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How To Become a Fitness Influencer in 2025
Fitness Influencer Tips From Zero to Monetization
Jacob Bear
November 30th, 2024
Table of Contents
When she was held at gunpoint during her senior year at NYU, Robin Arzón had no idea the incident would eventually turn her into a fitness influencer.
“It was that experience and every day thereafter,” she recounted in a beehiiv interview, “that I had a choice of who I was becoming…The biggest inflection point in my life was deciding I was going to go from victim to victor.”
Today, more than 40,000 readers and followers are grateful for her message. As the author of two books including a New York Times bestseller, and the creator of a “superhero toolkit,” Robin Arzón has touched many lives in positive ways.
“I think my mission in life is not only to light fires in people but to provide them with the tools,” she says.
What is your mission in life?
Do you love to work out? Are you obsessed with marathons, yoga, some other sport or physical activity?
Do you relish the thought of sharing your own struggles and growth?
If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you’re ready to become a social media fitness influencer.
We recently posted a detailed guide on how to become a fitness influencer on Instagram, but there’s a wealth of other pathways to fitness influencer success.
In this guide, we’re going to hand you our best fitness influencer tips for any platform.
Definition of a Fitness Influencer
A fitness influencer is usually more or less what the term implies: Someone who influences other people to be more physically fit. In practice, a fitness influencer is well-known in social media for their specific fitness niche.
The Rise of Fitness Influencer Marketing
As of mid-2024, more than 326,000 fitness influencers have a YouTube channel, and there are around 230,000 fitness influencers on Instagram, according to Future Fit.
It’s not surprising that so many people want a piece of the $244 billion fitness industry. The fitness influencer community is already huge and highly competitive.
But heavy competition doesn’t mean it’s too late to get started. You have one thing that none of these hundreds of thousands of fitness influencers can match. Your original, unique approach to fitness is your greatest asset, as you’ll see in a moment.
The Importance of Fitness Influencers
In her 20s, Jessamyn Stanley began practicing yoga as a way of dealing with depression.
From there, she began posting photos of her yoga practice to Instagram. As a “plus-size woman of color,” this was a big step for her. She was challenging the idea that yoga was only for lean, athletic types.
Today she has more than half a million followers on Instagram, while her TikTok videos have received more than 260,000 likes. She has published three books and is a successful advocate for body positivity in addition to physical and mental wellness.
If you only view fitness influencer branding as a route to wealth and fame, you’re missing the point. The top fitness influencers also provide a valuable service.
You can help thousands of people improve their health, lose weight, grow stronger, and master new skills, including self-confidence.
Why Trust Me? All beehiiv writers are carefully vetted for their knowledge and experience. Jacob Bear has been a freelance writer for more than a decade. He currently follows 21 fitness influencers in his constant search for new ways to reverse the damaging effects of sitting in front of a computer for 10 hours a day. |
How To Become a Fitness Influencer
Fitness influencer marketing doesn’t have to be complicated. You only need to follow a few basic steps and strategies to get there.
Define Your Niche
The secret to fitness influencer success is simple: niche down.
Think about it this way. Suppose you want to improve your basketball skills.
You do a search and find a PE teacher who knows the basic rules and techniques of a dozen different sports, including basketball. Then you find a full-time basketball coach whose only job is to help young players reach their full potential.
Which one would you follow?
A close match is almost always better than a general one. The more clearly and narrowly you can define your own fitness niche, the better a match you’ll be for many potential followers.
Here are a few examples of popular fitness influencer niches. You can probably think of sub-niches within these:
Weight loss
Getting jacked
Strength, mobility or stamina to perform specific feats
Preparation for a race or triathlon
Yoga
Martial arts
Recovery from an illness or injury
Another fitness influencer strategy is the “Magic Formula.”
Many fitness enthusiasts want new, cutting-edge secrets that the average person doesn't know about. Others are looking for a shortcut or a force-multiplier. They want a “magic formula” that will either replace or enhance the hard work that most people associate with fitness.
For example, fitness influencer Vim Hoff is known for specific breathing techniques and ice baths.
Breathing, neuroscience, biohacking, and sleep all hold potential niches for a fitness influencer. If you have a special way of doing things, a unique go-to routine, or an unconventional style that you swear by, this could be the niche that sets you apart in your fitness influencer career.
Identifying Your Passion and Expertise in a Specific Area of Fitness
You’ll become an effective fitness influencer when you find your tribe, the people who are most receptive to your style. You’ll know you’ve found your fitness influencer community when you attract the kind of followers you want to work with.
For example, if you’re passionate about losing weight with a body-positive attitude, you’ll feel most excited when you’re showing others how to achieve the same results. You won’t be interested in lean bodybuilders who want to get jacked.
