How to market your fitness bootcamp

Bootcamps seem to be all the rage lately, and with good reason.  They allow trainers to work with a group of 6-20 people in a span of about 45 minutes.  This means more money for the trainer, and less time spent training clients.

If you think about it, bootcamps are a great service because the majority of people are busy and tight on money so they can’t afford what it would cost for personal training.

Here’s what I would do today to market a fitness bootcamp…

Fitness bootcamp marketing angles

• Exciting group workouts – One of the biggest reasons people dont work out is because it’s boring!  By pushing the fun and excitingness of a bootcamp, you’ll be able to alleviate them of that objection.  The best way to do that would be through pictures and videos if you have them.  I know I’ve seen in the bootcamps I was at, people working with each other and motivationg one another to finish the workout.  It was a great team effort.  Everyone deep down wants to be part of a tribe it makes us feel like we belong… your bootcamp can be their tribe.  I would also be sure to implement the idea that it’s crucial to surround yourself with like minded, positive people to lose weight.  In a normal gym, you wont get this kind of group support.

• Proven results – If you’ve run bootcamps before and have testimonials you’re already ahead of the game.  You need before and after pictures of each person, and also things like weight, age, name, jean size, body fat will all help as well.  Be as specific as possible when talking about results.  Just saying Jen lost a bunch of weight isnt going to cut it.  But saying “Jen lost 14 lbs, dropped 2 jean sizes and made all her friends jealous”  now you have something…..

• $1 trial class – Most people when they offer trial classes, they make them free.  By doing this you’re psychologically changing the value of the bootcamp class in your prospect’s mind.   Claude Hopkins in Scientific Advertising wrote that it’s very hard to pay for something once it has been free.  It’s vastly different to pay 15 cents and let you try an article than to simply say its free.  So if you plan on offering a free class, just change it to $1 for a trial class.  If they aren’t gonna pony up $1, they never would have paid you $150 a month for the bootcamp.

I think if you implement all three of those angles, you’ll see an increased signup rate in your bootcamps.  Now you’re prolly saying, well how do I get customers for my bootcamps.  Let’s look at a few ways…

Getting clients for fitness bootcamps

• Target existing clients (and their family/friends) – If you have existing clients, they already have a decent amount of trust in you.  This is key.  Now you can start to market your bootcamps toward them and their family and friends.  If you’re training a group of 10 year olds for a Saturday morning class, guess what?  They all have parents that probably workout as well.  Don’t hesitate to give these people a $1 trial class certificate and invite them to come by.  They’ll be glad you did.

• Setup a PPC campaign – Target people in your area through Google PPC campaigns.  Make sure to use keywords like bootcamps, group exercise classes, gym, fitness center, fitness bootcamp… and also make sure you target keywords for your city.  So Dallas bootcamps, bootcamps in Dallas Texas, bootcamps in (area code) etc….

• Run Facebook ads – Facebook has upgraded their advertising platform recently.  It allows you to specifically target people based on their location, age, sex and many other factors.  You could run the ad offering the $1 trial class and bring leads in left and right.  If they are willing to click on the ad, giev you their info, pay the $1 for the class, then you probably have a pretty good shot at landing them as a client.

• Target your ex-clients – This is a tip I picked up from Jay Abraham.  Im sure you’ve had clients who have left and you havent seen them for a while.  Well guess what?  Im sure a lot of them havent joined another gym yet.  They’re looking for a reason to start working out, so why not give them one.  Offer their whole family the $1 trial class, and tell them you’d like to see them back in your gym.  As ex clients, they’ll prolly be an easier sell than most.

Start putting these into place as soon as you can, and let me know how your results are turning out.  Take action today!

-Justin

P.S. If you’re learning some new things from my blog posts, make sure to signup for my newsletter it’s even more indepth!  It’s free