Old School Fitness Marketing and The DEATH Of Deal Of The Day Offers

Listen, I’m gonna make a bold prediction and say that in less than 12 months, deal of the day site promotions are going to royally suck for most fitness boot camps and personal trainers.

Remember Craigs List? Remember how less than a year ago Craigs List was the shit? There was a time where all you had to do was post a few ads each day onto Craigs List and you’d get a ton of leads.

Not anymore.

These days Craigs List is the “client getting cock block king” (TM). And even if they did allow you to post multiple ads each day like they used to, the quality of leads from Craigs List are so bad that you’d be totally disappointed.

And deal-of-the-day sites are headed in the same direction… but in a different way. You can already see the writing on the wall.

In the beginning deal-of-the-day sites rocked and the folks buying from those sites were cool. They saw a deal. Bought in. And they expected to be offered an ongoing program and to stay on board if they liked the service.

But not anymore. These days deal-of-the-day buyers are a different breed. See, ninety percent of the people who buy from deal-of-the-day sites now a days are what I call “deal junkies”. These deal junkies don’t REALLY care about getting into shape, or getting lean or strong.

They’re actually addicted to getting deals and then moving on to the next deal.

In a six month period these people will end up training at six different boot camps and are way too cheap to actually commit to an actual normal priced program - hence the reason EVERY boot camp or personal training business is dropping their monthly prices trying to accommodate deal junkies.

That’s like supporting someone’s crack habit. Bad move.

And it’s a pretty dumb way of doing business if you ask me, unless you like the idea of having a TON of mediocre clients who have zero loyalty, who will NEVER refer and who want to pay under $100 bucks a month.

Then there’s the BIG SHIFT that the deal-of-the-day sites are starting to make. I’m noticing something interesting - and you may have spotted this too…

…most deal sites now are not interested in promoting the one off boot camps and personal training businesses. They’d rather promote a brand that has multiple locations in a given geographic area. And that makes total sense for them since they’ll make more money with each email broadcast they send out if the deal seekers have multiple location options to choose from.

Now I’m not hear to poop on your parade. Truth is, any one marketing system can dry up or go the way of Craigs List at any given time. And that’s why it pays to have multiple poles in the water and to relay on the fundamental and proven marketing systems that have survived the test of time.

One of the core client getting systems that helped grow my five facilities to a multiple six figure training business was direct mail and print ads. And that’s what I want to share with you in the post, becuase direct mail and print ads have also given my mastermind coaching clients a TON of clients as you’ll see below.

And the best part of direct mail is that YOU have control.

- You decide which homes and addresses the postcards and letters go to.

- You can test out a small batch and only if it proves successful would you roll out a big mailing.

- And it’s as reliable as they come becuase the postal service has been around for decades and isn’t going away any time soon.

So without further ago, I thought it’d be cool to do an “autopsy” of three different direct mail promotions that have recently worked for some of my coaching clients and to give you the REAL metrics that these promotions generated.

AUTOPSY #1: The Postcard.

The 6″ x 11″ postcard campaign below is something I helped craft for my man, Joshua Carter of Carter Fitness, also a 7 Figure Formula mastermind member.

Here are the metrics from this promotion…

- 5,000 post cards mailed

- Total cost of printing and mailing: $3,000 (about .60 cents each)

- Targeting single family homes, with household income of $75K or more, within 5 miles of his facility.

- Produced 21 new clients at a billing rate of $720/month. This one promotion added $15,120/month in EFT (monthly auto debit). Not to shabby.

(scroll down to see why this postcard direct mail campaign worked so well)

Front

Back

Why this promotion worked so well.

- While the headline isn’t your typical direct response like headline, it is a strong one becuase it instantly forces you to ask the questions “is it really true?” when you see the headline and the two amazing before and after pictures of his clients. Creating an “open loop” in the prospects mind and forcing them to explore further to find the answer makes the headline and before and after pics a deadly combo here.

- Speaking of deadly… the before and after pictures on this postcard are magical. Social proof is huge and pictures like these that look REAL and not professionally done convert better.

- Total risk reversal. Results guaranteed or you get ever penny back. (something that his competitors are NOT offering)

- Offer expiration date builds urgency.

- Specific offer “come in three times a week and follow our customized fitness and fat loss program and we guarantee that at the end of the program you’ll discover a fitter, thinner, sexier you and if you don’t, we’ll refund every penny of your investment back. It’s just that simple.”

- Use of words and language patterns that resonate with this targeted marketing (fitter, thinner, sexier, investment, simple refund, no boring cardio).