You can research demographics, but it’s often just easier to ask yourself a few questions about who you want to help:
Do you want to serve men or women? Young athletes or people over 40? Busy professionals who need quick workouts, or enthusiasts who gladly spend hours in the gym every week?
Never waste your time producing content or seeking followers in areas that don’t interest you. You won’t enjoy it, and the audience you attract won’t stay loyal for long.
Building a Fitness Influencer Brand
Fitness is a personal and intimate pursuit.
When you work on your own fitness goals, you usually want to connect with the people who share your approach. You can form a strong bond with these people.
This is why your followers are going to respond better if they can see you as a real person who is a part of their life, and not just a celebrity on TikTok.
Human beings are social, which makes your personality a big part of being a successful fitness influencer.
One of your most important jobs is to build your personal brand.
Create High-Quality Content
Content is King. Unique, original content makes you stand out among the thousands of fitness influencers in your niche.
If you’re rich in experience or expertise, if you’ve overcome adversity or won competitions, you have value to share.
The good news is you don’t need to be an expert, a world-class athlete, or a seasoned survivor. You don’t even need to be in peak physical condition or live up to your personal fitness standards.
The real secret to building a fitness influencer brand is to start right where you are. Your flaws and shortcomings will make you relatable.
Someone at the same stage of their fitness journey as you will see you as a comrade, a brother or sister, or a fellow traveler. While someone who is at the stage where you were six months or a year ago will look to you for leadership and guidance.
As you continue working on yourself to get more fit, you can share your struggles, challenges, and triumphs. Be a model for people who are starting out more or less the way you started.
Sharing the journey is one of the best ways to become a fitness influencer. Your audience will grow and improve along with you.
Content Creation Strategies
The most important thing is to just get started and create content. However, there are a few strategies that will help you.
Claim Your Content Pillars
Early in your career as a fitness influencer, you should decide what you plan to talk about the most.
For example, do you advocate body weight exercises over lifting? Do you give encouragement and support to people who are embarrassed to go to the gym? Do you believe that anyone who can’t sit in an ice bath for 15 minutes is beyond hope?
These ideas and approaches will define you. They are concepts you will repeat again and again until you become known for them and eventually, associated with them.
Some writers refer to these talking points as your content pillars. If High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is a content pillar for you, then you’re probably willing and able to make a thousand unique posts about it, given a few years.
Pro tip: content pillars usually exist in the intersection between your approach to fitness and the interests of your audience.
Document Your Progress
Get into the habit of turning on your camera and recording your workouts, your meals, and even bits of your daily life. When something interesting or important happens, talk about it or write it down.
You can sort it all out later, and you may be surprised at the insights and quality that come from your day-to-day life. When you edit this footage, you’ll create authentic posts that your audience will love.
As we mentioned above, you don't have to be perfect in order to start making content. Every fitness influencer had to start somewhere. Just document your progress, and the people who are a year behind you will want to follow you.
Planning and Scheduling Content To Maintain Consistency
Once you’re in the habit of creating content, consistency and scheduling become important.
Posting fitness influencer content on random days and times is better than nothing, but a lot of potential followers will miss out when you drop new content.
On the other hand, if you always post a video on Tuesday mornings, your followers will know to check on Tuesday mornings to find the new content.
A good content calendar will help you stay consistent as you grow your audience.
The Two-Channel Method
There’s no point in recommending a specific social media channel because in six months it might be irrelevant, displaced by new technology.
However, there are a few hard and fast principles behind social media fitness influencer success.
The first principle is to start with two channels. We’ll explain why in a moment.
Conventional wisdom says you should focus on just one channel, and once you get some traction you can begin repurposing content on a new channel. This will keep you focused and protect you from feeling overwhelmed.
If you know of a platform where most of your audience spends most of their time, then start with that platform. If you're not sure which platform is the best to build your fitness influencer community, then start with a platform that you're comfortable with.
If you’re good at making short videos, then Tick Tock or Instagram are good choices. If you're planning on doing long form video, YouTube might be the way to go. If photos are more of your thing, then focus on Instagram.
That’s the conventional wisdom, but we want to add one more piece to the puzzle. In addition to carving out a niche on a single social media channel, you should also have a second channel: a newsletter.
Writing helps you gather your thoughts and develop more clarity. This will translate into new, creative ideas for your content.
A newsletter also enables you to capture your follower’s email addresses. This means you’ll have a new channel for reaching them, and even if all your social media accounts were somehow deleted, you would still have your most engaged audience intact.
In fact, a newsletter may help you gain more followers and increase their engagement, adding fire to all your social media efforts. There’s a synergistic effect when you combine an email newsletter with your social media presence that can rapidly blow up both of them.
