When a brand-new Fit Body Boot Camp owner or any new fitness entrepreneur is struggling to pay the bills and wondering what to do next to build their business, they have some trouble believing they could be earning six or even seven figures within just a few years. They know very little about marketing a personal training business, becoming well-known in their communities or establishing themselves as experts.
But let’s be really clear about something: the biggest earners at Fit Body Boot Camp started from exactly that same place. If they can get from where you are to where they are, so can you.
I’ve spent a lot of time talking to and learning from people like Shawna Kaminski, Rebecca Tabbert, Sean Francis, Josh Carter and many other Fit Body Boot Camp owners who are pulling in 6-7 figures per year.
I want to share with you four things they all have know, use and tell the people who ask them for advice; four things that will help you get into a position to start marketing your personal training business into a seven-figure monopoly on the personal training market in your area.
Don’t run your business (or let it run you); use really good systems and let those systems run the business for you.
Fit Body Boot Camp owners have the advantage of having turnkey marketing, email, accounting, staffing and retention systems built right into their start-up package. These systems were chosen because they work. FBBC owners they don’t have to reinvent the wheel or spend hours out of every day overseeing every aspect of the business. Smart entrepreneurs will find out which systems are working for the most people and implement those systems so that they can focus their energy and time on getting and keeping new clients. (more…)
Most personal trainers aren’t experienced marketers or salespeople. In fact, many personal trainers are intimidated by the very idea of asking people for money. This is a shame because it keeps them from actually making a living at what they love.
The truth is that the biggest factor to successful personal trainer marketing is very simple and straightforward. It’s not a complicated system or a series of hoops you need to jump through. Not only that, but if you’re serious about your work and passionate about truly helping your clients change their lives, then this one thing will actually come very easily to you. It’s about selling the right thing.
Too many personal trainer marketing efforts are focused on selling a commodity – a workout, a system, a particular trainer or a specific type of class. The last thing you want to do is focus on selling a commodity. Commodities are cheap and prices fluctuate wildly, dependent on the economy, the time of year and so on. Commodities are also easily compared to other commodities like them, and the lowest priced commodity often wins.
Instead, you need to focus on selling outcomes and end results.
Let’s look at the difference between the two. Let’s say you’re selling six weeks of personal training sessions for $XX. The value of that six weeks for that price is going to vary between potential clients, because all they’re looking at is the commodity and then comparing it to five other personal trainers’ deals plus maybe the cost of six weeks of do-it-yourself training at the gym. You’ve got a lot of competition and the final decision will probably come down to price.
On the other hand, if you’re selling end results and outcomes, you’re selling something of high value to EVERY potential client, even though the exact nature of the end result may be different to each one. For one person, the end result may be a reversal of a new Type 2 diabetes diagnosis. For another, it may be going to their 20th high school reunion feeling sexy and confidant. For others, it may be fitting into the wedding dress of their dreams, being strong and healthy enough to get back into rock climbing or having the confidence to wear a bikini for the very first time. (more…)
The fitness industry is a pretty amazing industry to be in. It’s never stale or boring, it’s constantly changing and evolving and the more it does, the more us personal trainers can benefit from it. The biggest change to the fitness industry in recent years is the popularity of group personal training, and if you haven’t caught on yet… now’s the time.
Starting a fitness boot camp business is a whole different, but much easier, ballgame. For starters, the startup costs for one-on-one personal training centers are usually a lot higher than boot camps due to more equipment being needed and more square footage being needed to house all of it.
They’re typically a lot harder to market too because most people still see one-on-one personal training as something only affluent people or celebrities can afford. And they’re kind of right. With a one-on-one personal training business, you do end up charging a lot more- and you should. Your time as a business owner and a personal trainer is precious and you absolutely deserve to charge what you’re worth, however, if your target market isn’t the affluent or celebrities then it’s a tough business model to grow.
You have a lot to consider when thinking about opening any kind of business, so why choose something that’ll be a headache to get off the ground?
Boot camps are phenomenal at leveraging your time, your money, and your resources. That’s part of the reason they’re popping up in every major city across the US and beyond. Fitness classes are nothing new, but there’s something about a boot camp that really catches the attention of people from all walks of life. They’re fun and exciting and boot camps beat the hell out of going to a gym and running on a treadmill.
The Human Connection
Recent studies have shown that group personal training methods are excellent at getting lasting results. Most people struggle with losing weight because they don’t have a big enough support system behind them encouraging them to continue their healthy habits. What’s great about starting a fitness boot camp is the fact that your clients will get to know and like each other, eventually becoming each other’s network of support.
They’ll look forward to coming to boot camp because they’ll get to see the friends they’ve made. Boot camps are so much more engaging, and if you can show your clients how fun exercising in a group is, they’ll keep coming back for more and refer you to their friends and family in the process- giving you even more business.
Creating an environment where your clients can connect and socialize with one another will ultimately grow your bottom line and your tribe of dedicated clients.
Better Marketing
Like I mentioned before, who can really afford their own one-on-one personal trainer without being rich or famous? Even if personal training is more affordable now than it’s ever been, it still seems like a major luxury for people- and that makes it hard to market.
