Guest Post by Zach Hunt
I was talking with one of my long time clients the other day and they were saying how cool it would be if I could send them a weekly motivational text or some type of accountability message to their phone each week…
This got me thinking!
Well, first what is SMS, well I don’t even know -let me look it up right now…..pause….okay, it seems it stands for short message service or as I know it as texting.
Now I have to admit, I’m a late adapter to the technology stuff, things like twitter, facebook, myspace, those are all fairly new to me almost as of this year. And texting, don’t even get me started.
I had never even done a text, until one of my clients sent me a text like earlier this year. But after getting into it more, I see how many people really do have their phone next to them 100% of the day, almost as like a life-blood line, their umbilical cord to life…or something like that. It’s funny, sometimes when I would text a client or whoever, I would get a response literally before I set my phone down (right after texting them). So it’s pretty easy to see how responsive people are to their texts.
So, back to this conversation I had with my client. Now the only way I knew how to text was through my phone, and frankly that was waaaay tooo slow to send to like 70 or now 100 people+ once or twice a week, especially with my skills.
So I set out to find a better way, and here’s what I found…
Here’s those two sites I mentioned in the video:
https://www.wirelessamberalerts.org/index.jsp
http://www.sms411.net/2006/07/how-to-send-email-to-phone.html
And the cool thing about this is you can just create a contact group in gmail or whatever you use, send it to all of them at once using send to all and bam you have it out in 30 seconds to everyone. Just save their email addresses as 10digitphonenumber@carrriersmsthing.com, and like normal emails they won’t see who else is getting the text in the to field, so go to town.
But of course, this is to be used responsibly, not as some spamming tactic.
Let me know what you think in the comments, and how else you would use it with your clients or for marketing.
Zach Hunt is a Personal Trainer and Fitness Studio owner in Spokane, WA. If you’re looking for more killer systems and strategies to explode your fitness business without spending a ton of time doing it check out the KickBack Lifestyle Club, where Chris and Zach share their absolute best time saving, butt-kicking and proven systems to geting things done in your fitness business and owning a fitness business rather than a fitness job. Try it for just a $1 right here…
Great tip Zach – love how you guys are exposing us to use so many more social strategies in how we market and maintain our training businesses – Steve's "card" idea comes to mind as well –
So much of what trainers do is SOCIAL, that it only makes sense to play up on that strength –
SHIT, so much of what anyone does in any busy is social – time for us to wise up and get with it (US meaning ME).
Sweet
Gomna try it this weekend and tell my clients to minimize the booze
LOL
Hey Zach
Great stuff!
Do you have anything that works Perth, Australia here?
What a fantastic idea, i was putting it on my newsletter but as that only goes out monthly. I know my clients would love something like that weekly.
Cheers
Nicole
Urm Looks cool but made no sense at all …
Zach, thanks for the great tip. Like you, I find texting to be a pain, but this will save me a ton of time. Thanks. – Stephen
Nice! Great Post Zach! I'm starting it this week! Everybody is a slave to their phone and this is a great way to make sure that they are staying on track! I'm gonna start asking what they've eaten so far today and definitely text them if they miss a session. Great stuff!
Thanks!
Funny, I'm answering this using my phone. anyway, great idea. I use texting with many of my clients and this will be a great tool to send a text to all of them at once. I can't wait to get home and try this out!
Doug Seamans
http://www.prideconditioning.com
Hey Zach,
Awesome stuff mate
The SMS stuff is something I have looked into but wasn't to osure which way to go etc and this really helps to shed some light. Much appreciated dude.
P.S. I failed to make pole for this one… gearbox issues
Cheers
AT
Zach thanks for this. You just saved me time while providing a better service to my people.
This way I can send a whole bunch of texts even to re-activate old clients or let them know I am thinking of them.
It's easy to avoid email or voicemail but I find the people especially women for those of us that train mostly women respond better to text messages.
Thanks again Zach
Chris keep sharing the love man
PEACE
p.s.- when you are in NYC let me know
Truly Awesomesness!
Thanks for the excellent tips!
Randy
http://www.GetYourFigure.com
Thats a great tip Zach, wonder if it will work in the UK.
I'll let you know
Marc
Sweet stuff Zach. People are always glued to their emails and texts via phone and feel obligated to respond and check right away.
Incredibly cool, useful and relevant. Thanks.
Dr. George Burroughs http://www.TryAtlasChiropractic.com
Zach,
great info. I have been doing my best to take much of the information being shared and apply it directly over to the martial arts industry.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the great idea Zach.
The cartoon character of yourself, I think Chris has one as well. Could you point me in the direction of where you had this done?
Nick, hey man I just asked one of my clients who was a graphic artist to whip up a cartoon version of me, he did super well, doesn't hurt he used to be a video game graphics designer. Just look for any graphic with a good track record and ask them to do one based on a pic of you.
Wow,
That's what I am talking about. Great idea.
Love the post.
Love the SMS! I do this with my clients, but this will be quicker!
Thanks a lot~
Lisa