Faster than an interval training workout I'm going to share 3 ways to increase your email opens (which increases the deliverability of future emails, which:

• increases the chance that when you are promoting they'll read it and register) and 
• social engagement (no more crickets!) 

... but first... I shared this earlier and I want you to attend for $1 as my guest but you have to hurry because it's live and with leaders of the most respected health & wellness collaborative in the world. 

And.. you can be my guest for next to nothing for this priceless experience. 

The Health Business Growth conference is 3 days, live and virtual and you'll find details here. (but register using my code below for the $1 rate!)

Just visit RIGHT HERE and enter the promo code MMVIP to get your ticket for just $1. 

Tried Everything to Increase Your Email Opens?

If you know the value of email, you know you've got to:

• grow an email list from people who asked to be on it
• regularly nurture them so they open 
• provide high value once they do open 

so that you can tell and sell the right people to your program when you're promoting. 

So … here we go: 

#1 Add [Recipe] in the subject line (or 5 or 3 or .. Easter..) because... no one ever had too many recipes apparently.  

Make sure the recipe page where it sits, and it could be simply a blog for you, has social media share buttons on it. 

#2 Add [Video] to the subject line and then of course, make the video about something they CARE deeply about. It could be making a recipe, doing an exercise, giving a short warm up or cool down. 

#3 Link to those recipes and videos from your website. You don't want to just drop the recipe into the email. You don't want to link to a YouTube video (not even yours). These people are on your email list. Sending them back to your social media site is like sending them in circles. Your social strategy is to bring them to your email. From email you nurture them with deeper content they wanted from you and a "next step." 

Far too many fitness professionals are sending people in circles. Social to email to social again or into their freebie funnels again ... so there's just confusion, no reason to buy. 

Why would you do that, right? 

A confused mind never buys. Do you know what will happen? They’ll start asking you, “Who do you recommend that does that?” or “What protein powder to you recommend?” even if you carry one, because you’re simply confusing instead of giving them the answer. 

Don’t be so afraid of selling and self-promotion that you promote everyone but you! If you like doing that? Then do that! Create a business where you are earning money as an affiliate promoting others who already have established businesses making 6 figures a month. Did you know you can do that? You can do it for us! 

But… If you want to grow YOUR business, then this: 

This April 7-9th, JJ and Karl (Mindshare’s CEO), are bringing together top experts to help health pros become the trusted authority at this year’s Health Business Growth Conference.

Tickets are $397 (and worth 10X that price!), but I’ve managed to score a few VIP Passes that can get a limited number of accredited health pros admission for just $1 (let’s call them my “Golden Tickets”). 

Important Details... I have a few of these tickets to share. I've been a mastermind member for more than 5 years now... and I promise this is work 10x the regular rate.

But you don't even have to pay it!

Just visit RIGHT HERE and enter the promo code MMVIP to get your ticket for just $1. 

But you’ll need to hurry. The “$1 passes” are limited, and when my allocation is gone, you’ll have to pay the regular price.

Resources:

The Ultimate Freebie Book (to grow your email list): https://www.flippingfifty.com/irresistible-freebie-how-to/  

Marketing to Women: Copywriting Course: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/copywriting-course/

00:00

I’m rebranding the podcast you’re listening to and there’s a new female fitness entrepreneurs podcast coming soon. 

I’ve polled my team. I’ve asked a small group of my private business coaching clients. 

I’ve Googled anything that might never be possible to Trademark because of conflicting titles. (You should do this before you name your business or program, by the way!) and narrowed it down. 

So, now it’s your turn! Here’s my ask! 

Take the quick poll and let me know what you think. This will take 30 seconds. 

What name feels best? What do you identify with? What do you want to identify with? 

7:55

What feels both fun and tells you that by listening you’ll get: 

• Tips for marketing your fitness business
• Insider content about being female and boss
• How to hire, onboard, and fire
• The growing pains of starting and building a fitness business (so you can skip some)
• How to identify your fitness boss strengths and communication style 

Click Here to Vote!

08:51

My Female Entrepreneurs Podcast loves 

Over the last decade, I’ve developed some favorite friends. I try to have the discipline not to listen to anything while I’m hiking but there are times when I have a hard time pulling myself away from things I want to do.

