Have you ever had an epiphany where suddenly something you've been struggling with becomes clear?

I recently did over the weekend….

I was sitting on the couch snuggling with my husband and two pups, about to catch up on another episode of Shark Tank (aka Dragon's Den in Canada), when I thought of something:

Why not give back to my clients by showcasing their success?

Really and truly, shouting my clients' successes from the rooftops not only gives them a chance to shine, but it also gives me a chance to show off my stuff. I've been brainstorming and pondering a lot lately on how to really give back to my clients and make something special… something that not everyone does.

Honestly, when my clients are successful that means I'm successful! And I love to show off those who put in the blood, sweat, and tears to prove themselves in the unforgiving world of being an entrepreneur.

Hence, my new blog series Client Showcase was born!

What is a Client Showcase?

Each client showcase blog post will reveal the exact data from a successful client to illustrate a few of my social media techniques.

With this series, you have the unique opportunity to learn the inner workings of what it takes to be successful online.

It is also my hopes to re-define what success means. It's not just in the number of followers… Ultimately, social media success comes down to engagement, website traffic, and conversions.

I decided to start my series with a long-time client of mine, The Exercise Movement, as they're one that I'm especially proud of.

About The Exercise Movement

Created by sport and exercise physician Teri Fisher, The Exercise Movement's mission is to grow a movement of people that recognize the value of being active, fit, and healthy. The Exercise Movement is leading the way by reinventing the approach to fitness. Their approach is deeply rooted in a passion for helping you to achieve extraordinary results, and creating a community of mutual support and respect.

Before we dive in to today's client showcase, let's hear what Teri from The Exercise Movement had to say about working with me.

In the Client's Own Words…

OnlineDrea Client Teri Fisher“Andrea has been absolutely incredible! Before I found her I was struggling to find the time to keep up with all of my social media platforms, and I knew I needed some serious help. Enter Andrea! Since finding her, she has been responsible for our social media management (and I say “our” because I consider her an integral member of The Exercise Movement Team). She has exceeded my expectations at every pic, post, tweet, and pin! I have full confidence in her abilities and I know that I can leave the social media in her capable hands. The best part is that this has opened up more time for me to focus on my mission of helping people to be more active, fit, and healthy. Andrea has been instrumental in the success and growth of The Exercise Movement. She rocks!”
~ Teri, TheExerciseMovement.com

Setting The Stage

Before really diving into working with The Exercise Movement Pinterest account, I wanted to make sure it was optimized for success. One of the things that I did was create custom Pinterest covers for each board.

The Exercise Movement Pinterest

Doing this created a unified and professional look and feel to the page. It's not something that's necessary for every brand but worked really well in this instance.

The next thing I did was ensure that each board name, board description, pin name, and pin description was optimized with key words for search. If you're looking for a few tips on how to do that, check out this info-packed blog post 12 Tips To Massively Increase Your Pinterest Traffic by xoSarah.com

Lastly, it's important to create content that is optimized for Pinterest's layout. Here are some examples of blog posts images created using Canva then shared to Pinterest from The Exercise Movement website.

4 CONVINCING EXERCISE EXCUSES YOU TELL YOURSELF

21 Day Fix Recipes Perfect For Starting the Year Right

How to Find Customers as a Beachbody Coach using Facebook

Seriously, Canva is my life! I don't know what I'd do without it. P.S. You can access my Canva Course along with many other social media resources here: SavvySocialSchool.com

Why Pinterest Worked

I rarely recommend Pinterest right out of the gate for new businesses unless they meet the following criteria:

  • They have tons of original content
  • They plan on consistently making more content

Once those two criteria are met, Pinterest is a fabulous platform for businesses who are looking to organically increase their web traffic using content marketing strategies.

With The Exercise Movement, we formulated a content marketing plan that fits well with Pinterest. In a nut shell, this plan consists of:

  • weekly blog posts published every Tuesday
  • weekly emails sent every Thursday
  • a free eBook to encourage email sign ups
  • a community of people seeking to become more active, fit, and healthy

Do you notice anything particular about the list above? I'll let you in on a secret: a major part of being successful on social media is supporting your efforts with other marketing strategies.

I've mentioned before that social media doesn't exist in a vacuum. And it's true! Social media can be a powerful tool, when used correctly. To see results, you must have a well-rounded plan in place.

The blog posts give us an outlet for providing fresh, consistent content to the target audience. The emails give us other touch points to a.) remind readers of said blog posts and b.) provide additional value-packed content. And finally the free ebook gives a chance to establish trust with our demographic while providing them something useful in exchange for their email address.

Lastly, I created a group board on Pinterest that gives our audience a place to share their favourite health, fitness, and wellness tips. By valuing the contributed content, we're building a rapport with those who contribute by returning the favour with likes, comments, and repins. A bonus is that we now have a group of highly interested parties with whom to share our weekly blog posts. 🙂

To date, we have 140+ contributors and 1,600+ pins to our group board.

Let's Talk Numbers

Growing up, I always thought I was terrible at math. While I'm no genius today (seriously, my calculator is my best friend), there's no way I could work in social media marketing without holding myself accountable in some way.

And the numbers don't lie, people.

But the numbers also don't mean a thing unless you know how you got them, how to continue improving, and what their value is.

For example, in the past 8 months, I've increase the number of followers for The Exercise Movement Pinterest from 14 to over 1.3K!

While that number may seem impressive, it's important to note that our average monthly impressions has also increased from 12 to 38,367 (for the month of April 2016)! This means that people are not only following us, but our content is consistently showing up in their feeds, whether we or someone else has shared it.

Lastly, we not only increased followers but we also increased web traffic from Pinterest to 12% of our total web traffic for the month and our third highest referrer after Google and Direct.

In review, the highlights during the last 8 months for The Exercise Movement Pinterest are:

  • Increase followers from 14 to 1.3K
  • Increased monthly impressions from 12 to 38,367
  • Increased web traffic from Pinterest to 12% with Pinterest being the 3rd highest referrer
  • Created a community of 140 contributors with 1,600 pins

Consistency Is Key

The thing that helps the most on Pinterest, and with any other social media or content marketing strategies, is consistency.

Social media tactics differ from traditional marketing tactics. With traditional marketing, you can send out mailers twice a year and hope for the best. With social media, you can spend less capital but more time really investing in your audience. That consistent time put in is where you start to see an impact.

With The Exercise Movement, you better believe we didn't see a massive growth in month #1. Nope! Instead, we saw consistent growth, week-over-week, month-over-month to build up to where we are today.

While I'd like to say we're 100% perfect, we're not. Not even big brands like Blackberry get it right all the time on social media. The important thing is to focus on improvement.

In fact, I have a call with Teri this week to go over a few areas we can improve as well as defining our target demographic a bit more.

Final Thoughts

In my humble opinion, the #1 thing that made us so successful on Pinterest was consistently providing value packed content that served a purpose and answered the questions of our target audience.

Stay on top of your social media, constantly, and I promise you'll see results as well.

Want to Work With Us?

If you’re looking for true partners in growing your business with social media (without compromising your values), then look no further. Because fast tricks and follower counts are not part of our strategy. That’s why we’ve been the go-to social media marketing agency for passion-led entrepreneurs for 9+ years and counting.

Get in touch today, so you can change more lives and build the business of your dreams tomorrow.

Click here to learn more about working with us.