How Your Own Online Product Can Super-Charge Your Fitness Business

There are only so many hours in the day and only so many personal training sessions someone can physically manage in a week; so diversifying your income streams by incorporating products into your fitness business makes perfect and progressive financial sense.

Which brings us to today's article:

I'm very happy to have a guest post by one of my good friends, who happens to be an EXPERT on producing and monetizing online products; Mr Rick Watson from a very awesome blog called PT Business In A Box to give you some great advice on why and how to go about getting started and getting PAID what you're worth.

How Your Own Online Product Can Super-Charge Your Fitness Business

When I spoke to Ben the other day and he asked me to write a guest post for his blog, the first thing that popped into my head was de-mystifying the world of online products in your fitness business.

I know there always seems to be a lot of crazy marketing hype about online products but today I really just want to push all that aside and demonstrate the positive impact your own online product can have on your fitness business.

But before we get into all of that, I think it is probably important to let you know what I consider an "online product".

For me, this refers to anything (product or service) that you can deliver to a client or customer online that doesn’t involve you actually being paid for your individual time.

So it could take the shape of a generic online training program, an 8 week transformation challenge, a weight loss program, training for golf, getting buffed – whatever the format or flavour you choose, as long as it doesn’t involve you providing a service (money for time) then you are good to go.

The content and deliver methods will vary depending on who you are targeting, but for today’s purposes, I really just want to focus on why this is a good idea for your business.

6 Cool Reasons Why An Online Product Will Rock Your Business

1. Seen as an expert: immediately when you launch your product (especially if you make lots of noise about it) you are perceived as an expert in your field by your peers and more importantly your target market.

By launching your product, you automatically separate yourself from your competition and move to the next level. Good things follow.

2. Doors open other opportunities: as a continuation to point 1, developing your product is often used like a public resume where some people can see the work you do. Deciding whether they like what you do and if they would like to do joint ventures.

In my experience, trainers with online products are exposed to a bunch more opportunities because of the work they put into their product.

3. Additional income: Yeah, its' a bit of cliché but it is also something that most business owners strive for right? By having an online product that does not involve you or your team selling time for money (like in a PT session), you can develop a legitimate income stream on top of your core business.

4. Leverage yourself: You are in the fitness business, you know your stuff, you get great results with your clients but you also understand that there is a ceiling on how much you can earn and how many hours you can train until you burn out.

I was chatting to trainer yesterday about the "good old days" when I used to work in a studio of about 8 trainers and we used to all see who could book the most sessions per week. Around 50 contact hours per week was the norm back then (gee, we made our boss some cash) but we had no leverage and we all burnt out really quickly.

Your own product is a step in the right direction to improving this leverage/lifestyle/burnout issue.

5. Sell it as an alternative sale to your current service: One of the best things about an online product in a fitness business is that it can be sold offline, but delivered online (still with me?). When your business receives a lead (from any lead sources) and they go through your sales process but decide that right now they don’t want to (can’t) begin training, they will give you a specific reason or objection why.

Generally, these reasons fall into the time, money or “I’ll think about it” category (which is just code for I don’t want to but I don’t want to tell you that I don’t want to).

Anyway, your online product overcomes these objections (especially the first two) so if you are really hitting a wall and convinced you are going to lose the lead, offer the solution of your online product which is more affordable and can be done at home at a time that suits them.

Once they are in the online program, you can then attempt to up-sell them back into your service business after a certain period but at least you have made the most of the lead and they also have a solution that suits them.

Happy days.

6. Make the most of leads outside your location: If you do any online marketing for your business, you will understand the frustration of generating leads that are outside your service delivery area.

Having your own online product is the perfect way to make the most of all these situations without saying goodbye to legitimate business and dollars.

So as you can see here, I have only really touched on how your own product can benefit your business as it is functioning at the moment. If you actually roll out some specific online marketing to your specific target market, it can really be an awesome addition to every (reasonably established) fitness business.

But I Have No Idea Where To Start

You will no doubt agree that having your own product is a massive benefit to your business but the biggest stumbling block I come across is trainers not knowing where to start.

The perceived enormity of the task deters so many people from exploring this aspect of their business.

My advice?

Start small and take baby steps.

In the name of market research, put together an email series for non-training clients on your database. Use this email series to test different topics, to see what gets the best response and to practice your delivery.

Then after an 8 or 12 week period, you will have a block of content and some solid feedback about what worked and what bombed. You can use both of these things to then structure your first product.

By completing this simple step, you can establish whether or not your market has a need that your product can fill. If you can tick that box, then you can get down to expanding your information and getting your product together.

So as you can see, having your own online product doesn’t have to be this big overwhelming "thing" and something that can really super-charge your business.

Before I head off, I would love to know if you have ever thought of developing your own product or if you have, what impact did it have on your business?

Cheers

Rick

About the Author: Rick is a fitness business coach who normally hangs out on his blog, PT Business In A Box and while he is serious about fitness marketing, he finds it really hard to take himself too seriously.

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Additional Reading (Other Guest Posts by Rick):

How To Uncover The Perfect Niche Market For Your Fitness Business
10 Stupid Mistakes You Made When Starting Your Personal Training Business