This week we’re bringing you dozens of tips for improving your fitness marketing in 2010.

I suggest you write these down, or copy and paste right off the blog into a document you can refer to every time you sit down to work on your marketing.

First up…

TARGETING the right people.

Keep in mind, effective fitness marketing is all about delivering the right message to the right people at the right time.

And we always start with the target – the WHO.

So here are four ways to target the right “who.”

Geo-demographic targeting: Get a map of your local area and place a pin in the map representing each of your past and present clients. Look for clusters. Then target those areas (maybe just a few dozen to a few hundred homes) with special offers. Make reference to the fact that their neighbors are your clients (the more specific you can be with names and addresses/street names of your existing clients, the more credible it will be). Personalized URL (PURL) postcards work great for this. I-AM RAINMAKER does amazing PURL postcards for you – printing and mailing to five people or five hundred with the click of a button. If you’ve never heard of PURLs, you need to see them in action to fully appreciate just how potent they can be.

Affinity targeting: What churches, synagogues, clubs, organizations, sports teams, associations, hobby groups, etc. do your current clients belong to? See if you can get a list of members (in many cases you can), or see if they have newsletters/other media you can advertise in. Best of all, leverage your client to get the opportunity to do a presentation to these people at their next meeting (and get your client to give you a live testimonial). The big secret to your success with this tactic will be in the follow-up marketing you do to leads you generate. I-AM RAINMAKER handles timed, linked follow-up and conversion sequences for you automatically.

Behavioral targeting: Who’s a better prospect for your services – someone who shops at an upscale supermarket like Whole Foods, or somebody who shops at Bart’s Bulk Canned Food Store? Get your marketing message in front of the Whole Foods shopper using the grocery store fitness marketing system described here – which will soon be available, completely done-for-you and fully automated in I-AM RAINMAKER.

Strategic alliance targeting: Very few forms of marketing will give you a better ROI than an endorsement from another respected local businessperson whose customer/client/patient profile closely matches your ideal client profile (e.g. chiropractor, massage therapist, physical therapist, financial planner, divorce attorney). Sometimes those aren’t easy to come by (usually because most small business owners don’t have effective communication channels with their customers, or a strong relationship with their customers, or are just clueless about smart win-win marketing, or all three). So another easy option that bypasses those issues is to get “take one” cards in dozens of local businesses that offer a compelling gift positioned as coming from the business owner himself (that’s why they’ll be open to letting you do it). I-AM RAINMAKER has just such an automatic system (plus it has a fantastic strategic alliance relationship-building system called “Client Catcher” that solves the first problem I mentioned).

There you go, four strong targeting tips to get your fitness marketing rocking and rolling in 2010.

Be a fitness marketing maniac,
Eric

P.S. Got some targeting tips to add? We’d love to hear them. Post your comment below.