Advanced Fitness Marketing Manuscript These are the members of my $12K “Seven Figure Formula” 2009-mastermind group
HOW TO BE THE ONLY PERSON “THEY” SEEK OUT
AND TRUST… The Behavior and mindset of YOUR
Buyers
By Bedros Keuilian
Gone are the days of hype driven marketing. These days your
future clients will do business with you because they trust you,
because they feel understood, and because there’s irrefutable
evidence that you are the local authority on the subject.
The tipping point. Your service means nothing until you convince
others to buy it. It doesn’t matter if you’re the best trainer in the
state. It doesn’t matter if you have the best education or even a
PROVEN fitness and fat loss program.
If you want more clients you gotta convince people to buy your
product or service.
But you can’t just go and shove your message down people’s
throats. Not these days. Today people buy when they feel
understood. They buy when there’s value alignment and when
they feel that that you “get them.”
You know what that feels like, right?
Have you ever met someone and after some time of speaking
or after several encounters you just clicked with that person?
Maybe you walked away from that person thinking “you know
what?... this dude gets me.”
You felt understood. And when you feel that way about someone
all resistance is lowered. That’s the tipping point. When the
prospect feels like “you get them.”
It happened to me this past weekend at Joe Polished $25k
mastermind. I met a fellow marketer and by the end of the
weekend we were buds. We just clicked. I felt like he understood
me… and I’m pretty sure he felt the same way.
Authenticity is today’s currency.
Folks are resistant to traditional marketing these days. Buyer’s
resistantece is at an all time high. People are skeptical. They
don’t trust you. They’ve been scammed and let down by false
promises made by others and they’re tired of that shit.
These days Authenticity is currency.
I want you to imagine your prospects walking around town with
this HUGE lead suit of resisistnace on.
How do you penetrate the lead suit of armor and get them to do
business with you?
Relationship marketing. So what the hell is relationship
marketing anyway?
Relationship marketing is something we do naturally all the time
in everyday life, yet when it comes to business, one of two things
happen…
1. You run crappy “brand” or “image” based advertisements
that fail to perform and can’t be tracked.
2. You get really desperate and run super hyped promotions
that devalue your services and fire off red flags in your
prospect’s mind…
Three simple steps to relationship marketing…
1. Your prospects want to feel UNDERSTOOD. They want to
know that you ‘get them’.
2. They want to lower their buyer’s resistance. For that to
happen they gotta TRUST you.
3. Finally, they want PROOF that you know your shit… that
you’re the authority, the expert.
So lets bring this to the real world. Let me give you the exact
blue print of what I would do if I were you. It’s actually a pretty
simple two-step process.
Step One
You gotta meet them. In our world this means lead generation.
I’d run lead generators offering a free report, video, or audio
program that offered a compelling solution to their program.
(example: Seven Steps For Getting Into Skinny Jeans in 33 Days
or Less).
I’d offer this lead generator in local publications,
on my site, through joint venture partners,
through direct mail, and through my existing
clients (to their friends, family, and neighbors).
My sole purpose would be to build my contact
list of names, emails, addresses, and phone
numbers.
See, the biggest problem I see is that most
fitness professional attempt to “sell off the
page”. That method doesn’t work in the real
world and it won’t work in the business either.
Barring a few unique circumstances… can you
imagine walking into a crowded restaurant,
seeing an attractive person, and walking up to
them and saying “Hey, lets get hitched.”
An example of what NOT to do.
They’d think you’re off your rocker.
No “hi, how are you?”. No relationship
established. Nothing.
and on goes that lead suit of armor again.
Think about how your spouse or significant other became that
person to you. You probably met somewhere, right?
Maybe there was some interest. And over a period of time you
established a relationship where they felt UNDERSTOOD, they
TRUSTED you and there was enough PROOF that you were a
good person for them to enter into a deeper relationship with
you.
That’s exactly how you GET and RETAIN clients.
So no selling off the page… okay?
Step Two
Time to start building that relationship.
So now that I have that person on my list (and I know they are
interested in fitness or fat loss because they requested my
“skinny jeans” report) it’s time to start relationship marketing
and building a deeper connection with each person on my list.
Like I said earlier, people buy from you when they feel understood,
when they trust you, and when they see you as the authority.
But it goes deeper than that. You don’t want that person to buy
from you once, right? You want that client to be loyal… you want
them to buy, and keep buying. And you want that client to refer
you more clients.
notice how I do that on my blog PTPower.com)?
Do local restaurant review of healthy food alternatives (but keep
it fun) and email it to your list… or better yet fire up a blog and do
a video review and get it up on your blog. The key is to show them
that you’re more than just a trainer who wants their money.
That’s the coolest thing about relationship marketing. It not only
breaks down buyer resistance and also cultivates a deeper,
more meaningful relationship.
Deliver value, educate, entertain, invite them to free bootcamp,
grocery store tours, ECT… and THEN as the relationship gets
deeper and stronger and their buyer’s resistance is lowered
make your offers.
So here’s what I would do once I have that person on my contact
list if I wanted to build a deeper, stronger relationship that also
positioned me as the expert and got me credibility.
Easy as pie, right? Now keep read the rest of the Manifesto
and get more client getting tactics and systems to blow your
business up!
First, I’d make sure that every clients and prospect is on my
email list where their getting content rich, fun and educational
fitness and fat loss articles emailed to them on a CONSISTENT
basis.
In fact if you’re reading this then odds are you’re on my email
list and you became a client because of my multiple contacts.
Okay, back to my example…
So in addition to my email relationship marketing I’d also follow
up with every prospect over the phone. I’d call them… thank
them for requesting my report and invite them to attend my free
Saturday morning bootcamp and I’d let them know that they can
bring a friend or family member along.
I’d take the relationship with my existing clients deeper as well.
I’d hand write a note inside a thank you card and send it to
them. I’d do that every couple months.
The note would say something like this: “Hi <NAME>, just
wanted to write a quick not and let you know how proud I am of
you for making fitness a consistent part of your life. Awesome
job! I’m always looking for more motivated clients just like you.
Bedros. “
Here’s what that note just did…
1. it increased retention and compliance.
2. It made that client’s day (and who doesn’t like to be puffed
up?)
3. I strategically implied that I want her to refer others to me.
All that with a little thank you card.
And if you want to take it to a new level just fire a $10 gift card
to starbucks in the envelope.
Other ways to build a deep relationship with your list fast is to
let them peek into your life. Share your family with them (ever
Why the List Is King
By Bedros Keuilian
If you’re reading this then odds are you’re on my email list. If you
attended my Fitness Business Summit, own any of my products,
have come to any of my workshops, or are in one of my coaching
programs then you are on my list.
You and the hundreds of other customers first started off as
email subscribers to my blog or PT Profits newsletter. You
probably found me by searching online or you saw an offer for
a free report, video, ebook or audio program in an industry
publication like PFP or IDEA magazine.
Then over a period of time you made the smart decision to invest
into a product, come to an event and here we are.
I’ve got a list that’s in the thousands. By list I mean I have email
addresses in a database of fitness professionals who opted in.
(Never spam, buy lists, or trade lists – it’s the fastest way to
becoming a scum bag and having EVERYONE hate you).
I also have a smaller list of physical mailing addresses. By
smaller I mean a few thousand. But for the time being lets just
focus on email addresses since they’re pretty easy to get and
REALLY valuable.
