3 Things Fitness Professionals Can Learn From Lady Gaga

Like her or hate her, Lady Gaga is one of the biggest names in the music business today; but up until 18 months ago we'd never really heard of her.

So how does someone go from being a relatively unknown piano playing go-go dancer named Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta to become the mega star that is Lady Gaga in such a short period of time? It has a LOT to do with relentless viral marketing and strategic branding.

To clarify, I don't want to discount the 24 year olds musical ability and suggest that she's just another industry product. Gaga's actually a phenomenal pianist and studied at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.

But those credentials alone won't make you star; just as qualifying to work as a personal trainer won't get you on the next season of The Biggest Loser.

Your fitness business may not have the same ambition as Lady Gaga's apparent world domination agenda (then again it might), but I've always been an advocate of not trying to reinvent the wheel.

Look for someone that is doing something incredibly well, relate the strategy and brutally copy it (which is exactly what people are saying Gaga has done to Madonna).

Sell yourself first and your product will follow

In an interview with Gaga last year, she recalled a show she was performing in a small bar before all the mega hype had begun.

No one was watching, so she did what anyone else would do and stripped off her clothes: "I started playing in my underwear at the piano and I remember everyone was all of a sudden like 'Whoa!' And I said, 'Yeah, you're looking at me now, huh?'"

The marketing principles in the music business are quite similar to the fitness industry. Create a buzz and back it up with a quality product.

While you may disagree with the quality of Miss Gaga's product (I know I do, though I'm probably not her target market), we can definitely pay attention to the tools she's used to rise to fame so fast.

If you've only ever heard her music on the radio then you could be forgiven for thinking she's just another pop singing product; or you could switch on the music channel and what you'll find is what many consider to be mild porn.

At last years music video awards; at the conclusion to her song paparazzi, Gaga dangled herself above the stage in lingerie and had fake blood pouring from her chest.

All of these shenanigans are meticulously choreographed to generate attention in the main stream press and of course, user generated social media like twitter and facebook.

1. Use Social Media To Reach As Many People As You Can

Gaga's 7.5 million (and counting) twitter followers hang on every word and she updates them regularly with such mind blowing issues as hairspray problems all the while calling them 'little monsters'.

However, this consistent interaction with her fans has produced a loyal audience, the same principle you should apply to all of your fitness business branded social media outlets.

2. Create An Angle

What makes your business different to everybody else's? You, so be you. I wrote an article about using media to boost your fitness industry profile, where I mention that you NEED to create an angle; her angle is apparently bizarre behavior.

Yours might be more to do with what type of personal training you specialise in, or your own journey either athletically or personally. It doesn't matter what it is, but that's your focus and brand.

3. Punch above your weight!

Gaga also uses more established artists to add credibility to her brand; performing recently with Madonna and Beyonce. This can be relayed back to the fitness industry by writing for a popular or well respected magazine or online resource; create authority by association.

Working in certain fitness centres or completing well respected courses also give you added credibility. Highlight these achievements and professional associations in your marketing materials.

I'm not suggesting you guys start training clients in lingerie or wearing knights armour to sessions; all I'm laying out here is that if you want success at any level, you need to get your name out. It takes 10 years to become an overnight success.

Do you market your individual credentials? How do you stand out from your competition? It would be great to get your feedback below and as always, please share this article on facebook and twitter by clicking the icons at the top of the article.

Paparazzi!

Ben

Additional Reading:
How To Use Media To Boost Your Fitness Profile
Write A Column For Your Local Newspaper
Too Fat For Fitness
How To Create A Marketing Avatar For Your Personal Training Business
What Does Your Brand Say About You?
How To Brand Your Personal Training Business

Awesome New Years Resolution Promotion That Converts

Christmas promotions have been the hot topic on My Business Is Fitness over the past few weeks (I still have a few ideas up my sleeve), but now it's time to start looking beyond December and how you're going to capitalize on the ultra, yet short-term New Years Resolution (NYR) crowd.

Before we get started, I want you to imagine that these New Years Resolution people are like graceful wild geese, migrating around the world in a huge beautiful flock and the only time you can hunt them is between mid January to around early March.

(For those of you who think hunting isn't cool and that this is a poor choice of metaphor you're probably right; but hang in there, because I'll make it up to you with an awesome New Years promotion idea!)

Keep in mind that there will be a lot of other hunters out there wanting a piece of the action as well, so if you want to catch as many of these geese as you can in the short window that's available, you need to start by doing two things:

1. Get yourself into a great position by planning and being prepared
2. Get yourself a big gun and our big gun is:

The Mother/Daughter Promotion - Personal Trainer Style

This is a tried and tested promotion, it's been around forever and the concept couldn't be simpler; Mother brings daughter (or vice verse) to the gym or training session; daughter or mother trains free...for a little while anyway.

This promotion targets your existing clientele by encouraging them to bring along their daughter or mother but it's also a great way to get a ton of easy to convert leads.

It's a great referral promotion that's not too obvious, because your message is about these women encouraging each other to finally change their lifestyle and to stop procrastinating and what better time than now?

Now that we have our message all that's left is to get your marketing material in front of the mother or daughters and create an offer they can't refuse.

NB: I also like to run a small competition (first 10 to sign up go in the draw, so each entrant has a great chance of winning, but try and get enough prizes for everyone) in conjunction with any reasonable promotion to create urgency. This is a great time to call up any favors or develop relationships with surrounding businesses like restaurants, movie theatres and beauty type businesses...gift certificates and freebies are what you want.

Like any marketing activity, we want to scatter your promotional material across quite a few channels specific to your target market, in this case women in their mid 40's, so things like:

• Internet: Blog, facebook and twitter updates for word of mouth and internal referrals from existing clients; you may even consider a small facebook advertising campaign for this one to entice even more fresh faces.
• Posters/marketing material: Stick up branded and clearly designed posters in your gym or fitness centre, local health food stores, hairdressers, beauty therapists etc. (offer them some training in return for their cooperation). Your message is simple so keep your posters that way.
• Local media: Send a press release to your community newspaper along with some images describing your promotion and associated competition. In your press release specify your unique selling point.

How long you offer free training to the guest is entirely up to you. I would suggest no more than three sessions for the super generous of you, but usually one is enough (technically they're only getting 50% off because someone is paying).

This promotion is really very easy to set up so there's still tons of time before the New Years Resolution rush starts calling, so get your thinking caps on and make it happen!

Happy New Year?

Ben

Additional Reading:

20 Christmas Promotion Ideas
5 More Christmas Promotion Ideas
How I Turned Two Hours Work Turned Into Ten New Clients

Facebook Deals Will Change The Way You Market Your Fitness Business

I rarely talk about newsy type things on My Business Is Fitness, but something very exciting happened today in the marketing world that's going to change the way you promote your brick and mortar personal training business or fitness center forever and the best part is, you have the opportunity to get in at the very beginning.

