The Most Effective Fitness Marketing For Any Budget

A guest post by Richard Toutounji of COM Marketing.

I bought a fitness studio when I was 17. I knew nothing about business or marketing, but I had a passion to help people. I learnt a thing or two during that time about marketing on a small budget. And over the years I’ve had varying sizes of budgets, as well as working with Personal Trainers, Gyms and Studio Owners with varying budgets.

Marketing CAN work at any budget. And there are some definite ways to grow your fitness business even if you have a small budget – which let’s face it – is most of us right now.

The key to low cost or no cost marketing is actually knowing HOW MUCH you’re willing to pay for a lead. This is an important number, that you need to work out if you are going to do any kind of marketing – big or small. In order to know this you really need to know one other number – the lifetime value of a client. If you know that, then you can work out how much you can spend on acquiring a lead.

To work out the lifetime value of a client you’ll need to work out how much on average a client pays you weekly or monthly and multiply that by on average how long they train with you. For example if someone pays $50 a week and on average stays with you for 12 months ($50*52), the lifetime value of that customer is $2,600. Knowing that, how much would you be willing to pay to acquire that customer?

So, now you know that value, you can make some decisions about the kind of marketing you can do. I always suggest people start off with low cost or organic methods. This is a also a great way to build your brand equity. And building brand means lower cost leads in the long run.

So what are some low cost options for marketing your fitness business?

• Partnerships. Take the time to build solid partnerships with businesses who are similar to you.
• Referral Programs. Give incentives to your current clients to invite their friends.
• Content. Having consistent content that you distribute on social media is a fundamental way to market your business and expertise.
• Your Database. Email is still a great way to engage and re-engage clients.
• Facebook Groups. These are a great way to build a funnel of people for your business and Facebook loves when you interact in groups.

I’ll be talking about more practical, how-to tactics on my upcoming masterclass for FILEX Premium Members on 29 July. To register head to the Masterclass tab in the Members Portal or if you can’t attend the date catch up with the masterclass recording available after the event.