Marketing The Mobile Fitness Business

Let’s talk a little bit about Marketing the Mobile Fitness Business. Obviously we don’t have a four-walled facility with a sign in a high traffic area that someone can see on a day to day basis. So we need to be a bit creative when we market a mobile business.

We have 2 goals in mind:

Goal #1 of Marketing for Mobile Services- Get the phone to RING!

Goal #2 of Marketing for Mobile Services- Get people to your website!

We want to be able to:

Inform the customer about the service

Educate the customer about the benefits of the service

Provide the necessary information so the customer can contact the business

Because there is not a physical space or location with mobile fitness training, potential customers cannot just drop in and visit like they would a health club or gym. For that reason, getting the phone to ring and obtaining email inquiries about our services is the goal of all promotions.

Personal Trainers might understand what service they provide, but does the potential customer? It is important for a trainer to know exactly what type of service they provide

Who is your customer?

Set yourself apart from the other fitness professionals in your area. Create a niche for yourself. Don’t try to be everything for everyone. Figure out who your ideal client is.

Decide what type of client(s) you want to work with

Seniors

Baby Boomers

Stay at home mom’s

Athlete’s

Post-rehab

Etc.

Differentiation is a must, especially when competing with the larger health clubs and gyms

A personal training business will want to provide something that is not being provided by the larger gyms.

Common characteristics of most successful clubs include being helpful, friendly, convenient, and clean.

Differentiating characteristics of clubs might include being results oriented, community oriented, patient, rugged, or feminine.

An older woman with children will most likely prefer a clean facility with a comfortable environment, whereas a young man might prefer a more rugged, high energy environment.

The goal is to inform the customer of what the business is about, how it is beneficial and how it is different from the rest.

One key differentiation of a mobile fitness training service is the place, or the fact that the service comes directly to the customer, not the other way around like most fitness businesses. We use the slogan, “We Come To You” We also differentiate ourselves by marketing our services as “FUN”

The Story of The Crab Bucket

I'd like to begin todays blog entry with one of my favorite stories:

THE STORY OF THE CRAB BUCKET

One time a man was walking along the beach and saw another man fishing in the surf with a bait bucket beside him.

As he drew closer, he saw that the bait bucket had no lid and had live crabs inside.

"Why don't you cover your bait bucket so the crabs won't escape?", he said.

"You don't understand.", the man replied, "If there is one crab in the bucket it would surely crawl out very quickly. However, when there are many crabs in the bucket, if one tries to crawl up the side, the others grab hold of it and pull it back down so that it will share the same fate as the rest of them."

So it is with people. If one tries to do something different, get better grades, improve herself, escape her environment, or dream big dreams, other people will try to drag her back down to share their fate.

Moral of the story: Ignore the crabs. Charge ahead and do what is right for you. It may not be easy and you may not succeed as much as you like, but you will NEVER share the same fate as those who never try.

Remember to keep a pair of sunglasses handy because the future of mobile fitness training looks bright! Don't let any of the crabs in your life bring you down.

This morning I was out training one of my clients and she was feeling gloom and doom about our current economy and coming from a scarcity mentality. I love it when people tell me that I can't do something or that my dreams are not possible. It actually only makes me want to try even harder.

Own your calendar

I see so many talented personal trainers burn out in our industry. The reason so many talented personal trainers are burning out is that we are trying to be everything for everyone and often times we don't take enough time for ourselves. By nature, many of us are givers and it is often easy to keep on giving.

At the end of the day, if you are exhausted and not taking enough time for yourself it will affect how you are with clients. I decide on a number of training sessions that is do-able for me to handle each week and I stick with my schedule. I also block off time for my own exercise sessions. If you aren't taking care of yourself, you aren't living up to the healthy role model you are supposed to be.

Take time for yourself, don't be afraid to say "no" and stay balanced and healthy:-)

Write Articles For Your Website

Hi Everyone,

Happy Monday:-) I hope everyone had a great weekend:-) I wanted to talk about the importance of writing fitness articles today and placing them on your website.

