What I mean is that you need to think seriously think about how to market your personal training business or you’ll sink before you even learn how to swim. I’ve seen it happen to way too many trainers.

See, I’ve been in the fitness industry for a long time and I’ve made every mistake you can think of when it comes to starting and growing a personal training business or a fitness center. There weren’t very many resources for me to rely on back then and good quality business advice wasn’t just a Google search away, like it is today. So, I sought out the best, most successful fitness professionals in the business (at the time) and soaked up everything I could so I could out and grow my own personal businesses.

After years of developing and testing out different and unconventional personal training and fitness center marketing, I discovered a lot of really easy and low cost fitness marketing strategies that I feel every personal trainer with a little ambition can pull off.

Personal Trainer Advertising Budget

Okay, so… I know I said I have some free and low cost personal trainer marketing strategies for you guys, but you still have to figure out how much you are willing to spend on getting new clients.

To do this, think about your average client, what you charge them, and how long they usually stay on board with your services. How much money do they bring in overall? For instance, if you charge a client about $250/month and they stay on for an average of 10 months then that’s about $2500 you get from one client. Granted, you have to consider payroll and overhead, which will probably leave you with about 60%.

Looking at the numbers, it would make sense to spend about a months worth if payment ($250) to sign on a new client. Also, it’s very likely that your clients will refer at least one prospect during their stay with you. So, if you think about it… that’s two clients for every $250 that you’re willing to spend.

It’s important to keep track of any and all spending in your personal training business, otherwise it’s hard to tell if you’re earning or burning.

Personal Trainer Sales

The average person who holds a personal trainer certification doesn’t earn a whole lot. In fact, the average personal trainer salary is only about $30,000 to $40,000 a year. Not a lot of payoff for the work that goes into becoming a personal trainer.

The reason that personal trainer salaries are so low is because of the way they go about selling personal training. In order to really grow your fitness business, you have to stop one-on-one personal training. Seriously.

I’m only sharing this with you because I truly believe that one-on-one personal training is a thing of the past. Stop selling single personal training sessions and small fitness training packages. They’re simply not worth the effort.

Group training and fitness boot camps are the number one way to increase your personal trainer salary. What I mean is that unless you are selling one-on-one personal training packages to the really affluent people in your area then you are missing out on your true earning potential.

Think about it, by training more people and charging them less you are more likely to gain a bigger following and grow your personal training business to numbers you couldn’t achieve with one-on-one personal training. You can cut your training sessions in half and offer an intense 30 minute workout and still make more than you could with one-on-one. It’s just an all around smart business move.

Become a Local Fitness Expert

There is a lot of hard work that goes into becoming a personal trainer like taking personal training courses and getting certified, but that’s only the beginning. Being a personal trainer means that you are your business and that requires fitness and personal trainer marketing knowledge.

One really easy, but commonly overlooked personal trainer marketing trick is to become a fitness expert. It really is that simple.

Learning how to position yourself as the personal training expert in your community is a really good idea. Why? Because if you are perceived as the fitness know-it-all in your local area then you have a better chance of grabbing the attention of your target market. It’s all about the know, like, and trust factor. The more a prospect knows about you or your business, the more likely they are to trust what you and your personal training services.

Get your name out there. Use social media sites to introduce yourself to your local community. Start a website and learn a little SEO to get a higher Google ranking. Make it a goal to dominate your local area so that YOU are the only personal trainer that people think of when they think of fitness in your city.

These are just a few personal training marketing ideas to get you started on the right path to growing your fitness business. Check back for more advice, tips, tricks, and secret on personal trainer marketing.

Before you go and sign that franchise agreement with whatever fitness franchise that you’ve been looking at, read this blog post first.

If you’ve ever read the book E-Myth by Michael Gerber then you know that in the first chapter he talks about how franchise businesses have a five times higher success rate than starting your own private small business.

True on all counts.

It doesn’t matter if you’re starting a fitness boot camp franchise or a sandwich franchise – your success rate, as in the odds of you being in business after another two, three, or five years is tremendously higher if you get on board with a franchise.

It’s not rocket science. The reason for this is because franchises usually start out with their own locations to prove the concept, build the systems, and create an operations process before becoming a franchise and selling their “model” to others who are looking at opening a small business… in your case a fitness business.

The problem however is that not all fitness franchises start off with a proof of concept. Instead some franchises will go right to market with their IDEA of what the business should be without proving it.

That’s a BIG red flag for you because if you’re looking for fitness business opportunities and they haven’t taken the time to prove their business concept then you might end up as a “test subject” for them, and not even know it.

That’s just one thing to look out for…

Here are four other things to lookout for before signing the deal with a fitness franchise.

