Fitness Marketing: Establish Yourself as an Expert

Your fitness business is the same. Even if you're a fitness expert, you won't attract clients if you don't take steps to promote yourself. Marketing is the secret ingredient that can turn a struggling business into a successful one.

So what does that entail? Read on to find out.

Specialize Your Services
You can't hope to be an expert at everything. Improving the fitness of others is a noble occupation, but if you've been gathering clients from all walks of life, there's no way you'll have the time - or the knowledge - to meet each person's individual needs. You'll be spreading yourself thin, and the quality of service you provide will suffer for it.

It may be difficult to do, but if you have dreams of fitness stardom, you'll need to narrow your focus to a specific niche. For instance, your services could specifically target senior citizens and their needs:

- Osteoporosis prevention through weight training? Check.
- Improved flexibility through yoga? Check.
- Weight loss and heart-healthy diets to combat disease? Huge check.

Once you've honed your focus, you can explore the depths of your niche - gaining competence, credibility, and clients along the way.

The Best Things in Life are Free - The same goes for Marketing
Some fitness professionals pump all their funds into chasing cold leads and hunting for prospects, thinking the more money they pour into marketing, the more of a return they'll get.

This is what they call the sunk cost fallacy - "throwing good money after bad" - and it will send you spiraling into financial ruin.

But if you'd rather keep all your precious toys, not to mention your business afloat, use low- to no-cost options as much as possible. "Cheap" doesn't have to mean the same as "low-quality": word-of-mouth referrals and Craigslist ads cost nothing, but they can bring in more customers than print ads or commercials.

Establish yourself as a complete Health and Wellness Resource Are you happy with being "just" a personal trainer? You shouldn't be. You should endeavor to become your clients' #1 resource about all things health-related. When your clients have questions about supplements or protein shakes or diet fads or whether they should cut back on the Krispy Kremes, you should be the first person they come to.

If your clients have questions to ask, answer them. If they don't, answer the ones they should be asking. If you can provide everything that your clients could want in a health professional, you'll be more than just a personal trainer to them: you'll be someone they can trust, and they'll gladly refer you to their friends and family.

Use Special Offers to bring in Long-term Business
Some professional trainers don't like offering discounts, free services, and special rates because these seem like surefire ways to lose money. This is true - if you're only thinking about immediate income. But if you give a free training session to a client who ends up sticking with you for five years, how many times will you regain that initial loss? Let's leave that as an exercise for the reader.

Never lose sight of the big picture when it comes to marketing. A client who pays a discounted price for a month is worth far more than a client who pays for a single full-price session and then vanishes.

And if that's not enough don't forget that long-term customers are likely to buy even more services from you during their patronage, giving you even more income.

Make every client feel like a Million Bucks!
Now that you've got long-term clients, how do you keep them?

Your clients live in their own personal hell, a depressing little pocket of existence shared by many others, who one and all seem to live only to crush the self-worth out of them. To your clients, you may come off as a guardian angel of sorts, one of only a few people they know who doesn't seem bent on sucking all the joy out of their lives.

Strike while the iron is hot. Welcome your clients with excitement and enthusiasm. Show interest in their lives. Congratulate them on their progress. Thank them for their effort. Add a personal touch by sending them special birthday gift certificates. Your roads to earning the gratitude of your customers are limited only by your imagination.

Just think: if your clients feel like they're truly important every time they walk in for a training session, what will then they tell their friends, families, and colleagues about you? Happy clients mean more referrals: now that's math you can take to the bank.

Take your fitness career to new levels with Advice For Personal Trainers, the Internet's MOST trusted resource for Personal Trainers and Fitness Experts.

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