Vitamin B-12 for Your Fitness Boot Camp Marketing – Why You Need to Be at FBBC World Conference 2014

Posted by Steve Hochman on Fri. Aug. 29th, 2014

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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.Screen Shot 2014-07-25 at 2.48.37 PM

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. Read the rest of Vitamin B-12 for Your Fitness Boot Camp Marketing – Why You Need to Be at FBBC World Conference 2014

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How to Start a Fitness Boot Camp Email List and Make It Work for You

Posted by Steve Hochman on Mon. Aug. 25th, 2014

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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.

Screen Shot 2014-08-25 at 10.43.08 AMLuckily, 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. Read the rest of How to Start a Fitness Boot Camp Email List and Make It Work for You

Posted in Boot Camp Marketing, Fitness Marketing, How To Start a Fitness Boot Camp Business by Steve Hochman | No Comments

Learn How to Explode Your Boot Camp Marketing Results by Becoming a Local Expert

Posted by Steve Hochman on Mon. Aug. 18th, 2014

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In these days of reality TV shows, Videos and YouTube, everybody on the planet wants a share of the spotlight. For most people, it’s all about validation and attention. But that’s not the only reason to upload yourself. For the fitness professional, becoming known as a subject matter expert via social media can be boot camp marketing gold.

Think about some of the nationally or internationally-known fitness professionals out there. They all became known as experts in their niches and that is when they started making real money. Jason Feruggia is the strength and conditioning expert and his info products and programs sell. His articles are in Men’s Fitness and other respected publications. Mike Chang established himself as an abs expert on YouTube and now his Six Pack Abs programs have made him a wealthy man. Bedros’s huge reputation on YouTube as a boot camp marketing expert is what led Spike TV to call him up and ask him to act as an expert on their Gym Rescue series.

Screen Shot 2014-08-18 at 7.34.30 PMIt used to be that getting on TV was the way to establish yourself as an expert. Look at Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz and every single person on HGTV. But now, people are establishing themselves as authorities on social media and then ending up on TV. But even if you don’t want to be a celebrity, you do want to take advantage of the huge boost it can give you in your boot camp marketing efforts.

We’ve always talked about the huge potential of marketing on Facebook, but this is one giant level above that.
Here’s what happens. Read the rest of Learn How to Explode Your Boot Camp Marketing Results by Becoming a Local Expert

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

Fitness Boot Camp Marketing is all About Selling Your Solutions

Posted by Steve Hochman on Wed. Aug. 6th, 2014

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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.Screen Shot 2014-08-06 at 1.53.11 PM

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. Read the rest of Fitness Boot Camp Marketing is all About Selling Your Solutions

Posted in Boot Camp Marketing, Boot Camp Strategies, How To Start a Fitness Boot Camp Business by Steve Hochman | No Comments

Better Boot Camp Marketing vs. Opening a Second Location

Posted by Steve Hochman on Thu. Jul. 31st, 2014

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At a recent meeting with several Fit Body Boot Camp owners, the question of when to open a second Fit Body Boot Camp location was a hot topic. This was completely understandable, since everyone present had attained a comfortable level of success. By this I mean that they had a decent membership, they were paying the bills and making a decent income. But almost none of them were happy when I suggested that they really needed to consider whether they needed another location or just better boot camp marketing.

Here’s why.

There were basically two groups of FBBC owners thinking about opening new locations. One group was asking because they were making decent money and figured that opening a second location would double that income. The second group was asking because they weren’t making enough money and figured that a second location would double their income.Screen Shot 2014-07-31 at 5.29.21 PM

There are two problems with this thinking: 1) When you open a second location, you also double your expenses, roughly speaking. 2) When you open a second location, you potentially double the amount of time you spend running your business.

So I asked the group these two questions:

First: Have you absolutely outgrown your first location? In other words, are you full to capacity, taking care of as many clients as you can with the space and staff you have?

Second: Have you completely maxed out the income potential of your present location?

Every single one of the boot camp owners considering opening a second location answered “No” to at least one of those questions. None of them were all that happy when I told them that, in this case, what they really needed was more and better boot camp marketing, better sales and closing strategies and maybe to explore opening up other streams of income instead of opening another location.

