Fitness marketing to midlife women, that works

Five years ago she was ignored.

Today she’s not ignored but she’s stereotyped.

Midlife woman trying too hard to look younger, a face frozen and plumped with Botox, wearing clothes she can share (but look slightly “off”) with her daughter.

A midlife woman who’s operating on the 1980s metabolism science she learned. Relies on calories, steps, heart rate, and data, that ignore the state of her hormones.

A midlife woman who enjoys at least a glass and maybe three of wine most days, starts with coffee and flirts with fasting but has no idea what a “healthy diet” is for her today.

A midlife woman who thinks exercise is about burning… calories, off fat… so she can “fix” what she doesn’t love about her body.

She’s all these and more.

If she gets a compliment it’s veiled in a disclaimer.

You look great for your age.

Body shape motives are not the only thing that gets her going.

Promoting weight loss may be detrimental to her participation.

Don’t forget the women who don’t need to lose weight but who have experienced a relocation of body weight, those with disease risk factors, who want more energy, want to be proactive in aging, or gain bone density.

Women control an incredible amount of buying power.

Even before women were in the workplace equally they influenced 80% of household decisions. They still do now that they are in the workplace.

They are diverse.

Even marketing to the niche of women post menopause is unique.

ICAA categorizes them as “athletic” if they regularly exercise 3 or more times a week.

For some this is running, biking, lifting and swimming, but for others it’s a walk or yoga.

So, clearly you can’t treat them all the same.

Naturally, though, it’s easy to think you know her. You may be her. Your mom, aunts, or prior clients are her. Therearecommon denominators.

But the things that make them unique are what make their program and the way you attract them and serve them unique.

If you miss them, you’ll lose her.

Barriers to marketing to midlife women:

“For active, athletic, middle-aged women there is just nothing.

A 22-year old doesn’t get it and I’m not in wheel chair, there isn’t much for us between.”

Even if you offer something between the gap described above by a Flipping 50 program participant, you may not be getting the message across.

You want to reach her:

1) Where she is

2) With a message created for her

2) In a way she hears it

3) Without offending her

The Biggest Mistakes Fitness Marketers Make (and we’re all fitness marketers)

Thinking they are all the same:

How do you think of them?

Do you imagine they’re frail, stiff, in pain, lack energy, did aerobics with Jane Fonda or Jackie Sorensen, are empty-nesters, have grandchildren, have belly fat, cellulite, want weight loss, want belly fat loss…

Did you know?

Some of them are doing their first triathlons, learning to swim so they don’t drown in open water, going to training camps to ride bikes in mountains, skiing downhill at 50 miles an hour, wearing bikinis, learning to weight lifts and have kindergarteners?

And starting their entire lives over by themselves or with someone new, starting businesses… so they’re not afraid of a little grind.

Thinking you know her goal:

If the title of your program isn’t a coffee table book you’d happily display at your home, rethink it. No 50-something, 60-something, and there’s a strong chance 70-something wants to “own” needing a fall risk reduction class.

She doesn’t want to buy the fear she wants to buy the transformation.
Don’t think you know what she wants. Don’t put it into words what she needs with your titles. Describe what she wants.

It might be performance – golf, running, starting triathlon, (or anything else after retirement).

It might be to avoid cognitive decline, depression, anxiety, or muscle or bone density losses.

More positively though, it is hope.

 This year, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of her controversial debut, Switzer ran the Boston Marathon again with the same bib number she wore in her first. “People still treat older people the way they treated us women 50 years ago, which is, ‘Be careful! You might hurt yourself!’ when in fact the opposite is the case,” Switzer told Prevention. “The more you do, the more you can do! There are lots of women who have run marathons at 70, 80, even 90. I was only eighth in my age group at Boston [in 2017], for heaven’s sake!”

Prevention Magazine, Nov. 2017

Examples of Michele Obama, Ernestine Shepherd, Madonna Buder -The Iron Nun, and a growing number of aging iconic fitness professionals are showing the world a new way to age.

But it’s not normal yet.

Because even she will say, “I think I look pretty good for my age.” She’ll say, “I’m getting so old.” She’ll say that even while she doesn’t want to be treated as “old” or invisible.

She feels invisible.

Environment is everything. Have you noticed how people are flocking to sites where exercise over 50 or aging is included in the title? If positive things happen there, people will gather. Be one of them. Be positive.

Be correct, but be positive.

Growing Bolder is one of the most well-know sites for older adults. Why? It positively portrays aging. It defies traditional treatment of aging. It makes fun on occasion of older adults. But it does so in a playful, not condescending way.

The Aging Triathlete and Thriving Not Surviving are two Facebook pages by midlife and older women describing their own journeys from inactive, or in need of a health intervention, to triathlon training.

