Incredible physiques aren’t built by sitting around and waiting for the power of wishful thinking to take effect; you’ve got to pick up that weight and lift it.
The same goes for your business. Even if you’re a top-notch trainer, you won't attract clients if you aren’t proactive about promoting yourself. For amazing success, you need amazing marketing.
Here's what you can do:
Specialize Your Services
It’s impossible to be an expert at everything. Improving the fitness of others is a noble occupation, but if you’re accruing clients from all walks of life, you won't have the time – or the expertise – to meet everyone's individual needs. You’ll be a mediocre trainer for the masses, instead of a masterful trainer for a few.Finding your niche is the only way you can become a rock-star fitness professional. If you narrow your focus to the elderly, for instance, you can focus exclusively on the services a senior citizen may want. If you think you'd be wasting your talents, think again: older people can benefit from a fitness professional just the same as anyone. You could provide weight training to prevent osteoporosis, yoga classes for flexibility, and weight loss methods coupled with heart-healthy nutrition to ward off disease.
You're not restricting yourself by focusing on a specific niche; you're allowing yourself to grow into it. And as you grow into that niche, your skills will continue to improve - and your reputation and client base will improve as well.
Exhaust Your Free Resources before Paying a Dime
Some fitness professionals drain their bank accounts chasing cold leads and hunting for prospects in the belief that the more money they pour into marketing, the greater their returns will be.Of course, there's nothing wrong with this plan – if you don’t mind living on the street.
But if you’d rather keep all your precious toys, not to mention your business afloat, use low- to no-cost options as much as possible. In fact, free strategies – like word-of-mouth referrals and Craigslist ads – are known to drive more prospects to your door than radio commercials, print ads, and other pricey promotional plans.
Establish Yourself as a complete Health and Wellness Resource
Are you happy with being "just" a personal trainer? You shouldn't be. You should endeavor to become your clients' #1 authority on health and wellness. You need to be the first person your clients come to when they have questions about supplements, diet fads, protein powder, workout clothes, or the nutritional value of Cherry Garcia ice cream.Give your clients answers. Empower them with knowledge. Be everything they could ask for in a health expert, and you’ll rapidly gain your clients’ respect – as well as their referrals.
Use Special Offers to bring in Long-Term Business
It might seem counterproductive to make special offers like discounts and free sessions: after all, giving something away for free means you lose money off of it. This is true, as far as immediate income is concerned. But if you give a free training session to a client who ends up sticking with you for five years, how many times will you regain that initial loss? Let's leave that as an exercise for the reader.Always consider long-term earning potential in your marketing strategy. A client who pays a discounted price for a month is worth far more than a client who pays full price once and then vanishes.
And if that's not enough don't forget that long-term customers are likely to buy even more services from you during their patronage, boosting your income even higher.
Make Every Client Feel Special
Now that you've got long-term customers, what do you have to do to keep them?Your customers are people with busy schedules and stressful lives. They have to deal with cranky bosses, rude coworkers, road-raged drivers, whiny children, and spouses who can't seem to stop bickering about who left the cap off the toothpaste. As crazy as it sounds, you could very well be one of the few people in your clients’ lives who makes them feel truly appreciated.
So seize the possibility. Treat your clients like close friends. Welcome them warmly, ask about their daily lives, and make sure to congratulate them on the progress they make. Send them a card with a gift certificate on their birthday. Do whatever you can to show them you care.
And if your clients can think of you as their friend, just think of what they'll tell others about you! Happy clients mean more referrals: now that's math you can take to the bank.
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