New Year Promotional Planning and Ideas

It’s September. The year has gone by fast, right? Think about how many times holidays or other opportunities have come and go and you didn’t have a promotion ready and you missed out. Now, let’s think again, is it too early to start thinking about the New Year? What will likely your biggest and best time of year? No, it’s not. Let’s start to look at how you should be preparing for when that time quickly approaches.

We need to acknowledge a couple of things. People like resolutions. They like new starts. A new week, and especially, a new year is a perfect time for that. No other goal is as front and center in their mind as losing fat they’ve gained that year or over the course of several years. Most people who are coming to us are looking to lose a significant amount of fat. Yes, it’s a short term mentality to try to remedy that, but it’s your job to entice them in, educate them, and keep them on board for the long term to eventually reach those goals.

This kind of person and goal may not be your specific niche, that’s ok. You should still start to think about planning now for what you’re going to do next year. But, for most of us, this is what we will see. Again, it’s important to realize that you’re not doing a promotion simply for the sake of a promotion. You may not make much on it alone especially if discounts are involved. You might even lose money if used as a loss leader. The real value is in retaining the client for the long term after enticing them in with a promotion. I see a lot of promotions where it’s clear they weren’t thinking about what comes after and how to retain that person.

You want to make it easy for them to renew once the promotion is over. You don’t necessarily want the renewal price or your regular pricing to be MORE expensive than the promotion they signed up for. It’s much easier to get them to continue if the price is attractive to them after the promotion.

This is part of the reason we don’t recommend discounts alone as promotions. You’ll want to add value by packaging it up with other products and services. Being that significant fat loss is the goal of many, a more detailed nutritional coaching aspect is almost a must to include. Something that is above and beyond what you already do in general. It’s almost two separate services. This is a great way to package things together and get clients to achieve their goals with services to meet those objectives.

What might a promotion like this look like? We recommend recurring monthly charges for clients all the time. So a short term, six week, New Year, fat loss promotion, can appeal to their mindset at that time of year and give a great start to achieving their goals. And it includes additional services from you they otherwise wouldn’t get. Here’s the important part for you. At the end of the six weeks, you’ve had time to build rapport and nurture the relationship with the clients and let them see what they can achieve. If you just charged them for six weeks, renewing them for a regular and ongoing monthly charge (four weeks) will be less than their original promotion. If all has gone well, they should have no objection to that. Now you’ve got them on board and they are consistent when they started the year with a short term mindset.

Your new year promotion package might look something like this:

6 – Week Body Fat Makeover
Customized Fat Loss Meal Plan
Your Branded T-shirt and Water Bottle
Membership in a closed group online (like Facebook) with other members for a social experience.

You could do all of that for $599 if you charge an average of $50/session and the person trains twice a week with you.

At the end of the promotion, you can encourage the client to renew to continue on your monthly service. At the same frequency for your regular rate of $60/session which would total $479. A cheaper total renewal price than the original promotion and, hopefully, you’ve now got a client (or a whole group of them) for a long time.

Resources:
Marketing Plan Worksheet
Marketing Planning Promotions Calendar
Meal Planning Software

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Chris Lutz

Chris Lutz is the owner and founder of S.P.A.R.T.A. – Sports Performance And Resistance Training Association. He has a degree from George Mason University in Exercise Science and has over a decade of professional experience as a certified personal trainer. Teaching, reading and writing about proper exercise methodology are his biggest passions. Chris can properly teach you how to obtain a full body workout in 30 minutes, 2-3 times per week using a safe, effective and efficient method.

Chris is nationally certified by National Strength Professionals Association (NSPA) as a Certified Personal Trainer. He attended George Mason University and obtained a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science from the Health, Fitness, and Recreation Resources Dept. in Fairfax, VA 2000 – 2004.

Chris' combination of B.S. degree, high intensity training CPT certification, and over 5 years of experience managing a training facility, earned him his Master Trainer status.

Chris is also the author of 2 books for the fitness industry: Start, Operate, and Grow Your Personal Training Business and High Intensity Metabolic Training. 

Latest posts by Chris Lutz

• New Year Promotional Planning and Ideas - September 3, 2014
• Four Fitness Technologies for Personal Training Businesses - August 3, 2014
• Resistance Training for Special Populations:Supporting Evidence - June 19, 2014