Did you know?

Age-related decline in triathlon (swim, run, and bike) starts earlier in swimming than in cycling or running. Isn’t that bizarre since you and I would both probably recommend swimming more and more as someone got more limited with joint issues.

Not Acknowledging Her Barriers

Not knowing how far and wide fitness benefits take them

Not having had good examples

Having old habits and thoughts about exercise

Time (perceived need)

Fear of getting hurt

Lack of trust for fitness “professionals” 

Relate to Her and Overcome Objections

You might be thinking…is a golden phrase to use when you’re working on this type of copy.

Create a Better Offer:

Solve a real problem

They know they have

They are actively seeking a solution for

They have some urgency for

So you can…

Relate to Her. You must:
Be Vulnerable

Tell a Rags-to-Riches story

Reveal your real life vs. Cinderella life

Tell your story…

Start with, when I was…

Know What She Wants, What She REALLY Wants

• It’s not weight loss.
• It’s not dumbbells.
• It’s not a scale or tape measure.
• It’s not a salad.

What is your WHY?

• Your Why
• Your Business Why
• Why she should do it right now

Get testimonials for marketing to midlife women from midlife women.

How do you get a perfect testimonial?

This question:

What almost stopped you from registering/getting started?

Audit your images:

Are you showing HER?

Are you showing the dream? 

She doubts:

Your program will work

For her

She doubts her.

Universal Truths of Marketing to Midlife Women

She thinks she’s unique.

She thinks she’s flawed.

She thinks she’s uniquely flawed.

It’s not a good time.

Just because you’ve always done something or thought a certain way doesn’t mean you can’t change it.

She has free will.

She’s failed before.

This is not her first rodeo.

Success dulls the knife. Failure sharpens it.

Failure is data. She doesn’t know that yet or think it yet.

She blames failure on a lack of willpower, discipline, or motivation.

She’s a prove-it-to-me girl.

Make sure you know what you’re talking about.

• Facts and what she calls herself.
• 70-year olds don’t call themselves “seniors.”
• 50-year olds resent getting the AARP card in the mail.
• She doesn’t recognize herself in the mirror sometimes.

Write copy like you ARE your ideal customer. Get a copywriter that is your ideal customer. If you have a 20-something writing copy or on social media make sure they give you examples of their work. Get a focus group together and get their thoughts. Listen to them. Don’t object or defend. Let your current customer tell you what they would have wanted to hear.

Interview.

Have a Third Party interview your ideal customer.

Create 5-6 questions. Use these as examples:

• If you could wave a magic wand what would you like to change about your fitness right now?
• How long have you felt this way?
• What have you tried?
• What do you hate about _______?
• What would you love to see change?
• Is there anything else you’d like to add?

She likes to give and she’ll support businesses that do more than profit or provide a service.

• Partner with a charity (shoes, mittens, winter coat drive, food pantry)
• Percent of proceeds donated
• Employ underprivileged
• Support water in the world
• Scholarship youth into your programs
• Host community events

Change your approach

What if you mocked your own product and service?

Explain how it works instead of catchy titles.

All the things that midlife women hate and turn them off…

• Baby Gap shirts on muscle bound men
• Made-up women working out in LuLulemons
• Chicken breast and egg whites
• Walking into the male dominated weight room

Pink Dumbbells are Your Enemy!

Women respond to colors of the sunset.

She IS working. She may have the corner office.

She IS overwhelmed.

She DOES think a lot about her family and juggle responsibilities.

She is willing to spend. She’s not finding good choices.

She wants someone who understands her kinesiology, physiology, endocrine system, and her socialization.

She’s got some unlearning to do.

She may decide to do a marathon or a triathlon in a decade or so.

She’s not done.

But she does need to get started.

These and more are the way to fix mistakes you’re making in marketing to midlife women, make yourself the best choice, and once you get her, help her and keep her loving life… and the role you play in it.

Isn’t that what it’s all about?

If you’d like some help. But you’re not sure where to start. Yet the idea of being a coach with a business you love helping women love their lives sounds like exactly what you want to do… and you want to stop having a hobby and start having a business – with a life – then set up a time to talk about how to make that happen.

I’ll give you my input on what you need to have a business model that works. You may choose not to pursue it but you’ll know.

BOOK a Consultation

4 Easy Marketing Steps That Will Grow Your Fitness Business

If your first thought is “easy marketing” is a myth, you’re not alone. Truth is that marketing isn’t hard, but getting distracted by shiny objects is easy.

When you want to buckle down, focus on how to get leads, clients, and recurring revenue though you have to ignore shiny objects and do the one thing hardest of all.

