Fitness Business School – Follow-Up and Conversion

Full Transcript

Hey, Pat Rigsby here. And we are in the third episode of a three-part series on crafting your marketing plan. We’ve talked about identifying your target market, where to connect with them, what to do to really start to move that relationship forward with a lead magnet. So today we’re going to get into follow up and conversion two areas that I think most fitness business owners have a lot of opportunity to improve. So let’s get to it.

Welcome to the fitness business school with Pat Rigsby, the podcast for fitness entrepreneurs who want to make more income, have greater impact, and enjoy more freedom in their ideal business. If you’d like an accelerated route to these goals, email me at [email protected] and put BGA in the subject line and I’ll get you all the details about our business growth accelerator program.

So as I said in the intro, I think fitness business owners have so much potential upside if they really dive into becoming great at their follow up and the way that they’re converting prospects to clients, because honestly, most people are not seeing this as an area of strength. I mean, we’re, we’re putting out what we want people to do kind of on our terms. But the reality is if, if you’ve ever studied consumer behavior, you are probably aware of the fact that people need time to make important buying decisions on average, that most people don’t buy immediately. They don’t buy on impulse when it comes to something of the magnitude of what we typically are selling them. You know, there there’s all sorts of research out there saying that it takes anywhere from seven to 25 repetitions of some or impressions for somebody to choose who to buy from or choose who to do business with. And then there’s also some research out there saying that at least 80% of the people who do eventually make a buying decision, don’t do it until after 90 days of initially showing interest in pursuing something along that path.

So if we know this and we actually buy into what, what I believe to be a hundred percent true, it’s, it’s imperative that we do a better job with follow-up that we use follow up as a competitive advantage. And instead of being, you know, like the people who are only trying to really connect with people in the, in their target market who are ready today by running ads directly to programs, or by only following up for a couple of days, and then writing those prospects off, ideally, we’re going to have a follow-up system in place where we’re going to send a two to three times a week, email newsletter. We recommend that our clients in three, and we’re going to probably have some sort of automated follow-up campaign. Once somebody joins or ops-in to our lead magnet, before we start this newsletter. So this immediate kind of automated followup campaign might be anywhere from three days to 10 days. And it’s basically just going to make sure that this prospect connects with you knows a little bit about what you are about and how you can help and is made some sort of offer very early in the process. And then we may combine that with other mechanisms or other marketing channels to really heighten the effectiveness of followup. So yeah, email is a foundational followup tool for, for us, because email is something we have a lot more control over.

Then we do over social media platforms and those sorts of things. But ideally you would compliment email with, you know, maybe a text message campaign or also enrolling the people that opt into your email list into a Facebook group. If they’re interested in willing or even running social media based ads to your prospect list, to this list, to keep things in front of the people who are already being marketed to, because we know that they’re not going to read every email. And in fact, when people ask, well, why three time a week emails? Well with average email, open rates being below 20%, it’s not what you send, it’s what they actually engage with. And if somebody is only engaging with you once every month or two, because they’re only reading 20% and you’re only sending once or twice a month, well, you know, the odds of that person ever building a relationship with you being educated and motivated to believe that you are the person best positioned to help them achieve their goals and, you know, really reach their desires. You know, we’re missing out on this opportunity.

And we’re also missing out on the awareness that if you’re like most business owners I work with who are independent business owners, most don’t have that Class A real estate. That may be an orange theory as in, they don’t have the intrusive visibility that those people on the main thoroughfares have. So you’re not getting that, that awareness of the client base or the potential client base that those people are, who are paying astronomical amounts for real estate or getting. So we have to find another way to stay in front of the prospects that we’re trying to connect with and build a relationship. So if you’re missing those types of things, if you’re going to follow up in the format, we recommend, well, then we need to choose a format. We need to say, like, in my case, my emails are basically one of two things, text emails that provide the content or the intellectual property that hopefully educates and motivates the people paying attention. It, it just goes in a text written format. I don’t use a bunch of images or a bunch of graphics and all that. I want it to be very easy to read, easy to follow, kind of like an email from a friend.

