When we start a Fit Body Boot Camp we hold Grand Opening events, create huge low-barrier offers, and promote the heck out of the new location in order to fill the roster and make sure we get enough prospects in order to sign up a sustainable number of new clients.
But these types of campaigns are really only designed for the first months or maybe the first year of a Boot Camp’s life. Expending this much energy and resources shouldn’t be an ongoing strategy. We shouldn’t have to work tirelessly for months and months on end to constantly overflow our sales funnel with thousands of new prospects every week.
Instead, we should only need to flood the funnel in the beginning, establish a reliable clientele base, and then merely top the funnel off with the rest of our marketing efforts.
So how do we get to this point?
Well, we can do this with occasional promotions. 14-Day Fat Furnaces, 28-Day Flat Belly Challenges, these are great low-barrier offers that we can return to whenever we need a small boost in client numbers or maybe when we expand and grow into larger or multiple facilities.
But what about a weekly, daily strategy that guarantees a constant stream of prospects and clients throughout the year?
Hopefully you’ve all anticipated me by now and you are thinking “referrals” to yourselves because you already know that referrals are the only way to create this kind of constant trickle.
So how do we bring in these highly sought-after yet hard to generate referrals?
The secret to ensuring you always have this kind of reliable referral flow is what we here at Fit Body Boot Camp call the Human Billboard Method.
And it all works because of the 80/20 rule.
If you’re confused, don’t worry, just keep reading and it will all make sense in a minute.
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When was the last time you took a long, hard look at your entire business model, your business processes and procedures, and your employee efficiency, and completely gutted those established systems to make way for new and improved methods?
Last year? Two years ago? Have you ever done something this?
Well, perhaps a complete overhaul might not be the greatest idea, but I am certain there are areas of your business, maybe small pockets or possibly massive sections, in need of in-depth evaluation and restructuring.
Businesses spring leaks. There are always issues and problems that develop over time or hide in the shadows until you seek them out and discover them. Fit Body Boot Camp has some complicated and complex systems, with nuances and details unique to each location and each owner. There’s no getting out of it, there will be problem areas that develop with your business structure— this is normal and unavoidable.
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When new fitness boot camp owners or people who are considering starting a boot camp ask me for advice, one of the things I tell them is that they need to learn as much as they can about how to start a boot camp successfully, but in order to be successful they also have to know where they want that business to go.
“I want to be successful” is not a plan. It’s not even a goal, because it has no measurable criteria. If you go into business with only the vaguest idea of a plan, you will waste a great deal of time, energy and resources working things out as you go. You may even fail and fail quickly.
There has never been a better time to start a fitness boot camp business, but you don’t just need to know how to start a boot camp, you need to have a step-by-step plan in place to reach very definite goals. Every day needs to be spent following at least one of those steps, or you risk losing very important momentum.
I want to share with you some ideas and points that to consider in order to create a path to success with your new boot camp business.
How much do you plan to earn in your first year?
Some people might say, “I have no idea how much I’ll earn” but they’re looking at it the wrong way. Revenue isn’t something you wait to see. Revenue is something you plan to see. The steps you take to build your business should be based on what you set as your first year’s revenue goals.
It doesn’t matter what dollar figure you set; you can reverse engineer a plan to make that amount. Many new boot camp earners make $100,000 their first year and it’s because they broke it down into monthly, weekly and daily sales goals. How much do you have to bring in to make $100k a year? A little over $1,900 per week. That’s just $385 a day if you’re counting five days per week. Knowing that makes it a lot easier to set daily and weekly steps that get you there. (more…)
When you’re starting a boot camp, you have a number of tasks in a number of different areas, including your physical facility, marketing, staffing and your daily operations. Sometimes it can really help your mindset and your progress if you can identify a handful of top priorities for right now, to keep yourself from getting overwhelmed or bogged down with details that can wait.
Here are five things you need to accomplish in your first month if you’re starting a boot camp.
Focus your marketing efforts on the three most important client funnels.
80% of your new clients are going to come from three channels: Facebook, your email list and client referrals. It’s especially important in the beginning that you focus your efforts on these. One of the best things about this list is that they’re all free, which can be important when you’re operating on a start-up budget.
So how do you maximize the potential of these channels?
Start posting relevant content regularly to your Facebook page. At least one post per day. The most important posts are usable content that your followers will share and that help set you up as an expert, progress pictures that your clients’ friends will comment on, and any low-barrier offers that you have going on.
On your Facebook page, invite followers and visitors to sign up for your email list. Entice them with an opt-in page that rewards them with a free fat loss report, workout video or other valuable download. When new clients or customers using a low-barrier offer come in to your boot camp, always get their email addresses and add them to your list. Ask people to sign up for freebies and valuable content whenever you post a YouTube video, share a blog post or hand out your cards or flyers. (more…)
This year’s Fit Body Boot Camp World Conference was no surprise; it was dynamic, packed with practical information, exciting, motivating and inspiring.
If you weren’t able to make it to the Fit Body Boot Camp World Conference, I want to share with you some of the things that you would have taken away from the conference and used to go back to your fitness boot camps pumped, informed and focused. If you’re just starting a boot camp, these points should be printed out and taped somewhere that you can see them regularly.
Find a mentor or coach or more successful friend and then ask and learn.
Don’t try to figure everything out on your own, especially if you’re just starting a boot camp. Successful people, especially Fit Body Boot Camp top earners, are happy to share what they know with people who are willing to listen.
Whether you need to learn how to become a fitness marketing powerhouse or how to find, hire and train your staff, ask questions and then listen to what people who have already mastered these things have to teach you. You’ll save years of trouble and financial struggle just by taking advantage of other people’s experience.
Do at least one thing every day to move yourself closer to your goals.
