Growing your fitness & health coaching business right now may feel overwhelming. Until that is, you realize what steps you need to start, which to stop, and which you’re already doing you need to accelerate. So let’s just dive into this interactive episode. 

Free Download:

First though.. go grab the download I have for you here. https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/scorecard

When you’re busy it can feel overwhelming. It can feel stressful. But it can also be comforting. You get to ignore the little voice that is nervous about revenue and wants to be making more. That’s the benefit. When you stay in motion you don’t allow yourself to analyze what you’re doing that may not really be working. That’s the detriment for some of us that are as or more addicted to hard work as we are to results. 

I hate to admit it, but I’ve fallen into that trap. When I started over at 49 with a huge sense of urgency, I knew marketing, I’d been doing it for decades for fitness businesses, not just my own. But what I blindly failed to assess is the fact that I needed to sell, not just to market, more often. And that branding, is not marketing. It all has a place and time – branding, marketing, selling – but staying stuck in any one of them is not going to grow your business. 

True Confessions

I personally am a recovering content queen. I spent an abundance of time creating programs to sell, and then over-invested my time in content creation, before I really was selling. 

Don’t get me wrong, content creation is absolutely important. But it won’t make sales. You have to ask. 

In this business scorecard I’m sharing with you we discuss these steps:

• Find prospects 
• Get Clients 
• Serve clients 
• Retain clients 
• Get referrals from clients/testimonials 

The reality is you can find prospects and get clients before you have your product or service ready. You want to start growing your email list so you have a waiting, willing audience when it’s time to promote. 

To do that you need a freebie gift for them so juicy that they’d have paid for it. That doesn’t mean big or something that takes a long time to consume (or create). It’s usually something that could be done in a day, or a day plus the time it takes you to enlist a graphic designer or Fiverr.com gig. 

I’ll cover these 5 key areas for building a fitness & health coaching business : 

1. Niche 
2. New Clients & Customer Acquisition
3. Follow Through 
4. Nurture 
5. Process & Customer Outcomes

Think of this business scorecard as a wellness checkup. Find out if your business is healthy with activities that grow your fitness & health coaching business.

Where are you in regard to a developing a niche? 

Listen to these and identify which one of them best describes where you are now. When you’re looking at the score card, you’ll realize you have 3 different numbers within the category to choose. Consider that 1 is low and 12 is high. You may decide that you’re in the lowest category right now, but you could be a 1, 2, or 3 in it. So, as you make progress, even small progress, you can improve your score. 

How well are you at attracting new clients or customers? 

Are your daily activities working for you to grow your fitness & coaching business? 

Be honest as you fill this out. You may have heard something before, know you need to do it, and still not actually be doing it.  

Does your level of follow through slow or grow your fitness & health coaching business?

People aren’t always ready to buy when you want them to buy. So how do you handle that? This section will tell you if you’re on the right track or if you have some small things that could make major improvements in what you do.

Do you dedicate time regularly or have an automated way to nurture your business? 

How do you create relationships that are beyond superficial with your customers? Do you have a predictable way to be top-of-mind for your audience? 

How well are you able to document your process? 

Do you create predictable outcomes with your avatar? What is your process or method? Listen to these statements and choose the one that best describes where you’re at right now. 

Download the cheat sheet. Do this quarterly, or if you’re building your business, do it monthly. You’ll want to declare for yourself the area you plan to focus on improving and the steps you’ll take so that you can see progress from one assessment to the next. 

Create to https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/scorecard

 Be sure you stop by https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/scorecard to get the scorecard and become a part of our community so you receive the invite to masterclass. 

Are you Planning and Promoting Like a Boss? Learn how I plan content and how it pays to plan. 

A one-hour masterclass AND sharing the exact planning tool I use to plan my promotions and publishing calendar. You’ll see how I plan content and I’ve duplicated it for you to use as a template this year, next year… and beyond. 

What’s your current email frequency? How did you arrive at that? Did you test less or greater email frequency to determine what works best for your audience? 