Now, full disclosure: I myself am the president of Fit Body Boot Camp, a fitness franchise based out of Southern California and we offer franchise opportunities for ambitious and entrepreneurial minded people who are looking for the right franchise to partner with. So you might argue that I’m biased toward FBBC and what we do here… and you know what? You’d be right.

But that’s because I believe that we do things better. We’re customer focused and for us it’s all about exceeding industry standards and not just meeting them – so yeah, I am biased.

So without further ado, here are the four key things to look into when reviewing fitness business opportunities that might be right for you.

Thing 1. What does the franchise cost to get on board with? Now this price varies from franchise to franchise. And while some of the “buy in” money is contribution to cost and overhead, the rest of it is profit. I’m not anti profit mind you. In fact, I’m totally for profit, but only when we put people before profits by giving them more than they expected for the purchase they made. So, the question to ask a fitness franchisor is: How much is your buy in fee and what do I get for that?

Thing 2. All franchises have a monthly fee or royalty. That’s the fee that covers being apart of the brand, support, marketing, sales and operation guidance, a protected territory and so on.

The thing is most franchises will change you a percentage of gross revenue. The going rate for this percentage is usually around 6-8 percent. In other words if your fitness business was generating $20,000 a month is total gross sales, and your royalty fee was set at 6% then you’d pay $1,200 a month in franchise royalties.

Now here’s the kicker!

When you work hard and increase your gross sales to $30,000 a month, now that same 6% goes from $1,200 month to $1,500 a month. I look at that as getting punished for working harder and making more money. No thanks. I’m all about a small flat monthly royalty fee. If a franchisor wants to make more than that, they should earn it – we certainly do, and I’m very proud of that fact.

Thing 3. What do you really get with new fitness franchise? Here at Fit Body Boot Camp do these things called “getting to know you calls” with people who are interested franchise opportunities, specifically in owning a Fit Body Boot Camp location.

I’ve taken hundreds of these calls personally and I really enjoy them. It gives me a good opportunity to meet someone who may be a potential FBBC owner, and it gives them the opportunity to get to know me, us, and what we’re all about.

Anyhow, most of these calls go the same way… the same questions from me and the same few questions from them. But the three questions that some people forget to ask are…

1. What’s included in the monthly franchise royalty fee?

2. Are there other additional fees that I’d have to pay or can be responsible to pay?

3. Other than the basic level of support that you’re required to give to a franchisee, are there other levels of support that I’d get?

You’ve gotta know what you’re getting for your money and you’ve gotta know if there are other “hidden” costs that can influence your profit margins. Think of it this way, you’re entering a relationship here.

Thing 4. One of my most favorite quotes comes from Ronald Regan; “trust, but verify.”

Truer words have never been spoken. And when you’re looking for a fitness franchise business to start then you really need to verify what that you’re getting. You may not know this, but franchises are governed for the FTC (Federal Trade Commission).

And while the FTC does it’s best to keep all franchises on the up and up. The fact of the matter is that some franchisors have gotten away with some pretty shady stuff. For example, you should check if the particular fitness franchise that you’re about to get on board with has rights to sell franchise locations in your state.

Most people don’t know this, but every year franchisors must reapply to specific states before they can sell locations in those states. This means that the individual state has looked into the financial standings of that particular fitness franchise and has deemed it “safe” to sell franchises in your state. Trust, but verify.

Another very important thing to do is to speak with other owners of that particular fitness franchise. Don’t just call up the two or three names and numbers that you get from the franchisor – go to their directory and call up a dozen or so random location owners and ask them how they like the business model, the support, and working with the franchise corporate office.

I remember one time when a perspective Fit Body Boot Camp owner was shocked and surprised to hear me say: “why don’t you go to our directory, pick out several FBBC locations across the map and call them up and ask them about their experience owning a FBBC location.”

It just makes sense to do that. After all, if you’re going to get into a relationship with a fitness franchise, then you’ll want to make sure that they are going to be a good fit for you and the vision that you have of your fitness business.

I’m getting ahead of myself here, I’ll get to “her” in a
moment.

Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas was where the action was
at this weekend.

That’s where I was holding the 7 Figure Formula
Mastermind meeting with 22 highly motivated fitness
pros from all over the U.S., Canada, and UK.
Now, every member of this mastermind group is totally
driven and laser focused on getting to their goals.

Our job (Cabel McElderry and I) was to give each
trainer at the mastermind meeting their next set of
marching orders for the upcoming 90 days.

Since early March one member of this group has
added another $8,600 a month in recurring revenue…

…it takes some serious fitness marketing prowess for that to happen.

Another trainer just hit $79,000 a month in revenue
with her personal training business and is just now
opened up a Fit Body Boot Camp as a second
location where she can run the business with less
staff, less overhead costs, reach more clients, and
take home higher profits.

I explain how that works here in this video if you want
to learn more about leveraging a fitness business.