- Strong compelling sales copy where we address the secondary conversation that is taking place in the prospects mind: “how can you make such a bold claim?”.

- Caption below Josh’s picture: “Body Transformation Expert” NOT personal trainer or fitness trainers… leaving all other local “personal trainers” in the dust.

- Call to action… call this number or just come on it.

Wouldn’t you invest $3,000 to get $15,000/month in EFT? Dumb question right?

AUTOPSY #2: The Print Ad.

The full page print ad you see below is the most recent ad that I crafted for Fit Body Boot Camp owner and 7 Figure Mastermind member Cara Eckerman.

Here are the metrics from this promotion...

- Full page ad that went into a magazine that get’s delivered (via mail) to homes in Chino Hills (about 19,000 homes)

- This is a MONTHLY magazine, therefore it has more stay around power then a daily or weekly newspaper.

- Cost of this full page ad was $1,200.

- Within the 9 days of the magazine delivery it brought in 11 new clients for Cara at a price point of $197/month. So within the first month this $1200 ad produced $2167, and since each client signed a 12 month agreement - this campaign will ultimately generate $26,004 for them during the 12 month period of the agreement.

(here’s the ad for you to check out and swipe =) )

Why this campaign worked so well.

- The headline. You might recognize the headline as variation of my now famous 14 Day Fat Furnace email sequence that I gave to you a while back. The headline and sub headline arouse curiosity and interest. Great hook!

- The Fit Body Boot Camp logo at the top is a trusted and recognized brand that people seek out. Kinda like name brand peanut butter versus the lesser quality cheaper stuff.

- The copy / offer is just a condensed version of the copy from my 14 Day Fat Furnace email with a specific offer and promise.

- The program is ONLY for a limited time (in this case, for the month of April) and they’re only taking 2 people on the promotion)

- Three compelling testimonials on the page provide ALL the proof needed that this program works.

- Fast Results for Only $67. No beating around the bush here… a BIG promise, for a great price, tucked in a star burst for all to see.

- And a call to action at the very bottom with the phone number in yellow and domain name.

WINNING! =)

AUTOPSY #3: The 4 page Direct Mail Latte:

- This was a four page sales letter that I had originally helped craft for another mastermind clients, Andrew Sterns. For him this letter produced $123,000 in new sales in less than a month. However, the one you’ll see below is for 7 Figure Formula mastermind member Samantha Taylor which she sent out earlier this year.

Here are the metrics from this promotion...

- 2,000 four page letters went out to homes valued at $350,000 or higher in the Lutz, FL area. This was a three page letter that offered a specific high value service for free. And the letters were sent in an antique looking envelope, with handwritten blue ink mailing address, gold label return address, and a round gold color seal on the back. Everything about this envelope said NOT JUNK.

- Total cost of deployment (printing, envelope, stamp, ect) $3,000.

- Within 7 days of mailing Samantha got 10 calls from the letter, set eight appointments, and close all 8 programs on VERY HIGH END personal training programs totaling $47,962. That’s $5,995.25 per client on average. Gotta love that, right?

(Below is the actual letter and envelope)

And here is the envelope that this letter went out in:

Why this direct mail campaign worked so well…

- The headline was SUPER targeted and spoke to the pain the prospect was having. (and then proved it with the testimonial picture to the left of the headline).

- The copy made a very high value but low barrier offer. As in the thing offered had a high precived value, but all you has to do was call and you’d get it for free.

- I crafted the letter to overcome potential objections that the prospect may have about replying to this letter.

- There was plenty of aggitation of pain and positioning of benefits in this letter.

- We included a ton of before and after pictures not only within the letter but also a full seperate sheet which ONLY contained more before and after testimoanials. This created rock solid proof in the prospects mind that the offer was real and proven.

- Red copy doodle draws attention to the important parts of the letter (plus it just plain looks cool).

- Limited availability and deadline date created a huge sense of urgency.

- And of course a solid call to action.

- The envelopes ensured that the letter would get opened becuase they were a differant color, higher stock, hand written blue ink, return address label, a gold seal on the back and a FIRST CLASS stamp that was intentionally placed somewhat crooked to show it was all done by a real human and not by machines that pumped out junk mail. This made all the difference.

It’s a funny thing but when you do the math on just these three promotions alone, you’ll see that they collectively brought in over $253,000 in gross income from less than $7,000 in expense. That to me is a GREAT ROI no matter how you look at it.

I hope these three old school fitness marketing strategies got your wheels spinning and gave you some ideas to know out a few killer promotions yourself

B