So, there I said that! When I’m in that moment, I also know I am not crushing goals, I’m killing my creativity and I won’t be attracting anything good. 

So I barter with myself. I’ll catch up on a podcast at the beginning of a walk or hike and think of this like vitamins for my business. These are not all fitness podcasts. In fact, none of them are. 

It’s why I do what I do at my fitness professional’s podcast, in fact. There’s a gap in getting specific with the skills to teach fitness and the skills to grow a fitness business. I do think women have natural strengths to do marketing and make business decisions. They just require us to really tap into our vision for both our customers and for our business and selves. The Fitness business does come with a unique set of opportunities and challenges. And being a female entrepreneur does too. We need to bring them together. 

Here are several of my favorite podcasts for so many reasons. 

11:29

Marketing Made Easy - Amy Porterfield

For female fitness entrepreneurs podcast choices, this is a goldmine of the personal, business, scheduling obstacles that will always be present in your business. 

11:47

Entrepreneurs on Fire - John Lee Dumas 

This podcast is a great companion for longer hikes! The episodes are often long. It’s the model that intrigues me about this podcast. It’s a daily release… daily! That, girlfriend, is a lot of work! He now releases replays of previous episodes. But what I pay attention to is what he’s doing behind the scenes. He’s 80% interviews. He charges $3000 an interview and you have to apply to be selected. 

Crazy right? Crazy like a fox! His audience is big. If you’re the right fit, he’s probably also using an affiliate link in his podcast to make money on listeners who take action from the link. 

Are your wheels turning? 

14:42

SPI (Smart Passive Income) - Pat Flynn

I don’t listen to every episode, as there are some topics that feel off-target based on the show’s promise. However, THAT is a great lesson I’ve learned from this podcast. Pat makes his living from this podcast. Something is working. So, when success leaves clues, I pay attention. 

16:06

The Jasmine Star Show - Jasmine Star 

When I want specific tips on how to use Instagram, Jasmine’s jam, or hear a little about her growing a business and a family at the same time, this is a fun podcast. 

Please use this link, FitnessMarketingMastery.com/vote, and tell me which of the 5 new titles you love, and thank you in advance!  

Additional Resources: 

Marketing to Women Copywriting Course

Coming Soon! 5 Day Marketing to Attract More Midlife Clients

00:00

This is part two, How to Raise Your Rates, in the raise your rates series. In the first, I addressed when to raise your rates including 3 key times. And #2 may shock the Lulu’s off you. The link to that episode will be here in the show notes today. As always you’ll find those at fitnessmarketingmastery.com and podcasts are available on your favorite podcast platform!

So, you’ve decided to take the plunge. You’ve done the math. You’re excited by the idea of earning more per session, per hour, per program, or membership!

And then, gulp, you think, oh my goodness, how do I tell them?

03:58

Here’s how to raise your rates step by step.

1) Notify your current clients

1. Choose a time. For big increases in annual or, monthly rates give a longer runway. That might be 90 days.
2. Choose a method. Will you send them an email, a postcard, a video message?

I often use a pending increase of rates for a program or a membership to benefit my community. I let them know that say, during the anniversary promotion of the After 50 Fitness Formula for Women course Labor Day weekend they can have the course at the 2015 rates this one last weekend.. plus enjoy a bonus.. before the rates go up on Tuesday after Labor Day.

My evergreen sales for this course after the rate increase don’t suffer because no one knew the “old” rate and the acute 4-day promotion sales increase. And, I’m not “discounting” or devaluing my services or products to increase revenue in either case.

07:16

An example of how to raise your rates… when they are terribly low!

One of my students recently raised her rates for private coaching by doubling what she’d been offering. When she had a prior coaching client come back to do coaching again, the client didn’t bat an eye and paid in full for the new rate. My client is so excited by picking up a client and confirmation “she’s worth it,” that there’s renewed enjoyment of coaching. 

The truth is her rate is still too low. A coach is worth an investment. If your model is working for a doctor’s office and the doc is retaining you for $75 an hour … but charging $150/hour, it may be time to look at starting your own business. Coaches with experience and who provide transformation earn $300 - $1000 an hour. Are you worth it? No one will believe it unless you do.

