One of the biggest things personal trainers on social media think about is this: “How do you turn followers into dollars?”
You’re posting daily, you’re getting the likes and comments, the followers are rolling in…but at some point, you stop and think, “What is this all about? Is it worth it to do these Facebook lives, to post these Instagram stories? What’s the point?”
And I say yes. It is worth it.
I’ve sold franchises for Fit Body Boot Camp, I’ve sold Mastermind coaching clients, I’ve sold bundles of my information products over social media.
To me, it’s worth it. The problem is that a lot of trainers and social media users care more about the “likes” and followers, and not enough about the dollars.
And the dollars are what matter if you want to make an impact!
It’s amazing how quickly and easily you can connect with leads and prospects through a simple direct message.
In fact, my good friend and partner Craig Ballantyne has his own genius way of reaching out to people and influencing them to attend his Perfect Life Workshop.
He puts on these events all across America, and at the end of each event, he posts a picture of all his happy attendees, and he tags them along with other people who should be at a future event.
The Honey Pot Method
Once the “likes” come rolling in, he reaches out to every person who “likes” the post because they could be potential attendees who are interested in getting his mentoring.
You can look at your Instagram followers as suspects, and once they engage with your posts, they become prospects.
This is what Craig calls “the honey pot method”.
Basically, you attract more flies with honey than vinegar. So if you’re posting good content about your workouts or nutrition and people are “liking” it, you’ve gotten them interested in what you’re doing.
Now all you have to do is send them a message saying “Hey! I would love to see you in my boot camp, here’s my schedule so you can come in and try out a free session.”
It’s just a nice, giving, inviting message letting them know that your personal training or boot camp is for them.
Listen, we’re all making a lot of posts on social media. Majority of those posts are designed to add value for free and position yourself as an authority in the fitness industry.
And if you have a fitness business and you’re trying to get more people to go to your boot camps or buy your personal training programs, then don’t overlook your followers. Every “like” you get is a prospect.
Now, this isn’t to say you should just be posting for the sake of posting and getting “likes”.
My friend Joe Polish says “Use social media, but don’t let social media be used on you.”
So basically, don’t waste your time with it. Use it properly to connect with your followers and people who comment and “like” your posts so that you can get that conversation going and bring them into your programs.
Then comes the monster follow up.
Don’t let your prospects fall off your radar, make sure you stay connected and follow up with them when you haven’t heard back.
You can send them workouts, nutrition tips, information about any promotions you’re doing, whatever. Just keep adding value and use that monster follow up to keep the conversation going.
I guarantee, you can sell any of your products like this.
Use Social Media as a Salesperson
Here’s a handy hack you can use when you’re replying to messages and comments. Open up the notes section of your phone, and put little responses to commonly asked questions, and also come up with questions you can ask THEM to keep them engaged.
Just copy and paste it into your response, hit send, done.
Easy peasy.
For example, you can say something like “Hey! I saw that you “liked” this picture of my boot camp session that I posted. From your profile it looks like you’re interested in living a healthier lifestyle, when are you gonna come to the next one? Here’s my email, let’s schedule a free session and talk more about getting you signed up!”
The reality is, you can’t make a massive impact on someone until they become your client.
Which is why it’s important to do everything you can to reach people and let them know that YOUR program is what’s going to get them healthy, in shape, and living a better quality of life.
When you think about, social media has some of the greatest salesmanship.
You should look at each social media channel as a salesperson for you.
You can use Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube…that’s at least 5 “sales people” who can bring in more clients when used properly.
Share Your Hero Story
My friend and coaching client Steve Weatherford, an NFL Super Bowl Champion, has a massive following on Instagram with over 300 thousand followers.
The coolest thing he did was he shared his hero story early on.
By the way, every single one of you has a hero story.
When Steve was out on the field as a punter, he would wear long sleeve underarmour tights.
One day he asked me if I knew why he wore those tights.
I said “I assumed you were just cold, man.”
Turns out, he was embarrassed about his skinny arms. So he would cover them up with those tights even in the blistering heat during summer.
He decided that once he retired from football, he would build 20 inch arms and be known as the guy who helps other guys struggling to gain muscle in their arms.
He took his weakness, made it into a strength, and now he’s on social media sharing his workouts, his mindset tips, his eating habits, all that stuff.
Share your journey with your followers, let them know that you’ve had your struggles with confidence just like them.
Monster Follow Up
We’ve talked a lot about monster follow up, but for those of you who don’t know what that is, allow me to fill you in.
When you get a lead for your personal training gym or boot camp, you may get a name, email address, and phone number – if you’re lucky.
If you do, you need to follow up with them two times a day for four days using email, phone call, text message, and Facebook.
You go monster on the follow up process!
And if you can follow up with someone who has shown interest multiple times within a short period of 3 to 5 days, I promise you can turn majority of those prospects into clients.
Followers into dollars, baby!
You can learn all about my monster follow up process by clicking here to sign up for the Fitness Business Ignition Program.
To listen to Craig and I cover all of this and more, click here to watch our podcast.
Committed to your success,
Bedros