The world of social media is rapidly expanding. Your consumers are searching for more and more digital content online. The pace with which social media has absorbed our lives is incredible. As per reports, the average US adult spends a little over 2 hours on social media every single day.

With such a great demand for online content, it opens up an entirely wide channel for advertising your fitness business. Positioning your fitness business the right way on social media can help you reap great rewards over time, be it in the form of more class bookings or strengthened brand reputation.

All this comes at a time when we are still in a pandemic and many people are relying on social media to fulfill their societal needs.

Skip to section:

• COVID-19 & Social Media Marketing
• What is FOMO Marketing?
• Psychology Behind FOMO
• FOMO Marketing Ideas
• Summing Up

COVID-19 & Social Media Marketing

The corona pandemic has surely influenced consumer behavior. People have become more accepting of social advertising. As per a recent survey of over 25,000 consumers, engagement on social media saw a 61% jump during the pandemic.

Countries having stricter lockdowns means increased use of social media and consequently a decline in advertising costs. Businesses are using this opportunity to run better marketing campaigns and grab a greater market share.

In times such as these, as fit-biz owners, what you want is for your prospective consumers to consume more of your content and satisfy their social needs via you. And your digital strategy will play a huge part in this.

What is FOMO Marketing?

FOMO is also called Fear of Missing Out. In a social context, it refers to the feeling that others are having more fun or leading better lives than you are. The term has a negative sound to it, because FOMO, in general, is associated with a sense of envy towards others and a lack of self-esteem towards one-self.

FOMO marketing on the contrary is a positive marketing strategy that makes use of the basic consumer instinct to grab every opportunity they get so that they don’t feel the anxiety of missing out on something good.

What this means is for you to frame your messages in such a way that your prospects are compelled to make an impulse purchase now instead of regretting “not making the purchase” later.

For instance, let’s say that your ideal customer has been looking to join a weekly Pilates class for a long while, but he just didn’t find the right time or initiative to join one.

Sure he googled it up a couple of times, but the thought of making an investment and showing up for the class made him indecisive.

Then one day he saw your ad on Facebook offering a free trial class for free. Maybe he’ll sign up for it, maybe not. What if you didn’t offer a free trial but a discounted one, and put an expiry date on it.

The sense of panic and momentous dilemma that will strike your consumer's mind and the consequent satisfaction or regret of either taking or not taking the offer is exactly the idea behind FOMO.

Psychology Behind FOMO

We humans by nature are a species that avoids risk. That risk could be anything. It could be avoiding a purchase because we fear that we won’t get our money’s worth.

At the same time, risk-avoidance could mean not passing up on a purchasing decision because we might regret it later.

Say if you were living about 10 years ago and someone told you to invest all your life savings in Bitcoin. In an ideal scenario, you might not follow that advice because you want to avoid risk.

But jump to 10 years later, you might regret not investing a few hundred dollars in bitcoin, if not your life savings because of the kind of returns it has been giving to early investors.

For fitness marketers, the fear of missing out plays out in creating viral campaigns that can help trigger FOMO amongst your consumers so they are compelled to sign up for a monthly unlimited yoga class, book a free drop-in pilates session, purchase an annual discounted subscription

Let’s look at a few ways you can adapt this strategy in your social media marketing efforts.

01. Use Smart Messaging

The way your message is being conveyed to a consumer makes all the difference in FOMO marketing. Your written copy whether on your web page or digital ads must create a sense of urgency in the target audience to make a purchase else they might lose out on the offer.

Phrases which can be used are:

• Last few spots available.
• Offer expires midnight!
• Last chance to book a class.
• Limited period offer.

Your message should push the audience to take immediate action, as if they don’t take an action now, they might regret their decision later on.

02. Set a Time Limit

Time limits are effective in creating FOMO because our innate nature commands us to respect deadlines. And customers are prone to making an impulsive buying decision when under the pressure of a ticking clock.

This can be in the form of a limited-time offer of your weekend yoga session that is being offered at half the rate for this week. However, the window to book it is only for say around six hours.

That means people who book within those six hours will get the offer but once it expires you’d have no option but to purchase at the full rate.

03. Social Proofs & Testimonials

Say you’re passing by two gyms and are thinking of joining either one of them. The first one you see has a packed parking lot, the other one however looks abandoned. Your social instincts will push you towards the packed one because your mind subtly tells you how you’re missing out on something good.

