The big box gyms in your area are advertising two-for-one sign up deals and forty different types of classes. So how do you tailor your boot camp marketing efforts to compete with them?

You don’t.

You’re not a big box gym. You’re an awesome personal trainer and what you have to offer is something the big box gyms can’t: incredible results. People join gyms because they want to change the way they look and feel and most of them want that change to be dramatic and fast. The big box gym isn’t the answer.

Very few people who sign up for a big commercial gym will ever get anything close to the results they’re seeking. Most of them will drop out of the gym with very little to show for their money or their time. Those people are absolutely primed for an intense body transformation program. If you can offer that, you won’t need to spend much time on boot camp marketing – your clients’ results will do the marketing for you.

So how do you create a transformation program that really stands out and puts you in a whole different category from the big box gyms? I have five tips from boot camp owners that have used these programs to propel their businesses to the next level.

Promise results and then deliver. This may seem overly simplistic, but nothing will kill your success like mediocre results. Nobody posts on Facebook that they lost ten pounds in just six months. Nobody brags about the personal trainer who helped them carve an inch from their waistline and that was it.

We live in a culture that expects everything right now, if not sooner. Use your skills and expertise to deliver the most dramatic results in the least amount of time. Give your clients the workouts and the results of their lives and they won’t be able to keep quiet about it.

Offer something unique. Don’t just advertise that you’ll help clients lose fat or build muscle. The fitness businesses that have excelled are the ones that found a way to meet a unique need. One of the best examples of this is the Body for Life program, which many consider to be the foundation of transformation programs. Body for Life made itself unique by saying it was a program that would work for anyone of any age. Another good example is P90X. That program stood out and sold like crazy because it’s uniqueness was that it offered a hard-core intensity workout that could be done at home in a short amount of time, yet produce great results.

You have to have something unique to offer. It might be a baby-to-bikini transformation for new mothers or fat burning for Baby Boomers. Find it, market it and then deliver it.

Don’t just create a workout; create a community. People will be drawn to you by the promise of transformation, but they’ll stay with you because of the community they experience during the transformation. Everyone likes to feel as though they’re a part of something great and everyone is motivated by the excitement and encouragement they get from working together toward a common goal.

Create an electric energy in your boot camp sessions, a feeling that your clients don’t get anywhere else. One of the biggest reasons that Zumba is so huge is that people feel so good while they’re there. They have fun. They get excited. They learn the moves together. You need to create that kind of community experience if you want clients to stay with you long after the transformation program is over.

Make the most of social media. Images are everything on social media these days. Instagram is growing daily. Pinterest attracts more women than every other social media platform combined. These are both image-driven venues. The Facebook posts that get the most likes and shares are those with a compelling image.

Get permission to share your clients’ awesome results on your Facebook or Google+ page. When they post pictures of their progress, like and share them. It’s some of the best boot camp marketing you’ll ever do and it’s completely free.

Celebrate your clients’ achievements. Transforming your body is a big deal, so make a big deal out of your clients’ successes. Let them know that what you’ve done together is incredible and worthy of a real celebration. Throw a pool party, have a picnic (with friends and families invited) or go to dinner at a nice restaurant. You can even throw a graduation event right there at your boot camp, complete with “yearbooks” and diplomas.

The most effective boot camp marketing strategy is the one that sets you apart based on your results and the total client experience. Keep these five tips in mind when you’re designing your transformation program and the big box gyms will be wondering how to compete with you.

This entry was posted on June 3, 2014 at 10:10 pm. 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 Boot Camp Business, Boot Camp Marketing, Boot Camp Strategies, How To Start a Fitness Boot Camp Business, Uncategorized by Steve Hochman | No Comments Yet