Ep. 15: Marketing Moves from Season 1
As we close out season one of the Boutique Fitness Marketing Show, I want to take a look back at some of the big takeaways from prior episodes.
Consider this your Cliffs Notes review for those of you who have listened to all the episodes and a chance to highlight some of my favorite bits and action items that you may or may not have had a chance to accomplish yet. And if you’re just joining me for the first time, then this episode will give you an overview to help you decide which episodes to listen to next!
I opened up this show in episodes one and two by defining a big-picture perspective on marketing for brick-and-mortar studios. The main thing I really want you to take away from those episodes is that marketing isn’t just about Facebook ads and Instagram reels (those are marketing tactics).
Your Marketing Move from episodes 1-2:
There are a ton of things that impact whether your marketing is effective and if your efforts positively influence the bottom line of your business. So, don’t get fixated on the tactics—remember to look holistically at your marketing strategy.
In episode three, Roxy Borger joined me to discuss measuring your marketing. This was a great intro to the numbers you need to look at in your business to determine if your marketing is working.
Here’s Roxy on analyzing your referral type data:
“If a business is in a happy place, they usually have a good split in their referral types… meaning they have 30% say they hear about you from a friend, 30% say they hear about you online and 30% say signage, or walk-by. If a business comes to me and they first started tracking… want to invite you.. It usually should be split up between those rough categories” —Roxy Borger, Fit Box Rox
Your episode 3 Marketing Move:
Get organized tracking referral types. Make sure you have a system in place to ask each new client and create logical categories so that data is meaningful to you.
Episode 4 with Jennifer Pahl was the most downloaded episode of the season so far, and several studio owners mentioned to me that they made changes to their intro after listening to it.
Jen talked about the types of intro offers that are popular in the industry in 2023. This has definitely evolved in recent years…. and gave tips for how to determine the length of your intro offer based on your other pricing options, team, and revenue goals. I love that she also shared specifics about the extra perks, marketing materials, and outreach she does at her studio to ensure that people have a great experience while on the intro… because selling it is just the start.
Your Marketing Move from episode 4:
Reassess your intro offer and any client experience processes you have in place while someone is on an intro. Ask yourself if it's the right length and if you need to add any intentional touchpoints.
In episode 5, Amy Glosser from BYKLN Studios gave us some real practical ways to build a sense of community within your studio. From creating an advisory board to designing a studio space that encourages socializing before and after class, Amy had some great tips for new and established studios alike. She also shared why she feels so passionately that building community is a worthy endeavor for studio owners.
“Community is a real lacking factor in so many people’s lives, not only post-covid, but post-internet and us glued to our phones, and it’s a big problem.” - Amy Glosser, BKYLN Studios
Your episode 5 Marketing Move:
Make a point to have an honest conversation with one or more of your best clients this month. Ask them to share candidly about their experience with your studio. Listen more than you talk and look for areas to grow or experiment in their words.
In episode 6, “Is Your Business a Brand?” I asked you a list of questions to help you determine what your secret brand sauce is. And then gave you examples of how to translate that into marketing materials.
The big takeaway here? If you don’t define your studio’s brand, others will do it for you.
Your Marketing Move from episode 6:
Give your website home page a 30-second audit. Pretending you know nothing about your business, is it clear from your homepage what makes your studio special? If you replaced your logo with a competitor's, would anyone be able to tell something was off?
Episode 7 was our first ever panel discussion with Chis Appiah and Stephanie Breaux Bradley from The Sales Arms. Chris shared his 3 T’s to good sales: good tech, a good team, and good training.
Here’s Stephanie on a common mistake studio owners make when it comes to sales:
“I don’t think we listen enough. I think we get nervous about filling in the gaps of a conversation and you probably asked a question, and they aren’t answering right away because they’re thinking about the answer. And we’re quick to jump in and want to fill that space, instead of giving them space to really think about it and give you an answer.” —Stephanie Breaux Bradley, The Sales Arms
Your marketing Move from episode 7:
Go be a secret shopper at another fitness studio. This is great to do while on vacation or visiting family in another town. Make notes about your first impressions of that studio, what questions or concerns you had, and whether they got resolved or not. Take that info back to make your new client experience even better.
In episode 8, I talked with Lisa Cutts, owner of Tucson Yoga Pod about creating a standout client experience. Lisa shared how remembering and using clients’ names is a free and powerful way to help clients feel valued. We also discussed how her team works together to ensure a consistently great experience across a robust schedule and a large variety of class types.
“One of the things that’s included in the guest experience from our perspective is listening to what the guests would like. We take feedback really seriously.” —Lisa Cutts, Tucson Yoga Pod
I personally think client experience—particularly during someone's first few visits — is a critical piece of your marketing so it’s something to get right before you spend a load of money on paid ads.
Your episode 8 Marketing Move:
Master the free stuff first…Learn people’s names. If you aren’t the primary face at the front desk, make sure your team knows how important this is.
