Sarah Bowmar is a fitness enthusiast who has gained over 2 million followers on social media platforms by sharing tips and advice on living a healthier lifestyle. Together with her husband, Josh Bowmar, she co-owns Bowmar Fitness, Bowmar Nutrition, and APEX Protein Snacks. Sarah’s MBA in Marketing and experience working at a digital marketing agency have helped her build a strong following. While traditional marketing rules apply to social media, Sarah believes that social media marketing is mainly emotion-based. For instance, sharing a product that she loves, such as the fat-burning supplement MELT, generates an emotional response from her followers. Each social media channel has its unique way of attracting and retaining followers. TikTok is the easiest to gain followers, while YouTube requires high-quality content with a clickbait title. Instagram is highly saturated, making it difficult to gain followers, so creators have to stand out by providing the best tips and recommendations.
MS) With an MBA in Marketing, how much did you use your marketing skills to build your following?
SB) I didn’t really use the skills I learned from my MBA to build my following because social media marketing wasn’t being taught during my time in school. Instead, I gained all my knowledge about cultivating a following from my work at a digital marketing agency after graduating.
MS) Do the rules of traditional marketing also apply to social media?
SB) In a sense, the rules of traditional marketing do apply to social media. Marketing still revolves around the four Ps – product, price, place, and promotion. However, social media marketing needs to be quick and able to catch the eye. It’s also more focused on emotions.
For example, I posted about a fat-burning product called MELT that I have been using to help curb my cravings. My followers responded positively and shared how the product has helped them as well.
MS) What do you find is the key difference in growing your audience in each type of channel? i.e. youtube vs IG etc?
SB) Tiktok is the easiest platform to grow on since it’s actively trying to get users to post content. On the other hand, YouTube is the most difficult to gain followers since it requires high-quality content with a clickbaity title. However, once you have an established following on YouTube, it trickles down to your other social media channels, and you can build a deeper connection with your audience. Instagram is becoming increasingly saturated, making it harder to gain a following. Creators need to be the best of the best with the best tips, recommendations, etc. and keep up with the platform’s various features like grid posts, stories, reels, going live, responding to comments, and more.
MS) How do you personally juggle family and multiple businesses?
SB) Josh and I have an amazing team in place so that we can focus on being owners instead of operators. We are constantly on the go but find time between everything to do what we need to do. Before the kids wake up, we do chores and check our emails, take business calls on the way to the gym, and film social media content while working out. We constantly multi-task, and communication and organization are key to balancing it all. We communicate with our team to let them know when we can and can’t talk business, and we line up our schedules and list out our tasks for the day, categorizing them from highest to least importance.
MS) Having the social media channels like you do is a job in itself! Do you find you just schedule that like you might schedule your other businesses?
SB)I have a content note that reminds me when I need to film content. I usually put all content in drafts and find time later in the day dedicated to posting it. Stories are where people learn about me the most, so I am very methodical when it comes to them.
For Bowmar Nutrition, we have weekly social media calls to plan out content with our team, organize promotions, educational pieces, graphics, and more.
For Bowmar Archery, we focus on customer-based content and repost user-generated photos.
For Bowmar Bow Hunting, since it’s very seasonal, content posting is inconsistent but relies heavily on stories to take followers on a journey throughout our day.