Any how, the members in the 7 Figure Formula
mastermind are really solid trainers…

…some are making multiple six figures already, others
like Cabel, who was once a member of this very group,
and is now helping me run the mastermind is generating
over 1.2 million dollars a year with his personal training
studio and Fit Body Boot Camp location.

Yet others in the group just broke the $100K a year mark
and they’re driven to double, and triple that number over
the months to come.

And then there are the brand new members of the group…

trainers who just got on board at Fitness Business Summit 13
a couple months ago and they’re driven as they come and
passionate as can be.

These new members are the ones that excite me the most
becuase for many of them, just the cost of the mastermind,
the travel, and hotel alone are enough to set them into a
panic.

It’s not like they’re making six figures… yet.

Some of them had to scrape together the money just to get
on board with the mastermind.

It takes balls, determination, and drive to put yourself so
far out of your comfort zone like a few of these new
mastermind members have.

And that’s why they’ll work harder than anyone else,
and they’ll come back to Fitness Business Summit 14
next year, take the stage, and share their story of triumph
and success just like Cabel, Sean Francis, Megan Kruger,
Sonya Gonzalez, John and Cara Eckerman, and Mike
Whitefield have.

Every single one of these success stories started off
wondering how they were going to pay for their coaching
program – but made the decision to do it anyway becuase
there’s always a way.

I remember writing a check for $25,000 to join my first
mastermind group. I also remember having to scrape up
money together just to be able to write that big check.

It was scary paying out that much money for something,
but I knew what I wanted to achieve and I was hell bent
on achieving it, so I found a way to pay for it.

Like I said, it was scarey.

But I can tell you this… I was the one who was paying
the most attention in that group. And I was the one who
took his marching orders, put them into action, and within
60 days had generated $95,000 in new revenue from an
idea I got at that first mastermind meeting I attended.

Yes indeed… the right coaching, from the right coach can
literally change your life in a short 60-90 days.

Back to the mastermind this weekend…

As we went around the room doing “hot seats” with
everyone there we finally got to one of our newest
mastermind members, we’ll call her “Sandy”.

Right off the bat Sandy jokingly said: “take it easy
on me, or you’ll make me cry”.

Even though she was joking… I could tell that she
was very serious about that statement.

Clearly she was new to the group and had no idea
what a lovable and non-intimidating teddy bear I was.

As she started off sharing her business model,
her revenue, her payroll, her expenses, and her
marketing strategies (which didn’t really exist), we
quickly figured out that in the four years that she’s
been running her personal training studio she has
yet to pay herself.

Some months her studio would break even.

Other months she would be upside down.

When it was time for her to ask what she needed
help with the most, guess what she said?

Systems.

Sandy wanted help with systems…

systems like operations, hiring and firing, and systems
to help her better manage her staff.

I was doing all I could to keep myself cool, calm
and collected.

I didn’t want to come off to harsh and make her cry,
at least not at her first mastermind.

So I took three steps towards “Sandy”, and with the same
soft voice I use to speak to my five year old daughter Chloe,
I forced a gentle smile on my face and said…

You’re making a big mistake, Sandy.

The LAST thing that Sandy needs in her business right
now is systems.

What she needs at this very moment is money.

And money comes from marketing and selling.

Nothing else.

I proceeded to tell here, and the rest of the mastermind
members…

I don’t know if you know this or not, but you are in business
to make money.

Do you understand what I’m saying to you, Sandy?

The room fell silent.

Apparently my passion overtook me and I raised my
voice, was pacing back and forth, and my soft smile
had morphed into some sort of a grimace.

Of course, by the time I realized this, it was too late.

Sandy looked at me… I kept my eyes locked onto hers…

…and all of the sudden she cracked a huge smile and
simple said: Yep, I totally get it!

Phew!

We proceeded to give her three ways that she can build
her email list in the next 60 days.

And then gave her two email promotions… one to send
out to her current list of 160 people. And another to send
out in 60 days when her local email list grows to 500 or so.

We also gave her a simple strategy that she can use
this week to get leads and referrals from local businesses.

And finally, we showed her how to use a proven Facebook
client getting funnel to generate more buzz and leads right
away.

For Sandy, and maybe for you too, the answer is not about
more systems, ore more certifications, or more equipment,
or more staff…

It’s about more marketing – the kind that works at getting
you more leads, prospects, and referrals.

And it’s about selling those leads, prospects and referrals
more of your personal training or boot camp programs.

Period.

When you want more clients, do the things that will
get you more clients…

Market better and sell relentlessly.

Committed to your success,

Bedros Keuilian

P.S. Get ready to use fitness marketing resources here.

But I assume you’ve heard of TED talks, right?

Peter is an engineer, and the last person you’d think would know anything about abundance, and how to get it, is an engineer.