Sidenote: I’m seeing a trend here, that only popped out to me when I was creating this review episode. Three of the last four episodes, with three different guests, emphasized a central theme and that’s how important it is to be a good listener. Being open to feedback and, I will add because I know a lot of us small business owners struggle with our own capacity—having the personal or team capacity to hear the feedback, sift through it for truths that align with your mission, vision, and values and take action on those right ideas. It’s easier said than done but it came up in all these different conversations about building community, having a sales process, and delivering a great client experience so I wanted to give a shout-out to the power of active listening here.
Episode 9 was one of the most interesting for me personally this season. In this episode, I talked to Nt Etuk, the CEO of Fitgrid about the state of marketing communications in the boutique fitness industry. Emails, texting, automation… we hit it all as well as how AI is changing the game.
Here’s NT on how AI can help studio owners be more efficient while at the same time improving the personalization of their marketing communications.
“Imagine if you had an assistant.. I think about it as an assistant. You have 20 emails you have to send out today. The assistant does all the research on all the history, writes a grammatically correct, very compelling message and then says “ok, here are the 20 messages, you just need to review them and press send.” That’s where we think, the first step in AI making life a lot easier in boutique fitness—it is driving home the personalization aspect.” —NT Etuk, CEO FitGrid
Your episode 9 Marketing Move:
Experiment with AI. Whether it’s FitGrid, ChatGPT, or my new favorite for video and audio content creation, Descript… dive in for a free trial someplace and see what it’s all about.
In episode 10, I talked about Google Ads and Social ads. Pros and cons of each for fitness studios and which one you should start with if you’re new to paid ads. My bottom line recommendation is to make sure you have a presence on Google locked down first—whether it’s with non-paid rankings OR ads. If you’re hard to find on Google, then start with Google ads. You’ll get better quality leads. If you pop up right away on Google already, then social ads would be where I’d start for a broader reach.
Your episode 10 Marketing Move:
Evaluate where you stand on the Google search results page for the most obviously relevant search term that comes to mind. Does your studio stand out or do you need to scroll to find it? This will tell you if Google should be a focus area for your next marketing campaign or not.
A follow-on to the Google Ads conversation, in episode 11 I talked about Local SEO, or search engine optimization. This is all about how to show up on Google without paying for ads. I listed the most important ranking factors from a survey of search engine marketers so you can understand what matters, and what doesn’t matter so much.
I think this is one of the most actionable episodes of this season that can really make a short-term difference to bring more leads to your business for little to no cost.
Your episode 11 Marketing Move:
Go give that Google Business profile some love. Log in and see if there are things you can pump up or update. Pay close attention to your business categories. And then knock out the other four quick win tasks I mention in this episode.
Michael Jay from the Yoga Biz Camp podcast joined me for episode 12 to talk about all the things you need to do before you open the doors to your brand new studio.
We talked about selling founders memberships, the 2 phases of your pre-opening website, and how important taking the time to define your mission, vision, and values are early on. This episode will be a great listen if you’re planning on opening a new studio OR if you’re opening a new location this year.
Your Marketing Move from episode 12:
Check in with your mission, vision, and values. Do they still resonate with your community? Is it reflected in your marketing materials?
Yes, we got all the way to episode 13 without having a show dedicated solely to your studio’s website (incredible considering my primary service is website design!), but we hit it well here. I went through 4 different website personas (Returning Client Rachel, Problem Aware Paul, Solution Aware Shannon, and Brand Aware Beth) to illustrate how different people use your website and how you can adjust your site to make it easier to navigate. I also shared 5 web design elements that make a fitness studio website Look modern.
Your episode 13 Marketing Move:
Audit your website to answer these 2 questions: does it feel modern and is it easy to navigate? If not, make some changes based on the tips in this episode.
In episode 14 I talked to Katie Santos of Fitness HR about building an employee brand. This concept of intentionally defining and creating a culture for your team underlies all the marketing talk we’ve had all season. Here’s Katie on what an employee brand is and why it’s important:
“It's a tough labor market and a lot of teachers have chosen to go out on their own and they're teaching out of their home or on video or whatever. So in order for you to really get people to come to work for you, you've got to give them something back, right? Not just a place to come in and teach for a while and leave. So it's really kind of ties into what we're going to talk about today—that employer brand is really about telling people why it is that it's important to come to work for you and what you can give them as an employer. And that's really the only thing that you can do to compel people to stay with you I think for the longterm.” —Katie Santos, Fitness HR
Your episode 14 Marketing Move:
Write down a value proposition statement for your team. Why is your studio a great place to work? Is this clear in your hiring process?
Season One is a Wrap!
As we put a bow on season 1 of this podcast, I want to encourage you that small marketing moves, like the ones mentioned in this episode, can positively impact your business. Just like your client's fitness goals, right? So take one step and act on your marketing goals this month. Then keep moving forward one small move at a time.
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