Facebook Deals

If you're like the other 499,999,999 people in the world that have a Facebook account, you may already be familiar with their places application, which is a way for you to log your location to your profile using your Smartphone (iphone, Android, Blackberry).

Because I use Foursquare (a location marketing site), I never really took to the Facebook application; however, it seems that places was all part of Facebook's major plan to join the location based social network marketing bandwagon.

Take a look at this short Facebook Deals video which should bring you up to speed:



As you can see in the video, Facebook Deals will finally provide offline businesses social media value.

From Facebook's Jon Fougner:

"Everyone likes getting a good deal, but it's not always easy to find the right one at the moment you could use one. Imagine that while you're looking for a new place to try for lunch, you could see offers from restaurants nearby on your phone. On the other hand, I already love Zachary's Pizza, so imagine if I were rewarded for coming back there every week with my friends.

Starting today, local businesses will be able to offer you deals when you check in to their place on Facebook. Deals will be rolling out over the next few days and will only be available in the United States at this time."

Obviously since this is so new and I don't have access to the application yet, I'm only speculating at the awesome potential Facebook Deals can have for all offline fitness businesses.

What this is all about and why you want to make your 'Deals' so attractive is so people 'check in' to your business and essentially expose your brand, service, location to everyone of their friends and their friends friends when someone 'likes' what they're up to i.e at your business.

Even though the immediate and long-term impact of Facebook Deals is undetermined, I'm going to be watching it's development very closely and genuinely encourage all offline fitness businesses to take a look at this with an eye toward becoming an early adopter; so watch this space.

Are any of you guys currently using any of the other location based social media marketing sites like Foursquare, Loopt or Gowalla and have you found them useful to promote your fitness businesses?

Ben

Can Fitness Professionals Offer A Money Back Guarantee?

One of my favorite blogs to read is Kaiser Serajuddin's Super Trainer and last week he posted an awesome article on what fitness professionals can learn from those dreadfully annoying, yet unbelievably successful television infomercials.

Like any great article; after reading Kaiser's I got to thinking about the subject in more depth and one thing in particular that occurred to me, is that every single infomercial has one tremendously powerful sales tactic in common.

The Money Back Guarantee.

The money back guarantee is the nuts and bolts of any solid infomercial; it's right up there along side 'Buy in the next 15 minutes and receive TWO for the price of ONE!'

The money back guarantee gives the consumer piece of mind; it reduces buyer anxiety and removes perceived risk for a purchaser and when you can offer a potential customer zero risk, the odds of a sales conversion increase dramatically.

So why don't fitness professionals routinely offer a money back guarantee on client/member results?

It would make sense don't you think? If you can't stand behind your product or service then why are you in the fitness business?

The problem with service and consultancy professions is that your clients cooperation is necessary for them to achieve the results that they want, not to mention the fact that their goals may be unrealistic (that would be a first).

There are different types of guarantees you can offer your clients, besides giving back their money:

Satisfaction Guarantee: Similar to a money back guarantee, but you can use your personal training or fitness center service as reimbursement instead of cash. For example, you could promise a client that they will lose 10 pounds or 5 kilos in their first month or the second month free.

On-Time Guarantee: Dominoes Pizza made this a standard in the pizza delivery business with their 30 minutes or it's free campaign, however, you could offer that you will never be late for a session or it's free.

Price-Protection Guarantee: This could mean that you lock in a price for as long as they continually do business with you. Competitor price matching is another way you could offer a price-protection guarantee.

I have to say straight up that I've never offered a money back guarantee to my personal training clients or gym members, but that's not to say I wouldn't try it now if I gave it some careful thought and planning.

You have to admit, it would be a very powerful promotion to take to market and it would definitely cause a stir in the industry.

What do you think; could a personal trainer or fitness center offer a money back guarantee, would it be feasible, would the risk outweigh the reward, would you consider offering one?

I'd be very interested to hear your opinions.

Ben

5 More FREE Christmas Fitness Promotion Ideas!

Thanks to everyone who made last weeks post 20 Personal Trainer Christmas Promotion Ideas such a success and in keeping with the theme; here's another 5 FREE Christmas promotion ideas for your personal training and fitness businesses!

1. Use Craigslist To Promote Your Fitness Business:

Craigslist is a free classifieds directory that many personal trainers use to promote their businesses around the world. You can link to your website or blog and update your ad as often as you like and it's free free free!

If you haven't used Craigslist before, simply Google it (or follow the link) along with your city and it will send you to the most relevant site by location (there's no point advertising in Craigslist Los Angeles if you're located in Sydney).

Narrow down your ad placement under 'services' or whatever you believe is the most relevant description and I guarantee you will get calls/emails.

2. Bathroom Posters:

The most valuable real estate for any marketing material in a gym or fitness center is in the bathrooms.

I'm sure you've seen newsletters or advertisements behind the doors in toilet stalls and even at the urinals (ladies, don't act like you don't know). These posters receive undivided attention for anywhere between two to ten minutes; depending if there was an all you can eat Mexican buffet the night before.

Produce something catchy and easy to read, themed with Christmas or anything you like and work to get your material in there.

3. Pull A Publicity Stunt:

Publicity stunts have been around forever and continue to work brilliantly. The phrase generally conjures thoughts of doing something illegal and I'm sure you could, but that's not what I'm encouraging today.

Using the Christmas theme, a cool stunt could be to dress as Santa (or Mrs.) Claus and hand out coupons or something from a sack to members in your gym or even out the front of your club.

Rip off the sleeves and get the guns out, or show off your Santa legs, you just want to differentiate from the uncool mall Santa's.

4. Thank You Christmas Cards:

Anyone that signs up between now and December for example, send them a thank you card as usual, but instead, send them a Christmas card with a free session voucher.

Create some urgency by giving the voucher a 'use by' date and they'll be the easiest referrals you've ever generated.

5. Text Message Alerts To Clients:

Text message marketing is very popular and socially accepted these days with Video Stores and other places keeping us posted, so what's to stop you sending out a 'Merry Xmas' text message with an offer attached?

Most people read things that start out with Merry Xmas because they associate that a gift will follow, so give them one.

You could offer the first ten clients who reply to your text message an invitation to bring along a friend for free to their next session.

If nothing else, I hope that these ideas or the ones mentioned in last weeks post set off a light bulb in your head for something better or more relevant, because it doesn't really matter how or what you do to promote your fitness business this Christmas, as long as you do something awesome.

