Most fitness professionals these days seem to think that you need to spend a ton of money on different marketing strategies to have a successful business. Fitness Boot camp marketing does not have to cost you an arm and a leg.
In fact, I’m going to share with you five low cost, virtually free, unconventional ways to get the word out about your fitness business.
And the best part is THEY WORK!
Don’t get me wrong… it’s great to use print ads, implement SEO, and hire someone to do a fancy website, but when these things aren’t done right they end up costing you more money than you’d imagine.
Here are the five unconventional tactics you need to use to market your fitness boot camp:
1. Grocery Store Tour – A tour you give to potential clients to teach them the importance of nutrition. Instead of worrying about how the store manager might react when you approach them about a store tour, make it worth their while by offering something they’re interested in.
W.I.I.F.T – What’s in it for them?
Tell the store manager that you plan to give out gift cards to their store to anyone who attends your tour. Why do this? Because if you end up getting 25 people to attend your tour and hand them each a $10 card, that store will end up profiting $250 minimum, which should make any grocery store manager happy to have you in their store. More importantly they’ll work with you and promote your business.
Have your prospects reserve their tour spot with a fully refundable $10 fee, and when they show up hand out the gift cards in its place.
See how this works? You end up with a ton of qualified leads, position yourself as the expert, and building a relationship with local businesses. The best part is that you break even and don’t loose a cent.
2. Human Billboard – Get your clients to work for you by turning them into “Human Billboards”. This is meant to be done over the phone, but you can easily turn this into an email:
A. Create a contact list of everyone you know and include their phone numbers.
B. Call and make them a Human Billboard offer – free training if they allow you to promote and share their story.
C. Offer only the first 15-25 people you contact the Human Billboard offer, and give everyone else your regular offer or whatever special you have going at the time.
D. 15-25 INSTANT CLIENTS!
3. The Crazy Guarantee – One of the best marketing strategies and also one of the most over looked. We came up with a way to get clients to commit to a 12 month boot camp training program, we call it the “crazy double guarantee” and it goes a little something like this:
“Join our 12 month body transformation boot camp training program. Try us out for 30 days and if you’re not completely satisfied with your results, let us know, and we’ll refund every cent”
But wait, there’s more…
“If you graduate from our 12 month program with amazing results and gain the weight back, we’ll train you for free until you reach your ‘graduation’ body”.
The goal of a guarantee like this is to eliminate objections before they start. The number of clients you end up signing because of this guarantee outweighs any refund request you might get.
4. The Amazing Bribe – Find local businesses that cater to your market like spas, chiropractors, and salons and explain to them that your clients are their clients, and by doing this you can get them to donate gifts and vouchers in exchange for sending leads their way. Use these to create an amazing bribe that they can’t refuse.
Offering free boot camp is one thing, but if you include valuable vouchers and gift cards then your prospects might end up becoming clients just to get those goodies.
5. The Super Referral – The key is getting your new clients to bring in a friend within the first two weeks of boot camp (when they’re most excited).
Go to any office supply store and buy blank fancy certificates. Hand out those certificates (specify that the “bring a friend” offer is only valid for the first two weeks of the program). By following these steps and creating that sense of urgency, your clients are a lot more likely to bring in referrals.
And that’s it… easy, right?
Fitness boot camp marketing doesn’t have to cost a ton. These strategies are almost common sense when you get to the bottom of it so do yourself a favor, get out there, and make it happen.