Pilates Business Podcast

Ditch the Social Media Stress: Quick Wins for Your Fitness Studio

• Seran Glanfield • Season 21 • Episode 202

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Simplify Your Social Media Strategy: Quick Wins for Studio Growth


Is social media fueling your studio’s growth—or just driving you crazy?

In this episode of The Pilates Business Podcast, host Seran Glanfield cuts through the noise to show you how to use social media strategically, authentically, and effectively to grow your boutique fitness studio. 

Discover why you don’t need to post every day or be on every platform to see results. Instead, learn actionable tips for building real connections, creating engaging content, and simplifying your social media strategy. 

If you’re ready to turn social media into a powerful growth tool (without the overwhelm), this episode is for you!

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Speaker 1:

Let me ask you something Is social media driving real growth in your studio or maybe just driving you a little bit crazy? In today's episode, we're cutting through the overwhelm and getting clear on how to use social media as a growth tool for your studio business. You're going to learn how to use it to make genuine connections, what to post and what not to post, and a few quick wins to simplify your strategy. Quick spoiler alert you don't have to be on every platform or post every single day, multiple times a day, to see results. Stick around. You don't want to miss this. Well, hi there, I'm Saren Glanfield. I'm a business and marketing strategist just for boutique fitness studio owners like you. If you're ready to be inspired and make a bigger impact, you're in the right place. All you need are a few key strategies, the right mindset and some support along the way. Join me as I share the real-life insights that will help you grow a sustainable and profitable studio.

Speaker 1:

This is the Pilates Business Podcast. Welcome back to another episode of the Pilates Business Podcast. I'm your host, saran, and, as always, I'm thrilled to be here to help you to take your amazing passion and expertise around movement and turn it into a thriving and profitable business that is easy for you to run. Now, one of the biggest things that I get asked about I think on in pretty much at some point with every studio owner that I talk to, especially when we start talking about marketing is social media, and I know it's a mixed bag, right. Some days it feels like a powerful way to connect with your community and to showcase the magic that happens inside of your studio. Other days it feels like an exhausting hamster wheel of posts and reels and editing and algorithms and all the things that leave you wondering if it's even worth the effort and also perhaps hating the impact on your posture. But here's the thing Social media truly can be very supportive for your business growth, but only if you're able to use it strategically, and that's what I want to share with you today.

Speaker 1:

So whether or not you're someone who is just not that excited about social media or maybe you're someone who is on there and active and you see the benefits of it and you've been at it for years then this episode really will help you to perhaps refine what you're doing, save time and, most importantly, get results, and I'll be honest, that's the biggest thing that I am all about when it comes to you building your business. I am not going to tell you to do anything in your business that isn't going to get you the results that you want, and I think that's something that perhaps separates me from others who do similar things. I'm really focused on analyzing the data and associating your activities with your outcomes, with your results, with your objectives and key results, and I want to make sure that you're not wasting time on anything in your business, and it's very often, very often in fact that I let people know and let people off the hook and say you don't have to do this anymore, you don't have to be doing this. In fact, I would rather you didn't spend so much time on this or on that, or even sometimes on social media, because there are a lot of different ways to build and grow your business, and I want to make sure you're leveraging what makes your studio unique your talents, your skills, your expertise and also the resources that are available to you and around you. So every business is going to be a little bit different, but, generally speaking, I'm very much a pro you using social media to market your studio, and when it comes to social media, we have to remember that we have to use it in a particular way and we have to make sure we keep how we use it in perspective and how it sits within sort of the entire framework of our marketing strategy.

Speaker 1:

And for many people, I will say I think I posted a reel about this myself which is that posting to Instagram or to Facebook is not a social media strategy. And this is the difference between, often, those who get frustrated by using a social media platform and those that don't, and that is that it is not just about the posting. That's not really the end goal. The goal is not just to put a post up. The goal is to use the platform to get you clients or to engage with your current community, and I think, once we start to shift that mindset towards perhaps it being about building relationships, it can be perhaps a bit a tool that can feel a little bit friendlier to us, and so it's not about selling classes.

Speaker 1:

Think of it instead as perhaps your studio's sort of virtual front door or the window into your studio that people can check out and look into whenever they see you pop up online, and what happens is that when someone scrolls through your feed or their feed right and then perhaps goes to your feed. What they're doing is they're essentially peeking through that window and looking into your studio and at that moment, the question that you want to ask yourself is what impression are you giving them? And this is a great time to perhaps go and have a quick look at your feed, look at how often you've been posting, look at what you're sharing, because one of the things that we want to 100% make sure we're doing on social media is we are representing your business as it is, because the key in on social is always to be as authentic as possible. I don't want you to get too caught up in perfectly curated grids or spending hours editing every photo. Now, for many of you and I think everyone's in a different place and everyone's in a different stage of business Many of you will may have someone helping you with your social media and their job is to make your feed look beautiful and absolutely they should be not missing the mark on that. So if you've got someone who is helping you with your social media, then their job is to make your grid look beautiful and represent your business.