So what do you think? I genuinely appreciate your feedback, so please leave me a comment down below with questions, thoughts, or feedback. And please share this post with your Twitter and Facebook friends by clicking on the share buttons at the top of the post.

Have an awesome day!

Ben

Additional Reading:

20 Personal Trainer Christmas Promotion Ideas
102 Blog Post Ideas For Personal Trainers And Fitness Professionals

20 Personal Trainer Christmas Promotion Ideas

With Christmas right around the corner; now is the time to start planning and implementing your holiday season personal training and fitness center promotional strategies to take advantage of this often difficult but very lucrative spendthrift market.

I've listed 20 promotional ideas that you can sift through and hopefully find a few that will suit your niche market and/or demographic.

1. Gift Certificates:

Whoever invented gift certificates was a genius, however I rarely see personal trainers offer these simple, yet very easily produced little cash cows.

They're a great way for your clients to introduce your services to their friends and family, so design a variety of packages from one session to 100 if you like.

2. Speaking Engagements:

Try holding a free 'christmas healthy eating' seminar at your local fitness center or gym. Talk about things like how best to get through the overindulgent period in a healthy way etc. Hand out business cards and flyer's etc.

3. Go To Your Local Library And Sneak Business Cards In Relevant Books:

Look for books about weight loss and the like and place your gyms or personal training business cards in them. Even better, run a promotion in conjunction with this 'mystery prize' promotion.

4. Hold A Competition:

It doesn't really matter what the competition is about, but offering some free personal training or gym membership as the prize always generates some interest.

You can also diversify depending on your skills; offer a weight loss prize, a muscle gain program prize or even a nutrition prize. The more you offer the more potential leads you can generate.

5. Spend Some Time Adding Your Business To Local Directories:

Are you listed on the Google Business Directory or Foursquare for example?

6. Press Release:

Is there something interesting about your business that you think the media or public at large would be interested in? If you can come up with an original concept or angle for a Christmas promotion, present it well and send it out to your local media.

7. Print A New Year Calendar:

It doesn't have to be anything too flash or expensive. Put a few healthy tips and quotes on there and hand them out methodically.

8. Print A Christmas/New Year Newsletter:

Again, fill it with helpful hints and bonus offers. Find some affiliates to co promote with and do a letter box drop.

9. Send Out A Christmas Email Blast:

You should have a database of all of your current and past clients and members. Like your newsletter, fill it with quality content and send it out.

10. Trade Shows:

Are there any trade shows coming up? The beauty of the fitness industry is that there is almost always an angle to align yourself with every other industry. Book a table and get your information out.

11. Christmas Cards:

Sending Christmas cards to current and past personal training clients or gym members is 'welcome' mail, meaning that most people open it and read it. Thank your existing clients and offer your past clients and members a coupon and make them personalised.

12. Cross Promote With Similar Businesses:

Speak to your local health food store, physiotherapist, respected massage therapist or sports store about offering a 'complete health and fitness gift pack promotion.

13. Take A Short Course:

It doesn't even have to be fitness related. Take a short small business course; not only are you increasing your business knowledge and skills, you're sitting in a room full of potential clients.

14. Walking Billboard:

Once you've decided on your Christmas promotion, get a few t-shirts printed up with your branding and the promotion information on them.

15. Update Your Blog And Or Website:

How long has it been since you wrote a new article or publicly thanked your clients and or members? It doesn't have to be a masterpiece, but get up some fresh content.

16. Offer A Cheaper Alternative To Your Regular Services:

If you normally charge $50 for a half hour session, try running a $30 fifteen minute training session. Sell it by explaining that the fifteen minute session will focus on specifics and not include cardio time etc.

17. Put A New Christmas Focused Video On YouTube:

Like your Christmas newsletter, do the same thing but a video version. Hints tips and solutions for maintaining all the hard work that your clients and members have put in over the past 12 months.

18.Update Your Social Media Pages:

Start a stream of Christmas focused Facebook and Twitter posts. Obviously direct them back to your blog or website but try running two or three each week up to the holiday period.

19. Update Your Testimonials Page:

Testimonial pages on blogs, websites and even in your sales presentation material are probably the most viewed items. Get some updated ones from clients who worked with you last Christmas and how you helped keep them on the straight and narrow.

20. Offer A Guarantee Promotion:

These are often tricky so plan your guarantee carefully. Don't over promise, but make your service more appealing than anyone else.

I hope that this is a timely post for you guys and gets your mind ticking over for how you can prepare for the upcoming Christmas period.

Traditionally; personal training businesses, gyms and pretty much the entire fitness industry suffer over this time unless you implement some sound, inexpensive strategies to make sure you stand out and come through a winner.

So what do you think? I genuinely appreciate your feedback, so please leave me a comment down below with questions, thoughts, or feedback. And please share this post with your Twitter and Facebook friends by clicking on the share buttons at the top of the post.

Have an awesome day!

Ben

UPDATE:

5 MORE Free Christmas Fitness Promotions!

Additional Reading:
Awesome New Years Resolution Promotion That Converts
10 Personal Training Business Tips
50 Things To Do Before You Open A Personal Training Business
How To Write A Rate Increase Letter
10 Ways To Build Your Personal Training Business Today
5 More FREE Christmas Fitness Promotion Ideas

The 'Cook It Up' Promotion (One Of My Favorites)

This post is a promotional idea how you can use your nutritional knowledge and kitchen prowess to dazzle your existing and potential personal training clients into utilizing and taking your calorie controlled meal plans more seriously.

Training clients is easy and one of the best parts of being a personal trainer and it's also easy for your clients because all they have to do is turn up to your sessions and do the work.

The Problem With Weight Loss

If weight loss and good health was 80% working out then a lot more people would be in shape; unfortunately nutrition holds that major percentage in the equation and that's the biggest challenge to incorporate and monitor within the trainer/client relationship.

Without appropriate nutritional training and education, handing out copies of recommended meal plans is about as much as a personal trainer can do in their business with regards to a clients eating habits and your recommendations.

You can't stand and watch them eat like you do a set of squats and you can't follow them around the supermarket and put the biscuits back on the shelf like a mother does to their kids (or partners).

So you have to get a little creative and proactive and this cheap and simple promotion worked great every time.

Can you cook healthy foods?

Through my senior years of high school I worked in kitchens for pocket money and after finishing school I began a chef's apprenticeship.

I worked in kitchens for a few years until I realised that while it was a fun job socially, it wasn't going to be a lasting career choice based on my passion for health and fitness.

Now, even though I've been trained in 'throwing the pans' (as one of my chefs use to say) cooking good, clean foods is pretty easy and I'm sure you do it daily anyway.

So with that background, I use to promote a cooking night about once every three months where I'd set up a grill and a few burners and basically hold my own cooking show right there in the gym.