WHY YOUR LIST IS SO POWERFUL…
Imagine if you had the names and email addresses of every
person in your community who was interested in weight loss,
fitness, and toning up. Would you ever run an ad again?
Would you ever do another postcard or letter mailing?
Would you ever do another grocery store tour?
Or would you just send out an email campaign with an offer
every time you wanted more clients?
Now imagine if you had an info product coming out or you’re
launching a new group-training program. How easy would it be
to sell a ton of your info products or get a bunch of people to
come in for your group-training program if you had that email list
I just talked about?
Having a list of QUALIFIED leads is like having a license to print
money on demand. (or at least the next closest thing)
Building an email list of qualified leads isn’t rocket science. The
two-step formula is kinda simple actually…
Page 2
Step 1. Create a high value report, audio program or video
that you can give away for free. This thing really has to be high
value and it MUST solve an immediate problem for a niche group
of people. (I’ll show you some examples in a second)
Step 2. Find and identify all the places your niche market
hangs out at, goes to, log onto, publications and papers they
read, places they visit, and key words they search for on Google
to solve their fitness and fat loss problems.
And then get your high value free offer in front of them and offer
it in exchange for their primary email address.
Everyone in your community is a potential SUSPECTS >>
When they request the free report they identify themselves as
PROSPECTS >> Now that they’re on your list you consistently
nurture a relationship with you list (I talked about this last
month) and some of them decide to actually pay you and
become CLIENTS.
Here’s a diagram for you visual types:
Here’s a 30,000 foot level picture of how Sam built his list of
over 5,000 and the timeline it took him to do it.
Phase one: He changed his website to the one above (more
direct response, no confusing links or multiple pages, and a
killer opt in on the upper right he uses the opt ins from his FitPro
Newsletter account).
Simple, right?
Let me give you an example…
My buddy and 7 Figure Formula inner circle member Craig
Ballantyne is really good at this. The web page below is for
his newest product http://www.easyveggiemealplans.com/
freemealplan.shtml.
(**SIDE NOTE** you ought to consider
becoming an affiliate of this product and
making a nice income stream by endorsing it
to your list, and getting it up on your blog or
website.)
Go to the site and check out the free ebook he and Kardena are
giving away. Really study that page. Can you see how someone
who may be interested in vegetarian eating will want to download
that book in exchange for his or her email?
Let me show you another one. You may have seen this one
before. This site belongs to Saman Bakhtiar, one of my top
coaching clients and owner of a seven figure-generating studio.
Check out the opt in at the top right had side of his website
(www.FitConcepts.com)
He makes an irresistible offer and people trade their name and
email address for it all day long.
We also crafted a special page just for generating
leads. You can see it at www.CHFatloss.com.
(seriously study this page – it captured leads like
gangbusters)
Now that we have both of these sites dialed in,
phase one was to mail out direct mail postcard
and place ads in local publication that went to the
affluent homes offering a free report and audio
program solving a problem (he did not attempt to
sell any training from the postcards or ads).
At one point he was mailing out 10-20K postcards
at a time. BUT he started out with a couple hundred
and once that worked he rolled out the big mailings.
The mission was to get in the local homes and get
people to identify themselves as leads by going to
the site and requesting the free report (thus ending
up on his email list). He also added his current
clients, past clients, past leads to his email list.
Within 6 month he has a list of just over 1,000.
Phase two: Now that he had a decent list he
went to local businesses and offer to do promote
their complimenting products and services to his list. NOT as a
pitch but more like a review of a product or service you might like
kind of thing. Of course in return these businesses promoted
his free report to their customers and lists and Sam’s list grew
further.
Phase three: These days (almost three years later) Sam has
spent a lot of time and effort on getting his sites to naturally
rank high on Google for specific search terms and he’s got his
pay per click ads, facebook, and craigs list lead generators and
opt ins) dialed in. Now he’s got like ten different ways that he
sends traffic to his sites and gets them to opt in to his email list.
Easy as pie…
But let me show you one more for good measure… so you get an
idea of all the different ways you can present your opt in.
This one is mine. It’s a squeeze page (I
hate that name for some reason – never
the less that’s what its called). The site is
www.100NewClients.com.
Basically I run lead generation ads in
fitness industry
publications that offer a free video on
client getting and four bonus audio
programs and then drive the traffic to this
page.
I also run Google pay per click ads for
terms that fitness professionals search
for online and again drive the traffic to
this page.
Check it out...
Just building a list isn’t enough. You
gotta dial it in. By that I mean:
1. It’s got to be a qualified list (people who
are interested in what you’re offering).
For example I don’t bother going after newly certified
trainers. They aren’t entrepreneurial (yet) and haven’t
experienced the sales and marketing pain and therefore
don’t feel they have a problem. So my stuff is not a solution
for them. But a bosu ball is… until they figure out they have
no one to use it with ☺
2. You gotta be consistent. If you plan to email your list weekly
then make it weekly. Too many trainers build a decent list
and then fail to consistently email them. And when they do
it’s usually to pitch a product or new service. Think of it as
a relationship… would you be inconsistent with emailing
your mom and would you pitch her over and over again
without delivering value?
3. Stop the abuse. This is were a LOT of people make a HUGE
mistake and create a massive disconnect. They abuse the
crap out of their list. They just pitch, pitch, pitch and never
entertain, educate, or connect. That’s all wrong.
Entertain, educate, position yourself as the expert and
then you’ve won the right to make them an offer. A good
rule of thumb is a 4:1 ratio. For every four entertaining,
educational, and positioning emails you send out you have
won the right to send out one pitch email (and even that
should be done in a cool way).
Let’s talk about the right technology for delivering
your emails and building opt ins.
I’m not here to pitch you on my products. So I’m going to give
you the ENTIRE lowdown. There are a bunch of EPS’s (Email
Service Providers) you can use to manage your list, and send
out broadcasts.
www.Aweber.com is an ESP that a lot of “general” mainstream
marketers use. It lets you build a list, segment your list, broadcast
to your list and even has auto responders. It’s a cool system to
use if you can be consistent and know basic HTML.
www.1ShoppingCart.com is practically the same as aweber.
com. Only it comes with a built in shopping cart and affiliate
management system. (great if you have info products and
affiliates to manage)
www.FitProNewsletter.com is my platform. It’s used by
thousands of trainers and it kicks ass like a donkey. Here’s
why… it comes with ready to use, done for you opt in and list
builders (ebooks, reports and stuff). Plus we send out a killer
article, tip, and recipe on your behalf on the 1st and 15th of
each month. Plus you can send out email broadcasts whenever
you want. And it’s got a killer referral generator system called
the “auto referral generator”.
Here’s a secret page where you can try it out for a buck:
http://tinyurl.com/fitpro-trial
You decide which is the best one for you. My point is, don’t just
send out emails from your outlook, yahoo, or gmail account.
That’s really BAD and hill-billy like.
Building One Helluva Training Business
From the Ground Up
By Chris McCombs
Recently I did a blog post about what I would do if I had to
build my training business from scratch, knowing what I know
today….
gym and that place had possibly the best energy in the world
and was EXTREMELY fun (I still have about six or seven of the
trainers who work for me over there)
I mean, if I had to start a personal training business completely
from scratch… from the ground up… what exactly would I do?
Make sure you’re in an environment that supports you and
your goals… is high energy and a lot of fun to train in… cuz
there’s nothing worse than training in some place with low
energy or where the owner of the facility is a jack-ass.
