Fitness Marketing 201
If you’re trying to grow your client base, word-of-mouth advertising may no longer be cutting it. It may be time to take your marketing to the next level. Assuming you’re already familiar with the marketing basics, which are: (1) providing a solution to client problems, and (2) offering that solution at a price the customer is willing to pay, your job now is to raise customer awareness of your offerings. You know that you offer the most desirable personal training services in the area, but you can’t build your client base if potential customers don’t know it, too.
Raising Awareness among Potential Customers
This is where a market analysis would be helpful. You only have so many advertising dollars to spend, and you want to get the most bang for your buck. You do this by targeting the most effective advertising media for your specific business. You have to think like a customer: If you were looking for a personal trainer, where would you go to find one? Would you conduct a Google search? Check the Yellow Pages? Would you spy a flyer on a bulletin board in your local gym and snag a tear-off phone number?
You can try polling friends, family, existing clients, or even potential clients for an objective answer to the question. It may vary by geographic area, so the fitness market research piece is important. Consider offering an incentive to potential clients for completing a market survey, such as a free personal training session. Not only will you increase the number of willing participants, but you might engage a potential client in a longer-term business relationship when they see how awesome your services are.
Checking the Competition
You also want to see how your competitors are advertising. This part of the research may require you to buy some local papers, subscribe to fitness-related periodical publications, take a day trip visiting local gyms, perform a Google search, and check the phone books. Remember that most libraries carry newspapers and periodicals, so if you have more time than money, you could get the information for free at the library.
It’s important to know what methods your competitors are using to advertise their services. First, you need to make sure your pricing and service offerings make the grade. Second, you need to outshine the competition if you want to catch the attention of potential clients. For example, if your competitor’s website appears first on a Google search, you need to work on your search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to boost your position in the listing. If your competitor has a large advertisement in the Yellow Pages, you may want to consider purchasing one as well. But all these techniques are subject to your budget and the effectiveness of the advertising medium for your area. Successful fitness marketing is often more of an art than a science.
Bringing Them in the Door
Once you’ve identified your ideal advertising media and scoped out the competition, you’ve won half the battle. After all, the services you provide via your personal trainer business speak for themselves. But no advertising budget is infinite, and you can only say so much in your ads. So you need a fitness marketing hook to bring the clients in the door. The free or discounted first session is one option. You could offer merchandise to potential clients who attend an information session. Or you could offer incentives for switching from a competitor’s business to yours.
Have more ideas? List them in the comments section below.
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