But last year Peter spoke at TED and the audience went CRAZY for his message.

This is his talk from TED and it’s very eye opening.

Enjoy

Last week in San Diego one of my coaching clients asked
how to deal with people who criticize, bash, and generally
hate on you.

With a room full of 46 fitness pro I didn’t think the topic of
“dealing with haters” was even worth talking about.

The real reason we were all in that meeting room in San
Diego was to learn how to create, market, and sell fitness
info products online…

…to me, it just seemed that this was going to be a waste
of time to talk about haters since it’s mostly a non-issue.

At least that’s what I thought until another member of the
coaching program showed interest on the topic of haterism,
and then another did.

Look, it’s simple…

If you’re in business, and if you’re any good at what you
do, and if you’re successful at all then you WILL have
haters and people who criticize you and your ideas.

So it’s just best to not pay them any attention, and to
keep your focus on your business and the clients and
customers that you serve.

But since this was a relatively new group of fitness business
entrepreneurs, and since they’re starting to see success
now, they’re also starting to get their fair share of haters.

Now there’s usually two types of haters – the first is the
hater who doesn’t know you personally and chooses to
randomly flair up like a bad hemorrhoid from time to time
and bash you, your ideas, and your business.

The “hemorrhoid hater” might do this on Facebook, on
YouTube, via email or blog post.

They’ll flair up from time to time, hate on you and go away.
The second type of hater is more toxic – poisonous really.

The “toxic hater” has all the same characteristics as the
first type of hater (the “hemorrhoid hater”) as well as a
personal connection to you in some way.

In fact, the second person in our meeting who wanted to
know how to deal with haters was dealing with the toxic
type of hater…

…as it turned out, it was a former employee who had stolen
clients, gone on to open his own training business, and was
now bad mouthing my client to people in their circles and all
over Facebook.

This clearly pissed my client off and even got into his head
a bit – but we set him and the other guys straight in no time
and I’m going to tell you how you’re going to do the same
for yourself when you get your own gang of haters hatin’
on you.

See the “toxic haters” don’t really hate you, your business
or even the ideas you have.

They really hate themselves, what they stand for (or lack
there of) and the fact that you are living the life that they
so badly want, but they’re too lazy, too ignorant, and too
scarcity minded to actually put in the work needed to have.

So they hate on YOU becuase YOU, through your actions,
hold the mirror of truth up to them.

Like Vince DelMonte says, HATERS is an acronym:

Having Anger Towards Everyone Reaching Success

Thanks Shaun Hadsell (who was in that meeting in San
Diego) for sharing Vinny’s profound quote.

Now, I’ve personally dealt with both types of haters…

…and I have no doubt that I’ll deal with them or more like
them in the future – becuase I have no plans of stopping
or slowing down the growth of my business, or the success
that I have been so blessed to achieve in our industry.

Here’s the funny thing about it, most people reading this
probably have no idea that I and Fit Body Boot Camp
were the target of a major hate campaign a year and a
half ago.

Lies, misinformation, and pure hatred were openly spread
about me and my businesses on blogs, YouTube, in emails,
and on Facebook.

It actually got pretty bad…

Like personal bad.

In addition to all the public lies and hatred, I also got direct
attacks and threats via email, and text messages.

Nothing like using modern technology to be an idiot…lol

But I wasn’t about to get sucked into the sh!t slinging they
were trying to stir up.

I was lucky enough to have friends, subscribers, customers
and clients who publicly stood up for me and my character.

I spent my time focusing on helping my clients, bettering
my business, and adding value to our industry.

Why would I take my focus and energy off of my business
and the industry that I’m so passionate about serving to
even address donkeys who hate and lie just to get their
5 minutes of attention in the spotlight before they crash and
burn.

And this is what I shared with the 46 fitness pros in that
meeting room in San Diego last week who wanted to know
how to deal with haters…

Haters hate themselves more than they could ever hate you.

In the moment in might seem like it’s the end of the world
for you and your business – but it’s never as bad as you
make it out to be in your head.

People can always see the truth – always

And those who don’t see it, or choose to believe the lies
are people who don’t deserve to work with you anyway.

It doesn’t matter if you have “toxic haters” or “hemorrhoid
haters”, you can’t let your emotions get the best of you.

Let me tell you… haters are emotionally retarded (I’m no
doctor, but I believe this to be a medical fact), and it’s
their inability to manage their emotions that causes them
to flair up like they do.

Sure they’ll talk garbage, spread lies, and act tough, but
everyone who’s watching can see that they are the weakest
bunch of them all.

Hater’s are no different than bullies in a school yard.

They hate themselves the most, they lack character, creativity,
imagination, and work ethic…

…they live in a constant state of scarcity, fear, and greed and
everything you stand for is what they lack

…they’re always looking for the shortcuts in life and ways to
get to the top without the hard work – let me tell you, shortcuts
don’t exist – add value, do the work, and you’ll get to the top.