It was free for everyone to come along and I'd promote it with flyer's and posters in strategic locations (like the gym bathrooms) a few weeks before each one.

I don't know what it is, but people love cooking shows

There's something about watching other people cook that you can't look away from and television ratings are all the social proof you need.

For my cooking nights, I'd prepare two dinner meals and a desert and that would take about 45 minutes to an hour max. I'd also incorporate vegetarian versions if there was a call for it.

About 20 minutes before starting I'd hand out 'menus' to selected people (from my marketing avatar) in the gym to create a little buzz highlighting  the dishes I was going to prepare, the ingredients, cost, serving sizes and nutritional information.

People would stop and watch as they arrived and left the gym and it really was a fantastic promotion for drumming up new business (have plenty of business cards ready).

As I prepared the meals I'd talk about how much it cost, why I was using certain ingredients, throw in some sweet knife tricks and try to get the people juiced and after I prepared each meal I'd hand out small samples to everyone.

My clients loved these nights and I always had a great turnout. They would tell me how they have started to prepare the meals at home for themselves and their families, because they'd seen how simple the meals were to make.

Click Image To Enlarge

The only consideration with this promotion, is to clarify that your gym or fitness center has the appropriate legal structure where you can prepare food on the premises. If they don't and you still want to run this promotion. just don't put any flyer's in your local councils office :).

Wear an apron, take it seriously and your clients will respond positively. You'll also find that this is a very lucrative and inexpensive promotion for your personal training business, so have fun with it.

Ben

Additional Reading:
How To Create A Client Marketing Avatar
I'm The World's Best Personal Trainer
How I Turned Two Hours Work Into Ten New Clients

You're Wasting A Great Opportunity To Make More Money If You're Not Doing This ONE Simple Thing

Would you like to know a secret to increasing and protecting your income stream that doesn't involve booking more personal training sessions, or charging your existing clients more money?

Let's begin by looking at two of the most successful business people in the world and look for a common denominator:

Donald Trump is probably most famous for his hotels and television show 'The Apprentice'; but did you know he also owns a string of golf courses, a line of men's clothing and accessories, restaurants, a vodka label and of course the Miss Universe competition (just to name a few)?

Or what about hip hop artist 50 Cent? Besides his VERY successful albums and production company, 50 is also involved in G Unit clothing, a cell phone ring tone company, video games, a body spray and more recently a line of condoms called 'Magic Stick Condoms'.

Why would these guys, who make millions from their respective primary income sources spend their precious free time starting new businesses?

Besides both being from New York and compulsive entrepreneurs who obviously love the thrill of a new venture, it's all about income diversification and protecting their income streams.

So if it's good enough for these guys why aren't you doing it?

The fitness industry offers many direct and indirect money making opportunities:

• Gym memberships
• Personal training
• Group fitness
• Sports nutrition
• Remedial therapies like massage
• Sports/workout clothing
• Beauty services
• Online personal training services
• Nutrition
• Books
• Walking billboard
• Paid public speaking opportunities (to name a few)

How many of these boxes did you tick? If you're like most fitness professionals, probably 2 or 3 at best.

Today I thought I'd give you one idea that can act like a small residual income stream for you that any fitness professional can employ; better still, it will cost you practically nothing to institute or operate.

While I owned my gym, my core income source was my monthly EFT, however I also sold a range of products (protein powders, bars, drinks, glove inserts etc.) as well as rented rooms to complimentary service providers. This not only benefited my income stream, but also offered more related services and convenience to my members.

This is all good and well for someone that has a studio or club, but what about the average personal trainer or group fitness instructor that doesn't own the premises that they work from?

The paid business referral network system.

You're probably doing what I'm about to tell you now for free, or if you are, not taking full advantage of what is available to you.

Be it for cash or the exchange of services, the business of referrals has been around as long as business itself. I bet you have a favorite sports store, health food store, massage therapist or hairdresser; have you ever referred your clients to them?

I only implemented this cash system with health food/supplement stores with my personal training business, however I do see how it could be manipulated to work for a variety of services.

What I would do was approach the owner of a nearby health food store with a very simple business proposition (It's generally easier if you have an existing relationship with the business, but if you don't it's still no big deal.).

The goal is to get a 20% discount on any purchase for yourself and anyone you refer to their store who buys health foods or supplements. Sounds simple, but how do YOU make cash?

You offer your clients a discount card with a value of 10%, therefore you make 10% on whatever they purchase.

Most stores will be more inclined to offer you store credit (it's better for them), but store credit doesn't pay the rent and if it's supplements you want, then we need to get you sponsored (but that's another post). This proposal is strictly designed to increase and diversify your income stream; you're essentially working as a freelance contractor for the store.

I personally never had a problem with stores trying to undercut or withhold my payments, but I can see how this could be an issue. Obviously trust does play a part in this system; however, just ask your clients to tell you when they've made purchases (often, you will have given them a list of products to buy anyway) so you do have a paper trail to recount if required.

This is only one way you can make extra money with very little time and investment. There are dozens of direct and indirect service providers you can approach, it's only limited by your demographic, imagination and motivation to make more money.

Ben

Additional Reading:
How To Get More Personal Training Referral's Easier
Create A Marketing Avatar And Nail Your Target Niche
Are Your Personal Training Clients Getting What They Paid For?

How To Use Media To Boost Your Fitness Profile

Have you ever seen personal trainers or fitness professionals on TV, read about them in the newspapers and magazines or heard them on the radio and wondered how they got that gig?

You may have thought that these 'celebrity' fit pro's must know someone in the media or that they got lucky or that they must be absolutely fantastic personal trainers, (which is exactly the image that you want to create) however, the truth is, they're just like you and I, only a little more savvy with their approach towards the media.

Maybe some of you guys have worked in advertising or marketing or have a background in media; in which case you know that most of the time, journalists and editors are desperately looking for news and information for their particular publications or broadcasts. This is good information to know.

It's all in the angle

Here's the first tip to getting some media coverage for yourself or your fitness business; you NEED an angle.

Why should you be in the media, what have you done to make the world a better place? Try digging through some magazines and find some of these personal trainer/fitness stories to get an idea what the media likes to cover.

What I noticed while researching media outlets for my promotions was that people love to read human interest type articles:

• Do you have a client that has overcome adversity?
• Have you overcome adversity?
• Are you a country boy or girl 'done good'?
• Controversy is always good reading/watching.

OK, now that you have your angle, which media outlet do you want to approach with your amazing story? I always suggest shooting for the stars and working backwards from there.

Look at the highest circulating magazines and newspapers and contact the journalists that have written articles in line with what you wish to have published. At worst, they may reject your article however use that opportunity to ask them what type of stories they would publish.