With boot camps, you have all sorts of free and low cost resources to market your boot camp with. Lots of them are available here on this site. You can roll out the Free Saturday boot camp method or the Human Billboard method for starters. Partner up with local business and offer them free boot camp in exchange for them promoting your business.
You Earn More
Besides getting an opportunity to help more people, the biggest reason you should consider opening a fitness boot camp business is the fact that you can earn more. Way more. We recently took a poll of over 100,000 fitness professionals in the industry and the results were astonishing. The personal trainers who concentrated on group personal training in 2013, made at least TWICE and a half as much as those who only ran one-on-one personal training businesses.
Think about it like this, when you lose a client in a one-on-one personal training business- that’s a good chunk of money. It hurts your pockets and now you have to go out a find someone to replace them. But when you have a booming fitness boot camp business up and running, it won’t matter as much because you’re having lots of people paying a little versus few people paying a lot.
One of the most important aspects of starting a fitness business is marketing.
If nobody knows you exist, you’ll be closing the doors in no time at all.
In the beginning you probably won’t have many clients. Some fitness professionals manage to create a following while working for someone else and those clients will follow if he opens his own facility but it’s rarely an adequate number to pay the bills and make a profit.
A monthly budget should be set aside for marketing for at least your first year of business and factored into your startup costs. You should also concentrate on targeting your advertising towards the market you wish to attract, so it’s going to take some research to discover where you will get the most bang for your advertising buck.
It’s also expedient to monitor the responses you get from all your marketing campaigns. If you’re using newspapers or magazines including a coupon from which you can monitor the source will be very helpful. Groupons and coupons that can be used with smart phones are gaining rapidly in popularity.
Of course you will probably start a FaceBook page and a blog for your fitness business and you can also code any coupons and special offers accordingly. The best way to get attract new members initially will be by offering freebies and coupons.
Now, let’s say you’re a few months down the road and you have a growing clientele, how can you use your new clients to generate business for you and why should you?
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When you first start out as a fitness trainer, the chances are you’re only going to start out with a couple of clients. Obviously the best way to build your client base is to get referrals. Word of mouth is the cheapest and most effective marketing you can ever hope for but it’s probably not going to build your business fast enough to give you a decent income for the first few months.
Time to start marketing your fitness boot camp, so what are the most effective and cheapest ways to do that?
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This is a guest post by Fit Body Boot Camp co-founder Bedros Keuilian.
Enter Bedros...
I’ve been coaching and offering consultation to fitness professionals for well over a decade and I wanted to share an abbreviated version of an email I recently sent out to my subscribers titled the Official Annual State of the Industry Report which could also be called a Fit Body Boot Camp Franchise Review.
I didn’t expect the enormous response I got but it was good to know so many people in this industry are eager to understand which way the business is headed. My Report is all based on careful research and facts, and anybody who knows me personally will tell you I put my best efforts into everything I do.
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Okay you’re fitness PRO, not some marketing whizz. The truth is that most fitness professionals have little or no clue about how to go about how to market a fitness business. They think that having their credentials on the wall with a photo of them doing a smiling oily pose is going to entice everyone to sign up with them. Wrong. You have to get prospects in the door first, and secondly they don’t care too much about what you look like, it’s what they hope to look like after they’ve used your services!
It’s all about the prospect.
As everyone in this industry knows, the best (and cheapest) leads are referrals, those prospects who lift the phone because their friend, co-worker, colleague – whatever - has gone from being a blob to a babe. See where we’re going here? People want proof.
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Continuing on my previous post, I decided to give a more in depth analysis on how to actually accomplish what I suggested previously on each topic starting with Fitness Business Retention.
One of the most time-consuming and expensive aspects of running any kind of business is finding new leads. Indeed many owners of fitness training facilities concentrate most of their efforts on finding new clients instead of retaining the ones they already have!
So how do you do that?
How are your Customer Service Skills?
Why are people leaving? In order to find out why the majority of your clients are not renewing the most efficient way is to send them an e-mail containing a questionnaire, with plenty of room to add their own comments. Calling them is not so effective because many people will tell you what they think you want to hear and they won’t be quite so honest!
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In fitness training your name is often your brand. Online, the leading fitness experts are searched for by name rather than by any company name they may own.
So how can you keep your name at the forefront of your clients’ and prospects’ minds? The key is to stay in touch with your list regularly, and a solid personal trainer marketing plan including fitness newsletters are a great way to gain and build brand recognition.
If you have a website or a blog and you don’t have a lead capture page or opt-in box you’re missing out on the most effective ways to capture qualified leads. If you do have an opt-in box but don’t offer your visitors and clients a reason to stay subscribed, then it’s a pointless exercise.
Being a fitness trainer probably means you’re busy from dawn to dusk. Maybe the thought of writing scares you to death, or perhaps you have no clue what to say in a regular newsletter or most likely, you simply don’t have the time to do it. What then?
One of the best personal training marketing strategies is sending out regular fitness newsletters. It’s highly cost-effective and will bring a great return on investment, whether you do it yourself or you sign up for a service such as FitPro newsletter.
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