In this post you’ll learn exactly how to monetize your fitness videos, from planning your content to publishing your fitness videos in all the right places.
by
PJ Taei
March 18, 2020
Fitness videos are the next great opportunity for fitness coaches, experts, and personal trainers.
They offer the chance to make more money by sharing your knowledge. They also make it possible to scale your business using digital media and reach a larger audience actively looking for quality fitness videos online.
Publishing fitness videos can also be an ideal complement to an online coaching business. They help you build awareness and trust with the right potential clients who are looking for exactly the expertise you can provide.
The many benefits are clear, but figuring out how to make money from your fitness videos may seem daunting right now. This blog post is here to simplify that process for you.
I’ll unpack how to monetize fitness videos. We’ll look at how to find your niche, pick your monetization model and plan your videos. I’ll also cover getting your fitness videos online, how to set your prices for your content and tips on marketing.
But first...
Can you really make money with fitness videos?
Video is fast becoming the most attractive, widely used and sought after marketing medium today.
Take Facebook and Twitter. Did you know that they get a combined 10 billion video views per day, while YouTube receives over 500 hours of video uploads each minute to feed its hungry base of 2 billion users?
And it all makes sense.
Video is far more engaging than text or images. In fact, research shows that consumers would prefer to watch a video than read a blog post.
Video is also the best way for fitness professionals to get their brands out there. YouTube is filled with tons of great examples.
Take Athlean X. It’s a YouTube channel that was founded by Jeff Cavaliere in 2006. Today, Jeff has over 1,385,324,654 views, 9.23 million subscribers, and he offers a collection of programs you can purchase online.
Yoga with Adriene is another shining example. Adriene started her channel back in 2012. To date, she’s amassed a following of over 6.1 million and has thriving subscription video service. In fact, Adriene’s brand has become so popular that she was featured on the Today Show.
And fitness video creators are making money. Our own stats show that Uscreen fitness content creators make over $7k per month, with some easily earning over $10k+ per month from their channels.
So how can you get in on this growing industry?
How to monetize fitness videos
Here are seven steps to follow to monetize your fitness videos online.
1. Identify your niche and audience.
All successful business endeavors begin with a clear understanding of the market they plan to serve and why the opportunity exists.
For you to monetize your fitness videos, you’ll need to know who your ideal customers are and what problem you can help them solve.
Create a persona.
If you’ve never researched niches, the best place to start is by identifying a persona. This will be a fictional character who embodies a set of traits. These traits indicate what your ideal customer likes and dislikes, and what their pain points and challenges are.
Personas also identify the values your ideal customers hold about themselves and in relation to your product.
For example, if you plan to monetize fitness videos in the weight loss niche, you may find that your ideal customer values simplicity and knowledge about what to expect on their journey to losing weight.
You can use this information to build a quick guide booklet titled “What to Expect When Losing Weight.” It would make the perfect addition to your program and delight customers.
Building a persona isn’t as difficult as it sounds. You will, however, need to speak to people who fit your ideal customer profile and do secondary research to pull your information together.
DigitalMarketer offers a free downloadable customer avatar sheet. Get a copy and start creating your persona today.
Suss out the competition
Never underestimate the power of competitive research. It will help you determine how competitive your industry is, and how you can set yourself apart from the competition.
Use Google to find at least five competitors. Look at what they offer and who they target as customers.
And don’t just stop at a landing page for their product. If you can afford to, buy a few programs or sign-up for free trials. Learn what they are doing to build something better and more valuable for your audience.
2. Pick your monetization model
When you thinking about how to monetize fitness videos, most people think about YouTube and generating revenue from ads. While that’s an option, there are alternatives.
Here’s a breakdown of three ways you can monetize fitness videos:
SVOD - Subscription video on demand.
SVOD is fast becoming a favorite for video content creators. It allows creators to charge a subscription for access to their content. This gives creators the chance to scale their businesses and generate a steady income.
Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and Apple TV as some of the most popular services available today that use the SVOD model.
TVOD - Transactional video on demand.
TVOD is based on a one-time purchase. It’s more commonly referred to as pay-per-view, where you can buy access to a video for a limited time.
Some of the most popular pay-pay-view or TVOD examples around today include Apple iTunes, Amazon’s video store and Sky Box Office.
AVOD - Advertising-based video on demand.
AVOD is likely one of the most popular monetization models aspiring video creators are familiar with. Platforms like YouTube and DailyMotion offer creators the chance to share their content with the world and make money from ads shown before and during videos.
Which model should you choose?
