JULY/AUGUST
2007
How to Market Yourself
By Darren Jacobson
When marketing and promoting yourself within your facility, there are some simple strategies you can implement to position yourself for success. It is first important to realize you have very different types of individuals training through the different periods of the day. Promoting yourself at peak times can be vibrant, dynamic, exciting and invigorating, but doing so during quieter times can be like pulling teeth! Take note of these differences in your club and plan for them. Every trainer wants to fill the 11:00 AM mid morning or 2:00 pm early afternoon slot. When putting together a promotion, make sure it targets the needs of specific individuals at specific time slots. Remember, each club is unique, but all have massive potential. This potential can be morning or afternoon, sometimes lunch hours, or at bigger clubs, throughout the day. Once you realize your club’s peak times, actively go out and fill those slots using the below 10 tried and true tips for marketing and promotional success!
- Articles – Surf the web, pull out those old textbooks, magazines and training notes. You will be amazed at how much information you have amassed over the past years and how much info is available to you at the touch of a button! Decide whether to spend time and compile some cool information or maybe a good quality photocopy will suffice. Once you are armed with this information, head out onto the club floor and target a member training the body part you have researched. Not only will you target the member’s specific needs and interest, but you will also open up good conversation, and most importantly, you will leave them with something tangible to take home should they have any questions or interest in personal training, which they will have if you targeted them in the right manner and made the article work for you (of course, your business card is attached). I recommend doing three article drops in the morning, lunch and evening peaks. Don’t run around the floor like a poster boy flinging them out to any warm body you see! Select the recipients carefully.
- Partners and Spouse Sessions – While it can end in blood, there are often tears…of laughter! Don’t be afraid to suggest it to your clients. You may be surprised by the response. Its great competition; it creates an excellent vibe and again gets you working smarter. Think of a good package for partners that adds value and remember to target their specific/unique goals. Take good measurements, so you can plot results and always be professional – you have two people to impress!
- Testimonials – Not only are testimonials great for the resume, but they work well when attracting clients. Spread the word, and use them to your advantage. Also, ensure you have some great success stories with your clients. Where someone has lost a huge amount of weight, built muscle or run a marathon, make sure the member jots down some words about your training style, motivation and focus. This will help you swing people into personal training with you and should form part of your 30 minute complimentary session, perhaps in a folder with photos and a “blurb” of sorts about their experience with you as their trainer.
- Member Profiling - You know who they are, right? Your “potential clients” have big cars, lots of cash, funky training gear… or maybe not! The majority of clients are your average, down to earth people. Personal training has started to target all shapes and sizes and all income groups. With your ability to create packages, you should be able to tap into a variety of different markets, but there are some recognizable signs that could get you honing in on a potential client:
- Dress code – Check out the brand junkies, the aspirers and the trend-setters. They want to be seen with you and want people to check them out.
- Watches and shoes can also be a good indicator. Also, jewellery and make up can help give you an indicator of who is trying to be seen.
- Chat to the regulars. They may need variety.
- Approach the “unfriendly looking” members. Quite often, they enjoy the company.
- Speak to those with specific needs: poor posture, back problems, physical handicaps and/or those training for events or activities. They all need your guidance.
- Training Friends/Colleagues to Attract Attention – Never allow yourself to have a peak time session or a session you are looking to fill free, unless you are actively canvassing on the floor. Make sure you are being productive, even if it means training a friend, family member or colleague. It is important to be seen in the club during the times you are trying to pick up new business. If it a choice between sitting at the juice bar, drinking cappuccinos or being on the floor training a friend or colleague, it’s a no brainer. Also, make sure your training “partner” is vocal to everyone watching the session about how great a trainer you are and helps to draw attention. And make sure you train in high volume areas of the club and not in a dark corner – no exposure there!
- “Sexy” Exercises – Ever notice how the gym floor comes to a standstill when someone nearby is hitting the punch bag or doing some skipping or plyometrics, some BOSU® work on the floor or some complex combination movements (i.e., squat into biceps curl into shoulder press)? Those are sexy exercises and typically generate lots of interest. Do some homework. Up skill yourself in those areas. Identify other sexy exercises and get moving in the club. I guarantee you will receive a lot of interest after a hard session with a client.
- Postural Assessments – One of the keys to identifying any type of daily stress and strain being placed on the body is through a postural assessment, whether it is static or movement based. This will help you identify areas of weakness and instability. Having the knowledge and tools available to assess gives you the added advantage of being able to identify postural concerns on the floor, which could lead to potential clients. Do some reading and perhaps even take a course or two. The easiest way to pick up a client on the floor who clearly has rotated hips, tight hip flexors or an excessive lordosis is to walk up to them and ask them about their back pain. It’s nice when you can hit the nail on the head, and it’s not difficult if you up skill yourself!
- Educational Workshops – Running activities and workshops for members in your area of expertise to up skill and impart knowledge onto the member base is a great way to show your skill and competence, and to get your name out there. Make sure you are well prepared and ready for the session, and don’t peg your sights too high in the beginning. Make sure you have some staff and friends attend to increase the numbers. As your sessions continue and your popularity grows, they can stop coming to support you. If you kick off without your support squad and have few numbers attending, the members’ perception of the session is weak, and your exposure to groups will be very small. Inevitably, the sessions will fade away.
- Special Populations – First and foremost, are you qualified to deal with special populations ranging from kids to seniors and pregnancy? If not, then don’t read any further! If the answer is yes, then why not actively target these groups? The majority of personal training in clubs is with the apparently healthy mainstream populations. There are big gaps in the market for kids, seniors, and pregnancy training. If you would like to get qualified, contact certifying agencies and other training bodies. Many of them are running these types of courses due to demand in the industry.
- Boomerang Rule – Make a concerted effort to work as hard as you can to get rid of your clients over the period of the contract/sessions, and you will find they will never leave you! It is difficult for many trainers to see this, but your role is to motivate, communicate with and educate your clients. If you do this effectively, you may well find you convert one time clients to regulars. Many trainers are nervous to hand over programs, info and assessment results to clients in the fear they will “go off on their own.” On the contrary, nine times out of ten, the reason they go off on their own is because they don’t receive what is expected. Imagine going to a doctor and getting told you have a problem, but they refuse to let you know the purpose of the prescription they wrote you. Pretty soon, you are going to go somewhere where you will get all the info you need.
Darren has a Human Movement Science degree and holds numerous personal training and group training qualifications. Having innovated the cutting edge Franchise Personal Training concept for Virgin Active South Africa, he oversees 80 Health clubs and over 500 personal trainers. Darren has presented numerous fitness workshops across South Africa and abroad. His passion, drive and determination for the industry will challenge delegates to take their business to the next level.
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