Today I´m going to talk about how you can grow a Fitness YouTube Channel and take advantage of your filmmaking and creative process.
Although there are many things you could do in order to get noticed on
Let´s start!
1. Document Over Create
The first thing you should consider if you want to grow ANY YouTube channel, not only a fitness-focused channel, is to start mixing your creation process by documenting your journey to fitness perfection.
As Gary Vaynerchuk says: “You can ponder about the strategy behind every post and fabricate yourself into this “influential person”… or you can just be yourself. Creating this influential persona might seem especially hard if you’re just someone starting to climb the ladder.”
You don´t necessarily have to document every aspect of it, you can make a good 50/50 mix between creation and documentation, the point is to set yourself apart and not dwell too much on the fact that you have to create 100% original content every time you hit record.
That´s one of the most common reasons why people start to experience burn out and can´t grow from where they are.
What´s the bottom line?
Mix between the two and start showing more of yourself in every video, that way you´ll differentiate your channel from the competition and you´ll get more work done at the same time!
2. Make Your Thumbnail Standout
Although this is improtant with every type of video whether is a vlog or a explainer video your Thumbnails as a Fitness YouTuber MUST be optimized to the fullest if you want to grab people´s attention.
One good example of how to do it is the Athlean X Channel, where Jeff uses thumbnail with comparisons. Like this:
Which, by the way, is one of his most successful videos EVER!! With lamost one million views a month and growing.
The point that I want to make is that you must customize your thumbnails and brand them in such a way that is recognizable for your audience to be able to easily find you.
Another thing that you can find in
What are those?
They are simple colors, blocks of text, of arrows that show the body part that´s going to be trained on the video. Like this:
The more helpful and attractive to the eye the more clicks you´ll get.
One more thing…
Most of Athlean X thumbnails, as well as many other successful YouTubers share a similar lay out in every video they make, which is a common way of branding themselves, other things you can do to get that similar effect is:
- Utilizing a logo, which should be placed in the same corner of your thumbnail every time.
- Choosing the same fonts for the text, and sticking to those.
- Selecting a similar color palette you can use as part of your background.
3. The Transormation Video
Speaking about the good old marketing methods…
Okay, I wasn´t talking about old marketing methods but now I am, and that is the widely used Transformation Video.
You´ve probably seen a good share of these online, these are videos were people show how much they´ve changed in any period of time through dieting and fitness.
They are a very POWERFUL way to tap into two pillars of some of the most viral videos there are: motivation and entertaining.
Now, if you don´t have old raw footage from when you were a young gym starter you can start recording right now or try to retrieve some clips and photos from your attic!
It works like magic. If you don´t believe check this one out:
It´s not even a channel with a ton of subscribers or a video that has many years since it´s been uploaded, but it has almost 5 MILLION views!
So, if you want to grow your fitness channel you should consider this option as it turns to be one of the most effective ways to get viral if used well.
There are ton of examples you can find out there, I encourage you to head over YouTube and actually see how powerful this is.
4. Value Comes First!
It could mean that the production of your videos is really high or that the information you provide is very thorough, the goal is to deliver as much value as possible.
And that you do that way before you ask for anything in return, whether is that you want people to opt-in to your email list or that they buy anything from you.
So, provide great information with educational content first thing, make your videos interesting to watch, craft nice headlines and talk about what others don´t.
“You need to spend all of your time and energy on creating something that actually brings value to the people you’re asking for money!” – Gary Vaynerchuk
Then, and only then you can start asking for people to engage with you in any way, shape, or form.
Tailoring Workouts
This is a great way to provide actual value to your people.
Follow YouTube´s advice and tailor your workouts to a specific audience, these are fitness-focused videos that are meant to a previously defined demographic.
For example, if most of your audience is female maybe you can drop those
Another great advice you can take from the platform itself is to make full-lentgth workout sessions and make accesible to your veiwers a real-time look to one of your routines.
People are starting to get more and more value from full-
Here´s what to do:
Record a full workout session of at least 20 to 30 minutes long, or a set of carefully thought out exercises and compiled them into a single video, the more REAL the better, meaning that it should be raw material, without much editing.
5. Build a Community
The difference with fitness as well as health-related niches is that you can find that most people all over the world can relate to it at some level.
In fact.