Incorporate Stories and Relatable Experiences Into Your Content
Stories are one of your most powerful tools to influence, teach, and inspire your followers.
Storytelling doesn't have to follow the classic “Once upon a time” format. All the story does is draw people into events that are unfolding.
A short video of you triumphantly setting a new personal record tells a story, and so does an image of you getting up before dawn to work out.
Fitness influencers become relatable by sharing their victories and struggles. Stories are the way you share these moments.
Engage With Your Audience
No matter how often you post, you’re only going to get traction when your audience reacts and responds to what you post. Engaging your followers and building a fitness influencer community is both an art and a science.
Building a Fitness Influencer Community
Tennis Champion Sloane Stephens uses a newsletter to build a sense of community with her fans. “I really love connecting with my fans and sharing what’s important to me through the newsletter,” she says.
Human beings are highly social, and most people are far more motivated to act when they feel like they're part of a group with a common identity. This effect is so powerful that psychologist Robert Cialdini declared it to be a seventh force beyond the six pillars of persuasion he identified in his book, Influence.
Cultivating a sense of community will boost engagement, and ultimately your community could become its own income stream.
How do you build a fitness influencer community?
First of all, be authentic and share the truth about your fitness journey, as we’ve mentioned above.
Next, invite your audience to participate in the conversation, give them the space to participate, and reward them when they do.
Sometimes, just asking your audience members to like, comment, and share your content is enough.
But most people like to know they’ve been seen and heard. So make a point of replying to comments and interacting with your audience. Budget time for this every week, if not daily.
Better still, give your audience members public acknowledgement when they post content that you enjoy, ask a good question, or make a good suggestion.
Here are a few specific tactics to build engagement:
Ask your audience an important question and invite them to answer in the comments
Respond to your followers’ comments, messages, and questions
Acknowledge people who give you ideas and advice
Create challenges and events that encourage sharing and participation
Publicly show appreciation for your most engaged followers, and help share and publicize their content when appropriate
Monetize Your Influence
No fitness influencer could provide value for long without being compensated for it. Don’t just wait for opportunities. There are lots of ways to generate revenue as a fitness influencer if you’re proactive.
Monetization Strategies
All of the different ways to get paid as a fitness influencer boil down to a simple concept: People who follow you and benefit from your content are more likely to pay for products and services you create or recommend.
Brand partnerships are often the most lucrative revenue stream for most fitness influencers, and we’ll look at this in detail in a moment.
However, you have many other opportunities to generate revenue as a social media fitness influencer.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is the “lite” version of brand partnerships. Essentially, you sell other people’s products and get a share of the revenue.
This works well for products connected with fitness, such as clothing, nutritional supplements, weights, and other workout equipment.
But if you find other products that your particular audience members are likely to want, and which are consistent with your brand, you can diversify even more.
Digital Products
No fitness influencer should ignore the revenue potential of digital products. These are videos, books, and other products you create yourself.
Digital products can help spread your ideas, strengthen your brand, and generate revenue on autopilot once you have them in place.
Here are a few ideas for digital products:
Online training courses
E-books
Apps
Fitness calendar or journal
Games and puzzles that teach your ideas
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs)
Ad Revenue
Many social media platforms offer revenue sharing for influencers with exceptionally large audiences and high engagement. But you can generate revenue long before you reach that level.
For example, if you have a newsletter, some platforms such as beehiiv offer monetization through a private Ad Network.
Boosts are another popular beehiiv opportunity, where you get paid for cross-promoting other newsletters that might be of interest to your readers.
If you’d like to explore some of these revenue sharing models, beehiiv will help you grow your audience. You can try all our premium services free for a month if you start a beehiiv newsletter today.
Brand Partnerships
Building a fitness influencer brand partnership is a lot like dating.
You start out by carefully vetting one another: Is this a good fit? Will you be happy together? How will each of you benefit? Are there any red flags?
In addition to assessing the revenue potential, you should be certain the brand is aligned with your branding and values. You should also be looking for what the brand has to offer your audience.
The owners of the brand will be evaluating you in the same way.
Like a good date, a closely aligned brand partner will give you a positive experience that could grow into a lasting relationship.
Usually the partnership will simply lead to a healthy income stream, and this by itself is a good thing.
But sometimes you can be more creative.
In addition to giving simple recommendations or endorsements, you could work with your partner to hold contests, host events, and co-produce special content. The brand might offer your followers exclusive deals or advance access to products that haven’t been released yet.
You may even collaborate with the brand to offer special bundled products to which you both contribute.
There’s no limit to what you can do with a good partnership.
How to Hook a Good Brand Partner
As you gain followers and engagement, it’s likely some brands will reach out to you. But your fitness influencer strategy can also include reaching out to brands you want to partner with.
