How Kayla Itsines Built Her Fitness Empire on Instagram
Marketing Showcase: How Kayla Itsines Branded Herself as Instagram's Favorite Fitness Influencer
If you don't know who Kayla Itsines is, you've probably at least heard of her Bikini Body Guide (BBG) that everyone and their mother had tried. BBG is a 12-week diet and exercise program that doesn't require a fancy gym membership OR your own personal trainer - with BBG Kayla is your trainer!
Kayla is one of the largest fitness influencers (if not THE largest) on Instagram with 7.1 Million followers and counting! I took a look at Kayla's winning Instagram strategy and broke it down so you can learn from her success, no matter what industry you're in!
What:
Like we saw last week with Adobe, Kayla tends to stick to the same types of content, rotating between them to keep her Instagram feed from feeling boring. Kayla shares photos of herself and her bangin' bod, snaps from her trips around the world (almost always in a bikini), selfies of her cute gym outfits, regrams of beautiful photos of healthy food, inspirational quotes, and of course, real-woman testimonials of their success with her Bikini Body Guide.
Why It's Notable:
If you took away the success stories, her feed would be just beautiful pictures of a beautiful girl in beautiful locations. While these pictures garner Kayla thousands of likes, it's the before and after pictures (sometimes with an accompanying testimonial) of other women that really sell the BBG brand. If it was just Kayla posting pictures of herself, it would be easy to dismiss her as having great genes and the time and know-how to work on her body. It's the fact that other women get results, too, that really matters.
How You Can Apply It In Your Own Marketing:
Client. Testimonials. Are. King.
As the younger generations grow up, your brand is going to be faced with more and more consumers who have always had the knowledge of the Internet hive mind at their fingertips. They are so used to going online to research restaurants, hotels, movies, books, music, you name it, they've researched it. And they don't want to know what you say your product can do, they want to know if you're telling the truth and if it's worth their time/money. So they read reviews and crowdsource opinions from their friends, family, and colleagues.
If you don't have any client testimonials available and your competitor does, you're dead in the water. While word-of-mouth is still a powerful way to bring in new sales/clients, I would strongly encourage you to consider referrals as only one source of your business, rather than the whole source of your business.
And really, why would you not try to cultivate client reviews? They don't cost you anything more than an ask.
I get that some people are afraid to ask for reviews because they fear that the trolls will come out of the woodwork. But. You can't please everyone. Yes, you will get a bad review now and again. Don't fear them. Bad reviews can actually help your brand. They make the other, positive reviews appear that much more authentic. And every bad review you get likely has a kernel of truth in it. Learn from it and use it to make your business better and better.
To see more of what Kayla is doing on Instagram to market her BBG empire, click here.
If this marketing showcase was helpful to you, leave me a comment below! Is there a great brand whose marketing you love? Let me know, I would love to check them out!