I decided to call what I’m about to share with you “Advanced” fitness boot camp marketing tactics because they really are. You’ll see what I mean once you read about them.
They’re not advanced because they’re complicated or costly, because they’re not. I call them advanced because they have CONSISTENTLY produced killer results and profits and they happen to be five of the most unconventional fitness marketing ideas never used.
See, a lot of fitness pros think that the best marketing strategies should cost something. Maybe they feel that if they’re spending money then they’ll get better results, or maybe the idea of free and low cost fitness marketing tactics just isn’t sexy.
So they dump all kinds of money into print ads, postcards, SEO, fancy websites and adwords campaigns – and keep their fingers crossed hoping that something works.
All of those things are fine and in fact they work really when *DONE RIGHT* and *DIALED IN*. Done wrong, these marketing systems can get pretty expensive and frustrating.
But some of the best, most advanced fitness marketing tactics I know are totally overlooked – and these are usually the ones that cost nothings and deliver better results.
Did I mention they cost nothing?
This YouTube video that I made for you teaches you three more tactics for marketing a fitness boot camp in your area using strategies that other fitness trainers overlook.
Recently I got an email from one of my 12 month mentorship clients that proved my point exactly.
He’s owns and operates two fitness boot camps. He’s in a very competitive market. And he’s generating a high six figure income. Yet his website probably ranks on the last page of google. He uses no direct mail, no adwords, and no fancy marketing.
He does however use a lot of “grass roots” common sense fitness boot camp marketing tactics that keep his 5:30 AM, 9:00 AM and 6:00 Pm camps bursting with clients.
Here are the five “advance” strategies he uses for marketing a fitness bootcamp…
1.The NEW grocery Store Tour: The big problem with grocery store tours is: 1) getting the store to buy into the idea, 2) getting the store to participate in getting the word out, and 3) getting the prospects to show up to the darn thing.
Here’s the solution that we came up with for me coaching client. First, you’ve got to make a W.I.I.F.T. proposition (What’s In It For Them).
He told the store manager that he planned to give each tour attendee a $10 gift certificate to the store. So if he got 20 people to attend the tour that’s a MINIMUM of $200 that’s gets spent that day.
The store manager quickly agreed.
Then he got them to pass out flyers at the check stands. Here’s the crafty part, the bottom of the flyer was a tear off sheet where the customers would fill in her name, email, and phone number if she was interested in attending the tour – and that tear off would get left at the store.
He would collect the tear offs nightly and start calling the people and scheduling them for that Saturday morning’s tour.
Here’s the other crafty part. To reserve their spot they’d have to give him $10.00 that was fully refundable when they showed up – this ensured that they would show up.
Finally, on the day of the tour he’d work his magic and at the end give everyone their $10.00 back by way of a gift certificate to the store.
Can you see the brilliance in this? He got himself a bunch of qualified leads and positioned himself as the expert in front of them. And the store got a bunch of business. A total win/win
2.The Human billboard script: This has got to be the easiest way to get new clients ever – and it costs nada! Too bad I didn’t think of it, my buddy Steve Hochman did. I brought Steve onto one of our monthly mentorship private calls to share his Human billboard script and this is what happened.
Within ten days of that call several of my mentorship clients reported getting 15-25 new clients and most of them didn’t even use the script right. It was supposed to be a phone script, but several of them crafted it into an email AND IT STILL WORKED LIKE CRAZY.
In a nutshell here’s how the human billboard phone script works.
A. You make a list of all the people you know and their phone numbers.
B. You call them using the human billboard script and make them the human billboard offer.
C. The trick is to make the special offer ONLY to the first 15. The remaining people get the “regular” offer.
D. Boom, Bang, Pow – you have yourself an additional 15-25 new clients!
** There is one catch to this marketing strategy. You can’t be chicken or sensitive to rejection.
(You can get the entire Human Billboard script details when you click the Human Billboard link above.)
3.The Crazy Guarantee: One of the best fitness marketing and selling strategies you can use to get more leads and convert more of them into sales is offering an iron clad guarantee.
So, here’s what we conjured up to remove ALL risk off the clients and get them to commit to a 12 month boot camp training program. We called it the crazy double guarantee and here’s how it’s positioned…
(Part one of the guarantee) “Join our 12 month body transformation boot camp program. Try it out for a full 30 days and if for any reason you feel it’s not right for you let us know and we’ll issue a full refund. BUT there’s more…
(Part two of the guarantee) Graduate from the 12 month program with the body of your dreams and if you ever gain the weight back we’ll train you for free until you’re back to your “graduation” body.
Now that’s total risk reversal! In fact his entire fitness boot camp marketing system is built around that guarantee. It’s also his unique selling proposition.
I know what you’re thinking. What someone graduates, gains the weight back, and wants free boot camp?
I won’t get into a long drawn out answer here, but I will give you the short version.
The sheer number of new clients and profits you will get by offering this guarantee (and getting them committed to a 12 month program) will more than out weight the occasional “I want a refund” request or “I gained the weight back, now train me for free”.
4. The Amazing Bribe: One way to get people to try your programs is to bribe them into it. Have you or anyone you know ever sat through one of those time-share sales pitches just to get the free three day Las Vegas vacation?
They do that because it works.
Offering a free week of boot camp is one thing. But offering a $497 “bribe” by way of free day spa treatments, pedicure, back adjustment, and 30 minutes massage for trying your boot camp is a whole other animal.
Here’s what he did.
First he went to local businesses that cater to his target market and explained to them how his clients and prospects are also THEIR target clients and customers. Then he told them that if they would donate a free gift to his clients and prospects he would send them qualified leads.
He did this with the local day spa, nail salon, chiropractor, and massage therapist. He then gave them one week trial passes to his boot camp should they want to gift it to their clients and prospects.
And that became his amazing $497 bribe and one of his best tactics for marketing a fitness boot camp on a budget.
5.The Super Referral: This is another one of those great ideas that make you want to say “why didn’t I think of that.”
By now you know that referral generation is one of the best fitness marketing tactics ever because it usually cost’s you zero marketing dollars AND a client referral is way easier to close because they come to you ‘presold”.
But the problem is that most personal trainers don’t know how and when to ask for a referral and that kills the entire thing.
Here’s a sneaky little trick we deployed to generate SOLID referrals.
First, go to Staples and buy a pack of that fancy certificate paper. Next, create a gift certificate out of it that entitles your new client to bring a friend for a week within the first two week of them signing up.
(That’s the key part of all this… getting them to bring in a friend when they are most excited about joining your boot camp *within the first two weeks.)
Every time a new client signs up for your boot camp give them the gift certificate on the first day and tell them that this entitles them to bring a friend for a week anytime during the next two weeks.
By telling them AND giving them a fancy certificate, AND giving them a short deadline in which to comply they are way more likely to refer a friend.
Looking back I could have called this post “common sense tactics for marketing a fitness boot camp.”
And if you want more fitness marketing ideas, strategies and tips make sure to download the two audio programs below.
Leave me your ideas, thoughts, and comments below…