And then the other thing that I might do would be an email to a podcast which may very well be how you arrived at this episode today. But it’s basically just saying, Hey, I put together this podcast over here, go check it out. But you could also do emails to videos or emails to social media posts, wherever you feel most comfortable and confident creating content, creating intellectual property that you think would be a benefit to the people that you serve, do it in that format. And just use the email, almost like a GPS to get them to it, instead of just hoping they kind of organically arrive at. So if we know what format we’re going to choose, then what are we we’re actually going to produce? How are we going to send out stuff consistently? I know I get the question very regularly.

Well, how do you write a daily email? Cause I’ve been doing daily emails for over 15 years. Well, it’s not real complicated for me because I talked to clients basically every day. And so they’re in many cases, the source of what I’m writing about or the source of what I’m talking about here. I, you know, I answer the questions they have. I answered the questions. They should have solved their problems. I try to motivate them. Maybe I share some social proof. So they know that what they’re trying to achieve is power. Well, if one of my clients has a question, odds are that question isn’t exclusive to them. So I just write about a more generalized version of the answer to my audience, or I create a podcast about a generalized version of the answer. So you can easily do the same. You talk to people that are already getting your help or are interested in getting your help every day. So answer the questions they have answered the questions you think maybe they should have, but maybe they aren’t informed enough just yet to ask that type of question, solve the problems that they’re having, motivate them, give case studies, testimonials reviews. So people know that what they are trying to achieve is possible because hope and belief are a big, big thing in short. Give them your best stuff.

One of the biggest mistakes I see people make is holding back the best stuff, thinking, well, I’ll be irrelevant if I just give away all this stuff, they don’t need to hire. When in reality, If you give away your best stuff, you become positioned as the person they want to hire, because if you’re giving away inferior stuff, why would they ever paid? And then think About it this way. It is well may, and maybe this will help.

There is more access to information than there has ever been by many, many multiples. If somebody’s looking for just access to how to do an exercise, or maybe even a workout or a nutrition plan or whatever else, there are plenty of options available to them that are free or really inexpensive. That’s probably not going to be the reason they hire us. The reason they hire us is because they want the solutions customized to them. Or maybe they’ve not been able to stay the course and persevere and execute the plans that they see, right. Or maybe they, you know, Maybe they feel like they need accountability and motivation, or they want to do things at a high level. And sure they may have a plan on paper, but they want somebody to coach them through and do it in the way that it’s intended to be done. But they’re definitely not going to choose you just because you have access to a meal plan or a list of exercises. So don’t hesitate to give them your best stuff. And then if we’re sending out this content, it’s designed to position us as an authority, as a trusted resource, as a guide, as somebody who can help them go from where they are to where they want to be.

So ultimately the prospects that we’re connecting, where they’re saying, I have a problem that either I can’t solve myself or I’d rather not solve myself and I’d like to get some help. So we want to make sure that we are consistently sending out offers, which are basically just offers to help their invitations to work together. So typically we do this in three different. We have what we call a super signature offer, which you’ll see at the end of almost all of my emails, that’ll say, whenever you’re ready. And that sentence is on purpose 100% because it’s telling them that, Hey, you know, we’re here to help when ever you are ready. So we’re making this about them. The spotlight is pointed directly at them and they are the priority. So say whenever you’re ready, here are three ways we can help. And typically those three ways will have varying degrees of what I would call an ask. Maybe it would be, Hey, you can join our free Facebook group, which is a really low, low barrier ask or next up, or you can come in for a free workout or do a free one week trial or do a free consultation. So it’s still kind of a medium ask. It’s still free financially, but it requires them to be somewhere that maybe, you know, they’re, they’re a little bit uncomfortable with, right? It takes them out of their comfort zone some, and then there’s what I would call high ask, which is just a a direct offer to join a paid program. So most of the time, our super signatures have those three types of offers.