You have to trust someone else.

Unless you’re a marketer, a website developer, an SEO expert, a Facebook ads manager or know how to write copy (ALL of which you should know SOMETHING ABOUT, by the way) you have to eventually turn it over. Someone else will get far better results in far less time and your time is better spent.

So my guest in this show is my trusted resource.

Digital Marketing Strategist

Make no mistake. Whether you have a digital or brick-and-mortar business, you need a digital strategy.

Jonathan Kraft is a digital strategist who has contributed well over 1,000 how-to videos to YouTube since 2006.

His videos have had more than 10 million views.

He and his wife spent 2 years traveling the world from 2009-2011 on income earned solely from affiliate marketing.

He’s traveled to more than 40 countries and speaks German and Spanish in addition to English.

He is best known for helping small businesses who have something going online already to become medium sized businesses.

He does this by helping them improve their branding, marketing, site structure, search presence, and business strategy.

He has worked with online businesses across industries, from professional speakers to investment firms, and from health clinics to online retailers, including a few mentioned below:

• FlippingFifty.com
• MattressInsider.com (Custom Mattresses)
• MobileSleepComponents.com (Wholesale Mattresses for RV and Boat Dealers)
• AnnmarieGianni.com (Skincare)
• ChrisBeatCancer.com (Health/wellness)
• TheEducationDoctor.com (Education)
• ReviveCenters.com (Health Clinic)
• DezThornton.com (Professional speaker coach)
• MistiBurmeister.com (Corporate Performance Trainer and Speaker)
• ConcussionRepairManual.com (Health care)
• LaraAdler.com (Environmental Toxins Expert)
• SolutionsInLowVision.com (vision screening and aid for the blind and visually impaired)

That’s an impressive list.

Questions we cover in this episode:

• Overall when you jump into a business as the man behind the curtains… where is it that people need the most help when they hire you?
• And what is it you seethat might be a different need?
• What are the biggest errors you see regarding websites?
• How important is S.E.O.?
• What would fix S.E.O. fast?
• What are the biggest errors you see in funnels and marketing?

Questions I’m going to ask Jonathan in a future episode:

Which system have you had the most experience with for and prefer:

• Customer relationship management
• Host
• Webinar host
• Shopping cart

Of all the businesses you’ve worked with, grown, among those who’ve been most successful in monetizing their website, marketing, social reach what has been the biggest ONE THING or common denominator? assuming there’s demand for the product and there’s a big enough target market for the product)

The 4 Easy Marketing Steps we discussed:

1. Audit your website for user friendliness
2. Audit your customer’s journey
3. Be wise about S.E.O. (use Google)
4. Commit to regular content on your site

….and bonus (not included in the episode) is how you KNOW these easy marketing steps work:

Use your Google analytics! Find out how much traffic, which pages, what blog content people enter on, and if they come from social or direct traffic. Do you get organic traffic? Known now and then track as you implement the easy marketing steps from todays post. (IF you don’t know how to set it up? Get your web developer to do it. NOW!)

Pssst. From SCWfit.com to ICAA to Athletic Business to Fitness Fest, I can share that less than 50% of business owners or social media managers use Google Analytics. WHAT?

It’s the only way to find out if your marketing is making headway. You’ll learn what pages people come to and how they get there. You’ll learn if they’re coming from social media, direct to your URL, or from referral.

You’ve got to know your numbers. It makes easy marketing more realistic. You’ve got to have a goal! You’ve got to  have a benchmark to measure against. Yes, ultimately revenue. But if you don’t know where and why it’s coming to you? It’s random and a roller coaster.

Thanks for listening. Questions about behind the scenes strategies on your website that could help create positive, easy marketing changes for you?

Add them to the comments!

You might also like:

Social Media Marketing

Fix Your Copy to Attract More Clients, Faster!

Free Advertising | How to Get Booked for Interviews

Who doesn’t want free advertising? Interviews and media appearances are an amazing way to create credibility. It’s free advertising opportunity you can create over and over again. If you know what you need to get booked and deliver an interview that get you clients and asked back: gold.

In the last episodeI shared how to interview like a pro (and get clients). If you missed it I highly recommend you go back and listen to that one. You have a little homework to do before you grab the free advertising from get booked or create ways to be interviewed on your own- which is what this episode is all about.

I’ll link to it that episode here. 

Get exposure from media interviews

How do you pitch the media? First, you have to know this: they do not care about YOU. They care about their listener, audience, viewer. And ratings, if this is a TV station or a radio station. They need listenership and viewer numbers. So if you don’t pitch something relevant to their listeners you won’t get booked. Do your research.