While you can generate revenue from each of the models above, here’s what I’ve found :
Subscriptions are appealing to users. In fact, research shows that millennials are spearheading subscription service offerings in the retail market. As a model, it seems to appeal to their desire for affordable access to quality products and services.
While TVOD offers immediate income, a once-off purchase could prove harder to convert more new customers each month.
And as for AVOD, it’s a little more complex. Your content is subject to platform policies. It’s no secret that many YouTubers have a love-hate relationship with the platform. Updates have left many with less earning potential.
Generating revenue from your fitness videos on AVOD platforms like YouTube requires constantly creating content to rank better in search results.
3. Plan your program and fitness videos.
Planning your content is a process. You’ll need to distill all the information you plan on sharing into a list.
Here’s how:
Brainstorm.
List all the information you want to include. But don’t focus on qualifying ideas, aim to list all ideas that come to mind. Listing ideas will help spur your creative juices.
Prioritize the list and refine ideas.
Once you’ve generated a list of ideas, start refining your list and prioritize each item. Qualify each idea and see if it falls within the scope of how you plan to monetize fitness videos.
As a simple rule of thumb, if the idea seems out of place or appears to be one that doesn’t gel well with the others, remove it from your list.
Include supplemental content.
Supplemental content is great to have. It makes the learning process more exciting, especially when it involves tracking progress.
If you sell health and fitness programs, you can create a collection of downloadable content to help clients get the best out of your videos. These include, but are not limited to, guides, diet and eating plans, weight tracking sheets and calendars.
4. Build your platform.
Setting up your platform is as simple as uploading your content. Most platforms offer easy-to-follow instructions on how to upload, arrange and optimize your material.
Depending on your platform of choice, you may need to set up a billing and marketing systems to charge for access to your content and manage communications with your audience.
Should you own your platform?
As the web becomes more accessible to all, and the barriers to creating websites fall, owning your own platform is more within reach today than ever before. It’s also a good idea as you’re less susceptible to policy changes enforced by platforms.
And you don’t need to know how to code, manage servers or invest in one to monetize your fitness videos.
In fact, VOD platforms like Uscreen make it easy to create your own site, upload and optimize your content, and bill customers for your fitness videos, without writing a single line of code!
5. Set your prices.
Pricing often makes people feel uncomfortable. They worry about charging too little or pricing their products and services out of the market.
But there is a simpler way to approach pricing.
Do competitive research.
While I covered the research above, I specifically left pricing out to cover it in this section. If you’ve done your research, there’s a good chance that you already know what the ceiling and floor are for a fitness program like yours.
Use the to price points to find yours. Remember to focus on value and the benefits of your program and test various price points to find the best price for your program.
6. Launch an app.
Apps are blowing up today! We've seen that OTT apps increase revenue by 30%. And when it comes to OTT apps for fitness videos, you can launch your very own branded fitness app.
Take Shell Shock Fitness. It’s a one-of-the-kind workout offered by celebrity trainer/instructor and Tae Bo® Fitness DVD co-star, Shellie Blanks Cimarosti. Shellie offers her subscribers the chance to watch her content on iPhone or Android apps, Apple TV, Roku, AndroidTV and Fire TV.
7. Market your videos.
Marketing your fitness videos is a must. Put another way, if you don’t promote your content, nobody will know it exists.
Here are tips on how to get your brand out there:
Use paid ads.
Ads may seem like a scary investment, but they are an investment nonetheless. Platforms like YouTube, Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter make it possible to target your ideal customers based on demographics and interests they have. So leverage these insights to get in front of your buyers.
Build an email list.
A cardinal rule all digital marketers swear by is email list building. It’s the best and most cost-effective way to continuously market to your audience. Email is so effective because once you have an email subscriber, you never have to spend money to acquire that lead again.
Build your email list by offering valuable content. This could be a short ebook on tips to lose weight or a guide to picking the right workout apparel in exchange for an email address.
Be consistent.
Marketing is a crucial business practice. It feeds your business with more new customers and keeps them coming back.
But you can only see results if you are consistent. Ensure that you constantly create content that attracts new customers to your brand to sell your videos.
Conclusion
There’s never been a better time for fitness professionals to explore video as a means of growing their businesses. But to make more money in health and fitness, you have to plan your entry. Find your niche, customers and their needs. Choose your monetization model, create great content, and use as many avenues to share it with your target market.
About the author: PJ Taei
PJ is the founder and president of Uscreen, an all-in-one video monetization and OTT platform provider that empowers video entrepreneurs and creators to monetize their content and build thriving businesses around their videos.
