Create More Customers Podcast — Episode 129: Marketing & Sales Advice For Gym Owners (TRANSCRIPT)

This is the transcript of the latest episode of the Create More Customers Podcast — Episode 129: Marketing & Sales Advice For Gym Owners.

In this episode you’ll hear my thoughts on:

• Staying front of mind with customers, including theory about how advertising work and tactics such as “surprising and delighting
• Creating offers, with examples
• Creating communities, transitioning from offline to online, and nuances of Facebook Groups
• Branding, specifically wearables and interest categories for referrals
• Instant demos for increasing sales, and some examples of them
• Incentivising referrals with specific phrasing
• Content creation, topics, quantity, length, and finding your voice

Listen to the full 25-minute episode here: https://anchor.fm/create-more-customers/episodes/Create-More-Customers---Episode-129-Marketing--Sales-Advice-For-Gym-Owners-e1re0hm or here: https://youtu.be/mt3RZhJz-M8 or read the transcript below.

If you like what was on here and want more, go to https://createmorecustomers.agency

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It then in that scenario, where they’ve already paid the money, and they’re not going, what the thing that’s popping into my mind is you need to hit them up a week or two weeks before that membership they’re currently paying for expires.

So you’re front of mind, when that does expire, and they’ve got those free.

They’ve got the free funds for it.

And that might just be a case of you asking, When does that? Oh, yeah, no worries.

When does that offer end, and then follow up with them just before, we used to do this all the time in hospitality, we used to collect people’s phone numbers to for their birthdays, we’d give him a birthday offer.

And we’d bring him the week before their birthday actually happens to say and ask them what they’re doing for their birthday.

Inevitably, they’ve got some loose plans, we invite them to the 80s, the hospitality venue, they hang out with them.

And their nine mates get 10 Free drinks, they feel the place opposite everyone else feels that up.

And then they go off for dinner or they go off to do whatever they were already doing.

So we can hit him at that time where they’re open to it.

It’s a bit of a different example, because we were trying to fill venues and we’re just getting, you know, higher a crowd.

But for this if you can hit him just before when it’s fresh in their head.

Because their objections like pretty broad, you can probably sway them, but then they’re going to you know, cancel or they’re going to ask for refunds, all that kind of stuff, you could probably push it in a sales thing, but you might get better conversions, better retention, if you can get them at that point.

The other one is maybe your offers wrong, he gave some of the examples of the other competitors, not direct competitors.

But some of those, there’s two other brands that are doing things.

And there’s obviously people paying that kind of stuff.

Part of that is those two brands that you mentioned, they have built a brand.

So there’s that brand equity, but also it could be just worth looking at what they’re offering, like go to their, their web pages and see what they’re offering for that price.

And see if you can less match the value or up the value as well.

And you might be able to guess that stuff.

But you may even be able to go back to the people that are telling you know, we’re already paying this amount and go Well, what would make it worth your wild for this price point.

And, uh, maybe I don’t know, I have no idea what it could be.

But it could be something that you haven’t even thought of that you could just add in it has, you know, it’s easy for you to deliver on but high perceived value for them.

There was just a couple thoughts I had around that what you’re seeing around the offer.

I definitely agree with getting that visual out.

There’s a an indoor skate park here in Adelaide, that I think it’s actually it’s positioned as a skate park.

But on the other side, there’s actual free weights as well sports boat is ticking both things.

It’s you come in for the skating and you may do some skating, but then you can have a workout as well.

And if you have it on, on display, it may just remind people that you’re offering two different that you’re two different things but a complimentary so they’re getting more bang for their buck.

There used to be another boxing gym in the city, or 1015 years ago, I don’t know if it’s still around was the Aboriginal Surprise, surprise, sobriety dream.

And they had a boxing ring and had boxing coaches and all that come in, but I had some different areas for workouts as well.

And people would buy a membership and it was really cheap back then.

And some people would just use one part and some people would use the other part and some people would use both because they’re like, Well, I’m already getting this value out of it.

