Explode Your Boot Camp Marketing with Unstoppable Community Outreach Programs

People NetworkI want you to think for a minute about what marketing truly is for you at its simplest and most fundamental level. You probably own one or more Fit Body Boot Camp location and all of your prospective clients live in or near your neighborhood. They all live, work, shop and play within a reasonable distance of your home and your Boot Camp.

Do you see where I’m going with this?

Every individual with the potential to become your next successful, long-term client is a member of your very own local community.

So what should that mean to you and how does that help us understand the fundamentals of your small business marketing? Well, I hope it’s obvious by now, but what I’m trying to get across here is that marketing, in its simplest sense, is nothing more than reaching out to and getting involved with your community.

Now lets complicate things a bit. While in principle all you need to do is get involved, in practice, there are very particular ways you should go about doing this. It isn’t just about reaching out to anyone anywhere, it’s about finding the people and the places within your community that will respond to the right marketing techniques.

So let’s explore some great strategies that will equip you with awesome ways to get involved with your community and market your Boot Camp.

#1) An effective and relatively simple way to get some attention on your Boot Camp Business, to build relationships with other local business, and get involved with your business and consumer community, is called Cross Promotion.

The process is easy.

Read the rest of Explode Your Boot Camp Marketing with Unstoppable Community Outreach Programs

Posted in Blog, Boot Camp Marketing, Fitness Marketing by Steve Hochman | No Comments

Expand Your Personal Trainer Image from Fitness Expert to Local Fitness Icon

Best in the BizThe biggest and best names in the Fitness Industry (you know, the guys and girls whose names you always hear floating around the gym or popping up in your Facebook sidebar) are more than just teachers or workout experts. These iconic figures, who spend their time sitting atop the industry’s tallest mountains and making the biggest bucks, are way more than just personal trainers.

Ever wondered how they reached such lofty heights? Sure, it has a lot to do with work ethic and personal situations and maybe a bit of luck, but there is one tool, one strategy that each of these giants uses to reach the tip-top of the Fitness Industry leaderboards.

Want to know what it is?

It’s storytelling.

Or, said differently, StorySelling.

Each of these greats has mastered the art of leveraging his or her personal origins and anecdotes to establish professional ethos (reputation) and, more importantly, make money from it.

O.K., let’s backtrack a little here and take a look at some examples.

Take, for instance, Jason Ferruggia. Jason is obviously an incredibly talented and knowledgeable teacher, author, and fitness expert. There is no doubt that his mastery and expertise are the driving forces contributing to his success. But there are certain tricks, strategies, and nuances that he uses to transform him from personal trainer to fitness celebrity.

Everyone knows Ferruggia for his incredible blog and his awesome products. He’s huge because he produces great content, but he’s a celebrity because people like, adore, and emulate him: his personality, his image, his story.

When you hear “Jason Ferruggia,” what sorts of thoughts and images immediately jump into your mind? Is it “Muscle Gaining Secrets?” Maybe you think of “The Renegate Diet?” Or, do you think hard ass, no B.S., straight shooting and hard-hitting writer, blogger, and fitness personality?

Thought so.

You see, Ferruggia doesn’t just have the awesome content and top-notch talent, he has created an image of himself that builds rapport, gains customer trust, and sells product through generating fascination and fandom within his audience.

Let’s take a look at a more understated example.

Read the rest of Expand Your Personal Trainer Image from Fitness Expert to Local Fitness Icon

It’s Not Enough to Know How to Start a Boot Camp – You Have to Plan Where It’s Going

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.Screen Shot 2014-11-12 at 12.50.00 PM

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. Read the rest of It’s Not Enough to Know How to Start a Boot Camp – You Have to Plan Where It’s Going

An Awesome New Tool to Increase Your Income by Thousands of Dollars Without Doing Any Boot Camp Marketing

Usually when we think about boosting our boot camp revenues, we’re talking about bringing in new clients, either by increasing the number of sessions we do, opening another location or just putting a big marketing campaign into play.

But there is a really cool new way to increase your income by thousands of dollars per year in the next six days, without doing one more thing as far as boot camp marketing. One of the coolest things about it is that you don’t even need one new client.

Screen Shot 2014-11-11 at 9.44.00 PMThere is a fantastic new program available to us that was created by the brilliant Jeff Sherman. It’s called the Fitness Game Changer and it’s something that you can offer your existing clients right now to really boost your revenue. In fact, the holidays are the perfect time to roll it out.