If you want to be on a certain show know who watches it. Target that audience and make it clear to the producer or host that you get them and what they are trying to do. Make sure they have a health, fitness segment open to guests.

Most likely they do! There’s a lot of airtime to fill!

A pitch is one sheet of an idea for a segment with:

• A catchy title – Make it controversial so it peaks interest. Think magazine cover titles.
• A simple teachable method or system
• Clear, concise talking points
• How to contact you
• Some points of credibility so they know why you’re a credible source of information
• Something unique and distinct
• Why this is relevant now, to their audience, and it’s news

It’s not a Press Release.

It’s attention-getting and juicy not dry.

Free advertising from podcasts, online summits, panelists

Find opportunities in podcasts. If you’re a fitness professional you’re likely in groups and forums. You know the importance of networking. You have something unique. Ask if anyone in your professional network has a podcast or reach out to those you listen to and offer yourself as a guest.

If you’ve got a Go Red for Women’s event near you, at the fundraising luncheons there is often a panel of experts. Offer to attend and be a guest. Make it clear why you.

Seek out other events happening at your local hospital or national level if that’s where you are, and create them yourself!

Host your own free public events

Use any of these ideas to create an event yourself.

Think about “national days” of the year or weeks or months. Do something for breast cancer awareness or stress awareness.

Think seasonal topics. Offer a workshop on spring training without injuries or winter ski conditioning, or avoiding falls on ice by improving balance.

Send a pitch to local media about this event. If they need someone or something to fill a slot that day and the target is their audience you’ll have a great chance of getting booked and they may even cover the event live.

Partner with local businesses who target the same group. A grocery store might sponsor by providing snacks. A massage therapist might offer a discount to attendees. A sporting goods store might offer a special rate on a related product. Then they too get exposure as the sponsor and will share the event to increase free advertising for you. It works for you both.

Please leave a rating in iTunes! 

Here’s How:

1. visit the podcast in iTunes
2. Click “listen in iTunes”
3. Click ratings and reviews
4. Leave your 5-star rating (and a comment)
5. Know I appreciate it so much!!

How to Interview Like A Pro (and Get Clients)

Have you wondered how to interview so you can maximize the opportunity? If you haven’t been asked or asked for an interview, I’ll say this: you will and you should!

Let me define “interview” before we go to far. Anytime someone else is asking questions can be an interview opportunity. And that is, a chance to share expertise, answer questions based on your knowledge or experience – after all, there is a reason you’re being asked to do the presentation or interview – or people showed up to ask you questions.

So whether you:

• sit on a panel at an event
• make an appearance at a local media station or the Today Show – think big
• host an event and have a Q and A afterward
• guest on a podcast

Any of those, and many more qualify and you want to know how to interview so you get results and you get asked back!

Do you know there are people – lots of people – who appeared on Oprah, the holy grail of interviews and free publicity. Yet they weren’t ready to monetize the traffic that came afterward and no one has ever heard about them again.

When you know how to interview so you stay on track with your key points and make your host look good (so you have fun and get asked back) you’ll win the audience over and make the station love you.

How to prepare for your interview

• Identify your teachable points: a method or step process
• Know what sets you apart
• Know what your customers hate
• Create a pitch that’s news and that lets you feature your product or service

Example: Recently I did a segment about an upcoming event – a workshop for older adult fitness. I pulled the three key reasons I was doing the workshop and one demonstration for each.

I demonstrated how to do an important strength training exercise – that could be done at home – and how to make it effective if an adult wanted to use lighter weight. I cued it in detail pointing out where to feel it, put weight on feet, head position, etc. Then I did two more parts of the workshop.

I covered the three big areas I was going to discuss at the workshop – strength, balance, and interval training. I pulled one juicy tip from each to get the point across how important it was. I didn’t gloss over it I backed it up with research, how it would prevent falls (fear) and enhance aging (desire). I focused on mistakes most adults make (no one wants to be wasting time).

That kind of preparation should go into any presentation and you can make it fit yours no matter what it is.

Plan for different length interviews

• Do all the homework mentioned earlier
• Create an outline that includes the bullet points, a demonstration, and an expanded explanation or story
• Ask in advance how long the segment is (a 3 minute segment live segment, a 15 minute summit interview, a 30 minute podcast)
• Rehearse and time it!

Example: In the example I gave you earlier, I’ve delivered that content in a 90-minute workshop, on a 30-minute podcast, a 9-minute news segment, and the hardest by far a 2-minute segment. So be ready. Rehearse for shortest segments the most. You have to make every word and second count.

When you have a workshop (or a book for that matter) there’s a reason you created it. Those reasons are likely your bullet points. Hopefully, you created it based on demand not because you wanted to but because your customers tell you that’s why they come to you and that’s what they want most. The other things they’d tried and hate are a part of your talking about it. The outcomes they want are a part of talking about it.

