What Fitness Professional Advertising Method Is Almost Guaranteed To Fail
Time And Again – And Why?
By Eric Ruth
Listen closely. What you are about to hear is pure gold.
I’m going to reveal a marketing secret that not one in one hundred Fitness Professionals understands.
Yet it is so fundamental to your success – so critically important to your bottom line – and so vital to your business survival – you simply MUST understand what I’m going to explain to you now.
So, if you don’t “get” this crucial message after reading it through, go back and re-read it as many times as necessary until you do. Here we go…
There are essentially three ways to advertise.
Two of them work. One does not.
Yet the one that doesn’t work is EXACTLY WHAT 99% OF ALL FITNESS PROFESSIONALS – AND 99% OF ALL BUSINESSPEOPLE IN GENERAL – USE.
Here are the three ways to advertise – challenge yourself to guess which one DOES NOT work.
Advertising a special offer.
Advertising who you are and what you do.
Advertising for your ideal client.
Which one did you guess is the one that does not work?
#1? #2? or #3?
C’mon – you’ve got to guess.
I’m not gonna tell you until you make a choice.
Did you choose?
Okay, then, let’s get on with it.
The answer – the one that does not work – is number two.
If you are advertising who you are and what you do, your advertising will generate pitiful, painful and puny results time and again.
Why?
People don’t care! They don’t know you. They don’t give a crap about you.
If your advertising is saying…
“I’m Jane Glutes (insert great looking, really expensively designed logo) of Great Glutes Fitness Training and I make beautiful bodies (insert picture of tight buns)!”
“I’m committed to excellence, have helped 2,567 women tighten their buns, have sixteen different letters after my name (I must be good – look at how much time I spent studying) and I want to tighten you up, too. Call me now for more information.”
…you are wasting your money!
Why should someone respond to this ad?
What compelling reasons are there for a prospect to pick up the phone and call you?
WHERE ARE THE BENEFITS?
WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?
You know what’s going through womens’ heads if they even take the time to stop and read this ad?
I’ll tell you.
They’re thinking. Boy, she’s pretty. Boy, she has great buns. Boy, I wish I had her body. Boy, she must really work out a lot. Boy, I could never do that.
And most of all, they are thinking:
Boy, if I call her I’ll bet she’ll try to sell me some really expensive training program and I’m too weak to say no.
So, what happens?
They flip the page. Or they trash the postcard.
I saw an interesting commercial recently. And it’s evidence that even the big “image” advertisers are catching on to effective direct response marketing.
Bob Villa (the home fixer-upper guy) was in a cave with a guy from Hawaii who runs cave tours. They were talking about how important it is to have a really good flashlight when you’re spelunking.
They showed how the Craftsman “lantern” they were using provided floodlight power and pinpoint power. They talked about the rechargeable battery with a fifteen-hour life. They talked about how durable the casing is and demonstrated by dropping it down the cave shaft.
And they translated all these FEATURES into BENEFITS. They explained how each one of these features would benefit YOU!
Then they made a special OFFER. For a LIMITED TIME.
And they provided MULTIPLE WAYS to respond (toll free number, web site, mail).
Then they had a CALL TO ACTION.
It wasn’t until the end of the commercial that you found out this was a Sears product. They didn’t show you home furnishings, tires, or even other tools. They showed you one thing, and one thing only: a really good lantern, fairly priced, available for a limited time, and how to get it NOW!
The BIG LESSON in this is two-fold:
Isolating a special offer that attracts a certain type of person (in this case Sears is renown for their tools, so they want people who like tools).
What happens AFTER the purchase. I don’t know this for a fact cause I didn’t buy the lantern, but if Sears is on the ball, this is what they will do:
When they ship the lantern to a new buyer, they will include two catalogs. One will be a catalog offering general, hot-selling products; and one will be a catalog of tools only. They may also include a separate flyer or brochure advertising another, single, specific tool that is related to a lantern (maybe a tent or a small gas stove) and that is available for a limited time at a special price.
Then every month they will send you another specific offer along with a catalog of hot products.
Why is this method so effective?
I could write a book on this (in fact, I have), but let me give you the big point here.
YOU CAN’T USE A FISH NET TRYING TO CATCH EVERY FISH THAT COMES BY. YOU’VE GOT TO USE A POLL, OR POLLS, AND THE RIGHT BAIT FOR EACH TYPE OF FISH: MACKEREL, BLUE, TUNA, GROUPER, OR WHATEVER SPECIFIC TYPE YOU WANT TO CATCH. YOUR MARKETING CANNOT BE ALL THINGS TO ALL PEOPLE OR IT WILL FAIL.
