How great would it be if you could build some healthy – and productive – habits into your weekly marketing? Meet Zoe – owner and founder of Zoe Rose Fitness who has done just that. This week she chats to Katie about introducing new habits to her marketing plans, and the importance of growing a loyal following by adding value (for free).
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After trying out lots of ideas for a career, Zoe moved into strength and fitness to help with a back injury. Now, she works with women online and supports them to navigate the frantic and often-confusing fitness industry to find the techniques that work best for them.
The ultimate goal for Zoe is that clients finish their coaching block with her feeling strong and confident – not just in their bodies but in the way they move through their day and lives as a result.
“I like to remove all the stuff you don’t need to worry about, so you can zone in and focus on all the fitness and exercise that will make you feel amazing.” – Zoe
When Zoe started the business, she saw the vision of changing lives and making a difference with her service purely on an individual basis. One client at a time. As time has moved on, she’s tapped into a bigger vision. Now, she wants to serve thousands of women, and make a positive change in the fitness industry. So watch this space!
The best things about running Zoe Rose Fitness
As someone easily bored, Zoe’s thrilled that running her own business keeps her occupied and out of boredom’s reach. She works on her own right now, so she takes on every challenge as it comes to her.
“You have to have a marketing hat on, coaching hat on, I have to think about accounting – it just keeps it really exciting for me.” – Zoe
Transitioning an in-person service to the online space
Zoe moved into a more online position since the Covid restrictions and spends 50% of her time working with clients and supporting them. The rest is divided up between the other supporting activities like marketing and admin.
Having a bigger vision to reach more women meant Zoe had plans to shift online in the future. 2 years ago she started to shape out the idea, and with Coronavirus lockdown and restriction, she had to make the changes quickly! She puts the success of this down to good old fashioned trial-and-error and experimentation!
Digital Marketing – what’s working?
Zoe started marketing through Facebook because she was most familiar with the platform. As interest in her services grew, she added an instagram account to the mix.
Whilst she enjoys Instagram as a user, she gets more clients through Facebook. She enjoys more engagement on Facebook so drives most of her energy in that direction. She posts to 3 different locations:
Zoe Rose Fitness is her main business page where she shares regular content about the business.
Zoe Rose Movement is her free Facebook group. Zoe shares content each week-day, using a mix of inspiration and motivation. This has been a useful sales tool for her as most of her clients join the group and then get to know Zoe more before signing up for her 1:1 services.
Zoe’s personal page Initially she was reluctant to use her personal page for fear of being judged by friends and family. She’s had a mix of feedback on this approach and recognises it’s not everyone’s cup of tea to see business posts regularly. Losing some friends on Facebook has been worth it as she also gets great feedback on her content.
The value in free content
With so much value and free content on Facebook, Katie wondered why people would pay for her services if they could access her work without paying. For Zoe, the content she shares is more generic, something for everyone – but not designed for the individual. If you’re a beginner, if you have lots of questions you need more support for success.
“There are so many different marketing tools and platforms and individual elements to consider. It’s physically impossible as a solo business owner to do everything. But most of the tools will do the job for you and you just have to pick one.” – Katie
YouTube
Zoe’s always used YouTube for videos for her clients to use, but over lockdown added more to her library for people who were struggling with motivation and fitness.
The benefits of blogging for the web.
The benefits of blogging for the web
Zoe started to blog for her site, for search engine purposes and to showcase her expertise to potential clients. With the busy day-to-day, blogging has slipped recently, although she does plan to pick it up again. Katie shared her own experiences with blogging and how The Whin Big Podcast was easier for her to create than written blogs and suggested Zoe uses her YouTube videos on her site as an alternative to written blogs.
Zoe’s tips for planning content
Business owners seem to get ideas from the strangest places. For Zoe – luxuriating in the bath and going for long walks produce the best ideas. She’ll come up with ideas on her walks then plan out each day and write every post when she’s back at her desk. For Zoe, organising and scheduling keep things fresh and easy. Something Katie, a self-confessed anti-planner, is rather envious of!
“Take messy action. I was such a perfectionist, I was spending so much time getting things done, I just wasn’t doing it because it was never going to be perfect enough. Now when I get uncomfortable about it being perfect, I remind myself to take messy action. At least I’m doing it. And it means you will always get better.” – Zoe
Zoe’s book recommendations
For Zoe, mindset was a big area that had to change so she could reach her goals. Her favourite books on the topic are:
Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz*
Which is all about understanding how the mind works and how you can use that knowledge to visualise success and achieving your goals. Zoe doesn’t recommend the audio book format of this book!
Atomic Habits by James Clear*
Zoe enjoyed this book because she loves habit building. She has used a few of the tips to boost her productivity and her sales.
Resources and links discussed in this week’s episode
[Podcast] 3 strategies to organise your marketing (even when you hate organising)
Connecting with Zoe online
Join Zoe’s free Facebook group
* Links marked with a star are affliate links to Bookshop.org. When you buy through these links, a small portion of the cost of the book goes to supporting your local bookshop, and a small portion comes to The Whin. The books won’t cost you any extra!