09:53

2) Determine if you’ll grandfather in your current clients for same rates

1. Create a new product, making the old product invisible and sharing the link with renewing clients or simply having them on auto-renew (as with a subscription)
2. Creating a unique discount code for them to use when they check out
3. Create rules like consecutive or uninterrupted service for retaining the current rate

With private clients I’ve been working with for years I will often grandfather them in. That is, they’ll continue paying the same rate, and as long as they continue to renew they will enjoy that rate. You’ve done the homework, you’ve got the relationship, and if it’s a client you love, then you decide. Not so much? Let them know you’re raising rates! Maybe you increase theirs by a smaller fraction.

I will say, I’m to the point I’ve raised my rates such that I have one long-standing private client paying a small fraction of my full fee. And I mean 25%. Not 25% off, but 25% of my full fee. You can decide what feels right to you and you can discuss it openly with your clients.

14:47

3) Add bonuses

That unlock with renewal at the new rate, so you are increasing the value not simply raising rates. Though it’s reasonable with experience, increase inflation, service rates do need to increase, especially if there’s a cost of goods or rental space involved, it still feels better to any of us as consumers when we also know we are receiving upgraded service or additional service with the increase.

17:04

4) Decide if you’ll allow a “stock up” at current rates flurry to happen.

1. Pros: it can increase revenue in a big way to do so
2. Cons: it can lock you into being busy servicing people at a lower rate than you know you’re worth and defeat the very reason you’re raising rates: you’re worth it and the transformation you provide is worth it!
3. You can put a limit on number of purchases allowed if you do decide you’re going to allow this.

I encouraged both monthly and annual memberships sales this past December while I let everyone know of rate increases occurring in January of 2022.

22:49

Last tip for how to raise your rates: make it count.

Don’t do some modest increase. My client doubled her coaching fees. I increased my annual membership by $100 and monthly by $10. I recently increased my private coaching fees by 200%. I attract better clients, serious about doing the work, and love working with them. If you raise your rates only every couple of years, and you’ve been scared ____ less to do it during Covid, make it matter.

23:48

Worried About Renewals?

How do you keep them coming back? I have anniversaries “unlock” access to new programs. In our membership, the biggest exercise asset is 12-week strength training programs. I have a special access for 1st year anniversaries and another for 2nd year anniversaries.

I’ve got members who have been with me for 5 years. They’ve been grandfathered in at the rate they joined. Membership is now 66% higher. They’re not only enjoying those low rates, but they help other community members with answers to their questions and are first to talk about excitement for a particular program.

It’s a win-win to have those legacy members involved, even at a lower rate. Consider the asset of holding onto members vs. trying to advertise and gain new ones.

There you have it, how to raise your rates. If you’re listening to this one but haven’t heard WHEN to raise your rates, health & fitness coaches go check it out.

And here’s the thing, think it through. Once. Think it over. Then just do it.

Resources:

Marketing to Women Copywriting Course

 

 

Other episodes you might like:

Be sure to listen to Part I of this podcast

When to Raise Your Rates, Fitness & Health Coaches – Part I

They Got the Freebie, How to Enroll In Your Program? | Say This Not That #307

 

Please Vote for Podcast Titles!!

fitnessmarketingmastery.com/vote

There are key times and reasons when you want (and NEED) to raise your rates. In this two-part episode series, I’m going to talk first in this episode about WHEN to raise your rates. I’ll give you three reasons and discuss each, with examples of what happens when I or other trainers I coach do it. 

In the follow-up episode, I’ll talk about how including

• HOW MUCH!
• how often
• how to tell them

And now… here’s when you need to Raise Your Rates!

1. You’re attracting so many clients you can’t service them all and you have a waitlist.
2. You’re not attracting any clients.
3. You’re attracting clients who don’t do the work, are full of excuses, cancel frequently or ask to reschedule too often.

Hey! First, Please Vote for Podcast Titles!!  fitnessmarketingmastery.com/vote 

A word on residual effects of the pandemic

A lot of good and smart trainers left the building during and in aftermath of the pandemic. I mean that in two ways. Many who were fed clients by a gym found they didn’t get fed anymore because members weren’t coming in. Those may have quit or been forced to find other work.