If you know how to interview, you also know how to create marketing copy, and vice versa.

As painful as it might be, record your rehearsal and play it back. Whether its’ audio or it’s video, record and play it back. Do you have energy? Are you fun? The interviewer is going to be lively, strong and fun. Can you match that energy? If you’ve got passion about what you’re doing you can but in front of a microphone or camera if feels different so you’ve got to practice!

How to interview when you’re asked a question you aren’t prepared for

Always come right back to your notes, why this is so important, why you’re doing what you’re doing (event, service, product, workshop). Do not be taken off track if it doesn’t serve you. Again, rehearse!

How to interview so you make your host look good

When you get booked sometimes you work with a producer or an assistant. Sometimes that’s one and the same. You want to make THEM look good too. Their job is to make the host or anchor or reporter look good so that is also what you want to do. I’ve been asked back to do segments on the same show several times. That only happens if you are easy to work with and everyone loves you.

Give her/him all the details in advance – are you going to do exercise demos? Will she be in a dress and heels? Bring models if necessary.

Give her/him all the questions. You can list questions on your pitch or list the answers on the pitch. Often you’ll be asked to provide 3-5 questions you’d like to be asked. Make these good. Specifically, they should set you up to respond with your key talking points.

Just Because You Get the Interview Doesn’t Mean You’re Good

I’ve interviewed hundreds of people in the last 6 years for two podcasts. Some have been amazing and some have not in fact they’ve been uncomfortable. If a guest doesn’t have key points and a strong opinion it’s just like a limp handshake. They ramble with answers.

Don’t let that be you. You won’t get asked back. Unless it’s a live segment, you may not get published even after the recording. No one is going to release what they feel is a weak interview.

Get the Biggest Benefit

A big part of doing a killer interview – even if it’s two minutes long – is: know what you want to happen afterwards. That involves two parts:

First, what you do with the opportunity matters.

Use that video clip from the news. Share the segment from a podcast interview while you tag your host. Take a selfie of yourself in the front of the room with the audience behind you to share on social and email. But above all have a call to action while you’re in the interview. Because you will always, always be asked where someone can learn more about you.

Second, know what action you want the viewer or listener or reader to take! It’s key if you want to get clients or customers.

And you do… even if you don’t yet know what you’re going to sell them yet to support them. You want to start a conversation with them so when you do have a product or service you’ve got an audience just waiting for it.

You need to have a very clear next step for them to take when they go to your website. Are you giving away a free book or a cheat sheet with the exercises you’ve just demonstrated? Is there an invitation to your free event?

Are you really ready?

Do an audit of your website before you ever have an appearance. If you’re in front of a group of older women does your website look like some advertising for Monster energy drinks? If it’s black and neon with white font on a dark background… or has images of a sixpack of abs … that’s not going to build your business. Decide who you serve and dedicate time and energy to making sure your image clearly relays that.

Know that someone who gets to your website is interested enough to spend maybe a little more than 7 seconds that’s the typical attention span. But not much. Tell her exactly what to do when she gets there. Is there an immediate ask for her email address in exchange for a juicy freebie that she can’t say no to?

Be ready to capture emails and deliver that gift. Make it simple and clear. Don’t send them to a page on a website with 5 choices and 20 pages of rabbit holes they can fall down. Send them to a very specific page where there’s one action to take. That’s called a landing page to do the ONE relevant thing that is a logical next step for them.

P.S.

If you don’t have or know what a landing page is, get your marketing team up to speed on why this is crucial, get a new marketing coach who can help you. Building a landing page takes less than five minutes if you do it right and you’re in charge of your own website. It’s not time consuming and it’s not expensive. But it will cost you if you don’t have it.

This is such a big part of learning how to interview so that you get clients and customers (or maybe interns and employees) from your public appearances – all of them!

All these steps are steps I’ve talked about many times in podcasts and blogs here at fitnessmarketingmastery.com.But if you want help with specific steps you need to take and the accountability to get them done you’ve got two options:

1.) Request a consultation about private business coaching

2.) If you serve women in midlife and becoming a Flipping 50 specialist is also a good fit for you, you can get the Advanced Specialist cert AND 4 months of a mastermind group for LESS than the cost of private coaching. You save over $500 on the combination.

Don’t Miss the Next Episode

Next episode as I teased earlier I’m going to talk about how to get booked for interviews. I did this how to interview episode first because you’ve got to be ready. You actually don’t want to get stuck in an interview and give a weak interview – you’ve got a message and you want to deliver it strong! (You also don’t want to wait until it’s perfect or you’d never do anything!)

