Learning Center
We’ve consolidated our videos, guides, webinars and more into the AFS Business Learning Center. Browse the resources, and use the concierge service if you need help with any topic.
The Essence of Marketing, when dissected to its most basic element, is nothing more than storytelling.
When telling a story you are sharing information that you believe will be entertaining, important, interesting or relevant to those for whom the story is targeted.
One of the main reasons many studio operators don’t invest (much) in marketing is because they believe it’s a waste of time and money. But why is that? As a former health club operator and now as a Marketing Coach, I find that many of us, I’m including myself from back in my club days, don’t have the time to dedicate to or a genuine understanding of how, to plan and execute an effective marketing strategy.
Typical marketing scenarios at studio level are a combination of three things: inconsistent effort, unrealistic expectations at the start of a campaign, and concerns over an unfavorable outcome.
Timely, targeted marketing campaigns are critical to the growth of your business, yet many studio owners don’t even want to think about it, let alone set aside time and money for it! The reality is that daily operations keep you running from open to close and beyond and let’s face it marketing is at best, challenging.
It can also be time-consuming, frustrating, and is often confusing. Without a doubt, however, Marketing is absolutely necessary to grow a successful business.
A beautiful weather summer can be a painful season to endure if you own a fitness studio. The nicer the day, the fewer clients you see. Prospect inquiries evaporate, program sales burn out and there is lackluster enthusiasm all the way around. It’s no secret that you would rather be outside enjoying the weather, too!
For your consideration (and motivation), I’ve put together an action plan that addresses nearly every aspect of your business. The way I see it, summer is ripe with opportunities to be busier than ever, highly productive and because of this, better positioned for the inevitable; Winter Is Coming.
“Your brand is possibly your most important attribute. It defines who you are, your values, your desires, your goals and your beliefs. It is the character of your company, from the inside out and how it is perceived from the outside looking in. It must work to develop credibility and foster trust in your business.”
This is taken directly from SKB’s website, it’s our philosophy on what a brand is and it is from this place that we work to develop a visual identity to uphold the brand and execute a strategy to reinforce and nurture it.
As a Marketing Coach, I want you to take charge of your marketing and I urge you to make this question an integral part of your sales process. It needs to be asked by you and once answered, it must be recorded by you. And that’s the real message in this article: Track the results of each and every marketing campaign you deploy.
You spend time and money on your marketing efforts and like everything else in life; you want to know both are being spent wisely. The only way to do that is to track the results and analyze them to predict future decisions.
Like any other tool in your business toolkit, a budget must be a working tool. Budgets should be reviewed and worked on at least on a monthly basis to have any value. Compare the budget prediction to the actual revenue or expense for the items on your budget worksheet at the end of each month.
Make adjustments based on your goals and actual performance. If you are spending more than you predicted in an area of your business like supplies, look for ways to reduce that expense.
Budget phobia, the fear of budgets, plagues many studio owners. Owners claim they are not numbers people, or don’t understand how to put spreadsheets together or feel that budgets are a useless exercise that is done once a year and thrown in a drawer.
Many studio owners view budgets as a mysterious set of complicated mathematical formulas that only accountants and statisticians can decipher. Budgets are nothing more than simple spreadsheets based on data and goals that use basic math. If you can add, subtract, multiply, and divide you can create and use a budget.
When operating a fitness business owners typically concentrate on obtaining and training clients. Surviving is the first priority. As the business becomes more successful, the owner can find that most of their time is devoted to training clients and little time or energy is left over to develop systems and market the business.
Even worse, the owner may feel trapped training as many clients as possible to survive. Studio owners may feel they are unable to move clients to new trainers because other trainers will not hold to their high standards of training.
This guide will help you establish a successful social media campaign for your fitness studio.
If you are already using social media to market your business, use this guide to fill in any knowledge gaps to improve your current campaign.
In part two of business plan basics, we will continue to explore the parts of a business plan. In case you missed part 1, click here to read that article.
Marketing Plan and Analysis: “Build it and they will come” is not a good marketing strategy. You may be the best personal trainer in the world, but unless you have a solid marketing plan, chances are that your business will fail.
“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
You may have seen those reality shows where an expert in the restaurant or bar industry goes to a struggling business and in less than a week fixes all of its problems and puts the business on the path to success. These businesses often struggle because they does not know the cost of the goods they sell, how to price their products, how to market their services, have poor management and poorly defined roles within the business, or have any good systems in place to monitor their success or failure.
As a studio owner ask yourself these common questions... 1.) Do you know your retention rate? 2.) Which is harder...acquiring new customers or retaining current ones? 3.) Are you worried about that competitor coming in around the corner or across the street? 4.) In what ways do you engage with your customers outside of training?
To catch someone’s attention, tweet them. To build brand loyalty, think Facebook. To turn social chatter into cash, have a strategy. In this webinar, journalist and social media specialist Stephanie Neil will unravel the mystery of how to use social media to boost your personal brand—and your overall business.
Want more clients? More revenue? More exposure? Of course you do! But first you need to learn how to do it properly. Deneen Laprade from Susan K. Bailey will provide you the tools and fundamentals necessary to market your studio business in any environment.
Marketing, when dissected to its most basic element, is nothing more than storytelling.
When telling a story you are sharing information that you believe will be entertaining, important, interesting or relevant to those for whom the story is targeted.
Nothing speaks louder or resonates more profoundly than the words, actions and results of entrepreneurs who have been successful in bringing their dream to life.
Receive the critical information from nationally-known, successful studio operators, who share everything you need to know.
During the nearly 10 years I spent running large scale health clubs and consulting with small fitness studios, one of the most common questions I received was "How do I motivate my team?"
This question was always top of mind for studio owners, directors, managers, GM's - everyone shared the same issue. So how do you overcome this? How do you connect with your team, whether it be personal trainers, Pilates instructors, group exercise, front line staff, or customer service? To be honest there's no secret formula, but rather a combination of empowering your team and connecting with them.
While researching the hundreds of fitness studios over the past few weeks, it was alarming to see the amount of common mistakes that studio owners make. Most might seem minor but often lead to a significant loss of leads and sales for their owners.
As a studio owner, you want your website to compliment your business. You want people to understand exactly what you do as quickly as possible. Someone once told me to design your website as if “the dumbest person in the world was trying to understand what you do and navigate your site.” While a drastic approach, that statement stayed with me.
Studio developers (those looking to open their own studio) are often faced with several obstacles (financing, website design, marketing, social media expectations, amongst a slew of others).
One area that’s just as important, but often overlooked is ensuring you have a custom domain. Not only does it reflect your studio’s identity, but represents your brand, helps to improve your website’s credibility, and your search engine rank.
FBA is Right For Everybody
• Trainer, Manager or Owner • Beginner or Veteran • 500-10,000 sq.ft.