Others left their common senses behind. They thought their knowledge, service, and transformation they offered wasn’t as valuable online through Zoom as if clients came in to see them physically. Really? If you help someone get in shape, lose weight, sleep better… does it matter how or where you are? I’ve talked to clients by phone or Skype from Italy or Trinidad, and Okinawa for a decade. I didn’t charge any less for it. 

Then there are the trainers who felt suddenly they had to be DOING the exercise with their clients for it to matter. If you worked with a client one-on-one or in a group training, you wouldn’t do the workout with them (that’s group fitness, right? And that’s free!) so come back to your senses and be a teacher, a leader, and a coach.

Scared to Raise Your Rates?

The thought you raise your rates when the economy may be down, and clients aren’t coming to you the way they used to can be scary.

If it doesn’t scare you a little, it’s probably not something you want to bother doing. More on that in the next episode when we talk about how much to raise your rates.

Got a story about raising your rates to share? Drop it below the show notes (/raise-your-rates).

Resources:

Marketing to Women Copywriting Course 

 

 

Other episodes you might like:

Be sure to tune in for the next episode too (HOW to raise your rates)

4 More Better Fitness Marketing Tools| Say This Not That #306

How to Build Your Personal Brand in 2022 | Fitness & Health Coaches #302

00:00

Online fitness businesses or virtual studios are the paths many fitness professionals took during the pandemic. Whether you were doing it already, were forced to look at other directions for your business during quarantines, or are considering it now this episode has tips for you. 

00:40

In this episode, I’ll explore ways to grow your online fitness business with an inspiring interview with an award-winning Canadian fitness professional. If you’re: 

• Struggling to stand out online
• Seeking inspiration so you can keep going 
• Trying to figure out why what you’re doing isn’t working

… then tune in and take notes for your own online fitness business success. In three short years, my guest has done something with her passion for exercise that could just reignite the spark in you. 

Success leaves clues. 

02:10

My Guest:

Suaad Ghadban is CanFitPro’s Fitness Professional of the year and a leading fitness and health expert in Canada. She is also the creator of Montreal’s hottest Workout Hot Booty Ballet™. She has 20 years of teaching and training experience which include; dance, gymnastics, circus, and fitness, as well as being a World Dance and Sports Aerobic Champion. Suaad is the fitness correspondent for Global TV Montreal for the past 8 years and has been featured in many media and print outlets such as The Huffington Post, The Gazette, TVA, The Globe and mail, Salut Bonjour, Radio Canada, and many more.

Always at the forefront of creativity and trendsetting, Suaad launched the Hot Booty Ballet™ virtual studio in 2018 to ensure instructors and studio owners had continual access to fresh movement and training ideas. The HBB virtual studio houses a community of fabulous fitness pros who can deliver the program in person, outdoors thanks to ‘Ballet By The Water™’ and virtually all over the world!

As a motivator and a role model, Suaad’s passionate personality and unique energetic style of teaching allow her to connect easily with people, bringing out the best in every individual and helping them go beyond their personal goals and expectations.

06:12

Questions we answer in this episode: 

• When did you start your HBB Online studio and why?
• What are some tips you can offer new instructors in the digital world?
• What are some tools that have helped you expand your online studio?
• How did you create a brand that attracts people - super well!?
• You began in 2018, what do you find is different about marketing a digital fitness brand now compared to when you first launched online?

Don’t Miss Suaad’s Must-Have Top 3 tips for online business! 

You can’t hurry time. You can’t hurry experience.

-Suaad Ghadban

Connect with Suaad:

www.hotbootyballet.com

She’s Social: 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HotBootyBallet/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hotbooty.ballet

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hbbworkout

Additional Resources: 

Marketing to Women Copywriting Course 

What was the most valuable tip you got from this episode? Let me know in the comments.

 

I feel like fitness chose me. 

-Suaad Ghadban

00:00

Fitness marketing basics aren’t the sexy, social media influencer, ego-centric increase in fans and followers, and more likes on your recent post. 

Fitness marketing basics are simultaneously the easiest and easiest to resist steps to successful revenue building. 

This episode reviews the fastest way to grow your business. 

Then what I’m going to dive deeper into is why you might be resisting the things that are right here that have proven to work over and over. 