If you’re not struggling to squeeze in more trainers and more sessions and more new clients, then you probably aren’t ready to expand. The word “expand” indicates that you’ve grown to the point where you can’t function well in your current space. Read the rest of Better Boot Camp Marketing vs. Opening a Second Location

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

3 Keys to Massive Boot Camp Marketing Success with Groupon

Posted by Steve Hochman on Fri. Jul. 25th, 2014

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If you haven’t yet availed yourself of the boot camp marketing possibilities working with Groupon, then you need to get on the ball. Thousands of businesses (including fitness businesses) are already making a fortune marketing on Groupon, but some of the biggest moneymaking boot camp marketing campaigns we’ve done at Fit Body Boot Camp have been on Groupon as well.

When I say that these campaigns have been hugely successful I mean that we’ve been able to convert at least 30% of our Groupon buyers into ongoing clients who either paid in full or signed up for automatic debit.

There are 4 keys to success with a Groupon campaign:

  • The deal.
  • Your on-boarding procedure.
  • The experience you give the client.
  • Your conversion process.

Making the deal

First of all, the deal has to make sense for you and for the client. You don’t want to give away too much, because it undercuts the financial benefit of doing the Groupon deal. Also, people are more likely to take your offer seriously if it isn’t ridiculously low.

Screen Shot 2014-07-25 at 2.48.37 PMBut your deal does have to make great sense to the buyer. People go to sites like Groupon because they want a great deal. That doesn’t mean they’re cheap or that they’re automatically going to split as soon as the deal is over. They just enjoy getting a great deal.

When we were setting up our 23-region Groupon deal, we set a few rules right off the bat.

We wanted a very low cost 15-day deal and a higher-priced (but better value) 30-day deal.

We did this because we knew that about 80% of Groupon buyers would take the 30-day deal which would give us the chance to do two very important things:

First, we could give the buyers a much better experience, get them better results and also build a better relationship with them……all of which would make closing much easier later on.

Second, we could offer to absorb the cost of their 30-day deal into an ongoing program, which would effectively give them their first month free. Remember, these people love a great deal.

By stacking the deals this way, it’s much easier to command and get the higher price than if we just ran the higher-priced deal. Read the rest of 3 Keys to Massive Boot Camp Marketing Success with Groupon

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

What Walt Disney Can Teach You about How to Start a Boot Camp

Posted by Steve Hochman on Wed. Jul. 23rd, 2014

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No, Walt Disney wasn’t in the fitness business, but I dare anyone to say that they know of a businessman who was better at creating a brand that was recognizable all over the world, in any language. Disney World and Disneyland may have gone through some transformations and expansions since Walt passed away, but Disney will always be Disney and it will always dominate the amusement park field. No one can touch it. So I think there is something very important that Walt Disney could teach you about how to start a boot camp.

He would teach you that you need to focus on doing one thing and doing it better than anyone else, anywhere.

Think about the other amusement parks in the US. Busch Gardens, Six Flags, Knott’s Berry Farm or a bunch of regional, nameless parks you can’t think of off-hand. What are they known for? How many iconic images or names do you associate with them? Yet, say “Dumbo Ride” or “fireworks” and everyone knows which parks you’re talking about. Disney.

Disney Parks have rides, shows, restaurants and hotels, but they do one thing and they do it better than anyone else: they create magical family memories. When you walk into any other amusement park, you think, “Wow, cool rides!” When you walk into Disney World or Disneyland, you think “Magic!”

Screen Shot 2014-07-23 at 3.43.32 PMSo how do you translate what Walt Disney and what he did with the Disney Parks into you and how to start a boot camp that emulates his success? You do one thing and you do it better than anyone else.

This is what has made Fit Body Boot Camps the fastest-selling fitness business in this country. We do one thing. We don’t do Zumba, we don’t do Pilates and we don’t run a social club. We do killer workouts that deliver maximum results in minimal time. We do this at a price that people can afford and we do it in a supportive, motivating and even entertaining way. Boom. That’s what we do.

Even if you’re not a Fit Body Boot Camp franchise owner, you can still take your cue from Walt when it comes to how to start a boot camp that becomes known for doing one thing and doing it better than anyone else in your area. Read the rest of What Walt Disney Can Teach You about How to Start a Boot Camp

Posted in Boot Camp Marketing, Boot Camp Strategies, How To Start a Fitness Boot Camp Business by Steve Hochman | No Comments

Advanced Personal Trainer Marketing: Launch Your First Info Product in Less Than 2 Weeks

Posted by Steve Hochman on Tue. Jul. 15th, 2014

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One of the very best personal trainer marketing tools in the world is your own fitness info product. With it, you can build your email list, build up a customer following for future products, set yourself up as a subject matter expert, bring attention to your skills and your business and earn some impressive cash. How many tools can you do all of that with? That’s why fitness info products are one of the hottest fitness business trends of 2014.