It was a helluva good post
Trust me on this one.
Well I want to take it a little further for members of the Fitness
Marketing Manifesto like yourself… and I wanna go MUCH
more in depth for you.
(Bonus tip: Fill your gym and boot camps with attractive
females… it’s one of the best things you can do for business
and will make your business a magnet for new clients both
male and female… I’ll leave it at that)
Ok, without further ado, here’s is exactly what I would do if
I were to start a fitness training business today… or more
appropriately… here’s what I would tell someone who was in
my shoes just starting out…
1. I’d get insurance… would I get certified? … maybe…
doesn’t really matter much… kind of weird and we joke about
it all the time around here, but the more certifications a trainer
has the less money they usually make… it’s not an “all-thetime-thing”, but a “most of the time” thing…
There’s plenty of ways to learn how to safely get someone into
killer condition without needing to add a bunch of useless
letters behind your name.
If you’re a trainer with 23 cert’s I’m gonna trust you’re the
exception to the rule and are literally killing it financially…
especially if you’ve been doing what me, Steve and Bedros
have been telling you to do…
But certs are pretty damn close to useless… insurance is
important though… so get it
2. Set specific goals with timelines, and have a plan to reach
4. Do group training and boot camps… if you love training
one-on-one by all means do it, just know you’ll probably never
make a lot of money, unless you’re training Jay Z six days a
week and are his personal “live-in” trainer… but even then
you’re whole business relies on someone else.
If you wanna make good money, train multiple people at one
time… and charge a lot… don’t EVER sell it as “budget” training
5. Read these blogs as often as possible:
• PtPower.com
• SteveHochman.com
• KickBackLife.com
6. Focus on helping people, start with taking on about 30
free people who can pay with referrals
If you talk to 600 people over the next 30 days ( that’s 20
people a day) … offering to train them at no cost, and they can
pay you with referrals… you can EASILY get 30 people.
those goals.
Just remember it’s a numbers game, and the trainers who fail
at this are the ones who give up LONG BEFORE they talk to
600 people.
If you wanna get somewhere, you need to know where you’re
going
7. If your heads not right, get it into a better place by
Goals help give you focus and clarity
And if a goal ( or task or project) doesn’t have a deadline, it
probably won’t get accomplished.
3. Make sure wherever you train it’s an awesome and
positive environment… luckily for me I trained at Hochmans
studying and applying stuff from Napoleon Hill, Bob Proctor
and Maxwell Maltz: Think And Grow Rich, You Were Born Rich,
and Psycho-Cybernetics.
Those bad boys will get your head on straight and help get
you into a prosperity mind set… they were a HUGE part of my
success.
8. Read Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence
People” and treat everyone like that book says
Many people have read Dale’s book, but few put it into action…
if you do… you will draw clients in like a magnet just from your
personality alone
Call people by their name… give lots of praise and compliments…
listen more than you talk… put yourself in the other persons
position… it’s really basic stuff… yet it is PROFOUND
9. Survey your target market and find out exactly what they
want, then sell em’ that and then sneak in what they need
along the way
http://www.x-raytechnicianschools.org/arkansas/top-100-dietand-fitness-blogs/
http://www.blogcatalog.com/directory/personal/fitness/
Links form fitness blogs are the BEST kinds of links you can
get… you give them content, they give you a few anchor text links
pointing to your various optimized pages and you have a win/
win situation
Start contacting fitness sites asap offering them unique content
( just make sure it’s good)
I did an entire video on this process this month in the Manifesto
Members area
Find out their fears, frustrations, desires and what they think
are obstacles in this area of their life ( getting into shape)
13. Focus on dominating the free Google Organic for every
single one of your keyword phrases… mixed with every single
location that people would reasonably drive from to see you from
Write down the words and phrases they use, and then construct
your marketing based on what you’ve gathered
Here’s a little refresher…
10.
Collect and display a MASSIVE stockpile of before and
after pics. Nuff said about that one
Take your county - include state and state abbreviation on same
page a few times
11. Get a direct-response “greased slide” sales-type site and
As well as…
Here’s some good examples: SocalWorkout.com, FitConcepts.
com, GoPersonalTrainer.com
The Cities you serve or where people are willing to drive from include state, state abbreviation and zip / postal code on same
page a few times
While you do want a lot of optimized pages.. notice the absence
of links on these sites?
Now combine those with service phrases ( like “personal
training”)… here’s a great place to start…
Actually the links are all hid in the footer, so the site seems to
only be a one page site, cuz once someone lands on my site I
only want them to do one thing… call
Keywords: personal trainer, personal training, personal trainers
( throw in the word “fitness” a few times), fitness trainer, fitness
training, fitness trainers, boot camp, boot camps, bootcamp,
bootcamps, weight loss, weight loss center, weight loss clinic,
weight loss program, ( and plurals of these), health club, health
clubs, gym, gyms, fitness center, workout, exercise
optimize it for the search engines, with LOTS of optimized pages
The ENTIRE site is a greased slide to get them to call
I DO NOT want them clicking around a bunch of links.. . that’s ok
for a blog, but NOT a sales site
12.
This one is huge if you wanna get traffic from the search
engines… Send a TON of links to the site using your main
keywords as the anchor text to the appropriate pages
Get links from: Yahoo Directory, BOTW, Joe Ant, Gimpsy, DMOZ,
EzineArticles.com, Isnare.com, Squidoo.com
And other health an fitness blogs… here’s some giant lists top
get you started of blogs you could offer content to in exchange
for links:
http://www.gymjunkies.com/best-fitness-blogs/
http://www.straighttothebar.com/2006/11/20_of_the_best_
fitness_blogs.html
You should have a different optimized page for each main
phrase with it’s top variations… then fire links to those pages
with your keywords as the anchor text for the links
14.
Get listed at or near the top in Google Local and get
TONS of positive reviews… just remember, the closer you are to
the city center as defined by Google, the better
Google Local is based on their map system and is a GREAT way
to get clients
15. Get 10-12 Craigslist adds up a day on an AM / PM rotation
using good solid direct response in the ads
Using the main categories ( general, activity partners, events,
classes, beauty, lessons)… hit em each twice a day
Remember to use good solid direct response in your Craigslist
ads.
16. Use Facebook ads… very easy to learn… there’s a video on
my blog from Josh Carter showing exactly how to do it (and on
the Fitness Marketing Manifesto membership site)
http://www.kickbacklife.com/2009/06/28/how-to-get-clientsfrom-facebook/
17. Get good at using my
local based strategy for Google
Adwords, paying as little per click as possible while still
getting as many friggin’ clicks from targeted traffic as possible.
This is a little more complicated and far beyond the scope
of this post, for that one I HIGHLY recommend this program:
FitnessInternetGuru.com
18. Set up referral systems… referrals are by FAR one of the
best sources of new clients… but not enough fitness experts
have systems in place to get referrals
Some of my favorites are…
• Train people for free for referrals
• Send balloons to your clients at work
• Call your clients at work and pump them up
• Do crazy stuff in your workouts that makes people talk
about you at work around the water cooler the next day
• ASK for referrals
• Give incentives like a free two weeks for every referral that
is brought in… or cash… or a gift card.. or ???