Do a bit of research to find the right contact person, and then reach out with email or a DM. Let them know how they can benefit by working with you and why you want to work with them.
As you start having these dialogues, it helps to have a media kit. Your media kit is just a simple tool to show brand partners how you can help them at a glance.
A good fitness influencer media kit will briefly tell a potential partner about you and your philosophy around fitness. A short statement including a little background is usually enough. You want to whet their appetite so they’ll reach out and schedule a deeper conversation.
What they really want to know is what you can do for them. Your media kit should include statistics around engagement and followers.
For a tangible “engagement rate” that brands will listen to, take the total number of likes, shares and comments you've received over the last six months. Divide this by your total number of followers and you’ll have an engagement rate.
Finally, your media kit should share a little bit about your audience, the demographics, and their goals and interests. All this information will help a brand partner decide if you're a good fit.
Where do you find these potential partnerships? The first step is to look at brands you already love. If they've played a part in your fitness journey, then chances are your followers will be interested in the brand.
Once you've exhausted that route, look into other potential brand partners. As a fitness influencer, you should always be exploring new products and services that might be useful for your audience. When you find something, reach out with a quick greeting and your media kit.
Negotiating Terms and Compensation for Sponsored Content
Brand partnerships are mutually beneficial. The brand needs you as much as you need them. So, don’t be timid about demanding compensation worthy of the time and effort you’re putting into the relationship.
Even more importantly, protect the integrity of your own personal brand and your intellectual property. There are many questions to clarify before you sign a contract.
For example, are you simply recommending the brand, or do you need to create content that shows you’re using their products? What rights to the content do you and the brand each retain after the agreed upon promotion is over?
Are you allowed to have simultaneous partnerships with other brands?
If you have a trademark, your contract should clearly spell out your brand partner’s rights to use your trademarked intellectual property, along with the limits to those rights.
The best way to maintain a strong relationship is with a clear, written agreement that prevents disputes later on. This usually involves specific dollar amounts that are tied to metrics, deliverables, and other parameters such as:
Number of posts that promote the brand
Number of clicks, sales, or other actions generated
Minutes spent showing or talking about the brand
Specific days or times to promote the brand
Start date and end date for the agreement
Finally, agree on a way to resolve any disputes. This will usually involve some form of third-party arbitration. This is rarely necessary if you have a strong contract and a mutually beneficial relationship. But if something goes wrong, this agreement will save you the devastating expense of a lawsuit.
Maintaining Authenticity and Transparency in Brand Collaborations
Your followers may be turned off if they find out you’re secretly getting paid to promote a brand, so don’t keep it a secret. You can announce the collaboration in a positive way, with a statement such as the following:
“I’m excited to be working with [brand name]. I love this brand because [state an honest reason or two], and they’re supporting me in my efforts to bring you the best possible content.”
In an ideal world, you’ll develop partnerships with brands you already use and love. When this isn’t the case, be sure to vet the brand and make sure you can promote them with a good conscience.
It’s never worth promoting a brand you don’t believe in. The compensation you receive will never make up for the cost to your reputation and your integrity.
7 Fitness Influencer Tips
Be true to yourself. Focus on an approach to fitness that works for you, and you will attract like-minded followers.
Be authentic. Share the truth about your journey as a fitness influencer. Don’t try to hide your flaws. Never be afraid to post content about your mistakes.
Focus on quality over quantity. Interact with your followers to boost engagement. Build relationships. Build a strong presence on one channel rather than spreading yourself thin on too many channels. Post engaging content with actionable advice.
Post consistently. Follow a regular, repeatable content schedule.
Never stop learning.
Be proactive about monetization.
Capture and “own” your audience as soon as possible.
The final tip from the list above needs more discussion.
The Ultimate Fitness Influencer Strategy: Own Your Audience
Many influencers have been harmed when a change in the algorithm or other developments cut into their ability to reach their audience. These setbacks are usually beyond your control.
The truth is, you are always vulnerable as long as you “rent” your audience instead of owning it. The ultimate success tip for fitness influencer marketing is to capture your followers’ contact information.
Beehiiv offers you an easy way to do this. The platform enables you to build no-code signup forms in just a few minutes. They are fully customizable, and they allow your followers to opt-in with no effort.
Once they sign up, you can contact them whenever you want, and you’ll never lose this ability because of an algorithm or a policy change.
Many of the fitness influencers mentioned in this article use beehiiv because we take away all the tech challenges so you can focus on staying fit, creating killer content, and monetizing.
Our Scale plan gives you access to all of our monetization tools, and you can test drive it for a free 30-day trial if you start a beehiiv newsletter today.
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