So you may have already just answered your own question of what kind of offer and you’ve already kind of suggested what people have thought so having that thing and that adds the extra perceived value to what it is if that if the offer is the problem, but I’m not like for me I No no longer pay for a gym membership.

I actually go down to an acrobatics gym with trampolines.

And I not only and I only went there for the skill, but also get the workout as well.

And it really dawned on me after that.

I’m like, Well, I’m spending an hour here.

You know, most days I’m actually getting a workout I do One kind of workout bodyweight workout.

But I’m also getting a skill.

I’m hitting two birds with one stone.

That wasn’t apparent to me because I went in for one thing.

But then they didn’t even offer it was part of the thing.

It was like I’m only doing physical activity, I’m also getting a workout rather than working a skill.

So doubling that up, maybe in the evening in the wording, as well as when people come in, like, you’ve got access to this, we just haven’t made it obvious to you, but also for the new people coming in.

You sign up for a new gym and you get I don’t know what it is, it’s been a while since I’ve done a half an hour free, free hour with a personal trainer, I’m pretty sure that gym pays that personal trainer because the personal trainers are subcontractors within the gym.

And then once you’ve got that, it’s taken out the barrier of like, how do I use this machine, I’m not going to be embarrassed, it just takes all of that uncomfort away, I’ve never done it because I’ve been comfortable in gyms, but it happens all the time.

And I think the stickiness rate is quite good for them because they’ve got almost like a hand holder throughout the entire gym, that shows them every machine how to do it.

So they’re not embarrassed when they come back in how the gym works, where the toilet is all of that kind of stuff.

And I think that’s the stickiness.

The other thing I would probably be doing on that would be for you, whoever’s doing that intro, even if you pay someone that’s not you like this is if you’ve got no more time I’d do it if he was initially Sorry, I’m mumbling.

Initially, I would do it.

If it was just if initially to you.

Then if you’ve got no more time in the hour, then get someone else to go and do it on your behalf.

But as you’re doing it and doing all the stuff we just talked about showing them around the gym, then also introduce them to other people who were there.

And then further to that point, every time they come in whoever’s on staff, if you can then introduce them to everyone else, then it becomes a community where everyone knows everyone, they’ve got mates who are there, and then mates will help each other, the more community you can do it rather than just I’m going for a workout.

Or I’m going for a workout plus the pole stuff.

So now you combine both now it’s I’m going for workout post stuff.

And I’ve got a community of people who are also there in person, and then you could receive an extender online Facebook groups makes it incredibly easy to build online communities.

And then, yeah, I’ve got so many groups that are like running, I just set them up because they’re just so easy.

And then they can continue the conversation after their class.

So that they can be like, Oh, who’s going to this class? Who’s going to that class? Or maybe I’ll go to this class, we did this thing.

Can anyone just remind me of how we did it? Why we did it, all of those questions will be applicable questions people have, as well would be a huge value add, and then there’s getting mates.

And that all starts to like snowball.

I just don’t like the chats because people who are in them get notifications of everything that’s happening.

Whereas the group, you can turn on and off and you can dip in and out at your pace and have those group chats I’m just not a massive fan of are super easy, all you do is set up a separate group 15 seconds, it will take you to actually physically set it up.

And then you’re gonna have quite a few different groups, but then you can add and swap people around and only people can see certain things.

The setting up is the easy part, the managing if you want to change people around, it’s just a, you know, a couple clicks of search, find their name, search, find the name, add or take out why.

And that’s only based on classes.

And it doesn’t matter if there’s overlap either.

It’s actually probably a better thing because people meet new people.

Stickers are just like tattoos, but just or ban T shirts, you wear a band t shirt, or you wear a tattoo shop, it’s literally branding or branding your skin like you would with a cow or a sheep.

But it’s just the less permanent stuff if it’s a t shirt or a sticker.

Yeah, and printing on demand even there’s not much margin in it.

But it kind of doesn’t even really matter if it’s it’s more about building your brand and getting people to wear your costume rather than being a revenue driver.

I think in your situation, you’re making all your money elsewhere.

