Fitness enthusiasts have changed. You now must go after these more elusive customers who have been overwhelmed by every conceivable advertisement, infomercial and sales pitch promising fast and simple physique transformations. You are now looking to attract a potential client who has been conditioned to look for the quick fix. They have been led to believe there are shortcuts. This leads to your greatest obstacle of all, mass skepticism.
In other fields, marketing means simply convincing your prospects to invest in you rather than your competitor. As a fitness entrepreneur, competition may be the least of your marketing challenges. Of course you will need an awareness of how you can out maneuver, outsell and out manipulate your competitor. But, if you see that as your marketing focus, you are wearing blinders. Probably 70-80% of your potential market does not presently go to any health club. If you and your competitors struggle over that 20-30% that do, you’ve critically predetermined your own limitations.
The key to the success of your fitness related business is marketing. If you don’t strategically plan your marketing attack, you’ve taken a quick turn onto the path toward guaranteed failure! So if it is that important, we should define it. For our purposes, the term “marketing” encompasses all activities that are directed toward ultimately attracting new business.
Too often, marketing is viewed as synonymous with advertising. If you share that view, it’s time to open up to new horizons of attracting business. Advertising can and should be a tiny portion of your marketing. The worst thing you can do is count on your advertising to make you money. Advertising should really be no more than 5% of your marketing. If advertising is all that you do or if you see advertising and marketing as the same, that simply means that you are missing out on 95% of what you can do to generate business.
Next Monday we will look into why advertisement should only be 5% of your marketing and what, besides advertising, is considered marketing.
Ryan Farrell started working with the National Federation of Professional Trainers (NFPT) in 2012. As NFPT's Marketing Coordinator, Ryan is responsible for aiding company reputation by building brand awareness and establishing strong working relationships among NFPT, its affiliates and industry partners.