There have been studies that prove how GOOD really is to do group workouts or establish healthy routines within a community or even with some of your buddies.
For example, a study published in the Journal of Social Sciences found that people gravitate towards the exercise behaviors of those around them.
In addition to that, there is research that found that people who started a weight loss program with a friend have increased chances (a whopping 95%!) of completing the program compared to those who don´t.
That IS one of the main reasons why Crossfit has been so popular in the last few years.
That is why building a community and not just a fanbase is crucial if you are trying to grow a fitness YouTube channel.
You can take advantage of this by building an email list and telling people about your website. There they´ll find more exclusive content, maybe some other FREE stuff, etc.
Facebook groups work well in these type of niches but if you want to take things to the next level you should …..
Another aspect of the community based approach is that you can lean people in if you major on motivational videos. This one is KEY.
Most people struggle with going to the gym on a regular basis, losing a few pounds for summer, or even gaining a few pounds of muscle, the point is that you can get some leverage on that.
Whether is by sharing your own struggles or by encouraging others to share theirs people will find inspiration on that.
6. Get Proven Video Ideas
This is another great way to get more viewers and subscribers at the same time without doing much research.
You are simply going to head over to some of your biggest competitor channels, then you´ll click on “videos” and then on “most popular”. Like this:
There you have, 5 to 10 GREAT video ideas you can reap off and take advantage from to create your own version on the same topic/keyword.
If you do just that with enough channels you might get a full set of popular videos ready to be filmed.
By “stealing” some proven video ideas from your most popular video competitors you´ll get the opportunity to be shown on the featured video section on the right when someone is watching those videos.
That way, you´ll get some instant traffic just by making similar content to those who your most avid competitors are talking about.
Now, make sure to give it a spin or a complete new approach, you don´t want to copy another person idea, that is not what I am suggesting.
You are merely taking a proven topic and making a great video on that SAME keyword. Period.
7. Innovate & Stay On Top
Another important factor for those who want to stay always on top of the YouTube ecosystem is to try to innovate.
Different (if done properly) = More views!
Why?
Well, due to the fact that most people do what others successful YouTubers are already doing every video starts to look the same, more so if you look at one specific niche at a time.
You MUST upgrade your game on some level if you want to stand out, whether is with more visual aids, better editing, being funny, or simply by sharing more data or research on any given topic, it doesn´t matter as long as you innovate and try different things.
So, be aware of the fact that you need to be constantly thinking of new ways to do things if you want to grab someones attention.
Once you´ve done that and you´ve found your OWN way of doing things you´ll get more and more momentum as you go.
8. Show Up Every Week
Yep, you´ve heard it a million times before so here it comes one more time: consistency is the name of the game!
People aren´t going to take you seriously or even subscribe to your channel if you upload a video once every a couple of week, or even without a schedule.
I´ve said it on other post, most pro YouTubers suggest that you should be uploading video at least once a week.
That being said, the more the better!
If you can hit 2 or 3 videos per week without losing ANY quality in the process then your chances of breaking out and being discovered, as well as the speed of your growth, will increase dramatically.
Now, although how many videos upload is important, the QUALITY of your videos comes first.
That doesn´t mean it has to be filmed on the latest Canon Camera, I mean that it has to deliver great stuff, good information in a entertaining or thoughtful, engaging way.
9. Have Fun!
You are not talking about politics or trying to educate youngsters about math problems, it´s a fitness channel, so you (and your audience) should have some fun with it.
There are only three elements that most successful YouTube videos tend to use, they usually are educational, entertaining to watch and/or motivational.
On some some level they use some of those elements or all of them if possible.
Keeping that in mind the rest should be pure playfullness and fun to watch.
Although you don´t want to talk just about yourself and have fun just for the sake of having fun being relaxed on camera and keep it enjoyable is what will help your viewers to relate with you on a deeper level.
Related Questions
What are good fitness YouTube video ideas? As well as the transformation video you can also try to teach how not to get injured when doing certain exercises, how to avoid burnout, how to motivate to get to the gym, share your own personal routine, maybe some weird workout you´ve invented or recently tried out.
How to make a fitness video for YouTube? As long as you combine in some way the three most effective elements of every successful video (that is entertaining, educational and/or motivational) you are good to go. Add some spark by being yourself on camera, do as many shots as possible until you get it right, and have some fun with it!