Everything you know about personal trainer marketing and
growing your fitness business is wrong.
Forget everything you’ve heard about systematically marketing,
strategically building a list, ruthlessly promoting yourself and
writing out your marketing calendar 12 months in advanced.
That stuff is anxiety provoking.
Fitness marketing (relationship building and value adding) is not a robotic
proccess… it’s art, it’s instinctual, and it’s the equivalent of – dare
I say it – love making… versus just humping.
There’s a certain magic about great marketing that moves people
to action with a smile.
A great example of magic in marketing is Disney and how they
extract money from us – and we happily comply. In fact I crafted a
blog post on that just yesterday.
Don’t get me wrong, good marketing IS formulaic and there is a
“proccess” to it…
…however the difference between fitness business owners who
get a steady flow of new prospects and referrals and are generating
six figures VS the trainer who have random hit or miss promotions is
the ‘magic’.
It’s like this…
I could go out on a weekend and play hoops at the local park
and maybe be the best player on the court.
But put me in the NBA and I’d be lucky if I could keep up with
the water boy.
The missing ingredient? Magic.
Now, in sports you either have it or you don’t.
If you have the natural talent and work hard and perfecting
your skills then you’ll make it to the big league.
But if you don’t have the natural talent, genetics, and skills
then you’re likely never going to make it to the big leagues.
It’s not like that in business and personal trainer marketing.
Even if you don’t have the natural skills (instincts), you can
develop them over time.
In fact, I’ve seen some pretty marketing-ly awkward trainers
become legendary in their marketing skills over time.
Here’s how to develop your fitness marketing skills…
Rather than just taking a marketing promo and regurgitating it,
ask yourself these three questions each weekend to help you
plan out your weekly priority and productivity list.
1. What do I plan to do this week to get more clients?
Notice, I didn’t say leads or prospects. I said CLIENTS.
Odds are that you already have a list of prospect that you
haven’t followed up on… or at least haven’t followed up on
thoroughly.
Maybe you’re going to follow up with these leads and prospects
better with calls, emails, auto-responders, and direct mail.
Maybe you’re going to get then back in for another free trail or
nutrition eval to demonstrate greater value.
Maybe you’re going to improve your sales skills and convert
more of these leads and prospects into paying clients.
Or maybe you’re going to come with the coolness and deliver
more value, better and more consistent content and compelling
case studies.
It’s not always about marketing or lead generation.
But it may be…
and if it is… then take a look at your best producing month and
reverse engineer what worked – and do it again – only better.
Next, ask yourself this…
2. What do I plan to do to keep my clients?
Fantastic, so you’re delivering great workouts.
Big deal.
What else are you doing to keep them?
To your clients, in addition to results, the other four things
they want from you is to keep it fun, recognition, appreciation
and a sense of belonging – a second home.
It’s a lot easier to keep your clients than to get new ones.
And finally, ask yourself this…
3. How do I plan to add value to the people in my circle of
influence?
What connections or hook ups have you made for your clients
recently?
What value are you going to deliver to the businesses who
refer to you (or to businesses who you want to refer to you)?
Read the Go Giver. A great book and fast read on the topic
of being a value adder.
Plus it just makes you a better human.
See more often than not we’re always looking for others to do
something for us rather than to come with the giving hand.
Mail out for me.
Host my lead boxes.
Let me do my grocery store tour in your store.
Send me more referrals.
What VALUE are you bringing to others?
Do it without expectation and see what happens.
I don’t know about you, but I prefer working with value adders
and not value extractors.
Just one of the rules I live by.
Committed to your success,
Bedros Keuilian
P.S. After watching this video a pretty big news organization asked to
interview me. They were fascinated about my views on the economy and
the American dream. I think they think that the American Dream is dead.
It’s not dead. I am the America dream. So are the folks in this video.