Storytelling is an art that has been around since the dawn of human civilization. It also happens to be an extremely powerful tool when it comes to marketing your services.
Today, we’ll talk about The Hero’s Journey. There are endless variations to this formula, so we’ll share an abbreviated version that we use often at FMA with great success. I’ll also tailor it to the fitness industry to offer as much immediate value to you as possible.
There is a plethora of traditional marketing strategies and tactics that can help you grow your business. Once you get creative, the options are endless…and constantly evolving with technology.
At the Fitness Marketing Alliance, when it comes to traditional, we highly prefer and suggest intent marketing.
Put simply, intent marketing is catching the potential consumer when he/she has the intent to solve a problem. If your product or service can solve that problem, wouldn’t it be a great time to be in front of them? They are figuratively raising their hand and asking for your help.
Every personal trainer worth their salt knows that fad diets and exercise programs don’t work. According to a Business Insider report by Chris Weller, this is primarily because in most cases, the science behind these so-called revolutionary fitness hacks have been either blown way out of proportion or optimized to make a certain eating plan or workout appear more effective than they actually are. Unfortunately, these quick fixes are what sell and some personal trainers have started using them to build a solid client base more quickly. But is sacrificing your integrity for the sake of getting more clients really a good idea? Well, the short answer is no—and here’s why:
During my evolution as a fitness coach, I geeked out hard on energy systems. In the world of CrossFit, the overwhelming trend was to go harder, faster, longer. The issue was that people began to burn out, get injured, or fail to sustain obnoxiously intense regimes. I quickly learned the value of a developing a solid aerobic base. It’s a key to longevity and one of the most time efficient methods to train the aerobic system is implementing aerobic interval training. But how do you know if one is primarily training that energy system?
If I had a dollar for every time I talked to a fitness professional who was spending money on paid advertising, blasting social media, or handing out business cards at networking event YET still neglecting their website, I’d have enough to buy that new Callaway driver (you know…the one with BOEING technology?).
I believe that at some point in everybody’s life, we have that “thing” that forever changes the lens through which we see life. For some, it’s a loss, an accident, bankruptcy, or “rock bottom.” If you don’t know what yours is, then it hasn’t happened yet. But, it will. For my wife and I, that “thing” was the entire year of 2016. I won’t get into all the details because it’s not fully my story to share. Let’s just say it was a series of losses that forced my wife and me to say “F*ck it. Life is too short and too fragile. We’re going on the offensive.”
The personal trainer industry has experienced excellent growth over the past five years, with weight loss services and customized workouts being the most solicited services. Research indicates that the upward trend is poised to continue. Consumer confidence is growing and median incomes are expected to rise, meaning that Americans will have more to spend on health and fitness. Currently, income levels are nearly at pre-recession levels, which is good news for the health and fitness industry and the economy as a whole.
I recently sat down with a trainer that works part-time and was frustrated that she was not as busy as she wanted to be. When I spoke about her schedule and availability, I spoke that her hours of “9-1” Tuesday and Thursday and Saturday from 8-1 weren’t “ideal” but that is not an excuse to not be busy during those times.
So I asked her how she is spending her time from 10-1 (she has a session at 9 am) to be productive. Her response baffled me: “I workout for an hour and then I run errands.”
So I said, “How is this going to help you get sessions?”
To which she replies, “If it’s not going to pay me, I can’t justify spending time working on stuff for FREE anymore.”
Over time, branding has evolved to have a variety of meanings. But when trying to think about creating YOUR brand, a great place to start is looking at why Nike, Adidas, Starbucks, Apple, and even Disney stand out from the rest. What makes a consumer or client lean towards one product or service more than another? The answer is marketing, but more specifically, it is the power of branding. It is the idea of both tangible and intangible characteristics that make the brand unique. It is developing an image, even a promise, with successful results.
Every company needs a brand or even a persona of its own, but it is important for YOU, the entrepreneur, to build and define that brand yourself before it gets defined for you. You get to choose how you portray your company/business – so it would be smart to take some dedicated time to really cultivate what you want.
We all understand how valuable client retention is or at least I hope so. So I’m not going to explain too much in that department (that’s an entirely different discussion). Instead, we are going to focus in on the “HOW” of retaining clients. There are so many variables that go into client retention but if I had to sum it up in one sentence it would be: “You have to be the best trainer you can be all the time!”
Maintain Integrity
First, and probably the most important in any successful business, is to maintain integrity. This is especially the case in the fitness industry where we are over-run with Joe Schmoe trainers who just laid on their coach and printed a $25 certification offline instead of actually opening a book and studying. Integrity is doing what you are supposed to do, when you are supposed to do it, in the method that it is supposed to be done, and doing it all the time, no matter who’s watching or what other’s think. So personally I would break all those down into questions and ask yourself: Am I doing WHAT I am supposed to do as a “Fitness Professional?”
Fitness Professional Online (FPO) is the online hub for fitness professionals, personal trainers, group fitness instructors, and others working in the fitness industry.
We provide information on continuing education, how to be a trainer, training a trainer, and getting a personal training certification.
Fitness Professional Online
529 E. Gutteriez
Santa Barbara, CA 93103
(805) 500-6893