If you’re not growing, or not growing fast enough, and you’re doing all the things (but the fitness marketing basics) and still resist doing what works… stay tuned.

 04:28

Fitness Marketing Basics for Fast Business-growth 

If every human on the planet needs to exercise…

If most struggle with exercise…

Why is it still so hard to attract clients? 

The simplest things, the smallest steps, work for health and fitness. 

The simplest things work for growing your health and fitness business.

Pick up the phone.

Write an email.

Go back to fitness marketing basics.

(and even saying that I realize, you don’t know good fitness marketing basics potentially unless you’ve followed an online guru because it isn’t taught thoroughly enough to help you when you’re beginning). 

Talk to people. 

One of the obstacles for trainers and health coaches who want to build an online business is what to say:

•     What to say in emails
•     Or What to say in videos
•     What to say on a phone call

 Call one person and you’ll know what to say.

Try writing an email to one person. When it’s just one you know what to say. 

Keep in mind, email is not as good as a phone call alone. It is a good partner. If you have a cell phone number, a text is better than an email. 

The most successful people in the world make phone calls every day.

 They make the easy ones and the hard ones. 

•   When someone’s credit card doesn’t go through after three email attempts and messages to them don’t result in any response, someone calls. 
•   If customer service drops the ball and things go wrong for a customer, someone calls.  
•  When a customer complaint isn’t valid or attacks the company or any staff, someone calls.  

Usually, that’s the person still in business when 9/10 have failed. 

 

 

 10:48

Even if you want to build a business online…

Even if, ideally, you don’t want to work one on one with clients in the business you’re building…

While you’re building it, the fastest way to grow your business revenue is to pick up the phone. You invite one person at a time to start working with you. 

When you call at least one person every day, you build confidence, you build rapport, you build habits, and you relax. 

When you’re stuck in those feelings of fear and your expenses outweigh your revenue, it is extremely hard to create a business with abundance and flow. And if you don’t go woo-woo… hang with me for a minute. 

If you begin building your business based on fear and not enough and always working constantly, without a reasonable plan for, when I’m at XX, I will hire help for the things I don’t need to do… you will in 5 years still have that kind of business. It’s based on fear and not growth. It’s based on you working constantly and not on you recharging your batteries. 

 12:32

Side Note: 

What’s Your Burn Rate?

That said, sit down and determine your “burn rate” that includes your own personal expenses. That is, the amount of money you have to make monthly to cover your business and other expenses if this were your sole income including paying yourself a reasonable rate commensurate with what you’d pay anyone else to do the job. 

 13:50

Calm the F*** Down! 

When you have revenue coming in, you can play the long game. Online marketing is a long game. Social media is a long game unless you’re doing paid advertising. 

I’ve got 130,000 followers in a YouTube channel, many of whom are on my email list. That was built over 6 years, (I’m not including pandemic because everything changed and I’ve had little growth) not overnight. I still nurture it every week with videos and posts. 

You can’t build your business this year doing things that are long game-oriented. Growing an email list by 10,000 a weekend is possible, but only if you already have 100,000 and you’re invited to stages and speaking in front of hundreds of thousands regularly. Starting out my list grew only by 1000 a month.. so it took me years to reach 10,000. 

But then there were months where that doubled… and the rest is history when you’re playing both long and short. 

 16:42

My Fitness Marketing Basics action advice: 

Start with Phone calls, one a day. I go into detail on another podcast about what to say and in what order. 

Then work on your email game. The juiciest words you may ever use in an email someone are “Are you still interested?

Inside you’ll ask them to respond to a very special “retreat, package, workshop” you’re putting together if they want details about it.

17:43

My advice if you’re resistant to marketing is take time and do a few of these:

Imagine your business in 3 years. What is your typical day like? What are you doing? How does it feel? What kind of success is your business experiencing?

What is your role in the daily activities of the business?

Go deeply into the emotions that you feel about the success you’re having. 

 18:22

Now think about these questions:

How much money do you have in the bank? Or in investments? What’s your net worth? 

Where do you live? What is your environment like? What have you created for yourself around your daily habits that is possible because of your business? 

Do you travel or donate to charities? Are you “recognized” when you go out or travel? 