Every moment that you spend thinking about haters is a moment
that you could have been helping the people that you serve.

In fact, the most selfish thing you can do is to waste a moment
of your time or an ounce of energy on haters, becuase you have
a commitment to your clients and customers who need your help.

And YOU my friend are in the business of changing lives and
adding value to the lives of your clients and customers.

No matter how bad you want to say something, defend yourself,
or make your case about the haters, know this…

you’ll only bring more attention to a negative subject and you’ll
add no value to your life, your business, or to the lives of your
clients.

My friend and Fit Body Boot Camp owner Rebecca Tabbert
sent me a link to a video clip from Joel Osteen’s website once
which really drove this point home.

Joel told a story about the majestic bald eagle and how it had no
natural enemies other than the mangy and sneaky crow.

See, when a couple of crows spot a bald eagle they chase after
it and start to peck at it while in flight.

The eagle, more majestic and far stronger in every way does what
more people should do when dealing with haters…

…the eagle climbs higher and higher in altitude until the crows
can no longer fly at that level and drop out of the sky becuase
of the thinner air.

YOU are the eagle.

They are the crow.

Fly higher my friend, and don’t waste another moment of your
time or an ounce of your energy on the things that don’t matter.

Committed to your success,

Bedros

Finding the right business plan is critical for starting your fitness business off on the right foot. And you want your fitness business to start off with a bang, right?

Here are some awesome tips I’ve put together for personal trainers out there who are wanting to open their own successful fitness center.

Great marketing is only great when it’s laser focused on a specific group. Once you identify your target audience you can work on a campaign that will bring you the clients you want. Know that wanting to appeal to everybody is not a good idea because you want your clients to feel like your services were created just for them, that way they are more enticed to buy your products or services.

The best way to figure out what your niche is by looking at the what market that would most likely be attracted to you, and which market you’d like most to train. This makes it easier to decide on what services you’d like to provide like strength training and muscle gaining, or fat and weight loss. The more specific you are the better because you want to position yourself as an expert in your field and you can only do that you’re focused on a specific market.

Tip #2 Find Your Top Three Lead Generating Strategies and Track Them

Not only is important to find the best lead generating strategies, but you have to know how to track them. This is critical because you want to see a return on your investment so you need to find out what fitness marketing strategy is working and which ones are not.

A good way to do this is to set up different phone numbers for the different marketing campaigns that you have going out. If you are running a special and you chose to advertise with postcards, include a brand new phone number on that post card so you can actively monitor the calls that come in. Google voice and RingCentral are good ones to check out (they’re free). If you find out that you aren’t getting very many phone calls with your postcards, but you are getting a good response with a print ad that you published, then you’d obviously want to run a bigger print ad. It’s all about figuring out what fitness marketing campaigns work and which ones do not. Who would want to invest in something that’s not bringing you money, anyway?

Do the research to find out what works and stick with it. It’s not about having 50 different fitness marketing strategies, it’s about finding and using the right ones for your fitness business.

Tip #3 Figure Out What to Charge Your Clients

The last thing you want to do with your fitness center business plan is charge what other fitness centers are charging. You should never look to your competition to figure out your own price points because if you’re good at what you do you should be able to charge what you’re worth.

A few things you can do to get started on charging what your personal training services are worth is by offering risk reversal. Risk reversal is like a money back guarantee, where if your clients aren’t satisfied after a certain number of days they can get a refund and not loose anything. This way they feel completely safe handing over their hard earned cash.

Another thing you can do have social proof.  Social proof includes things like testimonials and reviews on sites like your Facebook page, your Yelp account, and your website. This shows the community that you know exactly what you’re doing and positions you as the go-to expert on fitness in your area, and also allows you to charge what you’re worth because people trust you to give them results.

Instead of competing with other fitness centers on pricing, create reasons for why your fitness center is better and more worthwhile to attend than other, that way you never have to worry about what the other guys are charging and you can focus on adding value to your fitness business.

And Another Thing…

One thing you should try to accomplish with your fitness center business plan is to stop being a debt collector and start implementing EFT in your fitness center right away. EFT is great for getting recurring revenue into your business every month. Let your clients know about the convenience of EFT and don’t take a no for an answer. If you’ve done your part in convincing them how much they need your services then they should have no problem switching over to an automated payment system.

Good luck adopting your fitness center business plan and be sure to check back periodically for the best fitness marketing tips, strategies, and tactics for growing your personal training business.

There are way too many chefs in the kitchen these days as it relates to
Facebook marketing.

Everyone is an expert all of a sudden…

Any time I hear the words “social media expert” I tune out.

Wanna know why? The “experts” aren’t spending $20,000 a month
on Facebook marketing like I am.