How to appeal to journalists

Journalists have a job to do; which is hand in quality copy on time. They work to very tight deadlines, so it's absolutely vital that you make yourself available to them if they need a story. While they may not publish your first article, they will likely keep your details on file and if they do contact you for comment, drop everything, because that opportunity may not return.

Some other things to consider when building a relationship with a journalist:

• Be honest: The fastest way to ruin your career is to have untruths published or broadcast in the media. You make the journalist look incompetent and you, well, you might as well get out the want ads.
• Stay on topic: What is your niche? Become an expert and you will be sought out by other outlets as your profile grows
• Express your opinion: There's no need to be arrogant, but if you know your stuff and you can back your statements than go against the grain.
• Give referrals: If you are contacted about a particular topic that you aren't confident to comment on, suggest someone that is.
• Don't try to please everyone: You will develop a stronger, more enthusiastic audience over time if you stick to your guns.
• Don't sell anything: Simply being featured in any media will boost your profile, why jeopardise this opportunity with cheap sales ploys like slipping in promotions and phone numbers mid article? If you're good, people will search you out; so make sure your online presence is up to date.

It's unfortunate but true that negative stories are more popular than positive ones. You can spin any story around, but never stray from the truth. The key is to keep your contribution/angle in line with the 6 C's which are:

• Conflict
• Color
• Catastrophe
• Crisis
• Controversy
• Change

You can't expect to become a media regular overnight, but if you never get started you never will. Make press releases and sharing your expertise a regular part of your marketing and promotion activities and you will build a virtual PR profile.

Media exposure will add significant value to your fitness business and who knows where that can lead down the line, especially when/if you decide to promote your own products or books etc. Food for thought.

Ben

Additional Reading:
4 Dirt Cheap Marketing Ideas
Too Fat For Fitness (This is a fantastic example of how to use an angle for the media)
How To Write A Column For Your Local Newspaper

What Does Your Brand Say About You?

"Our success is a direct result of knowing how to market a brand and having the right people representing the brand." - Greg Norman

Branding is as vitally important as any other aspect of your fitness business, if not more so; especially when you consider that nine times out of ten, you are your own walking talking brand.

Your brand is:

• What you wear.
• Where you work.
• How you interact with people.
• What you're doing when you're training and not training clients.
• And about a million other things that you may not have considered relevant to your business.

Your personal brand is how you project yourself visually and verbally to colleagues, clients and potential clients. It is the first impression that others generate of you and your business and if not strategically fabricated, it can also be the last.

Considering these points, how long has it been since you evaluated your branding?

Ask yourself:

• What message does your brand suggest?
• Do you dress appropriately to the market you wish to attract?
• Do you project confidence?
• If you saw you in the gym, would you hire or recommend you to friends?
• Does your personal brand emit a point of difference?
• Is your branding consistent?
• Do you allow your clients and environment to determine your branding?

The beauty of branding is that it's completely within your capacity to change, or improve and consistently adhere to, you just need to discover what you're comfortable with and at the same time, attracts your target market.

Ben

Additional Reading:
How To Create A Personal Marketing Plan
How To Brand Your Personal Training Business
Personal Training Business Cards
The Lindsay Lohan Workout!

Small Business Guide To Creating A Marketing Budget

Today's article on How To Create A Small Business Marketing Plan for your personal training business is a guest post by small business and personal finance expert and writer Timothy Ng.

One of the most important things small business owners must do is come up with a marketing plan.

Every small business owner will have to dedicate both time and money into making sure that their name is the first one that comes to mind when potential customers are in need of their particular product or service.

It might seem like a simple thing to do, but in fact good marketing takes a lot of research and smarts in order to do it successfully.

If your business has already opened you have probably been approached by various outlets to do commercials or run advertisements with them. Before you spend any money or go along with any ideas that they have you have to stop and take the time to design your own marketing plan and budget that is tailored to your business.

Marketing Budget Guide

Analyse Your Market - You will need to do some research to understand the environment in which you are doing business. This will include the economic situation of your area and how that will affect your business operations.

You will also have to look at the demographics of your area including the age and education level of your potential customers. Along with that you will also need to understand how technology, industry, and local competition will affect your business and how you will address these issues. Once you understand these issues you should come up with an honest analysis of you will deal with any potential issues.

Analyse Your Customers - Understanding the customers you service will help you get a strong foothold in your community. In order to do that you have to analyse how different customers will use your product and what aspects of your business are important to them. Then you can come up with a marketing strategy that addresses these needs directly.

Customer profiles can be set up in four different categories including geography like where they live and the size of the population. Demographics which refers to things like age, family size, and gender. Psychology meaning lifestyle, social class, and personality and behaviour referring to brand loyalty, product benefits and how often they might use your product.

Set Up Goals And Objectives - Every business needs to have a mission statement that clearly spells out why you are in business and what you are looking to achieve. It can be a simple statement of just one or two concise sentences. Next you will need to further explain your mission by coming up with tangible objectives that include sales goals, profits, and returns on investment. These objectives can then be turned into goals with real numbers that are then easy to evaluate.

Come Up With A Strategy - Once you have your goals in place the obvious next step is to come up with a plan to meet those goals. This plan should include how you will price your products and services which should come out of what you need to make to break even and to profit. It should also take into consideration how your prices relate to consumers and how they reflect on your business.

Your strategy is not just concerned with price, it also takes into consideration many other factors including the product or products you will offer and who you will get that product into the hands of customers. You should take the time to plan out which responsibilities will fall to which members of your team and how you expect them to meet their individual goals.

Make A Strict Budget - One of the traps that many small business owners fall into is spending too much or too little money on their marketing strategy. Either mistake can easily make your business fail before you even get it off the ground. To make sure this does not happen to you should take all of the above factors into consideration and then budget accordingly. Your budget should also have controls in place to deal with any risks or threats so that you do not wind up overspending when you are faced with them.

The Executive Summary

After you have done all of the things listed above you will have to write and executive summary. Although this summary is done last it will be the first page of your marketing plan.

The executive summary is basically an overview of your marketing plan and its most important aspects.

Not every investor, lender, or employee is going to read the entire marketing plan so the executive summary should highlight and briefly describe the most important parts of it. When you go through the process of writing it you will also be able to hone your strategies and ideas so that it represents a compete view of your plan in simple terms.

Some of the things that should not be left out of your executive summary are a description of your product or service, your target market, your competitive advantage or why your product or service is better than others offered in the market. It should also include a positioning statement that explains how your product is perceived by consumers and your expected sales, profits, and market share.

Before you set out to plan the big grand opening celebration for your small business you first have to come up with a marketing budget. If you work hard and develop a plan that meets the needs of both your customers and your business plan you can expect to find success just around the corner.