Speaker 1:

But if you are the head marketer and you are the teacher trainer and you are teaching and you are scheduling all the classes and you are finding subs and you are organizing your clients schedules as well, then this is something that you don't want to be taking up all of your time. So you want to be mindful of how much time you can dedicate to it, in which case, which is why I say, don't be perfect, just be present. Okay, so the reality is, is that online people what what works best is authenticity. People want to connect with the real you, your personality, your passion, your values, let your personal brand shine through. Post that unfiltered behind the scenes shot. Share why you started teaching in the first place. That's the stuff that connects you with people. This is connection content, and it makes people wonder more about you, about how they can be a part of your studio. So my first tip is to perhaps shift that mindset to be about connection with your community and with people perhaps outside of your immediate world, and not about perfection.

Speaker 1:

Now you also want to make sure that you are aligning your efforts with your goals, and I think this is often where studio owners tend to go wrong and many small business owners honestly tend to go wrong, which is that we treat social media like something on the to-do list instead of like that strategic tool that you have. And so, as you're thinking about what to post, and even before you post anything, you want to be thinking about, what is the goal here? What are we trying to achieve with this post, with what we are doing here? And maybe it's building brand awareness and introducing people to your studio. Maybe it's about getting new clients in the door, getting people into your intro offer, or maybe it's about nurturing and engaging with your existing client base and keeping them excited about being a part of your studio. And so, once you're clear on your goal, your content can become much more focused and then, ultimately, much more effective. So, for example, if you're working on getting new leads into your studio, then you might want to create posts highlighting how it feels to start a new class, what they should expect, or highlight your introductory offer. If all you're doing is talking about class cancellations or changes in the schedule or teachers that are going to be out, then you're only talking to one set of the audience and you're not talking to newer clients, and so you want to be mindful of your goals.

Speaker 1:

Now the next part of this is we need to also know what it is we're going to say. And in order to know what it is you're going to say, you need to know who you're talking to. So in my marketing intensive program, we dive deep into getting to know your ideal client, and I'll say there's a lot of fluff that happens around this a lot of the time where people talk about having an ideal client profile, and you know I need to nail this down before I can do anything else, and you know the way that I work with my studio owners and how we use this and, again, this is a tool that helps you create better marketing, and so, in order for you to be able to really create great marketing content, it's very, very helpful to be clear about who your ideal client is, and so in my marketing intensive, I take you through that exercise step-by-step, and you come out of it knowing how to use that in your marketing. So the point of the ideal client profile is not the exercise of it. Actually, it's actually utilizing that as a tool in your marketing efforts. And so when, in order to connect with your ideal client, you need to know them, you need to understand them and their lifestyle, you need to understand what they're looking for, and the better that you can speak directly to your audience and speak specifically to their needs, the more impactful your content will be. So what happens when we start to get really clear on who your ideal client is? You all of a sudden have a thousand different things that you want to tell them about your business, and it becomes very, very clear about what perhaps you're not saying or what is not being said or things that might be misunderstood, and this actually energizes you to create great content. Often that's what I've observed and then, ultimately, you end up, which is the amazing outcome of bringing in the clients that you really enjoy into your business. Okay, so there are layers to creating great content, and one of those steps that I and I share inside of my marketing intensive is knowing your ideal client.

Speaker 1:

So let's talk a little bit about some social media dues, so things that you should be doing on social media that would make it more effective for you. Now, I think the very first thing that I look at when I'm doing social media audits for my studio owners, which is that I am looking at their social media and I'm thinking I'm putting myself in the shoes of perhaps a new client or someone who's thinking about becoming a client, and I'm going to go to your social media profile. I'm going to have a quick look at what you're sharing. You know you may maybe I've seen a post or someone shared something about you or heard about you, and people are using social media as a search engine these days more and more, and because we get such a great visual input from, say, instagram, for example, it gives a great opportunity for someone to be able to look into your business and look through that window, and so one of the things that I look for is how frequently are you posting or when was the last time you posted?

Speaker 1:

And the deal really is that you do have to show up consistently, and I think I'm going to do another podcast episode about consistency because it just is so incredibly important. But consistency is so critical in so many different parts of your business, but when it comes to marketing, it is extremely important. You cannot start and stop and expect to get results consistently, which is what we want. We want new clients coming in the door regularly. We don't want new clients to come in in January and then again in June. We want clients to come in and keep coming in, and in order for you to get that pipeline of clients, you need to be consistent about showing up.

