Many physical trainers are skeptical about the concept of repel marketing and how it works where business is concerned. While many fitness professionals are determined to attract as many prospects as possible for their business, they must avoid unintentionally attracting undesirable prospects. To some, it may sound counter-intuitive to repel certain types of people, but it is necessary to adopt this practice in order to thrive.
What is the foundation of repel marketing?
Repel marketing in the wellness industry is about making sure that the best clients are attracted through proper messaging. If done correctly, it will weed out the general inquiries. It should remove the need for screening and eliminate the practice of scoring leads for fitness marketing professionals.
Should a business consider repel marketing?
There are some signs a fitness trainer or marketer can look for to determine whether or not their messaging is doing the repelling aspect of marketing effectively. The first indicator of a poorly constructed message is the amount of time invested in scoring leads. If one has to devote a lot of time to scoring leads and vetting inquiries, it may be time to tweak the messaging. The second indicator would be the effort it takes to convince the person of the necessity of the bootcamp or training services. If one is attracting the best prospects for trainer services, it shouldn’t take too much effort to market the efficiency, productivity or whatever advantage is being offered with the coaching or training services being marketed.
Thinking of marketing as a magnet
Personal trainers must think of their business as a marketing magnet. Fitness marketers design messaging for their marketing with the intent of attracting customers. In keeping with the analogy, consider the S side as the side that attracts. The opposite side of the marketing magnet is the N side. This side is responsible for repelling certain types of prospects who aren’t genuinely interested in the bootcamp.
The perfect message
In fitness marketing, one side of the message should be tailored to attract the perfect, ideal customer for the personal training business. The opposite side of the marketing is designed to repel customers that aren’t ideal. If the messaging is properly formulated, undesirable prospects won’t want to become patrons of the business. To do this successfully, the message must be carefully crafted and formulated. The act of repelling and attracting a prospect is truly an art.
Making the most of resources
Most personal trainers only have a limited amount of resources available to them for bootcamp marketing and other advertising initiatives. Since most personal trainers only have a limited amount of resources at their disposal, they must utilize what resources they have effectively to marketing their training services. With only a limited amount of time, energy, effort and funds available for marketing bootcamp classes, physical trainers must err on the side of caution when it comes to marketing their bootcamp, classes or fitness training. The limited resources presents an interesting opportunity for the business.
Attracting the right fit
Personal trainers must be careful to avoid investing too many resources into attracting the wrong attention. When receiving an influx of inquiries from people who aren’t ideal prospects, dollars are being wasted. For example, there is no actual value in having a ton of inquiries from prospects who aren’t interested enough in the book or class to buy it. In this area, quality leads are far more valuable than the volume of inquiries generated alone. To make better use of resource, physical trainers must repel the unlikely customers immediately with the proper messaging and stop investing in poor prospects.
How did Facebook get its start?
One can look to major companies like Facebook for inspiration. Although people rarely recall how small Facebook was in the beginning stages, it didn’t market to everyone. Instead, the company focused primarily on college students. In order to sign up for the service, individuals had to submit their personal information to make sure that they were a good fit for the community. Their repelling activity was the sign-up form and the screening process that prevented people from signing up for the service. This activity kept undesirable people from joining the site.
Getting repel marketing right
When the training marketing message is developed properly, the message will be able to attract and repel prospects. This will prevent a person from investing resources unwisely into activities that are attracting the wrong audiences. The prevents a physical trainer from investing too much time into people who aren’t likely to purchase products or services. Instead, all fitness marketing activities will be directed toward actual customers who have previously purchased from the business and is highly likely to make another purchase in the future. The next group that should be attracted by the messaging are prospective clients who are most likely to make a purchase from the business in the future.
Understanding one’s limitations when it comes to
Any owner of a fitness business must understand that it cannot be all things to all people. In order to be everything to everyone, there must be unlimited resources to invest in trainer marketing to numerous audiences. Chances are the average physical trainer doesn’t have the time, energy, resources or funds to market to everyone effectively when it comes to promoting marketing specials like bootcamps. No fitness company can be everything to all people.
This is why every trainer marketing message should be designed to both repel and attract certain audiences. The ability to repel customers is just as important as having the ability to repel unlikely prospects.
