Ultimate Guide To Marketing Your Fitness Business… For FREE

Guest Post by Zach Hunt

I remember when I first started my training business….I was fully amped, ready to hit it hard and my motivation was relentless.

I knew quite a bit about fitness marketing as I had studied a ton about the subject plus a bunch of general marketing stuff by Dan Kennedy and the like.

The only problem was my sales skills sucked, I mean bad……really bad.

The first real marketing promotion I did I sent out 500 letters and 500 postcards as part of a direct mail sequence.

Now the results weren't really that bad, I actually scheduled like 10-12 appointments with people (I was doing in-home training when I started). Now when I met with these folks I didn't know what I was doing so I actually didn't end up closing any of them. So that left me like 1K down the drain when I didnt have any clients. Not such a good idea.

Which is why I always advocate starting up on a shoestring or nostring budget, until you can easily afford the mega cost promotions.

So I wanted to come up with a list of ways to market your business for free, I'll list a few of my favorite ways here..

…and I think it would be awesome if you help list a bunch of ways you guys market you business for free in the comments section, that way we get like a big compilation going on here for reference.

So here are a few of my favorite ways to market my business for free. And the great things about these is they can be done if you're just starting out or if you have an already going business…

1. Having An Awesome Website - The keyword here being awesome I'll admit when I first started my website, it sucked. I had 37 buttons, not way for prospects to contact me and the works. While not entirely "free", a measly $10 a month or whatever plus $10 a year for a domain pretty well is free. So here's what you need.
   • A strong sales copy page
   • Optimized keyword pages to pull in traffic - the more the better, my site currently has nearly 3,000 pages with a good portion of that optimized content
   • A strong call to action on all pages - either call in or form submission (as long as you contact leads immediately)
   • A ton of testimonials / social proof
   • A good follow up system

   Not only can you get direct consultations or 2-week trials depending on what you offer, but you can also get a tone of leads to follow up with / create a newsletter / house list from - using any auto responder service or crm. Then when you launch anything in the future / new programs or whatever you have a hungry list of prospects that are likely to want what you are after.

   Plus you can make special offers / promotions any time of the year. A holiday offer, a thanksgiving work off your gut promotion.

   And when you know how to really dominate this helps you stand out in the community as the go-to fitness solution, especially if you rank really well in Google.

   For example I had a client the other week mention he couldn't find any other trainers in my city cause all the website lead to me and my company. That's kinda nice!!

   So by far and away having an Awesome website ranks as my #1 way for marketing your business.

2. Craigslist On Steroids - I always thought I was doing Craigslist right, until I saw how Chris and a few others were doing them. I then decided to take it serious and turn it into a ultra mega marketing machine, that runs itself for free. Craigslist is one of the most underutilized FREE ways to get personal training and boot camp clients. Some people think posting on craigslist means, "you post at least once a week on the beauty services section". Not so. Really posting means you post at least daily in at least 10 different categories. You might make a few people mad - but that's just part of the process. Well actually if you aren't getting any hate mail or getting flagged - you're not posting near enough. Don't be afraid if people say they are reporting you to craigslist or anything. All you need for this strategy are some great posts / ads some text and some graphical.I have about 50 total posts right, each with their own headline and they are posted on 3 separate accounts throughout the week Mon-Sat, about 1-15 a day. For example here are the categories I post in most every day.
   • Activities
   • General
   • Groups
   • Events
   • Classes
     
   • Barter
   • Beauty
   • Creative
   • Event
   • Lessons
   • Small Biz Ads
   • Therapeutic
   • Travel / Vacation
   • Creative
   • Event
   • Talent

   Of course I tailor the ads to fit each category well that way they won't get flagged. For example I talk about getting in shape for your vacation in the Travel / Vacation category, etc.

   The secret to making this work is having a huge variety of posts and making at least half of them unidentifiable. Meaning you don't outright mention your company name or your name in the post - you just offer the solution. Kinda like a two step sequence. That way people can't connect two ads together unless they visit the website. You can also use a variety of URL's that redirect to your same website or unidentifiable pages on your website - like squeeze pages.

   Also the variety between text and graphical ads. Of course if you posted the same ad everywhere you'd get flagged a bunch and the responses wouldn't be as high.

3. FREE Publicity (Your Best Friend) - When time is on your side this is one of the best ways to go. With a few hours of handy work, I managed to get on every local TV station, secure 2 local monthly magazine columns and get featured in my local community newspaper.All of which resulted in new clients.And a side benefit of publicity is the credibility you get. I've leveraged my TV appearances and magazine articles to have on my website, make sales easier and plus my clients like to tell others about the trainer who is on TV or in the magazine. It has a nice pleasant series of benefits.One of the magazine even gave me a free ad in the magazine every single month. In fact I share the exact steps I took to get on both TV and in the magazines here in the Kick Back Lifestyle Club … It's not really hard at all once you know the steps to take. All you really need to do is this:
   • Find out who the producers are for a TV station - call the newsroom and just ask
   • Figure out a relevant story that's in the national news or in the print news -  yahoo health for example
   • And just pitch a relevant angle on something that is hot or in the news already

   An example of this, I had a story on getting fit on a budget or in this economy on the news. The news station came and recorded some group workouts and I did an interview with them about my company.

   This is a great way to gain community visibility and get the extra edge over your competition. Everyone wants to train with the person on TV.

   Here's the great part, you don't even have to be good - well at least it seemed that way to me. The first several times I was on TV I wasn't really that top notch TV personality. I got better each time, and thankfully they gave me more chances.

   Same with the writing for the magazines. Writing was never really my favorite subject. The first time I went to the editor of my local newspaper he told me I needed some professional help. So I went and practiced and reach a bunch of books on writing. I improved a ton and now write for the magazines I mentioned. All of these skills can be learned / perfected if needed.

   And again, all this takes is time and a little know-how which is why I also love FREE Publicity. There's actually a great book by that same title by Jeff Crilley. Check it out.
   

4. Leadbox Campaigns / Joint Ventures - This may take some time to implement, but once you get this going it's unstoppable. I listed my top 4 favorite ways in order, meaning this definitely works, but it takes commitment to follow through with the boxes / leads at least every week - as with anything I imagine - website leads - phone calls and well everything else too.Once I started getting busier it was a little harder to continue doing like the other 3, but it still works well. Just go to local businesses like these…
   • Dentists
   • Chiropractors
   • Massage Therapists
   • Video Stores
   • Pizza Shops (yes this does work)
   • Hair Salons
   • Tanning Salons
   • Nail Salons
   • Day Spas
   • Nutrition Stores

   Pretty well any place can work as long as it gets a lot of traffic. And as for which ones to go to or how to get in the door it's easy. You can either leverage your current clients and ask for who they use and then get in the door that way, or just go to businesses and offer training or membership to your training / boot camps in exchange for them having the boxes in their businesses.

   Just offer a 2-week trial or something of more value than just a consultation. Then follow up with the leads at least weekly. The conversions may not be as high as like directly from your website, but you'll still get a ton of people that will convert in the end.

So I listed here my top 4 favorite ways to market my business for pretty well free (except maybe $10 here or there for a few minuscule setup things. But other than that they work great and mostly run ongoing for free and forever.)

Do me a favor and please your top 2 or 3 favorite ways to market your business for free in the comment section below, I love to hear what some of you are doing!!

Zach Hunt is a personal trainer in Spokane WA and fitness studio owner. For a complete step by step guide to getting your business to 6 figures in the quickest time possible check this out the Fitness Profits Blueprint by clicking here