The second type of offer that we make is what I call an engagement or invitation style offer. And it’s as simple as saying, Hey, we’re going to be taking on a few new clients in April. Would you be interested in joining us? We’re going to be starting a new program where we bring on clients who want to achieve a B and C goals. Would you be interested in learning more? It’s very straight forward. It’s non pushy. It’s just, we’re going to do this. Would you like to come along with us? And then the third, third type of offer that we tell our clients to do every four to eight weeks is what I call a deadline-driven offer, where there is some incentive to act now. And this is great for those people who have been thinking about it and thinking about it. And you kind of want to nudge off the fence. And there are three different ways that you can really build a deadline-driven offer, or you can combine these three ways into other, even more powerful variations. You can discount something. So, Hey, joined by Friday and get 20% off. You can close enrollment on something saying, Hey, we’re going to start this new six week transformation challenge on Monday. And enrollment closes Friday. If you’re interested, then you need to join by Friday at midnight, or there’s what we call a gift with purchase, which is, Hey, if you join by Friday, you also get this free bonus. You get, you know, a free nutrition coaching session. You get you know, you, you get a free t-shirt, you get a free gym bag when you join, but you get something that goes away if they continue to delay and procrastinate, but those are the types of offers that we’re making. Now, if we are bringing somebody in for something free, typically we’re not going to need to get on the phone as often. Sometimes we may, but a lot of times we can get somebody to come in to engage in something free by just giving them information on a sales letter or a documents, spelling out what to do, scheduling them. If we’re going to move somebody into a paid program, specifically a subscription-based program, we almost always need to make an offer. But the next step in that offer is getting them in a consultative selling environment where we get to address their concerns, build value specific to them and make sure that they know how this is going to help them go from where they are, to where they aspire to be.

So there’s your marketing plan A to Z. We go from target market. We’re trying to serve all the way down to that process of actually walking them in the door, broken into these three different episodes. But honestly, I mean, this is the same thing I would tell you, if you were sitting in front of me in my office, the only difference would be we would customize every answer to your specific business to make sure that you filled in those blanks with the things that would produce the best possible results for you. But this is basically a cheat sheet. If you will, that will allow you to build not only a great marketing plan, but one that’s sustainable. One. That’s going to last that at most, you’re just going to have to fine tune over time. You’re not going to have to reinvent completely. So hopefully that helped. And if you’re not sure about any of these sorts of things, feel free, reach out and ask. Always happy to help is your putting together Your ideal marketing plan.

Thanks for listening to this episode of The Fitness Business School. And before you go, I have a quick announcement. When I first connect with a fitness business owner, they almost always ask me, “How can I get more leads or how can I get more clients?” Well, I have an exclusive offer for you and it’s going to help you do just that. As a listener of this show, you can test drive Fitness Lead Academy for six full weeks for just a dollar. Fitness Lead Academy is a one of a kind program where you get done-for-you marketing tools and coaching to attract more qualified prospects and convert them into paying clients. Imagine having three marketing emails written for you each and every week for easy-to-deploy promotions provided to you that are proven to convert and they’re ready to use and proven ads and social media posts given to you each and every month as well. Plus you have access to three weekly live video coaching sessions to help you with everything from dialing in your brand to navigating things like building funnels and getting ads approved. You get all of this and more when you join Fitness Lead Academy. And to prove that FLA can serve you as your virtual marketing department and not only save you plenty of time, but also consistently bring you more leads and clients, you can get access to the entire coaching program for six full weeks. Again, for just $1. If it delivers for you in the way that I expect it will, you can continue on for just $199 a month. So basically, just one additional client each month and you’re ROI positive. And I’m sure that if you apply what we give you, you’re going to get more than just one additional client each month. And you’re going to likely save at least 10 hours a month to take advantage of this special offer. Just go to TestDriveFLA.com to try it out for six full weeks. If it’s not what you’re looking for, you can cancel it any time.

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