Remember that the success of your business directly relates to your understanding of the market, your competitors, and your customers.

You must work hard to make your products or services the number one name on consumers' minds, which means spending a lot time making your marketing plan.

A solid marketing plan is born out of diligent research and honest analysis of your product and customer base. If you understand those things you can certainly come up with a plan that will lead you down the road to both happy customers and profits.

Timothy Ng is a personal finance writer, and has a real passion for encouraging people to compare credit cards to ensure they get the best deal. Check out his comprehensive guide to best credit cards where he provides an in-depth overview and analysis, to help you find a better deal.

Ben

People Who Enjoyed This Article Also Read:

How To Create A Marketing Avatar For Your Personal Training Business
Why You Need Twitter And How To Get Hundreds Of Targeted Followers
2 Hours Work; 10 New Personal Training Clients
How To Brand Your Personal Training Business

How To Create A Marketing Avatar And Increase Your Sales Ten Times Over

Before you begin a marketing campaign for your personal training business or fitness center or any business for that matter, do you establish EXACTLY who it is that you're going to target your product or service toward?

Promoting yourself can be expensive and time consuming; time and money that could be better spent doing continued education courses (CEC's) or purchasing new equipment or going on a well deserved holiday. So why not make sure every cent of your marketing investment attracts the most relevant prospect enquiries and conversions by creating a personal training client avatar?

Click Image To Enlarge

What Is A Marketing Avatar?

A marketing avatar is the process of distinguishing exactly who it is that you want to do business with by listing characteristics, hobbies, trends etc. of a specific type of consumer.

For example, if you own a ladies only gym and you're establishing your niche, the first characteristic of your target market's avatar would be that they are female, then you may consider age, income etc.

The avatar that you create with this process should give you a very clear idea of:

a. Exactly who your target market is.

b. How/where you can best promote yourself or your business to appeal to your target market.

There are two types of marketing campaigns in my opinion; 'hit and miss' marketing, like personal trainer profile plaques in a gym and avatar specific marketing like facebook advertising for example.

The Problem With Personal Trainer Profile Plaques

They both cost about the same, but the results differ significantly.

Think about who reads a gym profile plaque. EVERYONE! Sure you'll get a few clients from it, but are they the clients you REALLY want to train?

On the other hand, with facebook advertising (just one example) you're able to systematically eliminate people you don't want to see your advertisement by narrowing down your viewing  field by location, income, gender etc. This essentially qualifies every single person who sees your ad to your target market i.e. people you WANT to train or do business with.

Why Do You Need An Avatar?

• You can create targeted marketing campaigns specific to the person you want to attract based on their habits and demographic.
• Establish measurable results for your marketing budget.
• Forecast your marketing plan more accurately based on seasonal variations.
• Develop your personal branding to appeal to your target market.
• Client retention will improve because you're motivated and equipped to help them achieve their goals.
• Businesses built on hit and miss marketing cannot last, they devour too much time and money.
• You become viewed as an expert in your field when all of your clients fit a certain mould.
• You can set your pricing structure and EFT more accurately.

The way to create your avatar is quite simple, though I do recommend spending some time considering who you wish to train.

Think about your experience and specialty. If you're a competitive bodybuilder for example, solely training overweight people will get pretty boring pretty fast. But if you want to focus on muscular development or contest preparation then you have a start to creating your avatar.

How To Create Your Marketing Avatar

1. Grab a piece of cardboard or open a new word document and call it 'My Avatar'.
2. Find a generic picture online (no blue people) or in a magazine of your ideal client (gender, approximate age etc.).
3. Put this picture at the top of your avatar page and then give them a name. It doesn't matter who it is or what you call them, but make them real.
4. How old are they exactly?
5. Where do they live?
6. Give them a job (or don't if you're after housewives/househusbands)
7. What do they like/dislike?
8. Where do they shop?
9. Are they online (facebook, twitter, myspace)?
10. Do they train currently?

There's 10 to get you started; try and think of 50-60 more characteristics to describe this person.

You can modify and add to their profiles at will. If one avatar isn't working, maybe you're marketing in the wrong channels or in the wrong places. Make several avatars to compliment your range of services but target each one specifically when you're promoting.

I always find making avatar profiles to be a lot of fun, in fact, I have several avatars for my business is fitness, I wonder if I got it right?

Ben

Additional Reading:

The Problem With Personal Trainer Profile Plaques
Half A Tonne Of Fat And Counting!
How To Brand Your Personal Training Business
13 Ways To Improve Your Personal Training Client Retention Rate

Why You Need Twitter And How To Get Hundreds Of Targeted Followers

Twitter is a social media phenomenon, there's no doubt about that. For how much longer is any ones guess, but right now, if you're not participating; you're missing out on valuable personal training business opportunities.

If you have thousands of followers already you may find value in this article to find thousands more, however for those of you who may be new to Twitter or are having difficulty finding targeted followers please read on.

This post is about how I went from 12 to over 2000 targeted followers (personal trainers, fitness professionals and a few randoms) in about 8 weeks (without trying too hard) and how you can do it too.

In the scheme of things, I was quite slow to get on board the twitter bandwagon; I just didn't understand it and none of my real life friends were tweeting, so I paid it no mind. However, since I registered my account @mybizisfitness and put in a little bit of work, I've met a tonne of great people and had one success after another.

If you're new to twitter, I'll be honest; it's kind of weird at first...In the beginning I had no followers and here I was telling no one about my awesome day. For some reason, people began to follow me and keeping with good twitter etiquette, I would follow them back.

After about a month I had a whopping 12 completely random strangers following me. I still didn't get it and wondered why I was wasting my time.

It was time to do some research. I needed to find out why people were using this thing and how I could use it to promote my business is fitness.

I read the twitter rules and began to follow some successful people to see what they would tweet about. I discovered that the most successful tweeters would promote their businesses in between talking about their day, sharing useful links and other bits and pieces of information. They also had a LOT more than 12 followers.

After some research, I discovered that twitter allows you to follow up to 500 people a day. Twitter etiquette tells us that if someone follows you, you follow them back. So that was my strategy; find as many people in my niche as possible and hope that they follow me back.

I began searching the twitter database using a variety of keywords like personal training, fitness business etc. and found it quite inadequate for the numbers that I was after.

If you're like me, when you have a goal you have to achieve it in the most efficient and painless way possible and this definitely wasn't it.

This is when I discovered 2 great tools which made my job very easy: Twellow.com and Twitter Karma.