You will always be dramatically more successful making a very specific front-end offer that magnetically attracts certain people, and then work on selling those people more stuff on the back-end.
Do you remember when Sears used to send out this huge catalog that resembled the yellow pages in size and volume?
That was effective 20 years ago before the “communications age” took over. When you are isolated or have few options, you can spend hours looking through a huge catalog and making choices of stuff you want.
Nowadays, if you want something specific, there are specific places to go to find it.
Sears knows this, so now they don’t mass mail their huge catalog anymore. They’ve realized that trying to be all things to all people in their marketing does not work.
That’s why you are foolish to attempt to sell generic training services by telling people who you are and what you do.
Essentially, you are a “fitness consultant.” You can probably service lots of different fitness needs. But if you try to sell your services in this generic way, you will never achieve your financial goals.
Let me give you an example.
One of my mentors is the legendary marketing master Dan Kennedy.
He can solve ANY marketing problem. He’s that good.
But if he were to advertise his “general consultancy” to every business owner, as soon as they learned that it cost $5,000 for one day of his expertise, they’d walk away. At least 99% of them would.
Why? Because there’s no RELATIONSHIP. The prospect has not been EDUCATED. They have no way of knowing that $5,000 is actually a cheap price to pay for the wisdom and results they will garner.
So what does Dan do?
Dan targets entrepreneurs niche by niche, and brings them into his marketing “funnel” by selling a marketing tool kit very similar to mine, but his covers many different industries and categories. You kinda have to figure out how to apply his stuff to your business. But that’s okay, cause it’s great stuff.
The tool kit is his front-end.
It introduces people to his way of marketing, tangibly demonstrates his expertise, begins the RELATIONSHIP with them, WOWS them with value and sets him up as a bona fide expert.
When he ships the kit, he includes sales literature for his consulting services.
The consulting services are his back-end.
A decent percentage of those who buy the tool kit, also buy his consulting services or other products he offers.
The same rule applies to you.
You must make a specific OFFER of a specific THING (service or product) to a specific TARGET as your front-end.
Then, when you’ve demonstrated the incredible value you deliver on the front-end, and you’ve developed a TRUSTING RELATIONSHIP with these front-end customers, they are much, much more likely to buy your back-end (big package of training services) – as long as you stay in front of them with your marketing and continually develop the relationship.
Are you getting this?
Okay, then, let’s move on to #3, advertising for your ideal client.
The essence of LEAD GENERATION advertising is that you DO NOT advertise your business, but rather you advertise FOR your ideal client.
ATTENTION: BUSY PROFESSIONALS IN SEARCH OF A RESULTS-ORIENTED FITNESS PROGRAM THAT FITS INTO YOUR HECTIC SCHEDULE
ATTENTION: NEW MOTHERS
Do You Want To Regain Your Pre-Pregnancy Shape (or better) In 16 Weeks (or less)?
ATTENTION: MEN AND WOMEN OVER 50 WHO WANT TO RECLAIM YOUTHFUL VITALITY!
This is what I mean when I talk about “niche” marketing. Sure, you might service men and women of all ages and fitness levels, but if you advertise that, you fall into the “so what” category. There’s nothing special about you, and you pale in comparison to all the other fitness solutions out there.
Why?
Lots of reasons, but primarily: PRICE
Why should someone pay top dollar for your generic fitness services when they can buy a stationary bike or join a gym?
What makes you different? What justifies your PRICE?
The only justifiable reason you have for your price is specialization coupled with the ability to deliver results, or a unique service they can’t get elsewhere, like Susan Block’s Fitness By Phone® (which is simply a different kind of specialization.) If you’re interested in learning more about Susan and her incredibly successful service, visit http://www.fitnessbyphone.com and if you contact her be sure to tell her you were referred by me to get the best deal.
The last little nugget I’ll give you is this:
The absolute best method of advertising is
when you use a hybrid of #1 and #3.
That is, your postcard, letter, ad, flyer, or whatever, advertises a very specific front-end IRRESISTIBLE offer targeted at a specific niche AND you incorporate your lead generation offer (free report) with a title targeted at that same niche.
That way you provide MULTIPLE REASONS FOR RESPONSE. Some people will want to buy your front-end deal and some, who may not be ready to buy just yet, will want to read your report.
Then you’ve captured their contact info for continued follow-up.
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