That’s the reason why social proofs in the form of testimonials should be visible on your IG-FB handles and studio websites showing the positive transformations they experienced due to your fitness studio.

The more social proofs they get, the more confident your consumers will feel about booking a class with you.

04. Influencer Marketing

When someone who’s famous talks about how amazing your yoga class is, it lends your studio the same kind of popularity, especially if you cash in on it at the right time, the right way.

It’s an era of social media influencers all around, and Instagram seems to be the best channel for influencer marketing at this point in time. So even if you have a small budget, you can still reach out to a larger audience and create a sense of FOMO in them.

Just be sure to quote the influencer in your marketing campaigns and add their message about your fitness class on your social media handles, landing pages, newsletters, and everywhere else where your audience might see them.

05. Bring Out The Competition

People are also competitive by nature. We don’t like missing out on an offer especially if others are readily grabbing it. This competitive spirit can be leveraged to create a stronger sense of FOMO.

The idea here is to show that others are also looking at the classes that a prospective consumer is browsing for on your website. This can be in the form of a simple notification that says “15 people booked this class last week..”.

This not only shows social proof that the class is of good value, but it also gives a message that you as a consumer are competing with several others to get a slot booked.

06. Bring in User-Generated Content

If your followers can be persuaded or if they are willing to create content surrounding your fitness studio, then there’s nothing better than that.

A single Instagram reel of your client striking a yoga pose at your studio has the ability to influence hundreds of other prospects in her Insta-feed.

This user-generated content can further be used by you to compel other people to try your class because this time it’s not an influencer but an actual user is telling them to try it.

07. Show the Class Spots Left

If people feel that something’s about to run out, they have an incentive to either make the purchase now, else regret not buying it later.

If you’re running a boutique fitness class, then show the number of spots that are left for your classes. It’s not necessary to show the exact number, on your website a banner can be added that says “Only a few spots remain”.

08. Make Your Offers Exclusive

Not always, but once in a while, it pays to have an exclusive offer. People like to get their hands on an opportunity that few people have.

Amazon Prime for instance is a priority deal that encourages people to get their deliveries faster and cheaper than others.

Similarly, you can offer limited-time, exclusive offers on classe bookings that can be made available maybe 3-4 weeks before they are scheduled, or low-in-demand classes offered at exclusive yet limited period discount rates.

09. Use FOMO on Multiple Channels

If you have been running content on Facebook till now, and wish to create a greater audience for your content on your website, say blogs or a podcast, then you can let your audience know that you're releasing exclusive content solely on your website.

This method might encourage people to watch the content on your fitness website too, be it a VOD yoga session or a peaceful podcast on life in general.

If you want to increase your newsletter subscribers, use FOMO advertising e on social media so people can stay updated about your latest classes and offers on newsletter mail.

10. Highlight Missed Opportunity

Showcase the opportunities and expired deals that were missed by your customers. When they take notice of this, they’ll be more vigilant about grabbing an exclusive or discounted class offer the next time.

This way their anxiety can create FOMO and push your customers to make purchasing decisions quickly so they don’t miss out on good deals.

Bonus Point: Ensure Zero Delays In Selling

If you wish for customers to jump on your website and book a class as fast as they can, Kenko’s fast website integration can help you.

• Visitors discover all your classes and credit packs online
• They can book a class in three simple clicks
• From discovery to check-out, the process will be extremely fast and easy.

That way there won’t be an obstruction in your entire sales cycle, and customers won’t be held back from impulse purchases because of technical delays or too many sign-ups.

Summing Up

And that’s about it. FOMO marketing is real, as real as FOMO itself. Creating situations where your audience must act fast on an opportunity else risk losing it is a great way to encourage sales and conversions.

But then again, you have to make sure to not use this strategy too often else it can become redundant and ineffective over time, because of the loss in perceived value. That’s why experimenting with different opportunities with different audiences, say offering something special for email subscribers and something entirely different for IG followers is also important.

The social media landscape is constantly changing, trends come and trends go. Fitness brands need to constantly innovate to keep their users engaged and strengthen relations for hitting long-term revenue goals.

That’s why now’s the perfect moment to reflect on your social media strategy and see what enhances engagement and brand loyalty so you don’t feel the fear of missing out too.

To learn about some great marketing features for your fitness business, schedule a 15 minute call with us below!