• Recognize people for getting you referrals
• Always be grateful when you get em’ and show it
• Hold referral contests and give prizes based on who gets
the most referrals ( like a year of free training)
• Use Hochman’s plastic card method as described here:
http://www.kickbacklife.com/2009/04/14/how-to-be-a-bootcamp-dominator-part-3/
19. Set up retention systems… some of my favorites are…
• Put clients on long contracts
• Gift your clients about a month before the term of their
contract is up
• Put clients on EFT
• Getting them into shape helps
• Making them feel you are the answer to all that ails them
in terms of health an fitness is a good one.. this is where
some ninja self-aggrandizement comes in handy
20. Document and systematize as many aspects of the
business as possible AND find the right people to do as much of
the work for you as possible… if there’s any questions on this I
highly recommend reading the Emyth by Michel Gerber
You want a business that works FOR you… and not a job where
you have to work an hour to make a dollar… to get ahead and
have a nice lifestyle you need a business that is run on systems
and have others do 95% of the work. If you’re just starting out
you may not be able to have anyone work for you… but if you
create procedure documents in your business… when it comes
time to start delegating you’ll have made you’re life a whole lot
easier
21. Network with people who you can create win/win business
relationships with… at the end of the day it comes down to who
you know and what kind of relationship you have with them.
If you go out of your way to help the right people, they’ll go out
of their way to help out as well. You’ll be amazed at how much
knowing the right people can do for your business… it’s all about
people.
Well there ya have it… how to build a fitness training business
from the ground up.
How To Write Copy
For Maximum Money
Extraction
So here is what my headline looked like…
By Steve Hochman
Can you see why if my target cliental stumbles upon my ad,
they would think, “Oh my god, I can’t believe I found this… It’s
speaking to ME!”
f you don’t know what “Copy’ is don’t feel bad. Three years ago I
thought a copywriter was someone who put the little “copy write
protected” notation in books and stuff.
It turns out that “copy” is a bunch of printed words that get
people to bust out their wallet and drop down the cash-o-la.
It took me over 10 years and a TON of A/B split testing to finally
unlock the secret pattern to writing copy that makes people take
MASSIVE ACTION… and in my case that means buying fitness.
And now I’m going to hand over my cash sucking
secret to you.
You see, there is a certain order you have to write your copy in.
“Who Else Wants To Drop 7 Pounds
and 2 Inches Off Your Hips, Butt And
Thighs - Even If You’re Super Busy- And
Without Dieting?”
Now they will read the next step in the sequence…
Step 2: Agitation
Now that I have the readers attention, I want to agitate their
pain. You see people buy off of EMOTION, not logic.
The reason they are reading my ad, or google searching is to
find a solution to their PAIN.
This is where I will list a several bullet points to REALLY get
them agitated and emotional.
For example:
I broke it into these 8 steps.
1. Captivation
2. Agitation
3. Relation
4. Motivation
5. Formulation
6. Solution
7. Limitation
8. Contemplation
Raise Your Hand If You’re SICK And
TIRED Of Struggling With…

Trouble spots that just wont go away (like those saddlebags)

Your embarrassing stomach bulge

Meat market gyms that make you feel uncomfortable.

Unrealistic Diets that don’t work
Step 1: Captivation

Having to count calories and deprive yourself of the
food you want to eat
First you have to literally grab the reader’s attention. This is
done with a headline. Usually the headline is the biggest font on
the page and it red or blue to so your eyes go to it first.

Busy with work, life, kids

Turning off your stress hormones that make you store fat

Being frustrated with finding a workout that really works!

Having your “skinny” jeans hanging in the closet
collecting dust

Not feeling good because you KNOW you’re not fit.
Let me explain.
Why is this so important?
Because it lets the ready instantly know they have landed on the
right page – and to continue reading to the next line.
For example. I surveyed my audience and found out that they
really want to (tone their hips, butt and thighs, and that their
biggest obstacles are being really busy and hating to diet… They
also wanted to fit back into their skinny jeans.)
(Continued on Next Page)
Page 9
So now that have your reader AGITATED and EMOTIONAL, it’s
time to let them know you feel their pain – and can make it GO
AWAY.
Step 3: Relation
Now it’s time to introduce the SOLUTION to their problem –
YOU!
I let them know that I TOO used to struggle… until I stumbled
upon an amazing fitness solution...
For example:
Wednesday May 20th, 2009
Dear Friend,
My name is Steve Hochman and want to be radically honest
with you.
I have bad genetics and put on weight very easily. In fact, I can
remember when I really let myself go. Like the time I went to a
department store and tried to squeeze into a pair of jeans that
used to be my size.
Then it happened.
I caught a glimpse of my body in one of those angled mirrors
and was horrified. I couldn’t believe that I had slowly gotten so
out of control.
Over the next several weeks I spiraled down into a deep
depression.
After a while I had decided to just give up and accept that this
is the body I am stuck with for the rest of my life.
Step 4: Motivation
Now that you have made an outrageous claim… It’s time to
back it up with social proof.
This is going to REALLY MOTIVATE your reader to take massive
action – because they believe it is possible.
I like to put TONS of testimonials with before and after
pictures, testimonials with pictures of happy clients, and video
testimonials on my page.
Now would probably be a good time for me to mention… NEVER
hide your testimonials on another page. Put them right on the
home page – They are so powerful.
Step 5: Formulation
So now that you PROVED that you can deliver… It’s time to
unveil your secret formula…
For example:
Finally, Thanks To Fit Body Boot
Camp... You No Longer Have To
Deal With ANY Of That Ever Again!
No More Diets, Just a few “simple” nutritional
guidelines... You’ll melt away the rest with the 847 calorie
burning workouts.
Our new boot camp formula will neutralize your stress,
causing your fat hormones to “shut down” so you’ll stop
storing fat, especially in your stomach, hips and thighs.
But then I accidentally stumbled upon an incredible fitness
formula… It worked a miracle for me and later hundreds of
others.
Fit Body Boot Camp fuses cardio, Weights and abs all into
#1. I openly admit that my Fit Body Boot Camp does not have
magical fat melting and body toning powers even though it may
seem like it does.
Thanks to our in-door boot camps and joint-friendly
#2. And what’s more is that I uncovered my Unstoppable
Fitness Formula mostly by accident.
I’ll let you in on how that happened in just a moment…
Let me explain…
one workout... You’ll save time by burning fat, toning
muscle and getting a flat stomach all at once.
spring-loaded floors, gone are the day of cold mornings,
wet grass and damp tennis shoes.
You get the fat melting benefits of cardio while having fun,
and NOT getting on boring machines. (How cool is that?)
Our boot camp instructors are serious about pushing
and motivating you, so you’ll get that strong, toned body
that you’ve signed up for...
Stop And Think About This
For A Minute
Can you picture how strong, toned and
healthy your going to look and feel, now
that you no longer have to struggle with:
•
•
•
•
•
Impossible diets
Long boring workouts
Cold parks, bad weather and wet grass
Boring cardio
Needing to be pushed and motivated
Step 6: Solution
Now it’s time to tell them what to do next… Buy.
And the best way is with a risk reversal like a 2 week FREE
trial...
For Example:
Try my amazing unstoppable
fitness formula for a full 2 weeks
for FREE
And Finally Step 8: Contemplation
So now you’ve got there attention, agitated their pain, realate
to them and gave them hope, proved yourself, gave them the
solution to their pain without any risk and threatened to take it
away if they don’t take massive action – it’s time to give them
something to think about.