Twellow.com is the Twitter Yellow Pages. Simply log in with your twitter handle and you're able to search the database and narrow your field by location and keywords. Using my trusty keywords like 'fitness australia' my search returned hundreds of targeted profiles. You could try narrowing your search to location or specific industries depending on the type of followers you want to attract, then it's just a matter of clicking the blue follow button.

As mentioned before; Twitter only allows you to follow a maximum of 500 people per day and there are also limits on your follower/following ratios, so what I found worked was to follow the maximum amount of people I could and then give them a few days to reciprocate.

The problem with Twellow is that it's not completely up to date as some accounts are inactive and some people just don't like to return the love. For these kinds of accounts, I would like to introduce you to Twitter Karma.

Twitter Karma is a great tool for culling out nonreciprocating or inactive twitter accounts as it gives you a clear list of who you are following and who is following you.

Again, simply log in using your Twitter account. Twitter Karma recommends that you use any browser other than Internet Explorer for best results. Your entire list of people you're following and your followers will now be displayed and you can easily 'unfollow' anyone that isn't following you. There use to be a 'bulk unfollow' button but it's been removed, however it's still the most efficient way to clean out your following list to make room to find more followers.

If all you want is followers, you could go nuts using these two tools alone and fill your account with thousands of over a few weeks. You're better to try and have a majority of followers that you can offer value to if building your business is your priority.

I'd also like to mention that while this system worked for me, Twitter may at any time change it's rules on what it deems 'untwitter like conduct' and punish accounts that it believe could be spamming. So please note that if you choose to use the two services mentioned you do so at your own risk.

Ben

Related Articles:
SEO Your Personal Training YouTube Videos And Get Famous
10 Personal Training Tips
4 Qualities Personal Trainers Can Learn From Quentin Tarantino

Personal Training Brainstorm

Off the top of my head, I just came up with 10 different ways someone could make money from their personal training business and not actually do any personal training:

1. Ebook
2. Blog
3. Personal Training Consultation
4. Affiliates
5. Sponsorship
6. Endorsements
7. YouTube
8. Promotions
9. Modelling
10. Outsourcing

Admittedly, I've written about several of these activities before, but that wasn't brainstorming, that was just thinking of a few things that I've done to earn extra money over the years.

Today's goal is to come up with 10 or 20 or 100 different ways that YOU can make extra money with your fitness business. You could just copy that list and call it a day, but that won't give you any value and we're all about value here!

I've mentioned this before on my business is fitness; you can only train so many clients a day, a week, a year; so your income is limited by the hands of time and your own physical and mental well being.

Wouldn't it be great if you could earn more money doing something you love; better yet, earn money while you're sleeping?

I don't know you, but I think you're awesome; so we're going to do some brainstorming on what you think you could do within your business that would generate extra cash and also build your authority in your community and also the fitness industry.

What I've noticed with brainstorming is that you can't force it or just make the magic happen; but often when the magic appears, you're driving, or you don't have a pen and paper, or it's three o'clock in the morning or you're holding a ladder for someone, so sometimes you have to get yourself set then get into the zone.

My formula for a productive brainstorming session is as follows:

• Workout: Nothing clears your head like a hard workout or run. 
• Eat: After the workout, you have to eat, so have something light and nutritious. Nothing fatty or high in sugars as that will bog you down fast and we want this session to go longer than 15 minutes!
• Take A Shower: You probably smell, that's why! A shower will also invigorate you and get you juiced to come up with some ideas.
• Get Some Big Sheets Of Paper Or Cardboard And A Magic Marker Or Fat Pencil: You won't need an eraser, there are no wrong answers in brainstorming!
• MUSIC: I put on something I really like that gets my mind off everything else. I like to start writing down ideas while the music is on and just go with it.

While you're brainstorming money making ideas you want to write down EVERYTHING you can think of that could net you more sweet cash; you can't stop or judge yourself, for that split second you thought your idea was worthy, so get it down!

Once you have your list, look over it and write a dollar amount next to each activity. 

This amount could be what you think you could earn if you did it for 12 months or 5 years. The activities with the highest amounts are generally a good indication of what you will most enjoy doing.

For me, writing and helping people is what I love. My latest brainstorm list for this blog resulted in ebooks and consultations having the highest dollar amounts next to them and that tells me that's what I should be doing...so I am.

I have just finished the first my business is fitness ebook on client retention which will be available quite soon and my free consultation offer is also proving very successful (and almost finished, so get on it!).

Since then I have started another ebook which is a 'how to' for a particular personal trainer promotion that I always had great results with in my business.

These ideas, the blog itself, the t-shirts I'm having printed and the hundred or so other things I have brewing are all the result of brainstorming and taking action.

Opportunities are endless, time isn't, so get started!

Ben

Additional Reading:

Outsource Your Personal Training Business
Personal Trainer Blogging Advice And Tips
10 Personal Training Business Tips

6 Reasons You're Not Making Six Figures

People dive into the personal training business for a variety of reasons. Some for the love of the lifestyle, some to share their knowledge of health and fitness with the world and some to make the magical 'six figures' salary.

Six figures is such a broad and cliched phrase that doesn't really mean anything, though it is a measurable goal and that is what being in business is all about. For the purpose of this article however, let's assume that you have a goal to cross that golden $100,000 line, but unfortunately, are falling short.

If you're not making six figures, here's 6 possible reasons why:

1. Not Doing Enough Work:

Personal training is a full time job. When you're not training clients, you should be marketing and promoting your business. You are your business, without you it's nothing, without marketing yourself and your abilities you're greatly limiting your earning potential.

Owning any business involves a LOT of hours and a lot of responsibilities that many people forget or fail to implement. Training clients should really only make up 50% of your time at best, spend the other 50% developing your systems and infrastructure.

2. New To The Industry:

This one speaks for itself. A lot of people go into business with the preconceived notion that they're going to automatically become successful overnight. While for a very very few select people this may happen, for the rest of us, it takes time and hard work.

Have patience and work hard; the money will come over time if you follow a plan and consistently put in the hours.

3. You're Not Very Good:

You have to be realistic with your own skills and experience. You may be a fantastic personal trainer, but lack the business knowledge necessary to market and sell yourself. On the flip side, you may be a terrific business person but a lousy personal trainer and your clients don't achieve results.

The great thing about these two scenarios is that you can fix both of them. Spend some time identifying your weaknesses and then spend more time improving them.

4. Wrong Market, Wrong Location:

If you're target market is the affluent, then you need to be marketing where these people will see your material.

I placed an advertisement in a veterinary clinic in a very well-to-do neighbourhood and it was one of the most profitable pieces of A5 paper I had ever spent 47 seconds creating.

Choose your location specifically to attract the market that you want to attract. If it's overweight housewives, think about where they would want to train. Besides a convenient location, consider what else they may need to be comfortable.

