“5 Fitness Marketing Tips That Will Lead You Into 2013”

When most people think of fitness marketing, they think of handing out flyers at a local 5k, direct mailers, or placing an add within a magazine or newspaper.  Now if these have worked for you, congratulations, but the bottom line is that they are very costly and often do not produce the return that we are all looking for.

Here are 5 fitness-marketing tips that you MUST apply in your preparation for 2013:

1.              Have a “carrot” for them.  This is something that I learned from the Martial Arts industry.  In Martial Arts, they use a belt system to determine a path for their members to follow.  I have never heard of anyone attending a martial arts academy that never wanted to become a Black Belt. 

Now your probably thinking that I am asking you to give your clients belts…NO!  What I am asking you to do is to offer your clients something that they can strive for.  Todd Durkin has developed his “Biggest Winner” Contest and Alwyn Cosgrove has developed their own “Jeans Challenge”.  It is contests like this that create a short-term deadline for your client to shoot for and achieve success that allows them to yearn for more.  

This is not the only way to create a carrot in your business, but it is a very smart way to start the New Year off with a BANG.

2.              Identify your client’s achievements.  If your client achieves even part of their fitness goals, recognize them for it.  Telling someone that you are proud of what they have done in a text, email, hand-written letter, announcement in front of the class, newsletter, etc., will create loyalty and loyalty is a tremendous part of a successful 2013.

3.              No better advertisement than you current clients.  Potential customers are tired of seeing the woman with the small waist and six pack abs or the guy that looks like he can bench the world.  They want to see real people with real results.  Start collecting testimonials, before/after pictures, and success stories from the clients and make sure that they are part of your website, blog, ads, and please do not forget to post them around your facility.

4.              Be an expert at something, not everything.  People want to work with an expert, not just any fitness professional.  If you clientele is made of mostly fat loss clients, than make sure that you educate yourself on fat loss and than you promote yourself as an exert in this field.  If I was looking to become better at boxing, than I wouldn’t hire a track coach.  Once you have a nitche, the rest is a piece of cake.

5.              Over Deliver.  You need to make sure that every time your clients come to your facility, that it is the best day of training that they have ever had.  You have to be energetic, motivating, and ready to leave all of your problems at the door.  Remember that you are not just delivering fitness, but you are also delivering an experience. 

Today is the day you set yourself apart and create a business that stands out from the rest.

“3 Business Mistakes that Are Killing Fitness Professionals”

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1.              Treat your business like a business

Now lets be honest with ourselves…Most fitness professionals are doing what they are doing because it is fun or they really enjoy working out and if they make some money while doing this…GREAT!!!  Wrong mindset! If you are thinking like this, you have a hobby, not a profession.  This is going to be nice when you are single and have no responsibilities, but the minute you get married, have 2.5 kids, dog, and house…YOUR SCREWED!!!

If you think that all you need to be a successful fitness professional is a couple of useless certifications after your name and a really good personality…I am sorry to say that you are wrong. 

Here are some of the things that I think a SUCCESSFUL fitness professional needs:

a.      LEADERSHIP-Not only do you have to lead and motivate your staff, but you also have to do this for your clients.  Leadership is something that is not given…It is earned and it is something that has to be practiced on a daily basis.

b.      UNDERSTAND MARKETING-Who is marketing your business?  Are you leaving it up to the facility?  OK, but know you are leaving your success in someone else’s hands.  If you ask me, I want full control.  I want to understand, to the best of my ability, how I can manipulate different types of marketing sources.  For example, are you marketing yourself on social media?  I don’t mean posting your workouts or what you are eating, but are you marketing your business and what you can do for people.  Marketing on social media is great because you can reach millions of people and it’s FREE.

c.      CUSTOMER SATISFACTION-Any moron can make someone puke or feel like they got hit by a monster truck in the morning, but are you listening to your clients?  Are you giving the clients what they need and want or are you giving them what you want?  Giving the clients what they need and want will also help you retain them long term.