But once you really do the homework and know how to interview you want to start getting those opportunities for free advertising.

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1. Visit iTunes
2. Click Listen in iTunes
3. Click Ratings and Reviews
4. Leave your 5-star rating and a comment
5. Know that I appreciate it so much!

Better Client Relationships for Better Client Outcomes

Ever question your client relationships? Or see an employee or colleague that makes you wonder about how best to handle client relationships and boundaries?

If you want to support your client’s strong foundation to make self care changes but stay within scope of practice, tune in.

Eighteen year-old Stanley Padgett married his seventeen-year-old high school sweetheart in what easily could have been another divorce statistic. Another couple who naively wed too young and couldn’t make it work.

While they enjoyed each other, they were tested early and often. They raised their first child while working their way through college. Their second wasn’t any easier as Stan was attending Duke Law School at the time.

He graduated from Duke University School of Law in 1982 and has been a business trial lawyer in Tampa since then.

His book, “UnVeiled: Secrets of a Marriage that Lasts Forever” and his course “The Diamond Relationship Formula” are the result of a lifetime of work and research.

Unlike most “relationship experts,” what Stan teaches does not come from a book or from a classroom. It comes from a life well lived and a marriage that endured and improved through good times and bad, in sickness and in health. Their marriage has been cut and polished into a Diamond Marriage.

So you may be asking how do I walk this fine line of building trust without it becoming personal? Glad you asked. because Stan provided some clear answers.

Questions we answer in this episode:

• How important is a stable relationship in anchoring a foundation for self care in health and fitness?
• How can a trainer support positive client relationships for his/her clients in order to gain greater compliance and improve client outcomes?
• Boundaries and scope of practice are a challenge due to the nature of personal training. Do you have suggestions for curbing conversations that could come back to bite a trainer?
• It can be heady, or flattering, to be treated as a confidante – how to be aware of that?
• Starting early, going late, potentially struggling with finances – can weight heavy on relationships, how can you as a trainer take care of your own relationship foundation?

Learn More: 

www.relationshipmagicacademy.com

Connect with Stan:

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/relationshipmagicacademy/

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/RelationshipMagicAcademy/?ref=bookmarks

Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/company/relationshipmagicacademy/

RMA Website – http://www.relationshipmagicacademy.com/

Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE70toYDYQ0

Social Media for Fitness Professionals: More Results Less Time

Social media for fitness professionals is unique. For any service oriented professional who IS the business, or thinking they are the business, as well as the marketing director, the salesperson, the customer service rep, and the programming director, there’s too much to do and limited time to do it in.

That’s not news. What is good news is this: if you’re big or small it doesn’t matter. In fact, if you’re a fitness pro who can pivot quickly and change your message, post what you approve of, as a small business owner you have an advantage over big corporations that need approval or have to limit posts to small sets of parameters.

Before I dive into social media for fitness professionals in this episode I have a secret! I recorded this from my sauna. Using one? Whether for relaxation, or for detoxing naturally, here’s mine. It fits in small spaces – you can pick it up and move it easily.

SCW and Club Industry

I mentioned SCW events on this episode. They are a great source of content for business, for practical workout ideas to expand your programming. Partnering with Club Industry Sara Kooperman has been able to offer a special track for business development – and the networking- that happens during those events that reduces the isolation you may feel when you’re in the trenches.

If you’re marketing to women in midlife you’re going to want a social media marketing system that reaches them specifically with a relationship that doesn’t take you all day.

If you need social media for fitness professionals that gets results without taking all day … especially if you serve women in midlife, you’ll love this.

Hormone Balancing Fitness Expert

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Social Media For Fitness Professionals in Less Time?

How do you do social media without it taking your life? Let’s get real first. Every business at this point needs a marketing person. Someone dedicated to marketing across all platforms, planning the strategy to keep the leads coming in so you can follow up, nurture and sell those customers so you can help them!

If that marketing person is YOU, then you do have to make time. You can’t bury your head in the sand. Without constant marketing a business dies. Get leads. Get clients. Keep clients. Get referrals. Repeat on constant once you create a system that works. You’ll need to continually update your system. The consumer gets smarter. She can and will Google anything. Right or not she can find it.

Your marketing message to start your funnel has to be answering those questions she’s asking better than anyone else. They have to be easy to find with key words, with video. Then you have to have a clear next step.

Given 9/10 fitness businesses do in fact die still today – 30 years after the fitness “boom” began, you have to be proactive. Regularly getting clients in and taking great care of them will lead to “full” consistently and referrals from happy customers.

Create systems that work. Just like you have with your fitness clients. You test them, assess them, educate them, and you progressively advance their programs.

