A post of creating a fitness marketing system by Pat Rigsby

Getting fitness professionals to actually employ a fitness marketing system is a chore. It’s not something that they’re normally inclined to do or that they enjoy

I get it.

So how can a fitness pro be motivated to market it a way that will be effective?

Enter The Interval Fitness Marketing System.

This approach will be something that we’re going to deliver in a Done For You format for Fitness Revolution franchisees – but it’s something that you could employ on your own successfully as well.

First, let me give you a little back story though.

In my experience, the thing that prevents fitness pros from adhering to their own fitness marketing system is consistency.

They don’t want to do the things necessary to get big results day after day, week after week, month after month.

It’s really a lot like training clients, right?

Outside of the best clients, if they don’t have a deadline or a goal – keeping them focused and consistent can often be a challenge.

One of the ways that we’ve seen many fitness pros overcome this challenge is to hold short term events to get clients focused. Transformation Contests, 21 Day Challenges, etc.

These work well for a variety of reasons – in large part to the fact that there is a deadline. A light at the end of the tunnel for the participant to focus on. Because of this they can focus all their efforts on succeeding in the challenge. They’re temporarily motivated to follow the plan more closely than they would at any other time.

Right?

So why not follow this same approach with marketing?

That’s the basis of the Interval Fitness Marketing System.

You basically go into a full marketing sprint several times per year and then you market at a much lower intensity the rest of the year.

You aggressively run 4-6 compressed, intensive promotions each year – and you hit them incredibly hard. The rest of the time, you downshift into doing simple stuff.

Here’s how this could potentially lay out:

You pick 6 big events for the year. Maybe something like this:

2 Transformation Contests

2 Short 21 or 28 Day Promotions

1 Referral Contest

1 Reactivation Campaign

 

In January you run the first Transformation Contest. You hit it hard.

• You hit current clients with email, face to face, internal signage, personal calls and even direct mail.

• You do an email / direct mail campaign to unconverted leads and former clients.

• You run a Facebook ad campaign, leverage social media and press release the Contest.

• You reach out to joint venture partners and send a promotion out through their lists.

• You set up a strong referral program for your current clients.

 

In March you run a Referral Contest.

• You lean on all your JV partners for donated or discounted prizes.

• You distribute gift cards, done for you emails and other tools to make referring easy.

• You come up with a reward system for anyone who refers a lead and every referrer is entered in the contest to win some big prizes.

In May you hold a 21 or 28 Day Swimsuit Ready Challenge.

• Again you hit current clients with email, face to face, internal signage, personal calls and even direct mail.

• You do an email and call unconverted leads and former clients.

• You run a Facebook ad campaign, leverage social media and press release the Challenge. Maybe you even get some local celebrities to participate.

• You reach out to joint venture partners and send a promotion out through their lists.

• You set up a strong referral program for your current clients where they can participate free if they refer a friend.

 

In September run a Team Transformation Contest.

• Each team must have at least 2 non-clients.

• You get current clients to form teams through the same marketing channels you used in January.

• You invite unconverted leads and former clients to be part of teams.

• You again a Facebook ad campaign, leverage social media and press release the Contest.

• You reach out to joint venture partners and see if they want to field a team.

• You come up with great prizes for the winning team.

 

In October you run a Reactivation Campaign and do a 3 Letter Sequence to former clients.

You mix in 3 emails and a personal call.

 

Then in early November you run 21 Day Finish Strong Challenge where you market the exact same way you did in May, but this time using the Holidays as the end of the contest.

In between and during – you’d just do some simple stuff like run a Bring a Friend Charity Workout each month, do some networking and maybe some email fitness marketing and social media.

 

That’s the Interval Fitness Marketing System.

 

4-6 full out sprints throughout the year and then you just do the simpler stuff the rest of the time.

What I love about this is it gives you something to focus on for a short period of time – but each of the bigger events will produce a bunch of leads you can continue to market to the rest of they year in your newsletter and for future events.

So if you’ve had trouble staying consistent with your marketing – give the Interval Fitness Marketing System a try. I think it might be exactly what you need to get your marketing in gear.

Let me know what you think below…

Dedicated to Your Success,

Pat