d.     MONEY-Do you understand how to run a business?  Do you understand your businesses cash flow, daily operating expenses, billing, etc?  Before you can even think about trying to figure out whether your company, or business, is profitable…you must be able to not only understand what these are, but also how they affect your business.

e.     READ A BOOK-One of the best tips that I ever got was from my mentor, Todd Durkin.  Todd asked me if I read every day and my answer was, “No”.  He than asked me what I was going to read and I listed all of these great fitness books that everyone recommended to me.  He responded with wrong.  He told me that if I read 1 fitness book, I must follow that with one book on business, and one people to better my understanding my clients or myself.  This was the best piece of advice that I ever received because it forced me to learn more about myself and my business rather than how many cool ways I can do a push-up or squat.

2.              Understand SYSTEMS-This is something that I learned from Alwyn Cosgrove.  Do you know what the word SYSTEMS stand for?

S = Save

Y = Your

S = Self

T = Time

E = Energy

M = Money

Lets go deeper into it…why do you think that Starbucks is so successful?  Do you think that they have the best coffee?  No, they have the best system.  When you walk into any Starbucks and order a Grande Mocha Latte, you will get the same exact one no matter what time of the day or where in the world you are.

Systems in the fitness industry need to be as tight as Starbucks.  Are you generating leads, converting those leads, delivering the results that clients want and need?  This is your system…Now perfect it.

3.              UNDERSTANDING YOUR CLIENTS MINDSET-What are some of the things that we first hear when new clients come to us? We have all heard someone say, “I want to lose weight”, “get stronger”, “fit into my jeans”, blah, blah, blah.  Time to dig deeper. Time to really find out what they are here for.  Talk to your client and find out an emotional attachment for why they want to lose the weight.  It is not to fit in the jeans or for a vacation…it is probably to feel more comfortable, in the nude, with the love of their life or how about just being able to play in the backyard with their kids without having a heart attack.  Now to me, that is why they are here.  Not to fit in jeans, but to change their life for the better.  That emotional component is what I need to really help a client. With some people I can get that answer in 1 or 2 sessions and some people it may take me a couple of weeks.  The one thing that I can guarantee you is that I will not stop until I get it out of them. Simply because I want to make them happy.

Now these are 3 things that have taken me years to really understand and have probably cost me thousands and thousands of dollars.  Don’t make the same mistake that I made…Learn from my mistakes and make your “hobby” into a business.

MMA Conditioning With The Prowler

PLEASE STAY AWAY…CHAMPIONS AT WORK!!!

The Prowler is one of those tools that my athletes hate to see me bringing over, but love the results that come from training with it.  Here are my top 3 exercises that I use with all my MMA athletes with the Prowler:

1.  Prowler Push

I have my MMA athletes do a Prowler Push in order to develop their work capacity and to help build muscle with very little stress on the body.  During MMA training or fights, we are forced to be explosive in very short periods of time…If we do not train like that, how do we expect to perform like that when it counts. 

Try starting off with 2-3 sets with each set consisting of 6-8 reps. Remember that here the reps should be kept low because we are working on being powerful and explosive every time we push the sled.

2.  Prowler Pull
The Prowler Pull offers the same types of benefits as the push: work capacity and help build muscle with very little stress on the body.  To perform this exercise you are going to have to strap either a TRX Suspension Trainer or a set of ropes to hold on to.  The key to this exercise is to remember that we do not want to use our legs.  Just focus on keep your arms straight and pulling in an explosive manner towards you.

Number of sets and rep ranges are the same as the Prowler Push.

3.  Prowler Sprints

This is definitely an all time favorite with all my athletes.  This exercise is not only great for building up work capacity, but also increasing speed, power, and recovery.

I normally set up two cones 20 yards apart and the distance that they athlete covers will depend on where the athlete is in their training program.  Remember to always keep the time that your athletes complete the sprint in…this will allow them to compete against their own time.

Now turn off your computer…Head to the gym...And take the necessary steps with the Prowler to win your next championship.