The way to give them the final action provoking thoughts comes
in the form of a (ps). Here are a few examples:
P.S. Don’t let the next 12 months be the same as the last 12
months. Do something about it.
YOU CAN DO THIS. You can make The Unstoppable Fitness
Formula work for you. All you have to do it let me “prove it “ to
you over the next 14 days. By calling 888-694-1201 right now or
Register for your FREE 2 week trial
P.P.S. Remember, your success is MONEY BACK GUARANTEED!
Now who’s taking all the risk?
P.P.P.S. If my Fit Body Boot Camp can melt off all your excess
fat… Get you defined, flat, hard abs…Give you sleek defined
shoulders and arms…really sexy legs and a nice butt…a
defined chiseled back…and then increase your health by 200%
extending your life as well as the quality of it…and make you feel
super confident about your body and look great in the clothes
that you wear (and the clothes that you currently can’t wear)
…and you will do all that for just $6.63 a day…would you say
that was a bargain? Would you do it?
Then Register for your FREE 2 week trial now.
Step 7: Limitation
Don’t let them procrastinate. Give them a sense of urgency
with either a space, time or number limitation.
For Example:
This special 2 week FREE trial offer ands (Tomorrows date)
(There is web code that will make that date automatically
change every day)
Or
This offer is for the first 7 soon to be fit client only.
Or
Space is VERY limited and we are filling up fast.
When we are full we’re locking the doors…
So don’t wait and get left behind.
P.P.P.P.S. Ps. better to invest just $6.63 a day in your toned,
healthy body then hundreds of $$ in BIGGER clothes.
P.P.P.P.P.S. An interesting point: 30 days from now you’ll either
be a month older and possibly a few pounds heavier, or, you can
be a 5-10 pounds lighter and 30 days closer to your fitness goal.
You decide which on you would rather be one month from now.
Make sure you make the right choice and call 888-694-1201
and start your FREE 2 week trial.
Follow my 8 step secret method for writing copy for maximum
money extraction and you will have your computer literally
spitting out cash while you sleep.
The First Steps in Marketing Your Fitness Business
Online
By Chris McCombs
Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, Flickr, Google, Yahoo,
MSN, SEO, PPC, Blogging, Copywriting, List Building, Traffic
Geyser, Craiglist… where does one start?
not yours.
If you read my article last month I talked about how you should
focus most of your online efforts on:
• Google Organic
• Google Local
• Google PPC
• Craigslist ( in America at least… some countries like
Australia aren’t as big on it)
• Facebook Ads
These are all great places to get highly targeted traffic, however
if you don’t have the right kind of website you’re not going to be
able to convert many visitors into clients.
To get the right kind of site, here’s the FIRST three steps I
would take …
1. Survey your market to find out
EXACTLY what they want…
it’s very important to know your market and have a clear
picture of precisely who it is you’re selling to.
You need to know your demographics…
• Age range
• Sex (male / female / or both )
• Income level
• Where they live
• Are they married or single?
• Kids/no kids
But more importantly… you need to know what’s going on
inside of that head of theirs.
You need to know their fears, frustrations and desires so you
can talk to those specific triggers and hot-buttons in your
online marketing campaigns.
Often times, what YOU think your customer wants might be
very different then what THEY actually want… while you might
be saying “six-pack abs”, but they’re thinking “flat stomach”…
HUGE difference… you need to talk to what THEY want, NOT
what YOU think they want… you need to use their language and
The key is to sell em’ what they want, and then give em’ what
they need… sell em’ the dream they’re looking to buy, then
and ONLY then give em’ the work.
Don’t try to sell em’ based on the features of your program, sell
based on end-results and carrot and stick motivators that are
important to THEM.
I highly recommend you visualize through your customers eyes
AS IF YOU WERE THEM.
Sit down, and actually be your prospect for fifteen or twenty
minutes and feel all the emotions and thoughts they have
surrounding this part of their life…. What are they going through
right before they pick up the phone and call you? … what’s
they’re mindset when they’re searching online for a trainer? …
… put yourself in their shoes so you can understand em’ better.
Next, write a one-page biography of your prospective ideal client
and get deep into the problem in their life that they’re hoping to
solve… and write it AS IF YOU WERE THEM.
Describe their problem(s) in detail… this is SUPER important,
cuz in your marketing, if you can describe and articulate their
biggest problem better then they can themselves, they will
immediately assume that YOU are the one with the solution to
that problem… this is HUGE.
Next, run a survey your market… you can either use Survey
Monkey or the AskDataBase… or you can just Email them a and
ask em’ to fill out a quick survey on your blog.
(Continued on Next Page)
Or… what I recommend the most is…
Make sure to dig deep, using phrases like…
Actually talk to them one on one… just ask a series of questions
similar like these:
• How do you mean?
• What about your body are you unhappy with?
• What part or parts of your body do you want to change the
most?
• What do you mean by that?
• How’s that make you feel?
• How so?
• What are your physical goals for yourself?
• Why?
• What is the biggest obstacle you feel you have to overcome
in order to achieve your goals?
• What’s that mean?
• WHY do you want to reach those goals? ( The WHY is very
important)
• What’s gonna happen if you DON’T reach your goal? …What
would your life be like then?… How would it feel?
• What do you like the most about my training?
Be sure to make note of the specific words and phrases are
they using… especially any that keep coming up when your
interviewing different people… cuz you’ll wanna use these
words in your marketing… like in your emails and salepages.
Next, go through all the data you’ve collected so you can get
a good idea of EXACTLY who your customer is, what theirs
fears are, their frustrations and their desires… so you can now
create sales messages that speak exactly to who they are and
what they want.
www.fitconcepts.com and www.gopersonaltrainer.com are two sites that are taking social proof to the next level.
2. Next, gather a MASSIVE stockpile
of ‘before and after pics’ and video
testimonials.
If you only have one or two before and after pictures, then all
the traffic in the world coming to your website isn’t gonna help
you much.
But, if you have a TON of social proof… in the form of before and
after pictures and video testimonials… then you’re gonna have
a much easier time converting a high percent of your visitors
into clients.
The best type of testimonials answer these questions…
A. What was your life like before training with me?
B. What were you skeptical about before starting my program?
C. What specific results have you achieved?
D. What’s your life like now?
Probably the most important thing you can do in your marketing
is display lot’s of the right kinds of social proof… here’s two sites
that are doing it right…
http://www.gopersonaltrainer.com/
http://www.fitconcepts.com/
Check out the testimonial video player at fitconcepts.com
3. Next, get a direct response style
website up… this site should contain:
• A compelling headline that speaks to their main pain and/
or the top one to three benefits of your program
• Benefit rich copy that speaks to the main problems your
market defined to you in your surveys, then you need to
position your service as THE solution to those problems.
Remember to use THEIR language in the copy.
• Social Proof that your solution works (Backing up your
claims)
• A strong call to action… like “Call 800-xxx-xxxx Now To
Learn More”
There’s more to salescopy than that, and Steve covered a lot of
it last month in the newsletter… and I’m gonna cover some of
it this month in a video in the members area… but if you can at
least get these elements in there, you should be able to convert
a nice amount of visitors… as long as they’re targeted.
Take these steps, and you’ll be ready to tackle Google Organic,
Google Local, Google Adowords, Craigslist and Facebook.
