Lead Generation The NEW Way

By Fred Zoller

With the growth of the internet and social media, our industry has changed from one of information inadequacy to one of information overload.

The overload of information we have access to online has changed the buying process in terms of how prospects make decisions and how we qualify them and get the sales.

The goal for fitness business marketers may be going back to some of the ways of the past attempting to get heard through all the other marketing and advertising noise.

The new currency is attention and the new focus is on being found and learning to build continuous relationships with prospects and buyers.

How do you build your own attention?

You need to become a trusted expert to your audience by creating valuable content and thought leadership. It’s also just as important to “consistently” get your message out in front of your audience so that when they are ready, you will be first on their mind.

EVERYBODY is marketing, just look on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and every other form of social media. However, Just because everyone is doing marketing does not mean that they are winning at marketing. Honestly, the majority of folks are not.

Here are three ways that you can level up your marketing and stand out in a crowded market:

You need to have a strategy. Like any other marketing, you need a strategy if you expect to be successful.

Too many businesses lack a strategy for their marketing. No one would argue that strategy is a simple ingredient to success.

Get a marketing calendar completed ASAP and get your marketing down for an entire year! If you are new to owning your business you can start with one month at a time until you get a year planned and then you have a blueprint for the future.

You need to get known. Really known. If you target a specific audience that has no idea who you are, you marketing will be less effective no doubt. You can’t run a campaign to a generic cold audience that don’t know you and expect to get results.

Think of all the times you have been “marketed” and you have no idea who the person is or their credentials, did you buy? There is a high probability is that you did not. Getting known or branding will decrease the amount of money you will have to spend in order to get results.

You need to deliver more great content. (keyword-great) I understand its hard to deliver great content and it’s very time consuming but you have to do it or figure out a way to do it or outsource it. There are many ways you can do this especially when you are new to the business.

• Study your target market, do some research to see what they want and need.
• Borrow content (not steal just, get other’s ideas and comment on it)
• Purchase done for you content.
• Build a content list and then go from there.
• Use software such as Post Planner to assist you with delivering the content.

Below are 6 campaign ideas that we have found very successful with our coaching clients: 

Newsletter Campaign

Send email newsletters to your list “preselling” which is not the same as selling. The prospect isn’t even aware that there is something for sale later on. It’s your job to prime and position and set up the prospect to WANT what you KNOW you will EVENTUALLY sell them.

BEFORE they even know it exists. Your presell should work to channel their DYING DESIRE for SOLVING A PROBLEM they ALREADY have… in your direction.

Do this well, and you (in THEIR MIND) will be the only viable solution to solving their problem.

Social Media Campaign

Same concept as above.

• 2-3 FB posts per day preselling using motivational and inspirational content.
• 3-5 videos per week (FB live if possible). Your story, who you are, your philosophy on training and nutrition, how you are different, why you are better, why you succeed compared to others that have failed, success stories, gym videos etc.

Win Back Campaign

​You can send out text messages to past customers (deal was only for them) and offered them a special deal. Below is sample copy that you could use:

Hey [customer_name], We miss you at (your facility). I would love to have your join our (Program)!

If you are interested, I have a deal for you! Just email “What’s the deal?” to (your email address).

To your success,

Your Name

​The deal was that they could bring a friend for FREE if they came back. This allows your prospects to essentially split the costs.

The tactic is simple: the buddy system, they would bring someone they know and like which is better for us to grow and the chances of them signing back up long term is much higher!

Referral Campaign

It’s always good to attempt to leverage the amazing clients you already have.

​On the thank you page for your promotion, you could make the prospect and offer to bring in a friend and if they did, they would get a $25-dollar refund or they could give the discount to their friend.

For your current members, if they referred someone and they signed up, they could potentially have a discounted upgrade to one of your higher end programs. The idea behind this is simple, get like-minded members, they get rewarded and upgrade into higher priced programs where they would potentially see better results and continue at the higher price.

Fitness Ambassador Campaign (secret sauce)

​These are your BEST clients that love you and your facility and never really “want” anything from you but to see you succeed. That said, obviously treat them with some serious customer service.

Meet with 8 of them and personally asked them to help you recruit past members, share their stories on social media and plug the gym. You would be amazed at how these people come together and help you to market.

You would give them access to a special offer that only they would have access to. It makes the offer different as well as more valuable.

If you don’t have ambassadors, you need to get some.

Networking Campaign

​You can meet with coaches from sports teams if you have them, high level peeps in your community to ask for advice and help, post videos in closed groups such as business networking groups, mom’s groups, homeschool groups and every other group you are connected with.

You can also pass out flyers to the teachers at your children’s school and offer them a generous teacher only discount.

Here is a summarized version of how to think about marketing:

1. ​Know your target prospect.
2. Know where they are.
3. Know who they hang out with.
4. Find out what they do.
5. Find out what they like.
6. Find out what they need.
7. Find out who their friends are.
8. Find out who they trust.
9. Presell all of them.
10. Make them an offer.

We find that our clients that pay attention to each of these steps, especially in the planning stages with their businesses, and devote the right time and effort, perform better than their competition.

The process isn’t simple, and ignoring any of these steps and lacking systems to keep them consistent, can lead to negative outcomes.

Building killer systems, on the other hand, leads to sustained growth, profitability and your Ideal Business.

If you are ready to take the next step and learn more about building your Ideal Business…

click below for a 90 day trial of Virtual Fitness Mastermind for just $1.00!  

In short VFM is a crash course in generating an extra $100,000 of income in 12 months flat.