19 Killer Fitness Business Marketing Tactics (and 3 that suck)

I’ve made some really stupid marketing mistakes when I started out as a personal trainer.

The three that comes to mind was the time I spent six days straight making my business cards… lol. Just thinking about that story makes me cringe.

** SIDE NOTE ** A little rant... before I tell you the three stupid fitness marketing mistakes I made and the 19 killer gems that’ll get you tons of clients, I want to just put something out there.

Lately we’ve been getting a BUNCH of emails and calls from people who want to pitch me new business ideas or just want me to promote, endorse, or get in business with them.

It’s actually getting a bit crazy these days… just the other day someone sent my wife an email pushing her to get me to look at something and other times people just show up to places I’m going to be and pitch me. And then there are the non stop calls and emails to Marilyn and Allison at the office.

I know this does not apply to 99% of the trainers reading this… but for the 1% that it does apply to please read this.

Okay, where was I…

aceI don’t know if ACE does this anymore or not. But back in the day when you got ACE certified they’d send you this sheet of ACE logos (all different sizes) for you to use on your business cards, letters heads, and other useless stuff.

I remember the day I got my ACE personal trainer certificate in the mail I grabbed those ACE logos and high tailed it to the local Kinkos to make my business cards.

Six days later… and three boxes of businesses cards later I had my personal training business cards.

I wish I had saved one of my cards to show you… but they’re sitting in a landfill somewhere now.

Here’s what my business cards looked like: The ACE logo took up 70% of the front of the card. The other 30% was my name, phone number, and the words “certified personal trainer” (incase they missed the GIANT ACE logo on the card).

And the back of the card was out right blank!

Unfortunately that was not my only stupid fitness business marketing idea. One time I spent almost five hours in a Kinkos again – this time I was trying to make my own logo on their rent a computers.

After five hours I had crafted a logo of this fit woman flying out of the flames… kinda like the phoenix bird. (Just writing about this is embarrassing enough)

Anyhow, as though a stupid amateur made logo wasn’t bad enough I then proceeded to put that logo on a sheet of paper that said “personal training” across the top… ” “ACE certified” next to my business name, and then an offer for one free personal training session along with my phone number.

Now here’s the best part…

bullitenboardadI then printed out a bunch of these signs flyers and pined them on trees and bulletin boards across two local junior collages.

RESULTS… zero.

So those are the few “fitness business marketing” tactics that sucked.

It wasn’t till three years later that I stumbled upon a marketing book by Jay Abraham that opened my eyes to a whole new kind of marketing…

…the kind of marketing that got me clients virtually on demand and within a couple years I was making a strong six figure income running multiple fitness facilities.

Here are 19 fitness business marketing gems that are critical IF you want to take your personal training or boot camp business to multiple six figures.

1. Specialize. Serve a niche market. Don’t be everything to everyone.

2. Guarantee results. You do believe in your services, right?

3. Demonstrate value and show the benefits of your service (NOT the features).

4. Forget about branding and logos… branding is a by-product of good marketing.

5. Always… ALWAYS make an offer. Ask for the sale and you’ll get it.

6. Talk to at least ten people a day about what you do.

7. Find the connectors (the people in your community who know a lot of other people) and add value to their lives.

8. Get your website to attract, compel and convert (if you have a crappy website and want a better one check out www.FitnessWebsiteFormula.com)

9. Use tons of testimonials and social proof on your site, in your marketing, and in person.

10. Be a giver… a value adder. Give without expectation.

11. Get in front of groups and speak. It’s the fastest way to establish authority.

12. Selling big multi-thousands dollar programs is just as easy as selling ten sessions.

13. Make your current clients into your army of referral generating soldiers.

14. Email marketing is cheaper… plus your clients are just one click away from your site.  (FitPro Newsletter **HINT*)

15. Name your programs. No one wants the “ten session package” they all want the “rapid fat loss program”.

16. Sell people what they WANT and not what they NEED.

17. Sell to your existing clients OFTEN.

18. Direct response marketing trumps “traditional” advertising any day.

19. Increase your client getting knowledge… Attend live events, seminars, workshops and get coaching.

What do ya think? Leave a comment below…