You really can’t hide behind the computer if you’re building a business. You have gifts to share and people who do care and want what you have to offer, you’ve got to connect with them in the fastest way possible. 

 19:13

Establish follow-through goals. 

When someone is non-responsive on my list, I don’t slow down on outreach, I double down. I want a yes or a no and take no answer as not an option. If an email doesn’t reap a response, a second one goes out, then a third in close proximity. 

If that doesn’t do it, I reach out via text (and voice text when that’s possible).

We resist marketing ourselves because it’s so much easier to promote a business. You may find yourself suddenly promoting you since the pandemic. 

But the truth is, this works so much better. People want to do business with people, not with a business. 

We are very comfortable thinking about ourselves in the way we’ve always thought of ourselves. So, change, including being someone who markets, sells, and promotes may never have been a way you’ve thought of yourself. You’re resisting it. 

You may resist having money because you heard things like, “money doesn’t grow on trees” or “we can’t afford that” or felt that the good life was for other people and you’ve always saved for a rainy day but never spent for today…

You want to establish the source of your reluctance for reaching out to people, too.

Do you have a negative connotation with sales people from the used car salesman or the vacuum cleaner salesman, or maybe a realtor? Did a parent or spouse tell you not to share your real feelings if you loved something? 

This is the real homework in this episode.

Getting fitness marketing basics to work is easy, once you’ll apply them. If you’re resistance is due to these feelings or some false belief that anyone who is successful didn’t do these things? You really want to take a look at that. 

Break down your barriers and you’ll soar. 

 21:52

Other Episodes You May Love: 

4 Big Mistakes in your Email Marketing for Fitness

3 Ways to Avoid Burnout for Fitness Professionals Post Pandemic

Resources: 

Copywriting to Women Course  

Flipping 50 Menopause Fitness Specialist  

How do clients enroll in your program? How do you convert them from stranger to follower to subscriber to buyer? 

 

There are potential gaps anywhere in that funnel I just described. The one we’re talking about here is from subscriber to buyer. Say someone just reached out for your freebie. You’ve nurtured them as they used it. Now they are finished with the nurture email series. 

 

What do you say to them next? You created that freebie based on it being something that your ideal customer for your course, program, or coaching wants or needs. (Tell me you did that – or be sure that you check today’s show notes (enroll-in-your-program) so you have the Freebie solution that does the job!) 

 

In this series of weekly marketing posts, I’ll help you craft your content so that you can resonate with your ideal customers. I’ll choose an example of some fitness posts that are a good concept but miss the mark. 

 

Use these words not those: 

If you are ready …

You might like this…. 

 

And be sure that you: 

Create a sense of urgency 

Make it a no-brainer 

Inspire the FOMO

 

The words I suggest (listen to the episode) are these: 

Based on _____________ , the next logical step is _______________

 

There you have it, the episode of the Say This Not that series this week. Leave me a comment or a rating in iTunes for the Fitness Marketing Mastery show. 

 

If you’re not already a Fitnessmarketingmastery.com subscriber, it’s the next logical step if you’re listening to this podcast. (See what I did there?) You’ll find a message from me on the home page about how I can help you make your business go or grow in the next year. But better yet, let me help you with strategies for the Marketing to Women: Copywriting Course. 

 

Click on the link in this episode’s show notes and you’ll have a day with special savings. If you’re stuck:

Finding the right words

You type and then you retype and start over again

You stare at a blank screen 

You post and send and get very little positive response

 

And… you know in your heart you can HELP your ideal client. You KNOW you have something she needs. 

 

Then don’t spin your wheels. Don’t stay stuck with thoughts of, “I can’t do this myself.” Seriously, there is no one who does it like you. But there is not an abundance of marketing and sales strategies available for health & fitness coaches. You need to get in the weeds and not just do broad strokes like check the box you sent an email. 

 

If no one else is asking... I am. What words are you using in your emails? In what order? 

 

It matters!!!

 

Resources mentioned in this episode: 

Marketing to Women Copywriting Course 

 

How to Create the Irresistible Freebie (your ideal clients will love)

Otter.ia 

 

Other Episodes You May Like:

Small Talk Say This, Not That Series | Fitness & Health Pro #295 

Say This, Not That Series | Fitness & Health Professionals #294