The Big Five Places To Get a TON of Clients from
the Internet
By Chris McCombs
Hey there, Chris McCombs here… hope your enjoying this
month’s Fitness Marketing Manifesto.
Not sure if you knew this but I get almost ALL my clients from
the internet… no, let me correct that… I get ALL my clients from
the internet. We do get referrals, but I let the individual trainers
keep all their own referrals… so I rely 100% on the net to make
my money.
Here are the top five places I get clients from:
1. Google Pay Per Click (PPC)
2. Google Organic
3. Google Local
4. Craigslist
5. Facebook Ads
I’ll go into each a little more in-depth here and give you the
30,000 foot view of the BIG FIVE…
1. Google Pay Per Click
Some of the keys to Google Pay Per Click are:
• Only use exact and phrase match
• Turn off the content network
• Set your position preferences to 1-3… you NEED to be near
the top
• Have lots of ad groups, pretty much one for each main keyword
phrase ( with a few variations allowed in each one)
• Make sure your ads are direct response style
• Make sure your ads contain your keywords
• Make sure your keywords are in the title tag of the page your
sending people to, you have your keywords in the headline
of the page AND your keywords appear naturally in the page
many times
• Have a GIANT list of negative keywords that you don’t want to
appear in ANY of your search queries
• On your site include a physical address, terms of service,
contact info and privacy policy
• Monitor your ads, test, track and improve
• Have geo targeted and nationally targeted campaigns… the
reasons for doing so are beyond the scope of this article, just
trust me one this one.
In your Geo targeted ads don’t worry about including your city,
just your main service phrases… here’s some examples of main
keyword phrases broken down by ad group…
Here are the main keyword phrases to use in Geo Targeted
ads:
And here’s some examples of keyword phrases for national
campaigns…
Ad Group: Personal Trainer
Ad Group: Personal Training with Location
“personal trainer”
[personal trainer]
Ad Group: Personal Trainers
“personal trainers”
[personal trainers]
Ad Group: Personal Training
“personal training”
[personal training]
Ad Group: Boot Camp
“boot camp”
[boot camp]
Ad Group: Bootcamp
Ad Group: Personal Trainer with Location
“bootcamp”
[bootcamp]
Ad Group: Boot Camps
“boot camps”
[boot camps]
Ad Group: Bootcamps
“bootcamps”
[bootcamps]
Ad Group: Weight Loss
“weight loss”
[weight loss]
“personal fitness training in location”
“personal fitness training location”
“personal training in location”
“personal training location”
“location personal fitness training”
“location personal training”
[personal fitness training in location]
[personal fitness training location]
[personal training in location]
[personal training location]
[location personal fitness training]
[location personal training]
“personal fitness trainer in location”
“personal fitness trainer location”
“personal trainer in location”
“personal trainer location”
“location personal fitness trainer”
“location personal trainer”
[personal fitness trainer in location]
[personal fitness trainer location]
[personal trainer in location]
[personal trainer location]
[location personal fitness trainer]
[location personal trainer]
(Continued on Next Page)
You can set geographical limits when you create your Google Adwords campaign.
Ad Group: Personal Trainers with Location
“personal fitness trainers in location”
“personal fitness trainers location”
“personal trainers in location”
“personal trainers location”
“location personal fitness trainers”
“location personal trainers”
[personal fitness trainers in location]
[personal fitness trainers location]
[personal trainers in location]
[personal trainers location]
[location personal fitness trainers]
[location personal trainers]
Ad Group: Boot Camp with Location
“fitness boot camp in location”
“fitness boot camp location”
“boot camp in location”
“boot camp location”
“location fitness boot camp”
“location boot camp”
[fitness boot camp in location]
[fitness boot camp location]
[boot camp in location]
[boot camp location]
[location fitness boot camp]
[location boot camp]
[bootcamp location]
[location fitness bootcamp]
[location bootcamp]
Ad Group: Bootcamps with Location
(no space between boot and camp)
“fitness bootcamps in location”
“fitness bootcamps location”
“bootcamps in location”
“bootcamps location”
“location fitness bootcamps”
“location bootcamps”
[fitness bootcamps in location]
[fitness bootcamps location]
[bootcamps in location]
[bootcamps location]
[location fitness bootcamps]
[location bootcamps]
Ad Group: Boot Camps with Location
“fitness boot camps in location”
“fitness boot camps location”
“boot camps in location”
“boot camps location”
“location fitness boot camps”
“location boot camps”
[fitness boot camps in location]
[fitness boot camps location]
[boot camps in location]
[boot camps location]
[location fitness boot camps]
[location boot camps]
Ad Group: Bootcamp with Location
(no space between boot and camp)
“fitness bootcamp in location”
“fitness bootcamp location”
“bootcamp in location”
“bootcamp location”
“location fitness bootcamp”
[fitness bootcamp in location]
[fitness bootcamp location]
[bootcamp in location]
Here’s an example for “Personal Trainers with Location”.
2. Google Organic
•
•
•
•
Hickory workout
Hickory exercise
Hickory fat loss
Lose weight in Hickory
Now, once you’ve put up a bunch of optimized pages (one for
each combination) , be sure to get links to each one using your
keyword term for that phrases as the anchor text in the link.
You wanna come up high in Google’s free organic listings
whenever anyone in your area searches for what you have to
offer… and the key is NOT to come up for just one or two terms,
but to come up for HUNDREDS of terms.
Here’s what you’ll wanna do…
Simply combine your service type (and similar services) and be
sure to include it’s variations on the same page. By “service
type” I mean your type of service ( like “boot camp” or “personal
training”, I’m NOT talking about the name of your business here)
Here’s some of the service type names you would wanna
come up for:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
boot camp, boot camps, bootcamp, bootcamps
personal trainer, personal training, personal trainers
fitness trainer, fitness training, fitness trainers
weight loss, weight loss center, weight loss clinic, weight
loss program
health club, health clubs
gym, gyms
fitness center, fitness studio
workout
exercise
fat loss
lose weight
Some of my favorite places to get links are from EzineArticles.
com, Isnare.com and from popular fitness blogs.
Check out my new link building video on the Fitness Marketing
Manifesto membership site for more detailed info.
3. Google Local Listings
For a lot of local based service names Google shows map
listings near the top of the page.
The closer your location is to the centre of the city as defined by
Google Maps and the city post office, combined with having the
most reviews, the better you’ll do.
If you’re not near the centre of your city… then you might wanna
get a little creative here if you know what I’m saying (but DON’T
just use a post drop… Google is onto that trick).
Then you wanna multiply the locations you serve by the service
phrases.
So say for example you serve Hickory North Carolina and you
offered personal training, boot camps and a fitness studio, you
would want to come up high for…
• Hickory boot camp, boot camps, bootcamp, bootcamps
• Hickory personal trainer, personal training, personal
trainers Hickory fitness trainer, fitness training, fitness
trainers
• Hickory weight loss, weight loss center, weight loss clinic,
weight loss program
• Hickory health club, health clubs,
• Hickory gym, gyms
• Hickory fitness center
(Continued on Next Page)
4. Craigslist
5. Send people to a salespage that converts like crazy
You might have to go back and forth a few times before facebook
will approve your ads
Real simple…
• Post in multiple categories
o Therapeutic
o Beauty
o Lessons
o Activity Partners
o General Community
o Events/Classes
• Post multiple times per day
• Use different accounts and IP’s to do this
• Have a compelling direct response ad
• Have a SUPER compelling headline
• Rotate ads (have a set of 25-50 you rotate through) – you
can disguise the majority of the text of your ad in an image
so they won’t get dropped for being duplicate… just change
the file names of the image
• Make sure to include your keywords in your ad (not in the
image part, in the pure text part)
• Mask your URL by using re-directs so you can place multiple
ads without getting dinged as a spammer
• Use tons of compelling before and after photos/social
proof
• Link to a page with a compelling salescopy
• Lower cost type training typically does better on Craiglist
than higher priced stuff… for example boot camps and
group training does better than high cost private training
Monitor, test, track and improve.
