Grow Your Fitness Business with Facebook Messenger

Facebook messenger isn’t new. Most of us use it for quick chats and to occasionally wave at someone we haven’t heard from in a while. On Facebook business pages, most people and organizations use messenger to answer inquiries from followers. But overall, it is highly underutilized. When you start your personal training career or decide to expand your fitness coaching business, it is highly essential that you leverage as many tools as possible. With minimal effort, as a personal trainer or fitness coach, you can bring an extra level of service to your following and customers and grow your fitness business with Facebook Messenger.

Facebook Messenger: a critical communication tool

By the end of the 2017 third quarter, Facebook was reporting 2.07 billion active users. These are active users who regularly login and interact with business pages like yours. And Facebook messenger active users have spilled over 1.2 billion active users.

When Messenger was first introduced, all it was good for was sending messages back and forth. Now, a page admin can respond to page comments, when a private message will be more appropriate. This was an important change to implement because it allows everyone to conveniently remain on the Facebook platform. Private emails and life outside of Facebook are protected. And we have a record of our communications all in one place.

We, of course, remember that mobile is the number one way people access their online life. The average active user checks Facebook more than 14 times per day. That puts your conversations and outreach communication right in the palm of their hands, all day long.

With all that power and opportunity for visibility, why wouldn’t we try to monetize such an important tool? You would be crazy not to! 

Here is what you need to know so that you can start and grow your fitness business with Facebook Messenger.

Messenger is now all about customer care

We can chat back and forth. We can privately answer comments on our page. But with the ability to reach out to our customers we can also provide exceptional customer service. When we run our ads on Facebook, and an order is placed, we now have the ability to continue our communication with that customer using best practices.

We can send them their receipt, answer inquiries, provide shipping information, and we can manage any complaints.

Perhaps more importantly, we can follow up with our customers. It’s all about cultivating relationships and building our loyal following, right? The best way to do that is to continue to reach out and maintain relationships.

• We can follow-up with customer satisfaction surveys.
• Let them know when similar products they would be interested in are available, such as new colors, complementary accessories, and seasonal varieties.
• Customers often appreciate reminders, such as refills, reorders, and subscription renewals.

For fitness pros, this can be invaluable.

• Generate more sales on each season’s latest nutrition plan
• Your latest fitness regimen recommendations can be just a message away.
• You can easily upsell them on add-ons and invite them to your latest online group chat.
• And you can let them know when that second edition of your book is released.
• What else can you think of? Even if you don’t have any of these examples lined up to offer your customers, you can remind them of upcoming sales and encourage them to join your email list so they can get valuable updates.

As you can see, Messenger can help get you in front of people you know for a fact are interested in your product because they’ve made the purchase and a direct line is open to you. We are always looking for ways to reach our consumers. Text messages and emails can work wonders, but the value of meeting our clients and customers on the Facebook platform, right where they are spending their time, is immeasurable.

How to reach out on Messenger

Do your regular audits. It’s best to take a few moments to optimize your Facebook page and spruce up a few things. I recommend doing a yearly audit with a check-in about half way through the year to make sure all your buttons and tabs are working correctly, ensure email sign-ups are enabled, your pixel is connected, and that your About information is still accurate. When you stay on top of your pages’ functionality, you will experience a lot fewer headaches as you grow your fitness business with Facebook Messenger.

Enable messages. As far as Messenger, be sure messages are enabled so your page can accept and send messages. You can do this under the General Settings for your page by choosing, Allow Messages.

If you end up with more messages than expected, it will be an excellent time to consider a virtual assistant or appoint a moderator to help with the volume. It’s also advisable to set-up an auto-reply feature, so people know you’ll get back to them. No response within 24 hours can feel very disconfirming.

Set up instant replies. While you’re in Settings and then Messaging, set-up Instant Replies with a short, friendly and encouraging message. I find it helpful to give people something to do if they don’t want to just wait. Let them know you’ll get back to them, but also add a note about where else they can connect with you on social media, how they can sign up for your email list, or the latest sale your running. Giving them a way to continue to engage with you, rather than just having them anxiously waiting for a response is a great best practice that many businesses miss out on.

Show your response time. Then set your page to display your response time. You’re still in the Messaging section of Settings. It will only show up if you visit your page at least once a week, but it’s a great way to encourage people to message you. When visitors don’t see a response time, it can be less encouraging, and they may walk away without engaging with you.

Create a few time-saving scripted messages. As we communicate with customers, we’ll find there are some common questions the hit our inbox. It’ll be much more efficient to have a few standard answers prepared and ready to go so communications are streamlined. You’ll do this with Manage Replies while in Messenger Settings.  

Get personal. When someone messages your page, Facebook will allow you to see a few limited personal details about them. Aside from being able to see previous communications, you can look at whatever they’ve added to their About section and made public, like where they’re from, interests, whether they like your page, and recent milestones. You don’t need to stalk them, but if the info is public, it makes sense to go ahead and look for ways to connect on a personal level and build rapport. Small touches like this can help guarantee the longevity and positive perception of your page as you continue to grow your Fitness business with Facebook Messenger

Stay organized. Facebook has added this handy keyword feature that lets us tag conversations by keywords. Use words like feedback, follow-up, confirmed, and more to make sure you manage your customer care. This simple tool helps you provide a seamless customer care experience that’s also streamlined and easy to manage.

Use the site plugin. Facebook offers a helpful plugin that allows you to add messenger to your site. When you add this plugin,  you will be making it super simple to utilize and grow your fitness business with Facebook Messenger. Encouraging as many people as possible to communicate with you where they spend a great deal of their time anyway, will also help you keep the majority of your conversations in one place, which adds up to a better overall organization and reach.

Now you should have a pretty good idea of how to leverage and grow your Fitness Business with Facebook Messenger. Understanding Messenger means better understanding how you can prospect and reach your customers. And they’re always adding more features. Be sure to add this to your yearly audit to always make an effort to explore the latest ways to reach out and stay connected. If you have new ideas for features you would like to see added; you can always reach out to Facebook via their feedback feature form.