A lot of people who have great ideas for topics or really useful knowledge about one favorite topic are still held back from launching their first fitness information product because they think it takes months to do. But I can tell you that you can very easily create and launch your first fitness info product in less than two weeks.

How do I know this?

Shawna Kaminski, owner of Calgary NW FBBC did it on a dare from Craig Ballantyne. He challenged her to launch a new jump rope program info product in twelve days and she not only did it, she exceeded the sales goal by 50% and made $8,000 in one week.

What’s really important to note here is that she didn’t have this kind of success after brainstorming for a few months, then creating for a few months and then spending another few months getting everything set up.

Screen Shot 2014-07-15 at 9.34.24 PMShe just did it.

It all goes back to what Bedros calls “imperfect action.” Let it be less than perfect, just act. Just get it done. You cannot make money on anything until it’s done. That project sitting on the back burner until you get it perfect? It’s making you no money at all. All of those fitness info products that are out there making money? Almost none of them are perfect.

So here’s how you can get your first info product into customers’ hands within two weeks, just like Shawna did.

Decide on an idea or topic.

You probably already have a few ideas in your head about what you’d like to cover. Even if you don’t, you can spend a few hours on Google finding out what people are looking for. The time of year has a huge effect on that. Fat loss programs and diets are hot anytime, but especially in January, when people have set their New Year’s resolutions and feeling that holiday weight gain. Summer is a great time for outdoor workouts and spring is a great time to launch a bikini transformation program.

Along with deciding your topic, you need to decide on the delivery method. Will it be a downloadable e-book? A video workout program? A “course” you sell by subscription?

E-books are simplest, but choose the medium that works best for your topic or change your topic to utilize the medium that’s most available to you. Read the rest of Advanced Personal Trainer Marketing: Launch Your First Info Product in Less Than 2 Weeks

Posted in Fitness Business, Fitness Information Product, Internet Marketing by Steve Hochman | No Comments

How to Start a Fitness Boot Camp Using the 5% Rule

Posted by Steve Hochman on Sat. Jul. 12th, 2014

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You’re not going to do everything right when you’re starting your boot camp business. You’re going to make mistakes, just as I have and just as every other successful boot camp owner I know has done. Nobody’s born knowing how to start a fitness boot camp business. That’s one of the purposes of the annual Fitness Business Summit – to allow very successful people to share what they’ve learned so that others can avoid many mistakes and do some things right from the beginning.

One of the most popular speakers at the Summit has been Corporal Sean Francis and one of the most popular talks he’s given was about working with what Bedros calls the 95/5 or the 5% Rule. What that boils down to is focusing your time, energy and attention on the things that are priorities in your business and also working as much as possible within your zone of genius, doing the things that you love the most and are best at. This is the key to constant growth of your boot camp business.

Granted, in some ways, this is easier to do once your business is established and your income allows you to hire a full staff of trainers and other help. But there are a number of things you can do now, to not only get your business started on the right foot but also go into it with a 5% mindset that will help you at every level of success in the years to come. So I’d like to share with you two important things about how to start a fitness boot camp business using the 5% rule, with credit to Sean Francis for many of the ideas he shared at a recent FBS.

Screen Shot 2014-07-11 at 5.46.43 PMHire an assistant as soon as possible.

An assistant may sound like an expensive luxury that a new entrepreneur can’t really afford. But one of the smartest things you can do, even as a start-up, is find even one person to take care of less important or less demanding tasks so that you can focus on the things you really need to do, like getting clients signed up for your new boot camp. The more you’re able to market your boot camp and sell new memberships, the sooner you can afford more help, like great trainers. You don’t need an executive assistant, at least not yet, so you can find plenty of people who would rather make halfway decent pay in a fitness center than make it in a fast food place.

Start creating systems for everything now.

Once Sean hired an assistant, he started following great advice that he’d gotten from the summit. He started creating systems for every single thing that needed to be done, whether it was answering the phones, entering new members into the computer or paying the bills. Then he taught those systems to his assistant so that he never had to deal with those things again. Read the rest of How to Start a Fitness Boot Camp Using the 5% Rule

Posted in Boot Camp Marketing, Boot Camp Strategies, Fitness Business, How To Start a Fitness Boot Camp Business, Uncategorized by Steve Hochman | No Comments