The only thing that separates celebrity fitness trainers from those out of work is a fitness marketing plan. While it may sound surprising, it is true that most fitness trainers out there are good at what they do. So the differentiating factor often lies in the way that they choose to ‘sell their skills’.
A fitness marketing plan will determine whether or not you have any clients to train. So if you want to know the secret formula that has enabled the best trainers to have their hands full of clients, you will be surprised to know that it is referrals or word-of-mouth that is behind their success.
Indeed word-of-mouth can be the cheapest and the most potent marketing tool when it comes to the business of fitness training. Often referred to as ‘third party endorsements’, referrals need you to just do your job properly! There are no other expenses behind this fitness marketing plan.
If you are good at what you do and that your clients are satisfied, then it is highly likely that they will recommend you to people within their respective circles of influence. So it may be their family, friends, colleagues or other acquaints who may be singing a nice word or two about you and getting to know how you work.
The best part is that, for this to happen you did not have to make a single sales pitch or publish a paper-ad. So much for an expensive and time consuming fitness marketing plan!
So if you are confident that you are being able to make your clients happy by keeping them in shape or even sometimes getting them into shape, then you might as well take a proactive approach to harness the power of referral marketing. The key here is not to be coy about what you are trying to do, but at the same time not being too aggressive with your approach.
So there is nothing wrong in asking an existing client for some contacts whom you would like to approach, provided you give him a good reason such as the fact that you may be trying to expand your business. If you can take your client into confidence then he or she may give you some useful leads.
You can also try to offer one or two free workout sessions for friends and family of your loyal clients. There is a good chance that some of then may get hooked on to your methods and then sign up as regular members!
Finally as a part of this fitness marketing plan, you may start a ‘rewards for referrals’ program. This means that you clients get some freebies if a certain number of new members sign up based on their recommendations.
So if you play the right cards there is a lot of scope for you to take your business ahead with this simple fitness marketing plan.