Ladies and gentlemen... boys and girls... Back by popular demand, is part 2 of Craig Ballantyne's five fitness marketing things you must do every month.

So without further ado...

Here's Craig (and his dog)

After a sloppy dog walk through melting snow and muck here in Toronto, I
started reviewing my daily "Guiding Documents" and realized I still owe you
the 2nd part of Dan Kennedy's "10 Things You Must Do Every Month".

I've also added a couple of extra fitness marketing bonus tips to help you get more
bootcampers and build your bootcamp empire. You'll notice a lot of these
tips come down to one thing - which I'll point out at the end of the article.

6. Brainstorm about your customers

When we're busy, it's too easy to avoid the "thinking" part of running a
business. But stop and set aside an hour - or better yet, an entire morning -
and take a good long look at what you're doing with your bootcamps.

Brainstorm - and debate with your trainers if applicable - what your
customers REALLY want. Would they prefer shorter workouts? More frequent
workouts? Could you survey your clients? And are you even listening to your
customers right now?

Your bootcamps don't have to be conventional. If you train ultra-busy moms,
maybe the traditional hour-long bootcamp isn't your best business model. You
don't have to follow-the-leader when you can BE the leader and offer a
better alternative for your market.

7. Create experiences


From Transformation Contest to 300-style workout competitions to themed
workouts, there are lots of ways to make your bootcamp an even more
enjoyable experience than just "another fun group workout".

And that's the good thing about having more "competition in your town" from
other 2nd rate bootcamp owners. The competition drives you to be more
creative and separate yourself from the rest of the pack, therefore making
you even more money than if there was no competition at all.

So steal from Steve again here...and use his idea of themed workouts to get
a head start on creating a better experience with your bootcamps. You could
also do themed-weeks, or themed months (i.e. this week we're focusing on
abs, or in March we're focusing on beach-body workouts for Spring Break).

Tie your bootcamp experiences into "the water cooler talk" and you'll get
more folks talking about your camps all day long.

8. Do 1 celebrity tie-in this month

Celebrities aren't just famous actors, although you can use those in your
marketing as well. But to make it easier, you can also create celebrities
out of your campers.

You can have a "bootcamper of the day" award and then announce that to
everyone in all of your classes at the next day. This recognition will do
three things.

a) Make that person feel awesome
b) Make everyone else try harder so they get recognized as camper of the day
c) Get more people talking about the "camper of the day" award at their work
around the water cooler

And it doesn't have to be awarded for performance...it could be for a good
deed, for most encouraging camper, or for community involvement. And it
doesn't have to be camper of the day either, it could be a weekly or monthly
award...but its a great way to create celebrities.

In addition to creating your own celebrities, you should also try to tie in
to local celebrities...by inviting local radio, TV, and newspaper "legends"
to try out your camp.

Also, just listen in to what the local celebs are saying on air about their
health and fitness, or even about your county's health and fitness...and
then you can mention on facebook, your blog, or in your paid advertising
about how "Randy the Radio Guy" says Orange County is more overweight this
year than in 2007...and so you're challenging him to come out to your
bootcamp.

There are so many opportunities for you to tie in your camp to the local
conversation...so don't miss out.

9. Question facts about selling fitness

Just because gyms have sent out flyers and done newspaper ads doesn't mean
that it is the best way for you to advertise your fitness business and
bootcamp.

So take a hard look at all of your marketing and figure out if it is working
or if you are just doing it because "that's what you've always done".

Test and track all of your promotions. Cut the losers and keep the winners.

Test traditional media against new media.

Test all of Steve Hochman's crazy ideas.

And test "promoting yourself" against "promoting your product". Does your
market really care if they train with "Tommy the Trainer" or is it more
important for them to train in the "fastest fitness bootcamp in the county"?

Set your ego aside and figure out what really works for getting clients.

10. Promote something New & Improved

If you ever change locations, change the style of your bootcamp, get new
equipment, or become a Fit Body Bootcamp owner, then you darn well better
make a HUGE deal out of it.

Never miss a chance to promote yourself. Never miss a chance to tell the
world that the best bootcamp just got even better.

Bonus tip
Whenever you market your bootcamp, do it with extreme self-confidence &
superiority. This is no time to be timid, not when there are 2 new bootcamps
popping up in your backyard every week.

You're the best trainer in your town, right? RIGHT?

Don't be afraid to tell the world. Don't be afraid to share the success
stories. Don't be afraid to tell the world why you're bootcamp is better
than the rest.

If you truly believe in your product, don't hold back. And if you don't, get
to work working on yourself, your training, and your bootcamp so that you
can market honestly with more confidence.

So these tips all really come down to one thing...You just need to be
AWESOME. Take some tips from Steve - Be fun, be cool, be different (and by
that I mean "good different", not "Lenny Wankerstein-different").

It's pretty simple. If you're cool, you'll rock. If you aren't, there's
nothing wrong with being the brains behind the business and hiring awesome
trainers to go out there and deliver the experience.

Get out there and make a difference today.

To your success,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, TTBootcamps.com

Check out Craig Ballantyne's killer DONE-FOR-YOU TT-Boot camp workouts here

This entry was posted on January 22, 2010 at 1:24 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in Blog by Steve Hochman | 7 Comments