I’ve been doing that for the last three year.

And I’m a fanatic tester and tracker…

…so if I weren’t making a sick ROI on my investment each and every
month, I wouldn’t be dumping $20K a month into Facebook ads,
promotions, and sponsored stories.

And just because buying traffic works for me, doesn’t mean that it’s
gonna work for you.

So it would be down right stupid for you to look at what I do, and try
to model it.

Not to mention the fact that what you would see from the outside
looking in is not even close to what I’m really doing…

my funnels are complex and involve multiple steps – PLUS I know
the lifetime value of my clients, I know how many people each month
ascend up to my higher level programs and I use all of those
facts to determine how and how much to invest in my Facebook
marketing.

So lesson one: Don’t model my Facebook strategy because you’ll
lose your shirt with a quickness.

Luckily for you, I also get to work closely with my coaching clients

and with our Fit body Boot Camp owners so I get to see what’s
working for HUNDREDS of trainers worldwide, and not just for
a small group.

In fact, since we run the Facebook campaigns for our FBBC owners
in house I get to see all of the metrics on click troughs, conversions,
opt ins, and even purchases.

For example when Sean Francis opened up his Fit Body Boot Camp
location a couple months ago and we helped him set up Facebook
book promotions, squeeze pages, and opt in pages we were able to
help him get his first 100 clients within six days.

The ads were perfectly targeted.

The message was right on.

And the grand opening offer price was totally compelling.

And when another FBBC owner wanted to build an email list quickly,
we ran different types of ads for her to even different squeeze pages
and she got 76 new people added to her list for just under $50 bucks.

Just running a 14 Day Fat Furnace email promo to that list will get
her 8-12 new promotional clients, getting her investment back 1,000%.

Then she’ll end up keeping 3-5 of those people as full paying clients
with a lifetime client value of $2,004 per client.

It’s not always about paid ads and promotions though…

There are a ton of free stuff you can do on Facebook to get more
leads and clients.

Here are a few campaigns that I’ve seen perform best, so start with
these first.

Method 1: The Viral Tag

One of the best ways to engage your fans is to post photos to your
Timeline and onto your clients Timeline (with their permission) and
give them props and recognition.

Why is this important?  Simply put when you tag someone in an
image, all of their friends will see it too. To take that a step further if
you post a photo of a before and after (social proof) their friends will
not hesitate to praise them and give them feedback.

That gives YOU the opportunity to start communication with them and
invite them to try out your training program too.

It’s the coolest and most “under the radar” way to sell, without selling.

Method 2: The Check In

When someone comes into your personal training facility with their smart
phone you can encourage them to check in. In fact this should be standard
part of your fitness marketing system.

Most mobile users will know how to do this already, but just in case they
don’t – you need to. When a user checks in their friends see it in their
timeline.  And beyond that each check in is literally a show of support
for your business. It’s like a mini-testimonial each time they check in.

Method 3: The Facebook Squeeze Page

One of the keys to Facebook marketing is keeping users WITHIN
Facebook for as long as possible – it’s a ‘trusted space’ for the user.

Once they leave Facebook a certain measure of trust is lost.

So the longer we can keep them within Facebook’s four walls the greater
the level of trust.

So it just makes sense to drop you squeeze page (a simple web page that
makes an offer for a special report in exchange for email addresses) into
a Facebook fan page tab and not on your website somewhere.

Facebook has given us the ability to create a customized tab on our fan
pages and within that tab you can place almost any kind of site or squeeze
page.

So you can take any of the squeeze page codes and cut and paste it into
your Facebook fan page tab and you now have a squeeze page on Facebook
to send traffic to.

That’s a nice and easy way to build your email list with a quickness by either
running targeted ads to that page, or by asking your clients to post a link to
that page for a free report on their wall for all their friends to see.

Free traffic and leads.

So forget about all the cool fancy things that people claim to be working for
them. The more you complicate something the scarier it gets and the less
likely you are to do it.

The three Facebook clients getting tactics I showed you above have worked
for a large group of trainers – so they’re likely to work for you, too.

Committed to your success,

Bedros Keuilian

P.S. You an get over ten different squeeze pages to use on your Facebook
fan page here. PLUS you’ll also get one of my top performing email promotions
ever to send out to the new list you’re about to build. Go here to get the squeeze
pages and the email promotion that I’ve crafted for you.

I’ll give you one guess.

Referrals… that’s what.

While I’m all about having multiple poles in the water at all
times and using funnels like…

- a killer web site
- lead boxes
- deal of the day promos
- direct mail and print ads
- email promotions
- pay per click ads
- Facebook marketing
- joint venturing with local businesses

no other fitness marketing beats getting referrals from the people
who know, like, and trust you and use your service on a daily basis.