To really get a ton of clients from Craiglsist you pretty much have
to break just about every single one of their terms of service.
With Facebook you can choose to only show your ads in specific geographic areas. For a step-by-step guide, check out
the Facebook Ad video on vip.fitnessmarketingmanifesto.com
Here are the categories to post to
5. Facebook
Here’s what you do…
1. Go create a Facebook ad (choose CPC – Cost Per Click)
2. Target it to your specific demographics… including location,
age and sex
3. Create a compelling ad
4. Use a photo that gets attentions
Well there ya have it, the 30,000 foot view of how to get traffic
from my five favorite sources for your local fitness business…
combine these tactics with a good solid direct response website
and you’ll get more clients than you can handle from the internet
(unless you live in the middle of nowhere… if you live out in the
boondocks… MOVE)
How to Take Your
Business From Here to
There In Record Time
Using Force Multipliers
written by John Robbins) she bought TWO of John Robbins’
books.
By Bedros Keuilian
If you don’t know what a force multiplier is, let me give you a
real life example.
My wife and I enjoy eating whole and organic foods, but in early
April, Di was doing some research for an article she was putting
together for FitPro Newsletter, and that lead to some CRAZY
findings.
The research was on the amount of sugar we take in today vs.
50 years ago.
That led to her uncovering ‘pandora’s box’ and now we don’t eat
any processed sugar in the Keuilian household, and in addition
to the whole foods and organic diet we’re on, eating no refined
and processed sugars really has changed everything for me...
I sleep better, have even more energy than before, and have
better mental clarity - and my abs are coming back out again :)
But this isn’t about that...
My wife is like a pit bull. Once she latches onto something she
will not let go. She’s got to know more, and more, and more. Of
course this leads to more books and our typical $3K monthly bill
with Amazon.com became $5k/monthly.
In her research she found a book called “the China Study” a
compelling book that really showcased some insane things
about our Western eating habits. Because her dad is a Harvard
grad and medical doctor, and because the author of this book
is a renowned researcher with similar credentials, his book had
instant credibility with her.
Here’s where the force multipliers begin.
The forward for “the China Study” was written by John Robbins
- that’s cool... whatever.
But the next time she was on Amazon it recommended that
she get “Vegan Living” and so she did. Guess who wrote the
forward? Yep, John Robbins.
Now here is the money shot... the next time she was on Amazon.
com they recommended one of John Robbins books, and
because she liked the last two books she read (both forwards
The take away here...
1. Market to message match is CRITICAL
2. Her first contact with john Robbins was overlooked. The
second contact caught her attention, but the third contact
(recommendation from a trusted source <AMAZON>)
compelled her to purchase two of his products.
That is force multiplication in action. Each time she saw John
Robbins name more and more credibility was established until
she purchased his books.
Who else with CREDIBILITY can recommend, position, talk
about, mention, and endorse you? Where else can you be seen
or heard of?
In addition to a direct purchase this also LOWERS the buyers
resistance (the inner self talk that happens when they are about
to buy from you) during the critical moment where the buying
decision is made or lost.
Sure testimonials on YOUR site, flyer’s, ect., establish credibility.
But what they see, hear, read, experience about you on other
people’s sites, products, stores, venues, blogs ect., demonstrate
higher value and credibility.??
Lets look at my coaching client Saman Bakhtiar. Over the last
two years he went from being just another trainer in the Chino
Hills area to being THE fitness and fat loss expert to go to when
you’re serious about getting in shape once and for all.
Because he’s known as the ‘guy’ to go to he now generates
seven figures and has put more than half his competitors out
of business.
Here’s how we used Force Multipliers to leap frog him to
massive success. In addition to the targeted monthly mailing,
and optimizing his website for targeted traffic and ranking we
did some cool things that further positioned him as the local
expert.
Saman held a HUGE Chino’s Biggest Loser contest last year.
This got the mayor involved, the city council, and even the local
media and paper.
For about 12 weeks you couldn’t open the paper without reading
something about the local biggest loser contest. Just imagine
how all that positioning, and credibility the local paper and
mayor got him – IN ADDITION TO HIS REGULAR DIRECT MAIL
MARKETING AND WEBSITE TRAFFIC.
Talk about a force multiplier right?
But we didn’t stop there. The next thing he did was set up a
blog and then went to ten local restaurants with his handy flip
cam video camera and interviewed the owner/manager of each
restaurant and showcased their healthy menu item.
Guess what all this did?
It created massive front of mind awareness. Imagine going to
the local restaurants and seeing Saman’s logo and “approved”
food item, and then going home and seeing a postcard from
him, and them opening the paper and reading about his Biggest
Loser content that the mayor is not only endorsing but ACTUALLY
involved in.
Each of those “things” are force multipliers that helped Saman
win the hearts and minds of local residents.
Why would you even consider going to another trainer if you
lived in Chino or Chino Hills when you could go to the OBVIOUS
local fitness and fat loss expert?
And that is the POWER of Force Multipliers in action.
Here’s where things get tricky…
Then Saman added the restaurant owner/operator’s email
address to his email list, fired the video up onto his blog, and
then sent out an email to his entire list and basically endorsed
the restaurant.
Guess what happened next?
He went back to the restaurant a week later and got them to
add his logo to their menu next to the healthy food items; as
a “Fitness Concept” approved item. Some restaurants actually
renamed menu items after his name.
The Craigslist ‘Client Flood’ Strategy
By Chris McCombs
Create Ads
Hey there, I hope you’re doin’ awesome…
Once you have your accounts set up and are ready to start
posting you need to write some ads to post. Obviously this is the
most important part because this is what is doing the selling for
you.
Craigslist is a KILLER way to get clients for free, without having
to put a ton of work into it. When you start you’ll have to put
some time into it, but after that initial chunk of time you should
be ready to roll with only a few minutes a day.
I actually have my assistant Del post the ads and it only takes
her like 5 minutes in the morning and 5
minutes in the afternoon… it’s a SUPER
cool way to pull in clients with hardly any
effort at all…
Here’s an example of one of about 30 ads we use, please come
up with your own and don’t plagiarize, but this should give you
some ideas…
Getting Started
Ok, the first thing you have to do is set up
a few Craigslist accounts.
The reason you need to set up several
accounts is that Craigslist limits how
many ads you can post from each
account within a day or two period.
Generally we try to keep it to 5 ads per
day per account. We post about 12 ads
a day so we have 6-7 accounts set up
so that we are able to switch over and
post under a different account if we have
reached our limit for ads in one account.
The only catch is you have to verify your
account to post in a lot of the categories
we post in, so you have to have a unique
phone number per account… no biggie
They send a one time text message or
phone call with a pass code, and the
phone will never be contacted again.