Jeff has made an additional $48,000 so far by offering the program to his existing clients.

The Fitness Game Changer is an 8-week program that will help your clients blast through plateaus, reboot their motivation or get ready for a special event by turbo-charging their results. It’s a fantastic nutrition and accountability program that is getting great results for clients all over the country.

While they’re getting great results, you’re making money and getting a ton of testimonials, social proof and word of mouth.

The beauty of it is that you don’t need to do anything other than show it to your existing clients, sign them up and then copy/paste/send the program components to the participants. Read the rest of An Awesome New Tool to Increase Your Income by Thousands of Dollars Without Doing Any Boot Camp Marketing

The 4 Most Important Things for You to Know about Marketing a Personal Training Business

When I talk to people about marketing a personal training business, I get a lot of nuts-and-bolts questions about where to market, how many posts to put on Facebook, how to get more followers and so on. Those nuts and bolts questions are important, but the principles of effective marketing come first and you have to have them firmly in your mind before you do any of the nuts and bolts.

Here are what I consider to be the four most important things to keep in mind in order to create your marketing plan and then maximize its potential.Screen Shot 2014-08-06 at 1.58.25 PM

You are selling outcomes, not products

At least nine out of ten personal trainers in your area are competing on price and features (like the latest fitness fads or on-site child care) and their marketing reflects that. YOU need to be in the business of selling outcomes and your marketing should reflect that.

When you focus your marketing on what you can help your clients achieve (and what you are helping your current clients achieve), you take yourself out of all of that competition and set yourself apart. People like on-site child care and they like knowing that the latest fitness fad is available and they’re willing to pay rock-bottom prices for it when rock-bottom prices are offered.

But you’re offering results and people are willing to pay much more for those. So focus on what you and only you can deliver to your clients and then use plenty of social proof in your marketing. Read the rest of The 4 Most Important Things for You to Know about Marketing a Personal Training Business

Now is the Time to make Your Boot Camp Marketing Resolutions for 2015

Typically, we make resolutions at the New Year and there’s nothing wrong with that. But the time for making boot camp marketing resolutions for 2015 is now, so that you can begin planning for new things, wrap up any unfinished business and make sure that you have the resources and knowledge you need well in place before the new year begins.

Now, you may not be in the practice of making New Year’s resolutions for your business marketing. It’s really not that different than creating a new marketing plan each year, which is something you should be doing. But let me help you by giving some direction, to help get you started on the process of evaluating what you’re doing now and what you should be doing next year.Screen Shot 2014-11-03 at 1.51.08 PM

Evaluating What You’re Doing Now

The first thing you need to do is take a good look at all of the components of your current boot camp marketing plan. Are you building an email list? Are you sending out high-value content and low barrier offers to your email list on a regular basis? Are you advertising and if so where? Are you building and using your Facebook page, Google+, YouTube following?

Take note of every single thing you’re doing to market your business and then evaluate your return on investment of every single one. Don’t forget that you’re investing your time in marketing as well, so even the free marketing strategies have some cost in time.

Once you’ve gone through this process, you should know every single thing you’re doing to market your boot camp, how each one is performing and which marketing strategies or venues are being neglected.  Now you can begin making some intelligent and informed boot camp marketing resolutions for 2015. Read the rest of Now is the Time to make Your Boot Camp Marketing Resolutions for 2015

Creating an Effective Fitness Boot Camp Marketing Funnel on Facebook

Bedros has spoken several times about the extremely effective fitness boot camp marketing that can be done on Facebook. But it’s possible to create a great following on Facebook and get lots of great comments and interaction without actually making any money from it.

At the last Fitness Business Summit, Josh Carter, perhaps THE Facebook marketing expert in our business, spoke in depth about maximizing the potential of Facebook for getting new clients. Bedros just uploaded the entire one-hour video and I strongly recommend that you go watch it here. His nuts and bolts advice is invaluable.

But in the meantime, I want to share with you his simple and effective plan for using Facebook as a fitness boot camp marketing funnel. It’s a deceptively easy, five-step plan that turns Facebook onlookers into qualified leads for your business.

Screen Shot 2014-10-30 at 10.11.03 PMThat’s really the main crux of Josh’s talk; that all the Facebook fans in the world won’t make you money unless you are creating a funnel through which they become actual leads. Even though we talk a lot about the value of organic promotion (posts that your friends and clients share with their friends), organic promotion doesn’t actually get you the multitude of prospects that Josh’s plan is going for.