Spoiler alert. This episode dives into the real effect of a daily email frequency on the creation of a business. Now, it’s up to you. In terms of your own email frequency, do you have a limiting belief about people unsubscribing? Or do you have actual proof? 

Do you know that if they’re actually unsubscribing it’s because of your email frequency and not the subject line and email incongruence or value? 

My Guest:

Kevin Ellis, better known as Bone Coach™, is a Forbes-featured certified integrative nutrition health coach, podcaster, YouTuber, bone health advocate, and is the founder of BoneCoach.com.   

Through a unique 3-step process and a world class coaching program called the Stronger Bones Solution™, he and his team have helped people with osteopenia and osteoporosis in over 1500+ cities around the world get confident in their stronger bones plan. 

His mission is to not just help over 1+ million people around the globe build stronger bones… It's to help our children and grandchildren prevent osteoporosis and other diseases in the future so they can lead long, active lives.

Questions we answer in this episode:

How long have you been serving your niche of women with osteoporosis? 

Once someone is on your list, what’s your email frequency? 

How long do you give someone who isn’t opening emails on your list before you show them the door? 

What is the reason you have been so successful? What do you think is the difference in the way you’ve been able to build quickly, and successfully? 

Attend the Masterclass for yourself or share with your clients:

https://www.flippingfifty.com/bone-health-masterclass  

Listen to Kevin's Interview on Flipping 50: 

https://www.flippingfifty.com/bone-coach

Connect with Kevin:

BoneCoach™ Website: https://bonecoach.com/

BoneCoach™ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bonecoach

BoneCoach™ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/bonecoach

BoneCoach™ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bonecoachkevin

BoneCoach™ Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/bonecoach

BoneCoach™ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bonecoach

 

 If you’re a trainer or health coach with all the certs, and education, a desire to serve and to make a living, it doesn’t matter if you can’t find clients and students for your fitness programs. But there’s such an obvious need. So the question isn’t is there demand. It’s where are they, how do you get them (instead of letting them find another option). It’s also getting out of your head the idea that to find clients and students for your fitness programs isn’t the problem. If you believe that there’s too much competition, you’re sunk.  

So in this episode.. whether you run a gym and you’re struggling to bring people back in, or you offer an online fitness business, there is something in this episode, examples of how to market, in this episode. 

There is room for all of us. 

 00:00 

For those of you doing online programs feeling threatened by the reopening of gyms and the changes of numbers - Maybe you experienced some success during 2020 or 2021 if you got started then, and maybe your numbers aren’t quite as good in 2022. OR, Maybe you’re wondering about it being worth starting in 2022 because you haven’t yet. There’s something for you too.

Statistics

05:20 Despite compelling scientific research and widespread public health recommendations, among women 45–64 years and 65–74 years old, only 18% and 11%, respectively, perform physical activities that enhance and maintain muscle strength and endurance two or more times per week

(2010) 

Create a Community

06:57 Although personal involvement and commitment to any exercise program are essential, studies indicate that initiating individual behavior change is more likely with social or environmental change and support. 

A large number of women who drop out report time, and preference of exercising at home, as obstacles to exercise (in a gym). Good news for at-home exercise options not as good news for gyms, you might think. 

But post pandemic it’s a different landscape. Some are returning to gyms because they miss the, what I call, parallel play. That is, when you go somewhere for a specific reason and others are doing the same thing. You’re not distracted in the gym by laundry, lawncare, or the work desk staring at you.

This could actually be a positioning point for gyms now that group fitness and personal training options that are abundant and easily accessed online. Marketing that appeals to that pain-point of not getting to the workout, even with the best of intentions, because at home there are just too many other things to get in the way, may be one way to connect to people with fresh ads.

The elephant in the room for gyms is that:

10:04 Globally, from Q1 to Q2 in 2020 there was a 46% rise in fitness downloads:

60% of Americans enjoyed their home workouts during quarantine so much, they plan on canceling their gym memberships. 

