The Most Important Marketing Metrics for Your Fitness Business

By Sean Greeley

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For many fitness professionals and business owners, marketing IS the most frustrating part of growing your business.

There is sooooo much “stuff” to do in order to #makeitrain the right quality and quantity of prospects needed to hit your sales and new client goals.

And when that’s not going right, nothing else really matters.

Having that problem sucks.

To start fixing it, you need to have a clear understanding of what to do, when to do it, and how to get it done.

And that’s the power of The Fitness Marketing Lifecycle.

It’s a SYSTEM that defines the entire process of how to move a cold contact into becoming a satisfied referring client.

Once you learn and master THIS system… well you’ve then got the power to create new clients on demand.

And that’s like having a license to print money.

So, let’s break down each step in the process along with some great tips you can use right now to start moving more prospects into becoming awesome clients for your business straight away.

Step 1: Attract Traffic

The marketing process begins with attracting the right people to you.

And this is where targeting, messaging, offers, and “calls to action” (or CTA as we say) all come into play.

Targeting- Defines WHO you want as your client, WHERE they live, and understanding WHY they buy.

Messaging- Is all about the way you engage the conversation so that your prospects want to learn more and work with you. Themes and hooks, your positioning statement (which defines how your company differs from competitors in your marketplace) are all part of nailing your message.

Offers- Can be both free and paid. Both have great value in list building and attracting the right qualified prospect to you.

Calls to action- When you put it all together, at the end of the day we want to drive prospects to 1) go to your website 2) ring you on the phone or 3) walk in through your door and say “tell me more about what you do here.”

Step 2: Capture Leads

When you get things right, your marketing will reach a lot of potential prospects.

But only a small percentage of those prospects will be ready to buy from you now.

The majority of them will want to check you out first.

They want to get to know you, decide if they like you or not, and then decide if they feel like they can trust you before moving forward.

But before you can do any of that, you’ve got to capture their contact information.

The tools that get this done are 1) a good landing page 2) a good phone script and 3) a good in-person script and sign up sheet to write down contact info.

We’re not going to dive into the details of sharpening each of those right now, but just know this is the first place where you should do the best testing and tweaking on your marketing to get better results.

Increasing your conversion by just five or 10% can result in dozens of new clients and thousands in new revenue for your business each and every month.

Step 3: Nurture Prospects

Nurturing is like dating.

It’s the process of your prospect getting to know, like, and trust you.

There are lots of ways you can make that happen.

But it all stems from investing time in communicating with them.

And that’s where most business owners fail.

They are lazy.

Or they give up too early.

Or they let their ego (or lack of marketing understanding) get them in trouble.

They think, “I only want to work with clients that are serious. They’ll call me when they’re serious and if they don’t, then screw em’. I don’t want to work with them!”

Listen, don’t be lazy, don’t give up, and put your ego away and go meet your prospective clients where they’re at.

They need your help, not your attitude.

The numbers don’t lie.

On average, 81% of sales happen after seven or more contacts.

Yet 85% of the time, most fitness business owners stop after just one or two contacts.

That’s a whole lot of market share to be gained just from putting simple systems in place.

Here are some simple strategies to do that:

Use technology automation- Crafting a good marketing follow-up campaign and letting it do some of the “heavy lifting” for you is a no brainer. And we’ve worked with our partner, Infusionsoft, to craft eight awesome done-for-you marketing campaigns that are ready to rock and do just that.

Pick up the phone- Seriously. Too many business owners are scared to pick up the phone. The telephone is one of the most powerful marketing weapons you’ve got. Don’t be scared, contact your prospect, let them know who you are and how you can help, and invite them to come in to meet with you.

Send a text message- While speaking on the phone is powerful, more often than not you’ll meet more prospects by text message than any other media these days. So send a message, let them know who you are, and extend them a good offer!

Invite them to attend a workshop or live event- Live events are great for meeting prospects. And workshops are powerful for delivering great education and positioning you as an expert. We recommend running one workshop each month.

Step 4: Convert Sales

Once you’ve pre-qualified a prospect, it’s time to put them through a consultation and enroll them in your program.

This is where the right sales system comes into play.

And if you haven’t heard about or used our sales system yet, then let me be the first to tell you it is life changing.

There are steps we teach for communicating more effectively and closing more sales. You can learn the system from our programs.

Step 5: Deliver & Satisfy

Just because you’ve signed a new client doesn’t mean your job is done.

This is where the real work begins.

If you want to continue growing, you’ve got to take time to deliver more value than your new client expects.

We teach the formula V = CE + R + R.

Which stands for Value = Client Experience + Relationship + Results.

In order to create more perceived value, you’ve got to deliver a better client experience, create better relationships, and deliver the results your clients are looking for.

How do you create a better client experience? Look at your business through a new client’s eyes. Ask your current clients for their feedback on how you can make your business more awesome for them. Listen to what they have to say, then go about implementing the suggestions you can that make the most sense.

The relationship part of this equation comes from caring about people. Spending time with them. Having fun with them. And not just building a great relationship between you and the client, or your team and the client, but with your entire community of clients.

For most busy and active adults, outside of work and family… the gym becomes their one place they have personal time devoted to themselves. And the relationships they build with others in your facility become some of the relationships they value most in their life. The gym is the place where they can put the stressors of life away and just have some fun before it’s time to go back to work again, or to their families.

Now the results part is where most fitness professionals and business owners get it wrong. They (often mistakenly) think that everyone wants incredible fitness results. The facts are that some do, but most clients are looking for something more. Maybe it’s to stop taking medication, maybe it’s to have the energy to keep up with their kids or grandkids, or maybe it’s to simply improve the negative emotional cycle they’re stuck in of not feeling good about themselves and then overeating (and gaining weight) to feel better.

That’s for you to figure out what your clients REALLY want, understand the job they’re hiring you to do, and then adjusting your services as necessary to best serve them.

Step 6: Upsell Customers

A lot of people think of upselling as just simply selling clients more stuff.

That’s what happens, but it’s not what it is.

Upselling refers to the process of identifying how you can continue better serving the people you’re working with.

As you dive into creating a great client experience, meeting your clients where they’re at, and more… you’ll uncover additional needs not being met by your current product or service offering.

This is a great time to fill that void.

Make it easy for your clients to get what they need and be rewarded in the process.

Perhaps they could benefit from additional nutritional coaching sessions, supplementation, massage therapy, a workshop on a specific training modality, or something of the like.

Find that need… and offer to fill it.

You’ll be amazed at how many clients not only purchase… but thank you for making it easy for them to get what they want.

Step 7: Get Referrals

If you’ve done a great job serving your market, then you ‘earn the right’ to ask for their support in finding other people you can help just like them.

Referrals can come from current clients, but also former members, strategic partners, and even unconverted prospects.

There are lots of great strategies for generating referrals.

But it all boils down to just being awesome at what you do, telling everyone about it, and asking those who know you to do the same.

Your Most Important Marketing Metric

The most important marketing goal is your qualified sales opportunity (consultation) goal.

Know that and focus all your efforts and energy on getting that right, and the rest of things in your marketing efforts will mostly take care of themselves.

Make Your Marketing FUN!

The foundation of success in marketing all stems from understanding The Fitness Marketing Lifecycle.

Learn who to talk to, what to say, and how to do it… and you’ll quickly find you’re moving cold prospects down the path to raving clients who are telling others all about you.

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