Fitness Business School – A Different Way to Think About Marketing

Full Transcript

Hey, Pat Rigsby here and in today’s episode, I’m gonna talk with you about a different way to think about marketing. Let’s get started.

Welcome to the fitness business school podcast. The show for fitness business owners who want to grow their income, increase their end impact and improve their lifestyle. Be sure to listen to the end of this episode, because we have a brand new special offer exclusive for listeners. So stay tuned.

During the time I’ve been in the fitness industry, the transformation challenge type of program, has really been a popular one throughout like dating back to Bill
Phillips Body for Life stuff. And, you know, I had a friend, Brian Caulkins, who, well, I still have a friend, Brian Caulkins, but at the time he was running a transform program that was like a 16 week thing. I mean, it’s always been popular. And then later on it became a very common thing where essentially every gym, every training facility, every personal trainer on every corner was running a challenge. And, you know, eventually, like many things, it kind of crested and then lost some steam. And now I think it’s starting to make a little bit of a comeback in fact, I would tell you that going into 2023, it’s going to be a
very viable way to grow a business. But, you know, I guess I think of challenges a little bit differently. And admittedly, I probably looked at the way that my wife approached them in her online business. And that shaped a little bit of my thinking because you know, my wife Holly has run at
this point, probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 or 70 challenges, maybe more, you know, I’ve never kept track.

I probably should have, but it’s been a lot. And her challenges have largely been primarily focused on, her current clients. And then she would open them up to new people as a way to introduce them to her business. And really, I think that is philosophically probably the best way to approach this type of thing, because, you know, our, our number one goal is to keep the people we have because this idea of having a revolving door really kind of undermines the, the advantage that we have in our business over so many other businesses. I mean, if you are you know, like a lot of service businesses whether we’re talking about a plumber or an auto mechanic or a dentist, I mean, most of the time it’s one time transactions, you’re making a purchase and then it stops. And you know, you don’t
know exactly how long it’s gonna be until that person comes back. Well, here we have the luxury of subscriptions. And so it makes so much sense to focus on keeping somebody engaged, keeping somebody excited. But I think we don’t think enough about getting people to recommit. We just think about retaining, okay, let’s do enough to keep them here. Instead of thinking, how do we get people excited? How do we get them to stay focused and involved and
enthusiastic about what we’re doing? How do we make sure that we’re breaking away from the monotony of just doing the same thing week after week, month after month? And give them something to focus their attention, focus their effort and see some really meaningful progress instead of that kind of punch the clock mentality that a lot of gyms and training businesses kind of just default to.

So the idea of building events for our current clients is a wise one. And a admittedly, like I said, you know, Holly has kind of always done this and I think that she liked her community. She wanted to keep them excited. She would have people say, Hey, when’s the next challenge? When’s the next event, whatever. And so she would build them for those people. And you know, it’s such a wise way to approach things because if we like the people that we serve, then it only makes sense to create things for those people and then extend the invitation out to other people. And the, the ones who are excited about it, interested in it, enthusiastic about potentially participating, well, they probably have a pretty high likelihood of being a fit for our business. Contrast that with the way that a lot of people create events. They try to go out and market something that they, they think may be popular to the general public, but maybe it runs kind of against some of the things they do philosophically in their business.

Maybe, you know, they’re running a challenge that’s based on extreme deprivation diets and that sort of stuff. But then internally they’re coaching people on habit based nutrition. So, you know, you, you build things for the people that you currently serve. You build things that they, you know, that, that they feel
like are going to address the problems or challenges they have that are going to help them achieve their goals. And then you craft a marketing message and a promotion plan that is extended to people outside of this. And you’ve got this wonderful kind of two-headed monster, so to speak, right? Like, you’re not
only keeping the people you have, you’re getting them to recommit, you’re getting them to really be excited about something and, and fully engaged probably, you know, multiple times a year. And what’s great is if they’re excited about it, they can help be part of that kind of marketing arm. They can be out there inviting other people to participate because, you know, we, we tend to talk about things we’re excited about. We tend to talk about things that you know, we are enthusiastic to be a part of. And so it gets easier to have our people share and spread the word if we are creating those events with them in mind instead of kind of treating them as an afterthought instead of thinking, okay, well I’ve got this event for new people. How do I kind of keep my current clients appeased? So if you are wondering how you can craft marketing that will attract more of the right people, you know, a different way to think about it is build events, build programs, build deliverables that are gonna be really, really powerful experiences for the people you serve. And then just tell other people about them.
It’ll attract more of the people that you wanna serve. It’ll get your people to spread the word and it’ll help you keep the people that you’re coaching.

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