Interestingly, India had the highest increase in downloads, rising by 156%. I bring that up for this reason: it makes sense because India had the largest lockdown in the world from March – May 2020 when 1.3 billion people were suddenly housebound. 

If you don’t have a gym in India and you’re wondering why this is important, stay with me. If you consider then states in the US, or wherever you are listening in the world – Canada, the UK, Australia – with the strictest lockdown status, the largest reported numbers of C-virus, those areas may be among some of the hardest to come back without an online option, marketing that takes an honest look at benefits of exercise vs risks of contracting the virus. 

Will the Pandemic Help Physical Activity Increases 

11:50 What remains to be seen is if this increase in accessibility and convenience will support increased fitness or a rise in the number of people consistently exercising enough for health benefits. 

Will the Physical Activity Increases Support Better Health?

This too, for gyms may be a point of distinction for those who embrace education of “activity” and “availability” compared to quality and direct tie to the needs and goals of individuals.  

It’s an opportunity to educate on the benefits of yoga and Pilates, that are not the same benefits one needs for muscle strength, metabolism, and bone density. 

It’s an opportunity to demonstrate the need for planes of motion in movement and not isolating activity to say, a spinning bike. 

Statistics on Participation in Exercise Pre-Pandemic

15:10 As age increases, participants are more likely to adhere to strength training. For example, for every additional decade of life, participants were approximately 10 times as likely to adhere to strength training.

In a study that featured comparison of web-based vs print-based physical activity interventions (a decade before the pandemic), web-based outperformed print-based, but both were effective. 

So, you understand how this went:

• One group was given a print-form of exercises and journal to record. 
• Another was given web-based exercise instruction and recording of activity. Both worked well. 

The results:

71% of previously inactive became active 

94% of previously active continued activity at recommended levels after the program 

Yes, please, all day, right?

The World Needs Options

18:26 For those of you doing online programs feeling threatened by the reopening of gyms and the changes of numbers - Maybe you experienced some success during 2020 or 2021 if you got started then, and maybe your numbers aren’t quite as good in 2022. OR, Maybe you’re wondering about it being worth starting in 2022 because you haven’t yet. There’s something for you too. 

At-home exercise works. Print, web-based, both work. Meaning, whether you’re using a pdf of exercises and just providing a simple program, or if you’ve created videos… how you provide online training may not matter. 

But, something else does. 

What It Takes

If you arrive at the right program for your ideal customer, you can create a huge and lasting impact. However, there’s one more step. You have to be able to market this program. They have to know it exists and it’s just right for them. You have to have a means to distinguish it from others and make someone say, I don’t just want any program, I don’t want any program but that one. 

Your voice – whether it’s funny, serious, educational, girl-next-door… needs to be full of conviction and inviting to the person who will thrive in your offering. You need to sound like you can hear the voice inside their head. They need to feel you know what they’re thinking, what they worry about, and what they want. That’s not branding, it’s not a broad approach, it’s marketing and it’s narrow.

How do you know when your message is distinct enough? 

20:30 You’ll have enough followers that you have some haters. Someone will say things like, “you confuse me” or “you need to get to the point” or “I don’t like your tone of voice.” I’ve heard all those. But out of 100 people if 2 people with nothing more to do than criticize tell you that, and you connect with 98? Those people will only find you IF YOU take a stand. They will find you because of the way you explain things, and don’t rush to conclusions, or whatever unique quirks you may think you need to fix! Keep them! 

In fact, marry your unique interests with your message. 

In the Marketing to Women Copywriting course, students learn how to identify not a broad target of women in midlife or women who are pregnant for the first time, or just diagnosed with osteoporosis… but that within THAT niche you choose, there are 5 unique personas that you will either repel or attract with the marketing you choose. Then you combine your personality with that? Gold. That’s how you find clients and students for fitness programs… in an evermore crowded space trying to get them.  

From the images, the script you use in videos on your pages, to your opt in pages, your emails or social media posts, what you say is important, HOW you say it is everything. Every woman in your niche does NOT make her buying decisions based on the same values.