Truly, one of the biggest compliments you can get as a fitness
expert is when one of your clients tell a friend about you, right?

Now if you’re one of those trainers who says; “yeah but I can’t
seem to get referrals no matter how much I ask”, then I can
tell you that you don’t referral generation problem…

you, my friend, have a client experience and client loyalty
problem.

There are only two secrets to getting all the referrals you can
handle.

SECRET #1: Deliver on your promise and exceed your client’s
expectations. In other words give your clients the results they
expect to get.
duh… that’s a no brainer

And give them an experience in service that they can’t get
anywhere else.

- make your training center their second home

- keep the workouts fun and exciting

- maintain a clean and modern training facility

- organize things outside of your facility like client appreciation
parties, charity walks, and mud runs…

…in other words grow your training center beyond your
four walls.

SECRET #2: Make referral generation a condition of doing
business with you.

By that I mean the moment a client signs up to train with you,
as you shake hands and welcome them aboard let them know
that as they begin to see amazing results – the greatest compliment
they can ever give you is to refer their friends, family and co-workers
to you.

See, once you set that condition, as long as you are delivering on
your promise… you can ask for referrals and you’ll get them all
day long.

Now as far as what type of referral generation system to run…
you’ve got a TON of option.

For example, Tulsa Fit Body Boot Camp owner Stephanie
Flynn ran a simple referral contest that got her a BOATLOAD
of new clients.

She created a contest that ran for a week.

The rules of the contest were simple… the client who delivers
the most referrals during that week wins a iPad mini.

The “offer” was simple, too.

Stephanie told her clients that they could offer her 14 Day Fat
Furnace to their friends for only $25, just for that week.

The client who refers the most during that week wins the iPad
mini. Stephanie keep a marker board up and tracks who’s sent
the most leads (this also creates a fun sense of competition for
her clients).

Three reasons why that’s brilliant…

1. These are referrals from existing clients so they are far more
qualified and are more likely to convert into paying clients.

2. By charging something, in this case $25 she get the person’s
credit card info making it easier to convert them into paying clients
when the time comes.

3. Stephanie doesn’t pocket that $25, oh no. That’s what an
amateur what do. She uses the money to love up her new clients.

See, she spends that $25 that she got back on that new clients
during the two weeks they’re on board. She’ll send them a welcome
to boot camp card in the mail, then give them a Starbucks gift
card, and even some FBBC gear.

It’s all about the WOW factor and giving that person not only
a great workout, but also a great experience that they’ll want
to stay on board for.

Exceeding expectations.

And while Stephanie motivates her clients in person and via email
during that week of the referral contest – her clients are telling
their friends and co-workers via email and on Facebook to come
try Tulsa FBBC for two weeks for only $25.

That’s how to run a referral generation contest.

Now, that’s not the only referral generation strategy to use
though.

You can run something similar and give your clients a $100
plastic gift card to hand out to their friend and co-workers.

Again run the contest for a week, track it on a marker board and
keep the friendly competition alive.

But here’s the “trick” to getting the most from the plastic gift
cards during a referral contest like this.

Every day ask your clients for the names, emails, and phone
numbers of the people they gave the gift cards to.

This way, instead of waiting for that person to come in and
redeem that gift card – which may or may not happen in this
decade.

You can reach out to each new referral, let them know that
you’re calling to activate their gift card that they got from
their friend who’s also a client of yours.

It’s all about being proactive!

Another one of my favorite referral generation strategies is
the email promotion that I crafted for my coaching clients.

It’s called the Fitness Ambassador Contest and it works like
this…

- a six week transformation program that’s offered to your
clients and to your prospects.

- the program WILL MAKE YOU MONEY becuase it’s $199
for the six weeks for people on your prospect list and only
$99 for your existing clients.

- the whole thing is based on a point system… fat loss, strength
gain, and referrals get them point.

And that the end of the six weeks the person with the most
points wins and become your fitness ambassador.

Basically they become the ‘face’ of your business in your ads
or on your website and you get them a makeover for winning
the contest.

Of course you also have all those people who joined the
program to convert into paying clients.

Even if you have a small email list of clients, past clients
and prospects this email promo will work great for you.

I crafted all three email for you to mail out to your list, and
you can get them from here for only $1.

I’d say that’s a pretty good deal, right?

The video that you just watched was from Fitness Business Summit 13. If you missed FBS13, you can now get all of the videos from FBS13 along with the presenter power points, and the notes that were taken from my professional note taker.

Go here for more info on footage from Fitness Business Summit 13

>> Click Here To Watch More Free Videos From Fitness Business Summit <<

Since that day I haven’t been able get our call out of my mind, mainly
becuase I know there might be other trainers who are in the same mental
state as he was in… maybe even you.

Our conversation started off like this…

Me: So what’s your most wanted outcome from your business.