Placing articles on your website serves two purposes. First of all your site will index higher on search engines when your website serves as a resource center that offers articles. Secondly, articles serve as credibility builders. In other words, they showcase your education, training style, and place your services in front of potential clients.

Remember, people are looking for information when they are searching the web.

Writing short fitness, weight loss, and diet articles is a great traffic builder. Resource sites, such as ideamarketers.com, selfgrowth.com, thriftyfun.com, articlewarehouse.com, valuablecontent.com and many others, publish diet and fitness articles given to them from fitness professionals. These web sites are always searching for new articles to offer to their visitors.

Writing a weekly fitness or diet article and submitting it to these sites can prove priceless for winning new clients. When writing an article make sure to always include a bi-line at the end of every article that identifies who you are, what you do, and provides contact information such as your web address, email, and a phone number.

That's all for now, I hope everyone is having a great start to the week:-)

Relationships

Yesterday I had an interesting conversation with one of my current clients after we finished our workout. This person is an attorney and works at a busy law firm in our area. I've been training her for a little over 6 months and she has had fantastic results. We meet at her office or at her home, every once in awhile I drag her out to the beach depending on her schedule.

She shared some interesting information with me. Apparently a person that works at her firm has a different personal trainer and he was trying to convince my client to work out with his trainer instead. He asked my client how much I charged an hour and said that his trainer is cheaper and that she should work out with his trainer.

What is interesting is what she told him. She told him that she was extremely happy with my services, enjoys working out with me and remembers the first time she met me a few years ago when the 2 of us were in the same networking group. What she remembered was that I provided a complimentary consultation for her. At this time I didn't try to make her sign her life away with a large contract, I simply came to her house, showed her some great exercises and told her that if she was interesting in some additional personal training that she could contact me.

At the time I provided the consultation she wasn't ready to engage in a new fitness program. But a few years later she remembered this interaction and now she is one of my current clients. In the meantime she has referred many different people to me and many of those people are current clients.

Every interaction you have with people in your life is important. Remember to put your best foot forward and always over deliver.

Why Mobile Training?

Hi,
My name is Machelle Lee. I own a mobile fitness company called,
The Invisible Gym.

Having owned a successful mobile fitness business for over 7 years, my husband and I decided it was time to share our experiences with other fitness professionals and provide help to those who are interested in pursing mobile fitness training as a business option. I recently did a presentation at an IDEA Fitness Fusion conference and I realized that there are not a lot of resources out there for mobile fitness trainers.

Which is why I decided that I wanted to start a blog for all of the mobile
fitness trainers out there so that we can share ideas and we can provide support for one another.

I believe that mobile fitness training is an important part of the fitness industry because it reaches those who will never join a gym or health club (for many reasons), and believe me, there are a lot of these people out there. In fact, only about 14% of the entire U.S. population actually belongs to a gym or health club. That means that 86% of the U.S. population are NOT IN THE GYMS!!

This is also a very easy business to get started - It doesn't require a lot of money to begin or a lot of overhead to maintain. What it does require is a Trainer who truly wants to help those who need physical activity the most. One great benefit is that because of the low overhead, more of the training fee will stay where it's supposed to........in your pocket!

Keep a pair of sunglasses handy because the future of mobile fitness training looks bright!

Some great benefits for In Home/ Mobile Fitness Trainers are:

No Rental or Space Fees:
The competitive advantage of Mobile Fitness training is that you don't have to pay rental or space fees. Because many trainers work out of a fitness facility and have higher overhead costs than mobile trainers, a mobile fitness trainer can provide their services, cover their expenses, pay themselves, have profit and still be able to provide it for less than those trainers working out of facilites.

Flexibility and Freedom:
Why be stuck inside a gym or studio all day when you can be in different places. Mixing up your surroundings helps eliminate boredom and enhances creativity.

Reach out to people who really need your help:
Many people are afraid to come to a health club or gym. It is extremely rewarding to reach out to someone who would never take the step to walk into a health club, gym or studio.


If you have any special topics or requests you would like covered please feel free to add to the blog.


Machelle