Fit Business Insider

Two fitness businesses, $19,422.37 a month and a wife that was able to retire at the age of 30.

Life is good but it hasn’t always been this way.

I’ve had to shed many tears, bump my head on several obstacles and even entertain the thought of quitting. I think I even fought bouts of depression as I struggled trying to force my fitness business to work.

I definitely don’t want you to have to endure some of the same emotions and turmoil that I did, so I’m going to give you 3 powerful boot camp marketing tips that have helped me reach the point of success. Believe me, success isn’t about the money, although it doesn’t hurt, but about the peace of mind that I have the opportunity to share with those that I love the most.

You deserve the same thing if you don’t have that already and here are the 3 tips that will help you get there:

1. Create The Ultimate Experience

Too many “personal trainers” are just showing up to their sessions. Just there because the have bills due at the end of the month. That’s not you; right?

The best marketing you could ever do is to create the ultimate fitness experience. When your campers come to see you they should view that time as their getaway from everything else that life deals them. Here are a few
things you can do:

• Greet each person individually with a smile every time they show up
• Praise them with enthusiasm when they reach a milestone
• Ask them about something personal in their life
• Send them a personal card or letter
• Personal phone calls to tell them they are doing a great job
• Recognize them in front of others
• Remember and recognize their birthdays and anniversaries
• 15 minute coaching calls

2. Build Strategic Alliances

Let’s face it. Every smart business owner knows that we will not survive on our own. So, it is important to know how you can help another business and how the may be able to help you in return. We call this…creating a win/win
situation.

Your goal should be to joint venture (JV) with as many other businesses as possible. You always want to go in with a giving hand and here are two things that will help you speak with confidence every time you approach a
potential JV:

A. Make a list of every possible thing that your business has to offer. I mean everything…think outside the box. Keep this list and continue to add to it as ideas hit you over the months and years.

B. Take the decision maker to lunch. Remember, you are looking to build a long-term relationship with some very key business owners. There is nothing like getting them out of their typical environment to level the playing
field and begin that relationship by you doing something nice for them.

3. Unconventional Promotions

People have become desensitized to normal advertising and self-promotion. You have to do something to catch their attention and that means getting a little crazy sometimes.

Referral Programs – I did one where I gave away a month free for every referral that signed up during a 2 week period. This created a frenzy and I had a couple of campers that got 4 free months of boot camp. All total I
brought in 16 new campers in 2 weeks.

JV Promotions – Now that you have the joint ventures that we talked about earlier, you can run some great promos with them. I partnered with a liquor store with a promo called “Drink Wine, Look Fine.”

Concept – We created a “wine of the month” at this local liquor store and every customer that buy that bottle during the month gets a free month membership to my boot camp. I get a solid 3-10 new leads a month from that.

Starting, growing and maintaining a successful fitness business can be a daunting task and also very rewarding. I’ll be honest with you, one of the biggest differences in my career was finding resources that worked so that I didn’t have to reinvent anything.

It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t tell you that the Bootcamp Blueprint was the single biggest resource that opened my eyes to how to rapidly grow my fitness boot camps to close 200 members, 7 locations and 5 trainers. I love logging into the Bootcamp Blueprint forum to pick and choose the business tools that I want to use for that month.

I hear that the guys (Pat, Nick, Jim and BJ) are about to open the Bootcamp Blueprint up again to accept new members and I have tell you, “You do not want to miss the opportunity to have a full business placed in your lap.”

I’ll leave it at that.

I’d love to hear from you so post your comments below and feel free to add any boot camp growing tips that you might have for our fellow fitness professionals out there.

Donovan Owens is the Creator of Busy Women Boot Camps, which provides 30 minute fat loss sessions for busy women. He has stepped into the corporate fitness world in a big way with his Employee Fit Boot Camps, which delivers an on-site fitness experience for your work place. Donovan is also proud to be an National Business Coach for Ultimate Business Systems and the Boot Camp Blueprint. You can learn more about Donovan by joining him on FACEBOOK and following him on TWITTER.