A clear marketing message will attract your Ideal Client, repel the tire kickers and help you stand out from the competition. The one big hang up is usually creating a great marketing message for your business.
You have the ability to communicate your brand story to your target market and community. If you don’t tell it, someone else will. It may be your customers and raving fans or it could be your competition and haters.
There is a simple framework for creating a good, crystal clear marketing message for your business. This eliminates confusion for your target market and will increase the number of referrals you get from your current clients and network. At Fitness Revolution we call this Local Market Positioning.
Want to know some good news?
The competition you are facing probably won’t go through the steps needed to create a great marketing message. They will allow the market to dictate their positioning and hope that it’s what they wanted.
But, you’re better than that! You want to control your Local Market Position and dictate how your community thinks and talks about your business.
There are 3 key pieces to good Local Market Positioning:
- Differentiators
- Buying Criteria
- Positioning Statement
Standing Out From The Crowd
Your target market is being blasted with marketing all day, every day. They get hit with ads on social media, commercials on TV, crazy headlines on the news, insane claims on magazine covers waiting in line at the grocery store. You get the point.
How do you stand out and make your business known as the best fitness solution for your target market?
Easy…you tell them why you are different.
The hard part is figuring out what makes you different. Often times you’re too close to your business to be able to really see what makes you stand out.
The key to finding powerful differentiators for your business is looking at your business through the eyes of your Ideal Client. What do they want? What matters to them?
Here are a few tips to get your brain working:
- Do you have any statistical data on results you deliver? (example: Average client loses 10 lbs in 60 days)
- Have you won any awards that position you as the best? (example: Named best gym 5 years in a row)
- Were you the first to do anything? (example: The first private training studio in [YOUR TOWN])
- Do you have a unique process for delivering results? (example: Naming and explaining the system for how you create programs and deliver training that makes it easy your client to understand)
- What is going on in your business that others in your community aren’t doing or aren’t talking about doing? (Example: How you educate and train your staff?)
Once you’ve nailed down a decent sized list, 10-15, you want to narrow it down to 3-5 really strong differentiators. Sit on them for a few weeks and then come back to clean them up. Your differentiators should now be used in your marketing, put on your website and communicated to your target market.
What Matters To Them?
Understanding the needs and desires of your target market is critical for marketing success. You need to know what matters to them when they are getting ready to make a buying decision.
These are things like:
- Distance from home or work
- Cost
- Flexibility
- Convenience
- Availability
- Exclusivity
- Community
- Cleanliness
Once you are able to zero in on your Ideal Client’s key buying criteria you want to address that in your marketing and highlight those factors for them.
The Positioning Statement
Your positioning statement is 1-2 sentences that communicates the most important aspects of your business to potential new customers. This can be used at networking, on your website, on your marketing materials, and shared with your clients so they know how to explain it to their friends.
There are 4 key pieces:
- Who you are
- Who you help
- How you help them
- Why they should choose you
It may look something like this “I own a personal training business, Fitness Revolution, that helps people that want to lose 20 lbs or more in 90 days. We do this through our unique F5 training system and with the help of our extremely supportive community.”
By the way, I total made up the F5 training system 🙂
This clearly communicates who you are, what you do, who you help and will also bring up some questions about how you do it. That’s exactly what you want in a positioning statement.
Here’s how each of the pieces are represented in the statement above:
- Who you are: Fitness Revolution
- Who you help: People who want to lose 20lbs in 90 days
- How you help them: Unique F5 training system
- Why they should choose you: Supportive Community
Now anyone who hears this statement will know if you can help them or if they know someone who you could help!
Using Your Marketing Message Effectively
Going through the process of creating your Local Market Positioning will give you a better understanding of your target market and how to communicate with them. Document it and reference it often so that it remains top of mind.
Once you feel like you have a strong Local Market Positioning audit your website to make sure it is present, review it prior to creating any marketing materials, and use it to guide your marketing decisions.
Your marketing message is useless, no matter how good it is, if its not being heard!
Need help creating a marketing plan that attracts great clients?
Check out our comprehensive Guide: How To Create a Gym Business Marketing Plan – From Strategy to Execution.