But the more people you can get wearing that wearing it out and about is this more top of the funnel brand awareness like someone’s wearing at the supermarket.

They’re like, well, what’s that? Then they turn into your ambassadors? They’re like, well, it’s this, this isn’t this.

And then they’re just, they’re not only visually telling the story, but someone’s going to ask them like, what’s that about? Like, tell me more, because it’s not going to be super obvious.

So I wouldn’t really think as a revenue driver.

I think it’s more of his branding awareness and maybe sales because they’re going to sell on your behalf but definitely not revenue.

I think there’s the money if you can just break even on it.

And you can get them into as many people people’s hands as possible.

I think that’s probably a really sensible idea.

Just saying all of that they’re wearing it for different reasons.

Outside the core brand kind of suggests to me, you’re building your psyche you’re building an interest category, that then you could build other products under that, like the amount of products you could build under that tagline could be almost infinite, when you think about it doesn’t necessarily need to be what you do.

So that’s I guess, maybe even further to what I was saying before, the more people you can get that into the hands of the more options you have down the track.

This is like such a thing.

Because it’s such an instant demonstration of the result that they can get.

In the end, like you can talk about it and all kinds of stuff through your marketing and sales.

But unless they come and see it, like the best is to experience it, you know, that come and try.

But the next best one is if they can just experience what it’s like to get to that level of whatever that got a goal is, then it makes it really tangible.

For those people, I can give you such a good case.

So back in the 90s, for inline skating the brand rollerblade, all they would do, I want to making blanket statements, what they would do, but they’ll go around city, the city day by day, like every single day, they set up some ramps, they get some of their best skaters on there and just do like the biggest gnarliest epic tricks they could possibly do.

Nothing technical dislike big and that disinvite heaps of people to come on, all the kids would be like, hell yeah, I want to go do that.

And they’re like, oh, by the way, just at the back there, we’ve got a caravan that we sell skates that go sell a pair of skates and then move on to the next city that sold them the dream and then the kids, you know, could roll around.

And then the kids realized, I’ve actually got to put a whole bunch of effort in where you come in, in that model is then your hand holding them through.

Through training, you’re not just leaving them to their own devices.

But that’s what made that brand so big, is they’ve just put demos on and it’s like, this is what you could potentially be like sell the dream.

And they’re like, well, by the way, you can go fulfill on it and get your journey started now and go buy the thing, I think the showcase is like such a good opportunity for you to go well, this is you came along, first off, you’re interested, you wouldn’t come if you weren’t interested.

And second off.

And there’s a bit of you know, a fact that they know the people but whatever they still took time out of the day, you if you’re somewhat interested in this, we can get you to this level, and then tell them what that looks like.

It the reason I’m talking about photos is because where I’m going with all of this is if you can get a shit ton of photos, drop them into like a Dropbox or a Google Drive, the more the better, because some of them aren’t going to be that good, then give every single person access to that Google Drive and get them to then because now you’ve got permission, you’ve already got all that stuff, then ask them to share that through their social channels.

It’s just the same thing for the by expanding it out beyond the 40 people that are at the showcase the 40 people that are showcased are getting live experience of what life could be like, you want to expand that through each one social network.

Even if you say each, each person on each platform has 100 people, maybe there’s no you know, probably that demographic is going to be Facebook and Instagram 200 people but I’m just going really conservative numbers times how many performances, you just say that 38 multiplied by 200 Can’t really do the math at 1600 1600.

Whatever it is 1600 potential people that could then go and see it, now you’re expanding that out and they’re gonna go choose the photos, they want to post up, you’re not dictating to them, they’re going to put it in, and they’re going to start promoting themselves, they’re going to write about it.

And it just gives them more fodder because they want to show off what they have been done.

And if you can do the hard part for them, which is capturing videos, photos, then it makes it easier if they don’t put it on social media, they’ll send it you know, in their family Whatsapp group or whatever other communication channels and just get some more awareness out there.

Someone’s gonna be like, oh, yeah, what’s that all about? The other thing with video is just going to be a little bit as you know, a little bit more time consuming.