Him: More clients, so that I can make more money.

Me: You know, you can just charge the clients you have more and
make more money that way,

Him: I’m charging the most I can.

Me: Are you the highest priced fitness and fat loss service in town?

Him: No, I’m middle of the road. A few others change more than me,
and some change less.

Me: So there is room to raise your prices.

Him: Well, yes.

Me: Why is it that you don’t think you can change more for your program
when other similar businesses do?

Him: My demographic can’t afford to pay more.

Me: Who is your demographic? What do you specialize in?
What’s your niche?

Him: It’s really anyone who wants to workout and get it shape. I don’t
actually have a “niche”.

Me: if you could train any type of person or only specialize in a specific
outcome for your clients, what would it be?

Him: (he lit up!) I’d just train for rapid fat loss and muscle definition!
See, a lot of that is all about DIET and that’s what my degree is in and
that’s what I specialize in. But most people just want to workout and don’t
care to eating right. So I’m stuck training everyone, and their results are
so so at best because they just don’t care to focus on diet.

Me: That’s your niche my friend! Your entire marketing message should
be “if you want to lose WEIGHT and just look skinny-fat then there are
lots of options in our town for you. But if you want to lose FAT – quickly,
AND have a lean athletic body that turns heads, then I’m your man and
I can help you achieve that body becuase REAL fat loss and an athletic
body is made in the kitchen and not just in the gym”.

That marketing message would do three things for you…

1. You’d create your own category and make competition irrelevant.

2. You’d only attract the type of people that you want to train and
who would for certain follow your eating and nutrition program.

3. Because it’s what you’re most passionate about, you’d make more
money… which is what you mentioned you wanted at the start of our
call.

Him: (silent for a few long seconds)… Okay, I get it. What do I need to
do next?

We laid out the game plan for him and he’s been hard at work since.

But, you might be stuck looking for ways to get new clients too… or
to make more money… or just to cut back on your working ours so
you can actually have a life.

The average trainer in the United States makes $34,500 a year.

That’s like $2900 a month.

That’s not a lot of money at all. Heck even twice that isn’t going
to go far these days…

And that’s why I wanted to talk to you about this today.

Look, if you want more money, more income and higher profits then
the secret is not always to get more clients.

In fact, in some cases getting more clients will only put you under
greater stress and hardship if you’re not prepared to handle and
service the influx of new clients.

It’s really about figuring about what you want from your business,
and that’s the thing that a lot of trainers forget to think about.

I know a trainer who only teaches 9 AM boot camps and that’s all.

He charges $299 a month and has about 28 clients and he’s totally
happy with that.

He loves to sleep in. He doesn’t want the headache of employees,
so boot camp once a day makes total sense to him…

…and he’s fine making around $8,000 a month with no opportunity
to make more.

I mean the guy can’t make more money unless he takes on more
clients – which he chooses not to.

And he’s never going to wake up early in the morning to train clients
at 5:30 AM.

He’s fine with all of that.

That’s what he’s passionate about, that’s what he’s good at and that’s
exactly what he wants to be doing… 9:00 AM boot camp with no more
than 30 clients, and no employees.

And for a one man show he’s doing as fine as fine can be.

The guy works a total of about 3 hours a day for crying out loud!

It’s not something I could do…

I’d want more clients, more income, and to do that I’d hire a trainer or
two and an assistant to ramp the business up to about $20K – $25K
a month.

But that’s not what he wants.

And so he’s happy with what he’s got.

He’s following his passion. And that’s the factor that determines if you’ll
make it or crash… if you’re happy with what you do or if you just feel like
a hamster on a wheel.

Because success and money follow passion.

But it’s never the other way around.

And if you want to make a lot of money in this industry than you’ve got to be
passionate about what you do, the market you serve and the “thing” you
specialize in, because sooner or later you’re going to encounter the suck
factor; hardships, challenges, and obstacles and that’s when a business is
either going to sink or swim.

All businesses hit the “suck factor” at some point… in fact, several times
a year you might hit a suck factor.

That’s just life and that’s the nature of doing business.

Sooner or later you’re going to encounter something that sucks.

A sucky situation.

A sucky client.

A sucky business partner.

A sucky competitor who’s trash talking.

A sucky tax bill.

A sucky something.

Passionate entrepreneurs welcome the suck factor, because they know
that when they get to the other side of it, they’re going to be in a better place.

Money and success follow passion.

And passion is what get’s you through the suck factors in life.

It’s a simple equation.

So why don’t you take some time later today or first thing tomorrow morning
and figure out what your most desired outcome is from your business.

Build most wanted outcome around your passion.

And take massive action on it every day.

Let nothing stop you from achieving it.

And when you encounter a suck factor… and you will, you can welcome it
becuase your passion will get you through it every time.

Committed to your success,

Bedros