VERY COOL NEWS: We’ll be streaming live via ustream.com on Saturday evening October 17 for our Member of the Year Contest. You’ll get to watch the presentations and vote on who should win the Nissan 370Z! More details to follow soon.

If you’re struggling to get traction with your fitness marketing, it may be that you need to get clear on what you REALLY sell, and start painting the appropriate picture in your marketing messages.

Particularly if you offer big packages of PT and your best clients (and therefore ideal target market) are demographically 40+ upper-middle to mass-affluent.

I’m going to be talking about this at Mega Training (and 4 other “Golden Rules” of Maximum Response Marketing).

If you haven’t registered yet, it’s not too late

The tried and true weight loss appeals will continue to work to get attention, but it’s the deeper emotions that truly drive the desire to lose weight and get in shape.

And you’ve gotta be pushing those quality of life buttons.

Here’s a quick example to get you thinking about this critical BIG idea.

A recent Yahoo Health story on “How to live to 100″ includes this revealing bit of marketing fodder (my comments regarding how to capitalize on each item in the lsit are in parentheses)

Lifestyle habits that age you most quickly

The culprits that will most quickly age you and negatively affect your health are:

1. Poor diet (when you’re exercising and working towards a goal, you’re much less inclined to self-sabotage)

2. Lack of exercise (accountability, structure and a system that works will keep you on track)

3. Stress and worry (endorphins are the most powerful stress-buster and mood-enhancer there is – period)

4. Exhaustion (stress is primary contributor – when you’re exercising you lose the stress and have to sleep, whether you want to or not, plus energy levels double)

5. Unhappiness (generally relates to poor self-image, which is always improved when you’re working out and feeling positive about yourself)

6. Lack of love (stress, exhaustion and unhappiness lead to unfulfilled lives – fix everything in one fell swoop)

7. Toxic overload (when you’re not eating right, not exercising, stressed out, exhausted, unhappy and love-less, you stop caring and spiral downward)

8. Blockages and congestion of the transportation highways within our bodies (are you seeing how the dominos fall here? When you don’t exercise, the negative effects cascade through every aspect of your life)

You can read the entire article here.

And I suggest you use this to start selling quality of life, not just weight loss.  Because there are deep reasons why people want to lose the weight – and when you touch that nerve, they buy…a lot.

With what I’ve just given you, you’ve got an entire 8-10 email mini-course on “How To Live to 100…And Enjoy Every Minute” or a special report, video series, etc.

And this kind of information, when properly presented as I’ve shown you in the parentheses, shows your prospects you’re not just another weight loss “peddler” but rather someone who truly understands them, and therefore can help them.

Make it a great day,

Eric Ruth

P.S. More updates on live streaming of the Member of the Year Contest coming soon. If you want to hear some amazing success stories, learn some “inside” business-building secrets and get super-inspired, then don’t miss it. Best case is that you’re in attendance to see it in-person, but if you can’t make it, this is the next best thing.

Here’s another health club marketing post you may enjoy.