As you said, to cut some of those things up, you can still put like, you can still put the whole thing up on YouTube, or you could or you could take it to the next step and chop it up into each individual performances, ton of work on your end.

But then you could then give the same performances to people, that is probably less likely people are going to share that kind of stuff.

It’s not going to be as consumable on those two channels, given the demographics you said, but it’s worth doing.

If you’ve got the time and effort by photos is just such an easy win.

The other thing of like real quick wins right now is referrals like starting with your current customers.

And you know, the email or the message I sent you like copy some of that wording and just tailor it to what you’re doing.

And ask them if they know anyone that’s like them really quickly and then move down to x customers then move down to prospects people who have just haven’t converted, you’re gonna have to change the copy a little bit.

But for those who haven’t converted, been like, you know, you’ve just told us you’ve got a gym membership and it just, you know, renewed three months ago so you’ve probably got nine months before you make a buying decision.

And then as a site for you, you’re gonna follow up with them in eight months.

That is aside you know, you can’t do anything there.

Next time that we might circle back in, when when the time comes, but do you know anyone right now who’s like you, so then go to the prospects and just ask people who they know, then the next thing, literally just go through all of your address books by kind of like I did with you and be like, Hey, you’re not even connected to this in any way.

But do you know anyone in your circles, and just really, it’s going to be, again, time consuming, but quick wins, they already know you.

They like you, and they trust you.

Especially the customers, ex customers and your mates, prospects, some of those attributes a little bit less they know you, they may like you, they may not trust you yet.

But anyway, you get this picture of what I’m saying is that’s going to open you up to hundreds, if not 1000s.

Of, of leads prospects.

probably really good point in terms of your, I think, yeah, some of the stuff you’re saying around finding your voice too long, not fair enough.

But just taking all of those frequently asked questions and really breaking them down.

And all those objections and just putting that putting that stuff out.

For the for everyone, and where I’m leading with all of this is too long, too short, it’s kind of by the by, like finding your voice that for me, and this is how I’ve done it is you just have to just keep doing it over and over again, you already know what your voice is like everyone has their voice, you’re talking to me now.

And you’ve got your voice and how you write is the translation of it just being silent in your head to paper, everyone’s got their voice.

I don’t know for you, if that’s the case that you don’t like how you sound or how it comes out, or because so much content just in that 30 seconds that you told me to last a lifetime, depending on how this how much depth or how little depth you want to go into it.

Have you just thought about pulling out your phone and recording just streams of consciousness is he that person is going to resonate with one message.

But this is the internet you can write, theoretically an infinite amount or post or infinite amount of content.

In the most ideal world you would write, let’s just talk about writing, right? It could be in any of the modalities.

But writing, you could just write one separate post for the 8 billion humans that are on earth, and it would be addressed to them.

And it would go into all their all of their contacts or it resonates with them, you could do 8 million different version variations of the same thing that speaks to 8 billion people.

You don’t have time I’m talking obviously in abstract.

But one thing doesn’t need to do everything for everyone.

Because the internet you or you can put out in all the different types of long, short medium video in all of those different iterations, it’s going to cover the most amount of people.

And just going back to that analogy, like if we could go back to the 8 million people and give them some sort of communication in whichever form they like that so tailored to them.

Obviously, that is going to be bet the best, it’s going to be tailored to 8 million people.

Always the other end of the spectrum, one thing for 8 billion people trying to get somewhere closer in the middle of like, can we do 100 200 300 different types of communication to the half a million people that live in, you know, your geographical area, like getting closer to the ideal, which like is just ridiculous.

It’s never going to happen.

Unless to like doing one once off once a month to everyone.

So yeah, I guess to round it back out, the length doesn’t matter if I’m into something I’ll read.

I’ll read something, I’ll read a book on something Coupang into it.

But if I’m not into all I want to see is the headline to make sure that I’m that it’s going to be worth my time.

So don’t I wouldn’t get too worried about length.

The other way to look at it is can you have you said it in enough words that people will understand, like don’t use too many words, to get to the point but don’t use too little.