Speaker 1:

Now that doesn't mean that you have to post five times a day or even every single day, but there does need to be a good cadence to how regularly you post, and it can be so helpful to plan in advance. This is what I recommend. This is what I do in my business, inside of my marketing intensive and thrive. I share with my studio owners exactly what they should post each month. I give them templates and guides and tips and they can copy and paste and use those captions and emails and articles to support any marketing efforts they may already be doing or it's their only marketing efforts that they have, and they are then able to be consistent without perhaps taking the time to put all of that together themselves, which is one of the biggest challenges that you're facing when you are doing it all as a studio owner. So it can be really helpful to time block I've talked about that before here on the podcast and plan your posts in advance with a content calendar. So we want to make sure that you're showing up consistently. The second thing is that we don't want to post and ghost and I and and this is something again I see is that it's sort of like a checkbox I posted oh, thank gosh, I don't have to look at it again for another day or two or three or maybe a week. I checked that box, I'll, I'll, I'll do it again soon, but I don't want to hang around on social and the and the, and.

Speaker 1:

The issue is is that increasingly, what we know about these platforms is that they want engagement and they want people to stay on the platform, and so engagement really is one of those things that the algorithm likes, and so you can't just post and disappear. Now what that means and what that looks like really is you want to make sure you're involved in conversations on your platform of choice, so that means that you want to respond to comments. You want to respond to direct messages. You don't want to leave the comments and DMs sitting neglected for weeks and months on end. It really doesn't support you from an algorithm perspective. So engagement is key. The algorithms love engagement. So the more that you interact, the more that you use all of the different little tools like the polls and the question boxes, and all of the little things that you can add into those posts, the more the algorithm will see that you're engaging with the platform itself and give you perhaps a little bit more love.

Speaker 1:

Now, one of the things that we know has been massive in the last few years on social media is video content, and what we know is that they tend to be more engaging, they tend to be more interactive, people tend to sit up and take notice more, but also the algorithm likes videos a lot more as well, so that means that reels are great, stories are fun too, and then any you know any time that you can showcase your studio with a quick tour or a quick class clip. Is is going to be helpful to you because, ultimately, you're a business that is is built on movement, and so video is actually a great thing for your business. Business that is built on movement, and so video is actually a great thing for your business, so I would leverage that as much as you can. All right, then, finally, I do want to let you know that there is a really quick, easy way to create content without having to film, take pictures and start from scratch, and that is to repurpose past content. I'm pretty sure on your phone somewhere you've got a few videos that you maybe took six months ago, 12 months ago. You can use those again. You can edit them, you can put them against with new music, you can add new captions, you can add new texts across the top and you can repurpose that content. All right, so you can take, if you've got a great email that you've sent to your clients about something that you wish everybody knew, you can turn it into, say, a carousel post. You can turn it into text overlays on a reel. There's so much that you can do with repurposing content. I'm a huge fan of this. If you watch me, you'll see I do this regularly myself because it just saves so much time and it means that then you're taking, you know perhaps that time you've dedicated to content creation and you're able to leverage it and multiply the effects. So I highly recommend you do that.

Speaker 1:

Now, what shouldn't you not be doing on social media? Okay, so this is some of the things that I see people doing quite often, and I'm just going to kind of give it to you straight. Number one you don't want to be too salesy, okay, so nobody likes being sold to and, like I've already said, social media is about connection and engagement. So, instead of just constantly posting about your sales, discounts, promotions, you want to talk about your values, what you stand for, what you're all about, your mission statement, your brand, like what it is that people feel like when they're in your studio and love about your studio, and so you don't. You want to be very, very careful about your content. Being overly salesy Every now and again, yes, but it's not all that frequently.

Speaker 1:

The second thing is, I would be really thoughtful about where you're going to show up. There are certain platforms that are very unlikely to get you clients and they're very unlikely for your clients to go and look to engage with you. So choose platforms where you know your clients, your ideal clients, hang out. Where are they, and so you know. For most of your owners, that is Instagram and Facebook, but there are others now and we want to make sure that we are showing up where our clients are showing up. And then I want you to be mindful of how much I'm going to be careful how I word this, how much we see trends changing and how quickly we see trends changing, and so it's really common for people to come to me and say well, I heard that, you know, we should do reels that are three seconds long, or I should. We should do long form content, or we should only have, you know, seven posts in our carousel posts. Right, by the way, it just made all of that up. I'm not that is none of the none of that I am I recommending, but this is what people come to me with and it's because somebody out there somewhere has decided that that is what they're going to hang their hook on and talk about.

