I’m Planning to Open Fitness Studio, How Do I Market It?

Hi Athman. Using the internet to market (e.g. email blasts, Facebook, Twitter etc) is an easy and inexpensive way to get the word out. Participating in a local health fair, or other civic event is another great way that costs very little. I would also not ignore your friends and family. For each friend or family member that you ask to help get the word out, ask them to ask that person to spread it to 5 more and so on – amazing how fast this can grow!

I hope that this helps.

LaRue, CSCS
www.lecfitness.com
[email protected]

To answer your question with a question…where are you opening your business …that should determine to a great extent which port you give the most attention. If you’re in a smaller area or a niche market within a community you’ll want to go through people and get connected literally much more so than virtually.
If you’re in a large urban area then yes social media and getting your SEO optimized so that you come up first in a search for “personal training in XXX” or “fitness in XXX” …think about the ways that your prospective clients would be searching. What would they type in as they sit in front of their computers? Who is your ideal client.
Include those key words throughout your website over and over again on every page and in your tags, and meta descriptions. Create a blog. Get on Fitness Connect and point that to your website and back; do the same with your social media sites- Facebook and twitter and YouTube. Introduce yourself to your new market on YouTube videos- post those on Facebook.
Then go meet and greet some key business leaders in your new town and give them a complimentary month or trade services with them. Ask them to “like” you – as the traffic and credibility on your site from those types of credible resources are valuable to moving you up the chain of first visible businesses in a search.

I think fitness connect is the way to go. Attend the class at the IDEA conference and you will learn some tricks to get you to rank higher.

Mac Dodds, M.A., CSCS
[email protected]
www.healthynation.biz

Here are some more suggestions:

1. Join a networking group.
2. Build a good web site that will bring your business.
3. You hire a marketing person to help you, but it’s more costly.
4. Visit as many businesses around your area and let them know about yours. Best places to start would be other physical therapy locations, chiropractors, medical offices, places where sports league games are taking place (parks), massage and acupuncture businesses and if you want to expand even more then visit some of the small or larger companies/corporations that like to offer wellness programs for their employees to let them know you can work with them or offer some new classes and programs.
5. Run a deal with one of those daily sites like Groupon, to reach a much larger audience and get some free advertising. Just be sure what you want to offer and what your capacity for new clients is.

I hope this helps.

Best,
Harris