And it’s like how long is a piece of string, just use the amount enough that you need just to get the point across and nothing more, but nothing less as well because then it won’t resonate.

So it’s for sure that’s, that’s an old school copywriting technique called jewel reading paths.

So you can there’s two different reading parts, there’s jewel one and two, you can read the whole thing or you can read usually bold or underlined or italics and you can just skim through.

For those things job reading path is a thing and it’s like it’s been around for a really long time.

Fantastic idea to do it.

Because it’s the same piece of content.

You don’t need to do it twice.

You just need to go back and just highlight the important bits and it gives the long readers and the short readers what you want to give them anyway.

Brilliant tactic.

easy thing to do with that is once you’ve written it, how have you write it? Put between each sentence Put a, a single sentence gap.

So it’s sentence gap sentence gap, it makes it far easier to read and look less intimidating.

It’s definitely goes against everything that are in written books like you pick up a written book, and it’s slabs of paragraphs.

But especially for online, if you can just do a single sentence spaced single sentence, you can make something that looks text heavy, look really, really readable by just doing it sentence by sentence.

And that will it’s not your reading path, but it will have an equivalent effect for people that they can just skim.

You sit you weren’t, you didn’t like being on camera record on your phone, and you can always convert it into video, there’s, there’s quite a few backgrounds you can get that makes it look like you know, the old radios where it’s a wavelength of you’re actually talking.

So you can convert your audio back into video with headlines and obviously transcripts and stuff like that.

But then the audio can get transcribed into text that then can turn into blog post, which again, you’re obviously going to help your SEO and your search rankings.

And then going back to probably what we’re just talking about before going back to the you know, the key points within either the text, video, audio, and then screen grabbing that for your real speed tick tock for your tweets, but also converting those tweets into image cards for things like Instagram.

Is this having that one? As I said, with all the topics you talked about over the 30 seconds before the contents, not the matter, it’s just getting into forms where you can just distribute it as much to get that market feedback of, or is it the the superpowered purpose that people are resonating with is that the fear about you know, touching a poll that people and then getting that that feedback and then being like, well, the next round, we’re going to talk about hygiene.

And you’re like, Fuck, I didn’t even know that hygiene was the thing they’ve taught us what it is.

The next one we’re going to talk about is this and then repeating that process.

So you Yeah, it’s don’t get too overwhelmed, you can pull out your phone and do that, sorry, I cut you off, think about going and doing something active again.

And you’ve just been out of sight out of mind.

And you’re not doing a hard pitch them you just saying hey, thanks for being a customer, we appreciate the business hope life is good.

And full stop, leave it at that, it may just be the trigger.

And like the analogy for Facebook, Facebook does this all the time, like on under events you can, birthdays come up every day, I just write Happy Birthday to people, because it’s a nice thing to do, number one, but also just keeps you front of mind of whatever you’re doing, for whatever reason, just be in front of mind for that is good.

And it’s next customer, they’ve already bought stuff from you.

So it’s taking that to the next.

Next level, front of mind when the need arises is the best thing you can possibly do.

And that’s why advertising works.

They’re just trying to pound you with the ad so many times until you have that need.

And they’re the one that’s front of mind, same concept with content, pound them with enough content.

And it’s not sales content.

It’s just you know, stuff that’s helpful to them that they want to consume that when the time comes, that they want to do something, you’re the one that you’re going to pick, that’s kind of with that, that type of content within that post.

What would you say that it would be it’s about growth, your there’s, it’s about growth, that’s obviously going to be that’s going to resonate with far more people, then your quote unquote, product service.

So it’s going to be building much more top of funnel brand awareness that there’s going to be quite where I’m going with this.

There’s going to be quite a few people that are in your demographic geographic, there’s going to be quite a few people that are interested in quote unquote, growth.

So if you can double down on that, that’s going to get more spread and awareness to people because it’s got a wider range of interest for people and then that’s going to trickle trickle down.

All those topics are going to resonate so much and I’d probably be wanting to double down on that kind of stuff.