You will do that too with a formula for social media for fitness professionals.

For more on this topic, join me at FitnessFest in Mesa, Arizona later this month!

Or for a book you can hold in your hands, check out the Social Media Book for Health Coaches and Personal Trainers(Healthy Learning).

Social media for fitness professionals is unique and easier than you think. Fitness and exercise are personal. Social media is all about creating personal relationships and experiences. 

You might also like:

The #1 Social Media Mistake

The Style Guide You Need for Facebook Marketing

Great by Choice, Does it Describe Your Career?

 Are you great, or desire to be? Do you have a conventional education or not?

Tom Durkin

Owner operator Ames Fitness and Fitness World Ankeny in Midwest

CEO of Health & Fitness Management

40 years in fitness industry sales, management

2000 books in his personal library

200 300 last year 900K visits

58,000 personal training sessions

315 employees

Questions 

• What book (or books) are we talking about today and who are the authors?

Great by Choice– Jim Collins

Dark Horse-Todd Rose

• How influenced are you – or should others be – on “best seller lists” ? If they’re simply popularity contests based on the best marketing and promotion campaigns, there are likely some bombs on those lists and some “sleepers” out there that no one else knows about until a review like this.
• What’s been the best and most reliable source of what-to-read-next for you?
• How much does the author’s background, credentials, and experience matter to you in your selection of what to read next?
• What made these books review-worthy?
• What are the biggest take-aways from Great by Choice?

Are you living up to your potential?

Who are you competing against? Are you great compared to them?

Are you fulfilled and full according to your goal?

Am I taking the steps to do it?

• What steps can you take to be great by choice?

1. Talk to people to create rapport, offer a session, use a script, ask for a sale
2. Have a list of leads
3. Book speeches, presentations, creating podcasts articles
4. Be prepared, planned for the customers you have
5. Measure how many times you’ve done each of these steps regularly (daily, weekly)

“People who are great by choice have clear performance markers.”

– Tom Durkin, 40-year fitness industry owner & manager

• What are three take-aways from Dark Horse? 

Everybody has talent. There are many pathways to success and fulfillment. A non-traditional approach doesn’t necessarily put you at a disadvantage.

• Could a non-traditional approach be an asset? In fitness, not having a degree or starting late in life, for example might be an asset.
• What do you think of the statement “Being Different, is Better than Being Better”?

Another book this is reminiscent of – Outliers, by Malcom Gladwell. (not on our review list right now)
If you had to recommend a top 10 books to read on habits of successful people… would either or both make the cut?

No to Great By Choice

No to Dark Horse

Up next in our book club review:

Mindset– by Carol Dweck

Have you read Great by Choice or Dark Horse?

Previous Book Club Reviews:

2 Must-Read Books For Fitness Professionals

Taking Your Fitness Passion to a Living You Love

You’re passionate about fitness. You love it. You love what it’s done for you. You like helping people. You like teaching.

Do you have a limiting belief about how much you can earn or how much you have to work to do it?

Do you believe if you’re going to make a living as a fitness professional that it would all be able selling?

Do you change your voice and turn into someone else when you have to ask for money?

Today’s guest is going to help unpack some of that baggage.

PHIL KAPLAN

Phil Kaplan is a 30-year veteran of the fitness field and a pioneer in the realm of Personal Training.  The first Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient from Personal Fitness Professional, he’s appeared on over 1000 TV and radio shows sharing “the Fitness Truth.” Through seminars, articles, appearances, and programs, Phil paved the way for personal trainers setting a model for Professional Excellence and establishing oft-imitated paradigms for “selling fitness” in health club, corporate, and studio settings.

With extensive experience as a health club owner, media personality, author, and international speaker, he’s gained rare insights into the elements of mind, body, and spirit that integrate to manifest positive physical change and has created programs with unprecedented levels of outcome and compliance including TRANSFORM (over 75,000 copies sold) and The ANSWER.

• starting with the belief that a lucrative career and loving a career are not mutually exclusive
• You do some mindset work – exercises without sweat – with clients (and I’m putting you on the spot here) can we do a little of that right here with trainers listening?
• Trainers often copy, follow, do what everyone is doing… and if making a career out of fitness is a problem, and most trainers do struggle, then that’s going to be a problem. A trainer today really has to be Different, How can a trainer listening take steps to break out and finding a unique voice?
• Being contrarian, breaking rules and not being afraid to stand out get uncomfortable. They go against that desire trainers have to be liked
• You recently – a little bird told me this – had a group of trainers you’re mentoring raise their rates by $4 a session. Share the reaction you got when you instructed them to do that? And what happened when they came back?
• “Scale or fail” is a commonly spoken mantra these days… and for trainers the truth is, you’re going to run out of hours. You can raise rates to an extent but scaling a fitness business may require other revenue streams. What suggestions do you have for that trainer who has raised rates, is still full, is finding that as she increases rates she gets push back… what’s next?

