Weight loss has become an obsession among the population recently and increased even more in the last decade. With the emergence of social media and photo, video sharing, everybody wants to look slim, fit and beautiful in what they share with the world.

Instagram probably has the largest impact when it comes to marketing weight loss products and fitness. The 300 million user based giant has become THE place where people share their best photos and videos with the world, and if you take a closer look, Instagram pictures are often of better quality and visual appeal than anything shared on Facebook or Twitter by the same person. Since both fitness weight loss and social media, especially Instagram, rely a lot on visual content, companies in this industry turn to social media for marketing, sales and promotion as it is currently the best online platform to drive profits. However, not every Fitness Company is able to grow and become big, which means that even if you know you have to use social media, doesn’t necessarily mean you are doing it right. The Millennial generation has some unique tastes in the content they want to see on social media, and in order to reach them, you have to plan your content marketing strategy carefully and satisfy their needs, otherwise they will just skip your post and your company. Let’s consider some Do’s and Don’ts to understand what kind of content you should go after, and what you should sidestep.

DO’s

Simplicity

People, especially the younger generation, value simplicity in your content when it comes to fitness and weight loss. None of them is there for academic purposes and therefore doesn’t need complex sentences and articles on how your product works, how different ingredients interact with each other to create the desired effect, etc. What they want to know is “does the product work? Is it harmful or safe to use? How many people have used it before and to what success? Can they get visual proof? How long will it take them to achieve results?” and so on. This doesn’t mean that you should never provide information about nutrition facts and ingredients of your product. But that should be 5% of your overall content, the rest has to be simple, to the point examples and actual, visual results. Simple and easy.

Keep it Short

The longer your content is, the less people will read it. This is the truth about marketing weight loss products. Nobody is there to read long, time consuming articles, they all want clarity and exact answers to their questions. Keep it short, keep it to the point and you are going to be one step ahead of your competitors.

Dedicate Enough Resources to Visuals

I can’t stress this enough. Fitness industry is 90% visual based, therefore you need quality photography, images and videos. Make sure you dedicate enough resources for these purposes and if you need to cut costs, use anything except quality and visuals. These 2 are the key drivers of performance that you absolutely have to maintain in order to succeed.

Customer Reviews

It’s very important to have customer reviews about your product. And they have to be real, from real people who have actually used your product. Its one thing to read something on a website or see in a social media post, and completely another to hear the same information from a fellow citizen or a friend who has had real experience with your company. Positive reviews accomplish two tasks at once. They boost your brand credibility and trust among potential consumers and promote your products via social media for free!

Don’ts

Unfulfilled Promises

People are very sensitive about their weight and you have to take this into consideration when creating offers or posts for your company online. It’s better to promise something that works slower than the rest of the market, but actually stay true to your word, than propagandize something that should happen fast, but fails to. You will instantly lose trust among your customers and I assure you, they will make sure that their close networks won’t use your products either, and furthermore, encourage all social media users to stop using your products. Whenever you promise something, make sure that it will actually happen and also that the customer understands exactly what he/she has to do, in order to achieve the results that you promised. Just having the instructions written somewhere on your website is mostly not enough, since consumers will still be disappointed and throw negative feedback to you all over the web.

Repetitive and Dull

You need to constantly update your content. This is very important to keep the engagement with the audience. Repetition may be the best way to gain knowledge, but not in this industry. You can’t share the same old content and hope to grasp your audience’s attention. Even if they are emotionally engaged with your brand. An average person can recognize an old post in about 3 seconds after seeing it again, even if you tweak it to make appear as new. This will create a sense of “being old” association with your brand, and we know that innovation and freshness are ruling this century. Create new, engaging and fun content for your audience. Organize events, giveaways, contests, whatever you think will have a positive impact and is affordable for you financially. But never stay in the same spot for too long.

General and Concerning Everybody

Avoid making content that’s too general and can refer to everybody. Every customer wants to feel that he is unique when purchasing your product and that its relevant to who they are. Your product has to represent them in the society and offer some kind of status and benefits for themselves. Create motivating, educational and unique content that speaks right to the souls of your buyer personas. Thus you will remain in their heart for a long time and gradually, earn your own spot in their life.