“I’m passionate about fitness,” said almost every fitness professional ever.

“I’m passionate about marketing and sales,” said almost no fitness professional ever.

Without marketing and sales, you can’t be of service to the people you want to help or create a business and a life you love. So how can you leverage your knowledge to market to those who need you most?

Enter education. Education is content marketing. You love to help, to teach, and to share solutions with people. Content marketing lets you market in a way that isn’t sleazy, cheesy or full of overused clichés. It’s helping.

Educating with content allows you to build the know-like-trust factor. People buy from people, not businesses. People buy from people they know, like and trust. When you share information that promises to help clients solve a problem you give them a quick win. That will bring them back for more.

Coming up with content

If you can talk about a problem in way a prospect know that you understand their challenge or frustration, she will also automatically intuit that you have the answer to the problem.

Content that people want to consume is built based on listening well to what prospects and customers tell you. Survey your buyers. Survey your non-buyers. Separate the lists before you survey. You really want to tap into the response of buyers. Non-buyers love to give feedback, but they may never buy.

List the things your prospect is thinking month-by-month. In January they’re thinking about how to set goals, how to get started, what to measure, and how not to fail again. Use the thoughts inside your prospects head to educate which in turn will attract them to your website and business.

When a current customer says, “I’ve learned so much,” ask what it was that was most valuable! That is gold for developing your next educational piece for prospects. Those nuggets become the blogs or videos about “myths” or “facts you didn’t know that will get you better results.”

Before consultations instruct customers to prepare one to three questions they want answered. At the end of every consultation ask if there is a question you’ve left unanswered. You will quickly collect data from these questions for your marketing.

Four ways to deliver content in a way you enjoy and that your prospects will appreciate

There’s no wrong way to deliver your message. Video probably is best but any way your customers will consume it works. Just start.

1. Write or talk: Start blogging (on your own website or as a guest blogger or both) or podcasting.

2. Speak: Create a live weekly Facebook or YouTube “show,” host your own live presentations and let groups know you’re available to speak at their meetings, virtually or in person.

3. Create videos: You can repurpose video for multiple platforms. Videos you take on your phone can be loaded directly to Facebook (native video) and to YouTube. You can embed them in your webpages or insert in blogs. Videos that are two or three minutes long are a great way to begin training your audience to watch. Teach how to properly squat or lunge, or better ways to train the core.

You can both create regularly scheduled videos or teach a mini-course. Break a topic into three parts and create a workbook to go with it.

4. Make media appearances: The media is always looking for a fun, engaging segment their viewers will love. You have engaging movements and props that make you attractive if you come up with a new spin on an old topic.

Then start calling your local stations and say you’ve got a great idea for a segment. While you’re reaching a big audience, you’re also increasing your credibility. You can later leverage that on your website with, “as seen on” mentions of your appearances.

Call-to-action

Include a link to a relevant program in a blog or a podcast. Add a clickable link (and end screen) on your YouTube videos that leads to your website. Create an opt-in form so you can capture emails when you give a workbook away.

Be specific by telling the prospect exactly what to do: “Click here,” “Enter your email,” “Look in your inbox,” etc. People are too busy to guess what to do next.

Teachers teach

You’re already at an advantage. If you’re a trainer or a health coach, you teach to an audience of one (or a group) all the time. You already know the most frequently asked questions, the questions you wish clients would ask, and the most common objections. You have plenty of ideas to build educational content.