Every day that you stand still is a day wasted. Don’t tell yourself that you’ll work on making the most of the three best sales funnels at some point. Work on one of them today. Don’t tell yourself that you’ll come up with a fitness info product once you’re making more money. Start brainstorming ideas this week. Don’t decide that you’ll give those windshield flyers another week to pay off, try another strategy right now. Have a list of goals and then list out some steps to reach those goals, then do at least one of those things every single day. (more…)
There are all kinds of incredibly effective fitness marketing tools at your disposal. You could go spend one hour on RenegadeFitnessMarketing.com and learn enough to triple your business this month. You could check out some of the done-for-you marketing products available on this site and have in your hands everything you need to take your fitness business to the next level.
But if you don’t have the #1 most important fitness marketing tool – the right mindset – none of that will do you much good.
What I’m talking about here is getting rid of self-doubt. Specifically, two kinds of self-doubt. Doubt in your value and doubt in your abilities. Either one of them can cripple your business by keeping you from using the tools and strategies other people have used to become very successful.
Doubting Your Value
Maybe your mindset issue is doubting your own value. Not as a person, but as a trainer, leader and teacher. You don’t go out there and market yourself and your business because you don’t think you have anything valuable to share. You don’t talk to people about what you do or send out informative emails to your subscribers because you doubt the value of what you have to say.
Here’s what I have to say: the next time you walk into your fitness business, take a look at the clients there. Look at the client who’s laughing and smiling because she lost another inch or finally managed to climb a rope. Take a look at the guy who was fatigued and eating nothing but junk when he walked in three months ago.
What do you think your value is to them? What is the value of what you’ve helped them achieve? What will that value be five, ten or twenty years from now, when they’re living active, healthy lifestyles? (more…)
If you’ve never been to one of the annual Fitness Business Summits or to one of the Fit Body Boot Camp World Conferences, this needs to be the year you change that. It very well could be the shot in the arm that your fitness boot camp marketing needs.
While the Fitness Business Summit is open to fitness entrepreneurs of all kinds, the Fit Body Boot Camp World Conference is open only to Fit Body Boot Camp owners. This is a learning and motivational event that many six and seven-figure FBBC owners swear by and the fact that most of them still attend it every year is awesome proof of its value.
During the two-day conference, you’ll have the opportunity to meet, get to know and learn from FBBC owners who have been where you are, and are now where you want to be. It’s a great time to ask questions, brainstorm solutions, find out which mistakes to avoid and which strategies are working really well for people who are extremely successful.
Many Fit Body Boot Camp owners have very close and longstanding friendships that were formed at one of the World Conferences and they count those relationships as not only important to their personal lives, but also to their growth as fitness business owners and trainers. (more…)
We talk a lot at Fit Body Boot Camp about the incredible value of having an email list and working it for maximum results. But we don’t talk as much as we probably should about how to start a fitness boot camp email list from the ground up. After all, most personal trainers aren’t all that experienced in marketing and as new boot camp owners, they need some guidance in getting those names before they can start building their business.
Luckily, building an email list isn’t as hard as you may think and no, you shouldn’t fall for some fly-by-night company offering to sell you a list. Those lists will be full of people who have been spammed to death, people who aren’t even a little bit interested in getting fit and people who changed their email addresses six years ago. It’s not that hard to get your own list going and I’m going to give you some very simple steps that will show you how to start a fitness boot camp email list and what to do with it to start making money and growing your boot camp business.
Step 1: Create and offer a free report, nutrition plan, mini-workout or other gift and advertise it on your website, your Facebook page, on Twitter and Google+ and everywhere else that you’re visible. Make it something relevant, something that provides real value, but keep it short and simple. Then let people know that you just need their email address and you’ll get it right to them. Now you have a list of people who are obviously interested in getting fit and healthy, so that means they’re more likely to be interested in your fitness boot camp, as well.
Step 2: Send them your free gift, but also deliver other great content to them on a weekly basis. This could be pre/post workout recipes, best ab exercises, an article on boosting metabolism or whatever you like. I would also strongly suggest you sign up for FitPro Newlsetter, which looks like a great fitness magazine, already contains great new content every month and you can also add your own content to it. It’s a great plug and play solution for high-value content. (more…)
Many people make the mistake of focusing on the wrong selling points when it comes to fitness boot camp marketing. Too often, they focus on features and pricing, which is fine when you’re selling an espresso machine or a car, but it misses the mark when it comes to selling fitness boot camp programs.
The reason for this is that fitness boot camp marketing isn’t about selling your facility, your sound system, your juice bar or your pricing. It’s about selling your solutions to the client’s problems. It’s about selling your means of getting them to their goals.
Your prospects might think some of the features of your boot camp are nice or that your monthly fees are competitive, but what will sell them is the conviction that your program is their best chance to reach their goals, and fast. That’s the focus of your fitness boot camp marketing.
What’s really cool about being a Fit Body Boot Camp owner is that the very nature of our program makes that job so much easier than with any other fitness business. The fact is that we have the solution, we’re known for having the solution and there’s plenty of research that says it’s the right one.
If you haven’t seen it yet, we’ve just uploaded an awesome new explainer video on the Afterburn Workout. In it is pretty much every single point you need to sell virtually every prospect that walks through your doors. This is because it’s loaded with all of the ways that Fit Body Boot Camp is the solution people are looking for.
As you’ll see on the video, all of the most recent fitness research proves without a doubt that endless hours of standard cardio are essentially useless in the battle to burn fat. 9 out of 10 people who call you on the phone, message you on Facebook or answer one of your emails are going to tell you that their #1 goal is to lose fat. 9 out of 10 will also tell you that they go to the gym and run on the treadmill for hours or that they knock themselves out in Zumba class four nights a week and yet they can’t lose the fat. (more…)