If you run out of phone numbers ask
a friend to let you use theirs. People
who aren’t likely to need a Craigslist
account because they won’t be able to
set up their own account with that phone
number.
The other part of setting up accounts is
that you need unique emails, but those are super simple to set
up using free email providers like gmail.com.
You’ll need to use an image editor to create your ads rather than
just uploading pictures using the Craigslist photo upload option.
The reason you don’t want to use the photo upload is that it just
sticks the photos at the bottom of the ad, and you want your
ads to look solid and for the person to actually see them, so you
want to be able to control where images and text go.
Using an image editor you can position the photos and text and
use colors, fonts, and bold/italics in ways you could not if you
just went in and tried to post a Craigslist ad.
Think of it as creating a poster, you want it to be eye catching
and organized.
There are tons of free image editors online if you search for
them, but it is probably better to buy one as they are inexpensive
for the most part and sometimes the free ones have quirky
things (you only need to do simple things for Craigslist ads so
you don’t need one with a million options).
One free site that is good to use if you’re looking for a super
easy way to create a Craigslist ad is http://www.gogopin.com/
The cool thing about gogopin is you don’t have to download
any software, and you can create the ad online. Gogopin also
generates the html code for you that you can copy and paste
into Craigslist.
The only real difference is that the gogopin ads have a small
gogopin logo at the bottom and less options than a regular
image editor, but enough options to get you started posting
some great ads and it’s super easy for someone who doesn’t
know a lot about working with images.
The best ads are ads that look interesting and have photos.
Craigslist is full of plain text ads that are so boring, so if you’re
posting a really catchy ad people will naturally be more likely to
call you up.
The MOST IMPORTANT part...now pay attention...is to make sure
and use before and after pictures! You SHOULD NOT skip this
part.
Nothing sells more than a visual example of what your clients
have achieved. If you don’t have before and after pictures, GET
THEM. Immediately, call up your clients and get working on this!
You need before and after pictures if you plan on doing any type
of online marketing for your business. They drastically improve
conversions on your website and are essential to your online ads
like Craigslist ads.
If you can’t get before and after pictures right this minute,
AT LEAST get an after picture of a few clients so you can say
something about how much weight this person has lost or how
many inches that person lost.
Besides before and after pictures you need your ad to have a
killer headline. Something that appeals to their needs/wants
and preferably is related to the category. The reason you want it
to be related to the category you are posting is because your ad
is ten times more likely to be flagged if you just put up a generic
headline like “Workout with a Personal Trainer.”
Craigslist wants the ads in each category to be related to the
category and something a person searching in a particular
category might be looking for. Capiche?
For instance, if you’re posting in “Lessons and Tutoring.” You’re
going to want to focus on how a trainer will teach you how to
lose weight. If you’re posting in “Activity Partners” you’ll want
your ad to be geared towards how you as a personal trainer
can be their new workout partner so they don’t have to workout
alone.
Really sit down and think “what would someone in this category
be looking for and how could I get them interested in personal
training?”
You are TEN times less likely to get flagged if you gear the text
and sales copy of your ad towards the category.
Also, don’t make your ads too long or with too much text and
salescopy. Basically, you want these ads to get people to either
call you on the spot, or click through to your website so they can
read the sales copy on your site.
This is why it is VERY important to have a killer website. You
want a short Craigslist ad.... maybe a few before and after
pictures and some short sales copy, a paragraph or two at the
most, and you want the ad to click through to your site.
If you don’t have a site ready to click through to you need to
start working on that as soon as possible. Check out the Fitness
Website Formula if you’re not sure where to start, how to create
a site, or what it need to look like to really convert visitors into
clients
You’ll also want to make sure and include a regular link to your
site at the bottom of your ad in addition to the click through ad.
Obviously when you’re creating the image you’re gonna include
a button or something that says “Click Here” so people know the
ad clicks through to your site, but it’s good to put the link after
the image code when you post your ad so that people who still
don’t get it will know to click the link at the bottom.
If you use gogopin, it will automatically generate the code for you
to post into your Craigslist ad, but it will not generate the click
through code that allows people to click on the image and have
your site open for them. If you don’t have a site and only have a
phone number for them to call, then that is fine. But if you want
the gogopin code to click through you will need to use a modified
version of this code:
<a href=”http://www.yourwebsite.com”
rel=”nofollow”><img src=”http://img202.
imageshack.us/img22/838/ad05.jpg”></a>
You will place the URL for your site where mine is now, and you
will take the code generated by gogopin and select the portion
starting in “http://” and ending in “.jpg” or “.png” and past that
image url where ours is above.
Make sure to pack tons of social proof into your ads
If you make your own image on your computer using an image
editor, you will need to have the image hosted online, so use a
site like imageshack to upload the image to and then use the
same code above.
Except for imageshack they generate a direct image url code, so
you don’t have to find it like you do in the gogopin code.
I have my assistant Del create a word document for each
category she posts in to save the code to once it is finalized.
That way there is no need to worry about having to go back and
recreate the code in case the ad is deleted from Craigslist. We
always have a copy on the computer to go back to.
Where and How to Post
Now that you have your ads and code written, you’re going to go
post in several Craigslist categories. Pretty much be creative
and think where people are most likely to look for your services.
Some categories to think about are:
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Lessons and Tutoring
Classes
Beauty Services
Activity Partners
General Community
Groups
Health and Beauty
You will pick your category to post in and copy your code into the
box, paste your headline into the header box. You don’t have to
fill in the location box, but if you do try and vary it with each ad.
Also include your keywords after the code because if someone
searches in the Craigslist category and your text is all a part of
the image, then it will not pull up your ad.
That’s why it’s good to put a few sentences or a list of keywords
at the end of your ads after all the code.
One important thing to do is select the “hide” option with your
email. Anonymous isn’t a good option because people can still
email you, they just can’t see the address.
You will get a friggin’ TON of spam if you leave a way for people
to email you directly from the ad. Besides, you already have
your phone number listed in the ad, and probably have the click
through set up so no one will have trouble contacting you, you’ll
just save yourself from a TON of spam. ( spam sucks )
Once all of your ads are posted (this can take about a week to
get all your ads up spread between your different accounts) you
will be able to just login and post in the morning and evening in
a matter of minutes.
The reason it can be so fast is that you can login to your account
and click on an ad from a few days ago, and at the top of the ad
it will give you the option of “delete ad.”
You’ll delete the ad, then return to your account page, click
on the ad again (it will still show in your account, it will just be
shaded a different color to show it was deleted) and you will
click “repost” above the ad. It will then let you repost the ad
without having to copy and paste the code or anything.
You can literally repost numerous ads in 5 minutes because
you’re just deleting and reposting. Just be careful to keep up
enough ads because you can only do this with ads that are a few
days old. Craigslist made this rule to discourage people from
just logging in an deleting and reposting the same ad every day.
The benefit to you of reposting ads every day (not the same ad
every day, but one of your ads every day) is it keeps your ads at
the top of the page as Craigslist sorts ads by most recently
posted. That’s why you want to post in the morning and at night
if possible so that you stay towards the top of the page.
If you follow these guidelines, once you have your ads written
you’ll be able to rotate your Craigslist ads quickly in just a few
minutes a day and pull in tons of clients in most areas ( some
areas like Australia don’t do well with Craigslist though… but
most US cities do). Alright, now get to it…. Oh yeah, and have an
awesome day.