Speaker 1:

And the reality is is that you know, you are not, um, a social media. Uh, your business is built outside of social media, and so there are some trends, there are some, um, things that you want to be aware of. The fundamentals of what will help you to be successful in social media is what I shared with you today and every week. There might be some little thing that you might not do or do. Like you know, people will say post more hashtags or less hashtags, and our hashtags don't matter. Add a location, pretend you're in a different city. There's so many small things that I hear all the time that I see all the time. That ultimately will probably make a very small impact, and I would rather you focus your energy and efforts on showing up consistently and showcasing your studio and putting out great content, versus trying to somehow hack the system by trying to keep up with some of these trends.

Speaker 1:

I find that if you enjoy it and you want to do that viral dance video, please do. It can be fun for you and probably for your followers. But if it's not something that vibes with you, it's not something that aligns with you, then you don't have to, but your content does need to be engaging. It's helpful to be aware of the bigger picture and over time, you kind of can see the trends that really stand out, the things that we see the platforms telling us about where they're heading and what direction they're heading in. So, for example, we know that video content is top for Instagram. We know that that's what they love to put out, more so than just single graphic posts. We know that they like to have the posts be a certain size. It helps to take up more of the screen. These are things that we've seen not just come out sort of yesterday, but that have, over time, have stayed that the platform is encouraging people to do and to use, and you want to keep that in mind. Now, finally, and I think the last thing, is that very few people do this and so and you want to keep that in mind, okay. Now, finally, and I think the last thing is that very few people do this, and that is that most people don't look at their analytics. So, in the backend of Instagram, the backend of Facebook, you can see how many people are engaging with your posts. You can see what people love to see in your social media, and I would encourage you to use that data to figure out what's working right, because I don't want you to keep doing anything in your social media platform or content that isn't engaging to your clients. And so use your data to see and what you might find is that what you think will work really, really well, because you maybe spent all this time filming this video. Unfortunately, it might not actually be so much of a hit with your clients. So, look at your analytics, have a look and see what content resonated and sometimes it's because of the format, and sometimes it's because of what you said, and sometimes it's just the timing but be just be aware of what you're seeing in terms of your analytics. Okay, I want to run through really quickly some quick tips on and quick wins on, how you can simplify your social media. So, number one I mentioned already batch content creation. Set aside a day a month or so to create some, some content and that can look like some videos, take some stills and maybe even think about mapping out the content for two or three or four weeks, okay, and you can use some scheduling tools to schedule content out as far ahead as you want, and I like this a lot because you can, to some degree, set it and forget it. But you do obviously need to carve out a bit of time to be engaging on those platforms as well. You also want to make sure that you're repurposing content, so don't reinvent the wheel. Okay, please don't reinvent the wheel. You don't have time for that. So if you had a topic that did really well last month and you know you've got more to talk about, or you'd like to do perhaps another tutorial of some sort, or you'd like to showcase another teacher because that was a hit, then do it again this month. There's no harm in that. You do not have to keep coming up with brand new, never done before content. I also recommend that you have sort of specific themes that you kind of rotate through in terms of content types, and so that means that you're going to keep your content fresh and it's going to be more engaging and more interesting to people. Like I said, if you're constantly just posting your promotions, it gets old and you won't get as much engagement. And finally, remember your audience craves connection. Everybody wants to know what's going on behind the scenes, so please share those moments from class. Share your favorite something, your favorite workout playlist or what goes into planning a class schedule. Those real stories truly build trust. Okay, so let's wrap it up. Today we talked about how social media can be your studio's virtual front door and a tool really to connect with your community. So there were some things I recommended, like showing up consistently, engaging with your audience and using video to get attention. The don'ts, like being too salesy, overloading yourself with trying to be on every platform or chasing trends that don't align with you or your brand. And finally, the quick wins to save time and keep it simple but effective. I don't want you to waste time on anything that isn't going to get you results, and it doesn't have to be overwhelming, because if we know it's getting results, then it is working for you. So focus on connection, focus on authenticity and make sure you're being clear with your strategy and how you're using this, what can be a phenomenal tool for your business growth. So I hope that was helpful to you. Thank you so much for spending a little bit of time with me talking about this. If you found this episode helpful, please share it with another studio owner or tag me on Instagram and, as always, let me know what you're thinking and what you want to hear about more. Until next time, keep doing what you love and building the business you deserve. Did you love this episode and want more? Head to spring3.com and check out my free resources that will help you run a profitable and fulfilling studio business. And, before you go, one last reminder there is no one way to do what you do, only your way. So, whatever it is that you want to do, create or offer, you've got this. Thanks again for joining me today and have a wonderful rest of your day.