Consider this 

23:02 How many people are socially awkward and don’t enjoy the gym? How many actually now have social anxiety since things are opened back up – who never experienced that before? How many of them were the paying members in a gym we call “low maintenance” – meaning they used it less than 2x a month? 

So, let’s say you’re targeting women in their 50s and 60’s who are concerned about bone and brain health and balance. Are you talking to the ones who have anxiety and depression? 

With pandemic weight gain (averages still range from 15-29lb), and the correlating diabetes, pre-diabetes, bone loss risks from pandemic behaviors we are still in a moment in time when we’ve got to address this in marketing. 

And few are. 

Another point of distinction. Lead with it, don’t bury it. 

I’ve attended and presented at 6 fitness conferences in the last 2 ½ years. Interestingly, not one had many – if any – sessions dedicated to what’s true right now, and how we bring up the need now, deal with long-haulers, anxiety and depression from isolation to get people started where they are. Problems people have now are not the problems they had pre pandemic. Even now, as things “feel normal” cases are coming up, weight is still there, causing the risk of comorbidities that the right exercise can do something about. 

We won’t get people active, or over the hurdle of coming to the gym for the first time, or back to the gym, without talking about these issues. What’s their comfort level in your environment relative to their anxiety and depression? It affects large masses of people. Do you deal with how to orient them and make them comfortable? Enthusiastically telling them that the exercise is going to help, isn’t enough. 

25:43 You’ve got to tell them how you’re going to make them comfortable coming in and doing the exercise. You want to describe what they feel when they go to leave their house, or get out of the car once in the parking lot. These are real things. You don’t alienate people who don’t have anxiety and depression by doing that. You probably also impress them with your openness and willingness to talk about tough issues. That’s your distinguishing feature and positioning point.

Gym Owners and Trainers: 

26:37 Will you suggest times of day that are better? 

• How will you check in with them with a phone call to review how it’s going? 
• What’s their preferred communication? 
• Will you suggest a private session instead of a group program based on their individual emotional needs?

These are the kinds of things we have to keep in mind now:

• Coming on too strong, 
• high enthusiasm, 
• over-the-top confidence…

could actually alienate some of the people who need you most. 

Think in the Now About Your Avatar

Who do you want to help? Who do you need to help? How many people does your current approach leave out feeling they don’t fit in or want to?  

And best question… how can you create or tweak an offering so that they have a place they can feel like home… whether it is at the gym or at home?  

There’s a place for your business model, for creating one that you love and allows you to deliver in the way that you want to for your lifestyle. You may want to keep exploring models you hadn’t yet considered for these times we’ve never been in. 

Keep the Faith

28:34 So, don’t be fooled by gym-reopenings being bad if you’re an online program provider or coach. 

Don’t be dissuaded or fearful of all the Peloton, mirror, and online trainers and apps if you’re a gym. 

There are always going to be people who choose people and need to lift heavily safely in a gym. There will always be people who have all the things sitting in their home, access to thousands of workouts, and don’t do them, needing accountability – of an online coach or program. 

We all know, we are not serving enough people and that is where the real opportunity lies. Combine the real talk about seriousness of health and fitness in this moment we’re in, not ignoring or discussing weight loss the way you did in 2019 and find your point of distinction.  

Don’t be just different. Be better. Be the perfect match for your ideal customer and the absolute wrong match for others.. Feel like home. 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

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

Similar Recent Episodes You Might Like: 

12 Content Ideas for Fitness & Health: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/content-ideas/

3 Reasons (and fixes) Your Female Fitness Client Isn't Getting Results: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/female-fitness-client/

 References:

There were many references used in the creation of this episode, many of which were also referenced in this Flipping 50 episode: https://www.flippingfifty.com/

Seguin RA, Economos CD, Palombo R, Hyatt R, Kuder J, Nelson ME. Strength training and older women: a cross-sectional study examining factors related to exercise adherence. J Aging Phys Act. 2010 Apr;18(2):201-18. doi: 10.1123/japa.18.2.201. PMID: 20440031; PMCID: PMC4308058.