Resources:

The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge

“Creative Tension” the gap between you now and where you want to be

Phil is instrumental part of promotion of MedFitNetwork, a place for medical fitness professionals to gather, for consumers to find them, and to improve lives with quality education and service based on the belief exercise and nutrition can both be medicine used correctly.

Find Phil Kaplan:

Medfitnetwork.org

Fix Your Copy to Attract More Clients

You want fitness sales without being salesy.

Yet if you try so hard to be nonchalant you can actually send business away!

You share video after video of exercises.

Blog after blog with no call to action.

You write for the local paper but don’t put a link in your bio with a call to action.

These are all ways you lose amazing opportunities to use your awesome content to do the talking for you. There is always going to be a sentence or two that makes the difference between “that’s nice, thanks” and “where do I sign up?”

1) Meet your reader/your viewer where she is.

Not where you want her to be!

Mistake: Our brand new program starts next week! Here’s the link for details.

Fix Your Copy:

2) Make your reader feel understood.

Mistake: Here’s who we are and how we can help

Fix Your Copy: You’re probably thinking….

Fix Your Copy: Does this sound familiar?

3) Make a clear and logical next step your call to action.

Mistake: All of our personal trainers are ready to support your next step.

Fix Your Copy: Share your biggest question about choosing your fitness routine here.

Fix Your Copy: Join our free master class to get all of your fitness questions answered.

Tell the one person you really want to help exactly what to do next.

Mistake: Check out all of our group programs starting soon!

Fix Your Copy: Click here now to save your spot

Or

Click here now to download 5 recipes to get started now.

4) Be direct.

Mistake: I hope you liked this! Will you share it?

Fix Your Copy: Tag three friends who would love this for a free xyz!

Mistake: You’ll find other podcasts and blogs at www.Imawesome.com

Fix Your Copy: Link here to the resource mentioned in today’s podcast.

If you really believe you have something that can solve a problem tell her! Tell her exactly what to do next and why what she’s doing now won’t help.

Fitnessmarketingmastery.com/fix-your-copy

How Fitness Videos Can Grow Your Business

You know fitness videos get more views, traction, and cost less than other forms of marketing. You may not know how to stay consistent and make time to do it.

Here’s how to create fitness videos that make a difference in your business.

Batch your fitness videos

Batch every step along the way.

Research before you record. Choose a single topic and stick with it to create 5-6 videos that fall into that topic.

Think about the why behind you’re creating video. Are you creating fitness videos that attract more customers and clients? What specific client do you want to attract? Do you have a program launch coming up? What content would surprise, shock, and make a viewer want to know more? What content would give a viewer hope and a quick win?

Create a list of the videos you want to create. Create a list of the titles for those videos. Do a search of other popular content on that topic. Search key words you want in the title.

Create the videos knowing what action you want the viewer to take so you can ask for it. You’ll be able to include a teaser for the previous video and the next video, getting a viewer to stay on your channel consuming more videos.

Be concise.

Get right to the point. Break large concepts into short segments of 1-3 minutes. The shorter a video – as long as it’s engaging – the more likely a viewer will watch 100% of your video and that ‘s a big plus for your organic recommendations and growth.

Be concise with your start too. Get right to what you promise in your title. Then quickly introduce yourself and get right back to it.

Know what you want them to do next.

Choose one thing, not 2 or 5, that you want a viewer to do after they watch your video. Tell them to subscribe, or go to the link below (or on your screen). Suggest they go back to the previous video in the playlist.

Release Fitness Videos Natively.

Upload your video to Facebook, to LinkedIn, and to YouTube each directly from your phone. Don’t depend on uploads to YouTube and then share to the other platforms. Natively uploaded video is edging out shared from YouTube across platforms.

Stagger your release.

It’s tempting to share it all right away. However, this is one instance where batching won’t help as much as staggering your video share. Wait a bit to share the same video to Facebook and LinkedIn as you just posted to YouTube.

Keep the traffic coming to your website by spreading it out.

Plan your fitness video production.

From conceptualizing to recording if you don’t have the time set in your calendar it’s not going to happen. Start. Even if you feel like you’re terrible at it in the beginning, it’s not about you. It’s about how much you’re helping the viewer. If you believe you’ve got a message they need, then you need to be there!

See the show notes here: Fitnessmarketingmastery.com/videos

Need support growing your fans and followers so you can increase subscribers and sell more services?

Book a chat here: http://www.scheduleyou.in/ZzFwszm