5. No Identity:

If your niche is too broad - trying to cater to every client with every goal, then you should look to specialising in an area where you can establish yourself as an authority e.g. specific weight management, rehabilitation etc. That way you will be recognised as the best at what you do and can charge a rate reflective of your expertise.

6. Poorly Or No Structured Financial System:

Firstly, if your not very good at collecting or asking for money then you will not make any money. Your time and experience is incredibly valuable, so never be afraid to get paid.

As The Joker says: "If you're good at something, never do it for free". 

Also, make sure you have financial facilities available. You need to have a means to collect payments from credit cards and POS. You need to create an EFT facility, if you can't conveniently collect money, how do you expect to earn money?

If you've ticked all of those boxes and you're still not hitting six figures never fear, I have plenty of other ideas why which I'll cover in later articles. In the meantime, review yourself and your procedures and see if any of the points I've made ring true.

Pull The Six Figure Trigger (I don't know what that means)!

Ben

Additional Reading: How To Make More Money

Do You Have A Personal Marketing Plan?

My Business Is Fitness is predominantly geared toward helping personal trainers and fitness professionals develop marketing and promotional plans for their businesses, but today I'd like to talk about setting up a personal marketing plan for yourself.

Some people only market themselves when they're looking for a new job or if they're looking for business investors, but the reality is, you should be marketing yourself 24/7.

Nobody can market you better than you; you are your business regardless if you're self employed or working as an employee.

So why should you market yourself?

You are constantly being judged in the professional world, by the way you dress, speak, wear your hair and even your handshake.

If you're training clients in a gym, rest assured that your colleagues and/or employers are watching you, not to mention potential clients that might be working out nearby.

You always need to present a professional package. I've seen personal trainers text messaging during appointments and while their immediate client may not be aware of it, their future ones most definitely taking a mental note.

Your personal marketing plan should cover the following:

• What you wear. Are you a walking billboard branding your business? Make sure you are always well groomed from your shirts to your shoes. If you train where you work, consider getting some t-shirts or tank tops made up with your business information on them. Don't train in a t-shirt with a satanic band on it or an offensive slogan.
• Your physical appearance: Do you look athletic? Have you shaved or done your makeup?
• Material objects: Do you have professional business cards, is your car washed, is your workbook organised and neat?
• Your professional personality: While I encourage individuality, if you don't appear enthusiastic, happy and approachable then you might as well get a job in IT. If you're having a bad day, leave it at the door.
• The way you laugh, speak, smile, if you look people in the eye that you're speaking to, nervous twitches; pretty much anything that you can think of, you're being judged on.

Hard to believe, but this is only a small list of things that the public notice and different people notice different things so it's best to cover everything!

So what do you do?

You need to identify who you are and how you can best represent yourself within your personal means. You need to control the message that you send to people.

• Consider your personal point of difference. What can you market about yourself to stand out?
• Consider your target market and what they expect from a personal trainer.
• Find successful fitness professionals who are working in a similar environment to you and notice what they're doing and integrate that into your image.
• Decide on your goals, both short term and long term and incorporate that into your personal message.
• Update your testimonials regularly to reflect your personal growth as a professional.

 As long as you realise that there is ALWAYS someone watching you you're halfway there, you just need to capitalize on that and use it to your advantage.

Ben

Additional Reading: How To Plan Your Success

3 x 30: The Lindsay Lohan Workout!

Most people have heard the big news and watched Lindsay's tearful reaction to receiving her 90 days in jail or 3 x 30 days for each of her offences and while some people scoffed and others made snide remarks, I scratched my chin and came up with the Lindsay Lohan 3 x 30 workout!

Actually, I didn't come up with a real workout...sorry; I suppose if you wanted to you could have some fun with your clients and organise a 90 minute Saturday morning session and call it the 'Lohan', but what I wanted to do today is just highlight how you can use current media events, even trivial stuff like this one to have fun and give your clients original and enjoyable training sessions to look forward to.

I write a lot about the importance of personal branding and finding a point of difference on my business is fitness and coming up with novel initiatives to challenge and stimulate your client base should be at the top of your list.

If your personal trainer sent out a tweet or email or text message telling you there was a 'Free Lindsay Lohan Workout' on Saturday morning, do you think it would at least grab your attention?

Keep your eyes and ears open for what's 'hot' in the media and then try and put a spin on it to make it into a fun and challenging activity for your clients to participate in.

This kind of simple, fun promotion is a fantastic water cooler conversation for your clients to talk about on Monday mornings and that's what you want when it's time to ask for referrals.

Additional Reading: Personal Trainer Marketing Ideas

4 Cheap Personal Trainer Marketing Ideas

I wanted to call this article '4 Free Personal Trainer Marketing Ideas', but that would sound like I was just giving you some free advice, which I am, but cheap keeps things realistic because there are always associated costs with marketing and promotions like petrol, time, electricity, Red Bulls etc.

1. Sponsor a charitable event with your services.

A decent sized event like a marathon or bike ride for charity will likely generate a lot of exposure in the local media as well as posters and flyer's being plastered all over town. When you're a sponsor your logo should be stuck on there somewhere and it won't cost you anything except your time for a few sessions.

2. Write fitness articles and submit them to blogs as guest posts.

I'm a blogger and I know how hard it can be to find enough time to write and publish articles consistently.

Most bloggers are more than happy to accept guest posts if the articles are related to the bloggers niche. Contact some of your favorites and offer to send them a guest post which you will be able to incorporate your business information into and get your work in front of a whole new audience.

3. Use Facebook and Twitter.

Luke from Revolution Personal Training (@revopt) has a fantastic twitter profile, which he regularly updates with timetables and last minute information for clients and potential clients.

The trick with twitter is not to spam too much, because after a while people will begin to just glaze over your tweets and your account will have no value.

Facebook on the other hand is a great tool for updating all of your personal training information, adding photos, testimonials, pretty much everything you can do with a blog. The great thing about a facebook profile or fan page is that you can go out and find people to become fans, unlike a blog or website where you have to rely on SEO and other factors to bring your audience to you.

4. Organise a competition.

If you run your personal training business from a gym or fitness centre, organise a competition where the prize is several training sessions and maybe some other items like gift certificates or vouchers from neighbouring businesses or associates.

It could be as simple as a short questionnaire or quiz asking entrants for their favorite exercises or simple and healthy recipes. They leave their contact details which gives you the added benefit of a new and updated list of potential clients.

There are literally hundreds of inexpensive ways to promote your business, which is good for me because that gives me plenty of opportunity for follow up articles. In the meantime however, give these cheap marketing ideas a try and let me know how you go below...yo.

Ben

Additional Reading:
Half A Tonne Of Fat And Counting