00:00:06] Josh Kennedy: topic is the future of content marketing for fitness businesses. Let's jump straight in. James, talk to me about AI and why that is important.
[00:00:15] James Breese: So, well, important, important to avoid sometimes as well. I think that's the key, key point. So let's talk about this generally.
[00:00:22] So AI generated content is flooding the market. in terms of health and fitness businesses. Everybody's using AI to post their social posts. They all sound the same. They all look the same, right? They're using the same tags. They're using the same expressions. They're taking content from other people's written work from years ago, and they're posting on social media.
[00:00:42] Making themselves look big and clever is the honest answer. So if you go, go look at all the influencers, they're all posting the same thing. They're using chat GBT to write their posts for them. So it's all the same. So the point is, but while everybody is zigging, well, [00:01:00] barely. So that's the right way. So I'm going to use it will be to not use it.
[00:01:03] Okay. Which sounds crazy. There's better ways to use stuff. AI for other things, but if you, I can see an AI written post straight away and it turns me off and I don't want to read it anymore. That's, I can see it straight away because you can see the words you use, the type of words you use. So, while everyone is zigging and doing the AI generated post usual content, you want to zag.
[00:01:25] And you want to write stuff that's actually relatable and non AI generated. So you want to be authentic and true to yourself. So while people are creating AI generated content, particularly on blogs, right, yes, use it to script it and to use it to create the structure, but write it yourself. I was
[00:01:43] Josh Kennedy: going to say a framework, a structure, and then write it.
[00:01:46] Yeah.
[00:01:47] James Breese: Give your personality, let your personality come through even on, even on social media videos, they're all scripted videos that you put into AI and I can see it. It's just, it's horrendous. It puts me off. I don't know. I don't know how people fall [00:02:00] for it. I really don't. So be authentic, be true, be natural.
[00:02:03] So in a world of AI generated content. Be true, be authentic because high quality content will stand out in the crowd far easier.
[00:02:11] Josh Kennedy: You've mentioned it briefly then already. What about a short form video? Is that becoming
[00:02:17] James Breese: more popular? It's the most popular content on the market, bar none. So if you're not doing short term video content, you're missing out.
[00:02:25] You've got to be doing reels on YouTube shorts, on TikTok, on Instagram, even on Twitter, right? That's a really highly popular, engaging thing. So you need to be doing content. Some cases, sometimes even five or six second videos. That's it. That's all you want these days. But sometimes talking pieces of 30 to 40 seconds, that's all you need to do.
[00:02:46] That is so important and so key to all the strategy, but that tells who you are. It's why we're doing on Strength Matters. It's like what we're posting nearly daily about this idea of just seeing me on camera, sharing the idea of Tippit. Is it a big [00:03:00] marketing play? Yes, because it's trying to get more people around who I am and what I do.
[00:03:04] So short form video if you're not doing it You're missing out because it's the best way to drive traffic and engagement to your channel and to your website from social media
[00:03:13] Josh Kennedy: It's all about him, Andrew. It's all about getting his face out there. And what about, what about brand? Yeah. Brand building. Um, how, how important is that?
[00:03:24] And how, how do people build a brand as well?
[00:03:28] James Breese: Well, it becomes very authentic and reliable. Andrew, I'll let you go into this actually, so I don't don't hog the screen again, because apparently it's all about me.
[00:03:37] Andrew Wallis: And that's, that's our brand, you know, it's James is the face, uh, and the real work gets done behind the scenes.
[00:03:45] James Breese: Absolutely.
[00:03:48] Andrew Wallis: But, uh, no, uh, in relation to brand, I think it's lean into your personality, uh, because that's gonna, that's gonna break through and amplify your voice above any of these, um, AI [00:04:00] generated pieces. Um, as James says. You can almost tell, uh, what's been generated by AI and it's so cheesy at times.
