Fitness Business Marketing 2.0
Author: Steve Hochman
When I first started with my personal training business, I was clueless when it came to fitness business marketing tips. I wish someone made a list like this for me!My problem was that I had crappy sales skills!The very first marketing task I tried out was sending out 500 postcards by direct mail.The results from that weren't too bad. I actually got more than 10 appointments scheduled (when I started I was doing training in-home). When I met with these people, I didn't have a clue what to do, so I wasn't able to close the deal with any of the prospects. This meant I had spent $1,000 and I didn't get any clients - it wasn't a wonderful idea.This is why I'm always telling others to start on a small budget or with no budget until you're able to pay for the promotions that cost quite a bit more.So, I wanted to share a few fitness marketing strategies that you can use for free to market your business. The great thing is, whether you're just getting started or you're already in the business, you can use these strategies.1 - Set Up an Awesome Website - When I started my first website, it was bad. There was no way for anyone to contact me at all. This isn't totally free, but you'll only spend about $10 a month and the charge of your domain name for a year, so that's close to free. Here are a few things your site needs:- A great sales page- Pages optimized with keywords to bring in traffic. (I actually have about 3K pages that have optimized content on them)- Great call to action on each page, using a form or a call in submission.- System for follow up- A lot of great testimonialsThis can help you to get consultations and trials and you can also get great leads to follow up on with your auto responder service. Then whenever you launch something new, you have a lit of prospects out there that probably are going to be interested in what you're beginning to offer.You can also do promotions or special offers all through the year.When you know how to dominate the market, you can really make your business stand out as a great fitness solution - even more so if you get great Google rankings.One example is a client I talked to recently. He told me he wasn't able to find other trainers in this city because all the sites brought him to me and to the company I run. Nice!2 - Craigslist - Until I saw how some other people were using Craigslist, I thought I was doing okay. Then I figured I'd make it into a real marketing machine for my business that is totally free. Using Craigslist is one of the best FREE methods for getting clients for boot camps and personal training, but many don't know how to use it. Using it well means you post 10 ads or more every single day. A few people may get upset, but that's all a part of it. If you are not getting flagged or getting nasty mail, then you're not doing enough! What you need is some excellent ads or posts, including some graphics and some text. I use a ton of posts - like 50 of them! - all completel with unique and interesting subject lines. Through the week, they're posted on various accounts Monday through Saturday, from 1-15 times each day. Here are some of the categories I tend to post in daily.- Events: Activities- Event: General- Beauty- Groups- Creative- Talent- Travel and Vacation- Lessons- Therapeutic- And more...Each ad is tailored for the category it is going in to avoid being flagged. One example is in the Travel and Vacation section, I talk about getting fit for vacation.The big secret to use to get this method to work for you is to use many different posts and keep many of them unidentifiable. This means that you don't mention your name or your company's name within the post. Just offer people the solution, sorta like a sequence with two steps. This way, unless people actually go to the site, they never connect these ads together. Another idea is to use various URLs that send people to the same site or using pages on your site that are unidentifiable.There needs to be a variety between ads that use graphics and those that use text. If you just posted one ad all over, you'd get flagged and you wouldn't get a great response.3 - Publicity that is FREE - If you have the time, this is one of the best options to use. With a few hours of some work, I was able to get two magazine columns on a monthly basis locally, get featured in the newspaper in the area, and get on all the local television stations too. This all brought in more clients. Another benefit of publicity is that you'll also get credibility. The awesome thing is that I've been able to use these television shows and magazines as publicity and it spreads quickly from my clients to their friends. This definitely provides some great benefits. I even get a free ad in one magazine on a monthly basis as well. I'm actually going to share with you the steps that I used to get in the magazines and the television shows. Actually, if you know what steps to use, it's not that difficult at all. Here's all you'll need to do:- Figure out who the producers happen to be for the TV station - you can call and ask- Come up with a story that is relevant to national or print news - such as yahoo health- Pitch your angle and make it relevant to something that is news or a topic that is hot For example, I actually had a great story on trying to get fit in a tough economy or on a tight budget and it was featured on the news. The station came over, recorded some of the group workouts, and I also gave them an interview about the company I run.This is a wonderful way you can get visibility in your community and it gives you an edge over the competitors. After all, everyone wants to train with someone who is on television.The great part is that you don't really need to be good - or that's the way I found it to be. When I was on television the first couple times, I was not a great TV personality. They did give me more chances and I continued to get better over time.The same goes with doing the magazine columns. I was never a huge fan of writing. The first time I took a piece to the editor of the paper in my area, he let me know I needed some real help. I went back, read a lot of books on writing and got some practice. This improved my writing and I'm writing for magazines now too. You can learn these skills and perfect them if you need to.This might take some time, but who cares?! It's free. You can find the book, "Free Publicity" by Jeff Crilley to help you out.4 - Joint Ventures or Leadbox Campaigns - This also can take a bit of time to get working, but when you get it going, it can't be stopped. As I began to get busier, I had a harder time keeping this up, but it still does work very well. Go to businesses in your local area, such as:- Chiropractors- Hair Salons- Day Spas- Massager Therapists- Tanning Salons- Dentists Offices- Nail Salons- Nutrition Stores- Video Stores- And more...Just about any place is great as long as the place gets a lot of traffic. You can ask clients that you have for the places that they use to get in the door, or you can go to local businesses and offer them membership or training to allow you to have those boxes up in their office or store.Give them more than a consultation, such as a two week trial - which is something valuable. Then make sure you follow up on the leads on a weekly basis. While the conversions may not be as high as they are from a good website, you can get quite a few conversions if you follow through on this.I've just shared with you my ultimate tips for fitness marketing. Other than that, they all work great, and they continue to be mostly free for as long as you choose to use them.
About the Author:
Steve Hochman is a fitness business marketing expert and gives away tons of his proven client getting tips for free. Check out his Fitness marketing tips here: http://www.stevehochman.com/2009/10/14/20-killer-fitness-marketing-tips-for-boot-camp-2-0/ Teaching Online Marketing Strategies: An Internet Business Opportunity Create an Internet Business Education Site to Make Money From Your Personal Key to Business Success How Running an Internet Business Education Venture Can Make You Money A Business Opportunity Online: Selling Internet Marketing Secrets and Tricks How Internet Marketing Education Can Be an Ideal Business Opportunity Online Choose the Best Online Business Opportunity Think twice before consolidating private student loans Knowing More About Products With Make Your More Successful In Your Business Car Loan After Bankruptcy Why Use The Internet In Marketing Plans For Your Internet Business? Social Media Strategy and your business website! Honest Ways to Make Money Online