How prevalent is repel marketing
Repel marketing is quite prevalent in fitness marketing. Car makers frequently market to certain profiles. Commercials featuring pickup trucks are more likely to market to men. Crossover vehicles are often marketed to women and families. Sleek, luxury sports cars are designed to appeal to affluent customers and often come off as sophisticated, classic and simple. Smaller, compact cars may be aimed at a younger generation and commercials for them may feature brightly-colored vehicles.
What are the benefits of using repel marketing?
One of the top advantages in repelling certain types of customers is that there will no longer be a need for qualifying leads. The messaging cuts down on the vetting and screening normally required with training marketing. The marketing message is responsible for repelling certain customer profiles.
All products are not for everyone
Some entrepreneurs fall into the trap of thinking that their products are ideal for all of their businesses. There are some products that just aren’t ideal for certain audiences. In accepting this, the business owner can avoid investing too much time unnecessarily into things and activities that aren’t fruitful. It isn’t possible to market that way effectively when the business is small. Small businesses often experiences growth challenges because of this mindset they’ve adopted in thinking that all people are good candidates for their products or services.
Being unafraid to repel
With a financially strapped fitness business, it can be hard to even entertain the thought of repelling clients. The hardest thing for some trainers to do is to intentionally turn away customers. Business owners must keep in mind that the prospect is unlikely to purchase from the fitness business in the first place. The trainer may be only turning away an inquiry at best. This physical trainer wins because there is no need to qualify the lead. Time is a limited resource and it can never be recouped so repelling the lead was a smart business move.
It’s important to consider the niche
It is important that the personal trainer have a target client in mind. It really does make it easier to communicate with an audience. The more the physical trainer understands the prospective, the better the messaging. This also means that it will be much easier to find the target customer. Disposable income isn’t nearly enough when it comes to identifying prospective buyers. Consider how effective it would be to market a fitness product to someone who has never had a need for an item or ever agonized over their weight problem or whatever the product or service would solve.
The makings of a niche
It starts with a niche. The niche and the address for the messaging should be deliberately designed to repel unlikely customers and prospects. This repelling message can actually work to the trainer’s advantage. This means that the messaging is structured in a way that is specifically aimed at a customer. Talking directly to one audience will allow one to communicate more effectively with an audience. The language and vocabulary of the messaging can be chosen to really connect with the ideal prospect. Without identifying the audience one would like to serve, the chances of attracting desirable prospects are quite slim.
Here are some questions one should ask when developing a niche for their services?
1. Who would benefit from the fitness product or training service the most?
2. Who would be most receptive to a given product or service?
3. Who would use the product twice or purchase a similar product again?
4. What group of people would benefit the most from the services the fitness solution provides?
Putting the principle to work into one’s everyday business
How can physical trainers put repel marketing to use in their everyday training businesses? Physical trainers can create wellness products aimed at mothers who have recently given birth. Some develop their products, classes and services around the bride planning a wedding. Trainers in the wellness and fitness industry can tailor their messaging to speak directly to people who have a certain amount of weight to lose. Targeting the program or bootcamp to an audience who wants to get rid of their belly fat would be one way to use this option.
How does one know if he or she getting it right?
Testing different messages for timed intervals presents an opportunity to measure the success of the repel marketing efforts. After a series of trials, the right messaging will be identified and can be tweaked accordingly to target specific types of audiences.
How can the results be measured?
Measuring the results of repel marketing can be done in several different ways. First, the trainer can look at the number of inquiries generated. Each interaction with the person who provided their personal information should be contacted. The person should carefully document the suitability of each prospect, rating each lead. Scoring each lead received for each message being tested is a great way to start testing these messages. Making sure that each training prospect is contacted using a uniform approach will ensure the integrity of the scoring method being used. The person will then begin to see which messages are performing the best and attracting the best prospects for the fitness business.
Repel marketing is necessary for training and coaching professionals like personal trainers. Limited resources, time, money and energy available must be invested wisely to attract the very best prospects that will likely convert into leads, and eventually, repeat customers. To attempt to market to larger audiences with no regard to the limitations is to squander resources. It may feel uncomfortable at first to repel unlikely customers, but it is often worth it. The fitness marketer can protect their time and marketing dollars in adopting this practice. The only lead worth having is one that will spend with the business.
Looking at your training business, can you say that you have ever considered tweaking your marketing message to repel an audience?
In your bootcamp marketing, have you ever used repel marketing for your business?
Do you find yourself spending a lot of time qualifying leads in your fitness marketing efforts?
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