The fact is that only about 10-15% of your Facebook fans see your status update or motivational post. So even if you have 5,000 followers, only 500 or so are being reached. Why? Because Facebook wants you to pay for wider-reaching or more targeted ads.

At first, you might think this sucks. But targeted ads are well worth the money. In fact, Josh likens Facebook to a money machine when targeted ads are used. As he says, “You put ten dollars in and get eleven dollars out. If you had a machine that did that, how often would you put a ten-dollar bill in the machine? As often as possible.” It’s called investing in your fitness boot camp marketing and it’s a smart investment. Read the rest of Creating an Effective Fitness Boot Camp Marketing Funnel on Facebook

Selling Personal Training Online, Part 2 – Creating and Marketing Your Program

In my last blog post, I explained how selling personal training through an online program can bring you long term passive income as well as new clients for your fitness boot camp business. To recap what I explained in the last post, there are several benefits to offering personal training through an online coaching program:

  • Immediate income generated through sales.
  • Long-term income potential through building trust and credibility.
  • Passive income from your program with no significant work needed from you.
  • Potential new client income through program’s visibility on Facebook and other social media.
  • Potential new long-term clients by converting online members to boot camp members.

But first you need to decide what type of program you’re going to create and then how to set up the marketing and delivery for that program. Fortunately, Shawna Kaminski, the FBBC owner who earned $7,000 in 72 hours with her online coaching program, was kind enough to offer up a blueprint for both.

Creating Your Online Coaching Program

Screen Shot 2014-10-28 at 1.13.44 PMSelling personal training through an online coaching program isn’t that much different from coaching clients in your boot camp. Think about what you provide your clients in your boot camp in order to get them the results they need: nutritional guidance, a great workout, accountability, motivation and support from both you and fellow clients. These are the things that need to be included in your online coaching program. You can even create a partnership with a local nutritionist. They can create the nutrition plan, you create the workouts and both of you market to each other’s mailing lists.

The type of nutritional plan and workout that you create for the program will depend on your expertise, your group’s goal and their demographic. It will depend on whether you’re doing a fat-burning program, a strength building program, a special abs program and so on. You could also skip the specialization altogether and make your selling point the fact that people who aren’t ready/comfortable with/into a group training environment can get all of the benefits of your boot camp right in their own home.

Prior to creating her online coaching program, Shawna polled her mailing list and got their basic information and also asked them what their specific fitness issues and obstacles were. Then she took that information and created a program that would meet the needs of the most people.

Structuring Your Online Coaching Program

It’s important to keep things as simple and consistent as possible, especially your first time around. Shawna set up a 90 day coaching plan, which she priced at $99/month, paid up front at $297. She changed up the workouts every few weeks and a created a scalable nutrition plan. She met with her coaching clients daily in a private group on Facebook to provide that accountability, motivation and support that people need to succeed. Read the rest of Selling Personal Training Online, Part 2 – Creating and Marketing Your Program

Selling Personal Training Online, Part 1 – Why It’s a Good Idea

Fitness boot camp owners have to be experts at balancing time and money. They have to know when it’s better to spend money and save time or vice versa. They also have to know how to maximize their income for the hours they spend running their business. The Fit Body Boot Camp business model is based on the principle of maximum earnings for minimum labor. The boot camp model was created because group training earns much more per hour than selling personal training one-on-one.

But you can take the principle of maximum earnings for minimum time one step further, by creating streams of income that earn you passive income long after the work has been done. Two of the best ways to do this are by creating and selling fitness info products and by offering online coaching.

Screen Shot 2014-10-24 at 10.18.42 AMOnline coaching can be a huge moneymaker for you. It was for FBBC superstar Shawna Kaminski, who just brought in $7,000 in 72 hours with her first online coaching program. The beauty of it is that you usually have to do very little once you’ve created the programs you’re offering clients.

Most of the time, you create a program or set of programs, set up a payment and delivery system, create a marketing campaign and then have something that can continue to earn money for you, while all you might do is tweak your marketing or start a new marketing campaign periodically.

Fitness info products and online coaching share some similarities and can achieve the same results, but they have some important differences. You might create a workout and nutrition program focused on losing belly fat and package it into a fitness info product, or you could create the same program and offer it via online coaching. The main differences between the two are price and interaction. Read the rest of Selling Personal Training Online, Part 1 – Why It’s a Good Idea