[00:04:09] And, and that, and it reminds, I was thinking as James was talking earlier, it reminds me back in the day, although they still exist now, the dumb few content, the dumb few emails and newsletters that used to be prevalent in the fitness industry that you would send out and you wouldn't, uh, and if you didn't put your own personality or your own spin on it.
[00:04:31] People would write back to me when I made that mistake back in the day and say, go, you sound very American, you know, because it had been written by an American, uh, copywriter, um, in the, in the fitness world. So we, we need to, by all means use AI to, um, to build out some ideas and some topics and a framework.
[00:04:52] But then just put your spin on it. Think about sessions you've had with a client, uh, questions they may have asked [00:05:00] you and blend that into the message that's going to resonate so much more with your audience. And then, um, by being consistent, your face is going to be getting seen. And if you're using the same, um, um, thumbnail styles and, uh, pieces, it's going to, it's going to be recognized.
[00:05:20] And that's how ultimately over time you'd be able to define and develop your brand, in my opinion.
[00:05:26] Josh Kennedy: Yeah. It's really more important than ever, isn't it? To personalize content to help. Build trust, right? Trust is more important, I
[00:05:32] James Breese: guess. And that's it. That's the key thing. So you, by building your personal brand alongside the company, because that's what people want to see.
[00:05:38] They want to see the people behind the company, behind the scenes. It's why I'm on video all the time now, is I've got to, I've got to become more known. If I'm not known, the company will just fade away and die into the ether. It really will. So. But by doing it, I'm creating more trust and consistency and I'm trying to be reliable in what I'm trying to talk about and it builds trust with people [00:06:00] to build marketing.
[00:06:00] So it's not just a fancy logo. It's about the overall perception of what you're seeing is, are you a trustworthy brand across social media, across what you're writing about and how you come across in everything that you do. So that's more about brand building.
[00:06:18] Josh Kennedy: The future of content marketing.
[00:06:20] James Breese: Yeah, I think we talk a lot about SEO and getting them found on Google first, but it's a, it's a one trick pony. You've got to understand that sometimes moving forwards now is that you need to create content specific for the channels you're working with. So a hundred percent, all those lead back to the website.
[00:06:38] You should be trying to drive as many people can, as you can back to your website, your landing page to get your email addresses. But sometimes you're going to create social first content designed specifically for social media. So design a content reel for Instagram TikTok that's specific. There's no other purpose than being there on Instagram to keep people on your platform to want to learn more [00:07:00] about you.
[00:07:00] That's really important. So understand that the SEO game and content marketing game is multi dimensional and that's the future of fitness is creating specific content for the right channels and the right media. And I
[00:07:13] Josh Kennedy: think as we've said before, cause that's quite scary to think, Oh God, I've got to create content for YouTube and Facebook and everything.
[00:07:20] Focus on one first, would you say?
[00:07:21] James Breese: Nail that. Yeah. I would go down to the thing and I think Andrew may come in as well and say the same thing is that we're not, we 63 percent of the time it works every time classic from a couple of episodes ago, but we've got to talk about this. Google is the highest referrer of traffic to your website.
[00:07:37] You need to dominate the Google search in the local areas first. before you start optimizing your social media, because if you haven't got a good website and you're not dominated by Google, you're not going to drive traffic to it to optimize and pull them into the system as best as you can. So that's why I'd say optimize first.
[00:07:54] Andrew, final thoughts? I agree.
[00:07:56] Andrew Wallis: Yeah, I agree with that. And it goes back to what we, you and I spoke about [00:08:00] a couple of weeks ago, Josh, on the hierarchy of fitness marketing, you know, getting, The, the, the foundational pieces in place initially, you know, hitting that low hanging fruit, but equally at starting out with the, with the website and then amplify out from that.
[00:08:14] Josh Kennedy: Fantastic. Thank you so much, boys. That is it for today. Please don't forget to rate, review and subscribe. And if you want help getting more clients or patients, booking your free 15 minute strategy call with us by going to strength dot com forward slash strategy.
