A hook is anything that stops people scrolling to engage with your ad. On social media, you’ve a split second to do this, and everything needs to be clear, not clever! It needs to be so clear that someone with zero knowledge of fitness can understand it. As gym owners we don’t have the luxury of a super attentive audience and a large marketing budget to slowly teach them about the subtleties of our approach.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s “Avengers: Infinity War” had every fan talking about it for a year until it’s sequel “Endgame”. And after that, no so much chatter. That’s because Infinity War ended on a cliff hanger, and everyone was curious to find out what would happen. We can use a curiosity hook in our ads by asking questions to engage people.
The best questions are what I call “But” style questions, that combine your clients goals with a common fear or objection.
Clients goals are to get in shape, feel good again, lose weight, get strong, enjoy exercise, increase energy, and yes, tone up! (You might hate the word but if you’re clients are using it, we need to speak their language!)
Clients fears all stem from not being good enough. This can look like fear of injury, being embarrassed, slowing the class down, looking stupid, feeling intimated, not having willpower etc. And the main objection is usually time: which can be further broken down into needing to work out every day, or spend hours in the gym, or need to wait for months to see results. (If you’re doing nutrition, giving up the foods you love and starving yourself are common areas of complaint.)
Proven examples you can use:
- “Want to get in shape but unsure where to start?”
- “Know you need to exercise but can’t find the time?”
- “Would you like to tone up without giving up the food you love?”
You will need to test these to find the right option for you. And if you want to run ads but hate having to figure this all out, just book a call with me (see what I did there? 😉)