I want to show you a VERY reliable fitness marketing strategy (maybe the most reliable) for getting more fitness clients.

Few things have worked as consistently as this over the years.

And it’s something you can use every single month. You have unlimited opportunity.

I’m talking about the strategy of “entering the conversation ALREADY OCCURRING in your prospects’ or clients’ mind” (Robert Collier).

But, how do you do that?  What’s the tactical application of this fitness marketing strategy?

You do it by leveraging HOLIDAYS and/or major NEWS as your ‘reason why’ for making a great offer that is linked to the holiday or news event.

I’ll explain, but first let’s do a quick review of direct response fitness marketing fundamentals.

Unlike brand/image marketing, direct response marketing is all about…response.

Because without response, your fitness marketing dollars can’t be quantified. You don’t know if you have a winner, or a dog, unless you can quantify.

And there are three primary variables that determine the effectiveness of your direct response fitness marketing.

Here they are in order of importance:

1. The “WHO” you are marketing to.

Even the greatest marketing piece ever created will bomb if it’s put in front of people who have no interest in, or ability to pay for, what’s being offered. The converse of that is also true – even a relatively weak marketing piece will do reasonably well if presented to the right audience.

2. The OFFER you make.

How irresitible is it?  How valuable is it?  How limited is it?

3. The “CREATIVE”.

Basically, this means the way the offer is presented in the context of your marketing piece (postcard, letter, email, web site, flyer, etc). The headline, the story, the credibility/believability, the social proof, the call to action.

In terms of the “who” – your best opportunity is always with your own house list (internal marketing).  They already know, like and trust you, and presumably are interested in fitness solutions (that’s why they’re on your list).

But you’re certainly not limited to your house list for holiday/news event marketing. Just make sure any external marketing you do is targeted to the right demographics (at MEGA TRAINING in October, we’re bringing in the leading expert on Facebook marketing who will show you an incredibly powerful way to TIGHTLY target your ideal prospects with pinpoint accuracy).

The ‘creative’ of your marketing piece will be almost entirely about the tie-in between the holiday/news event and the special offer you’re making (this is where you “enter the conversation already occurring in their mind”).  And the holiday/news event is your ‘reason why’ for making your special offer – it’s a logical justification.

So the final piece – and the most important piece – is your offer.

Make your offer compelling.  One of the easiest ways to do that is by illustrating how valuable it is (listing out the various components of the offer -what they get – and assigning the appropriate value each component). It should solve a problem (Tony Maslan developed the “kickstart” offer which is designed to get people started with an effective fitness program at a very low introductory cost). And it should be positioned as unique and proprietary – this can easily be accomplished with a name that conveys a strong benefit…like ‘kickstart’.

I’ve given you lots of details here because I want you to understand the process, and the elements that affect success of your promotion.

But the bottom line is this:

1. Pick an upcoming holiday or ‘piggyback’ on an existing news event (something big like the oil spill in the Gulf, or some big local story)
2. Create an irresistible offer of VALUE
3. Associate your offer with the holiday or news event as your ‘reason why’ for making it
4. Roll out your promotion (I recommend starting with your house list so you can test inexpensively with a few emails and maybe a postcard – I-AM RAINMAKER is perfect for this).

There are holidays every single month of the year, and major news events (both national and local) are occurring all the time, so you’re never at a loss for ‘reasons why’ to run a promotion.

One more thing to consider, but only for internal marketing (to your house list): Your event tie-in can be about something that happened/is going to happen…to you.

Did you recently have a new baby?  Did you get married?  Did you achieve some major goal or receive an award?  Did someone drive their car into the front of your facility? (That actually happened to one of our VIPs and he astutely used it as a reason why to run a cool promotion.)

The point is that your ‘reason why’ opportunities are almost limitless, restricted only by your imagination.

Tony Maslan will be doing a presentation on a very successful holiday promotion at MEGA TRAINING in October, showing you the promotion and teaching you how to use it.  And that’s just one of 12 different profitable promotions you’ll be given to ‘copy and paste’ right into your fitness business the same day you get home from MEGA TRAINING.

Take a look at all of them here and register for MEGA TRAINING before the price increase.

Be a fitness marketing maniac,
Eric