How to Build a Fitness Marketing Funnel that Reliably Generates New Clients

by | May 9, 2022 | Core Offer, Fitness Business Owner, Fitness Marketing, Ideal Client, Marketing | 0 comments

(Last Updated On: March 14, 2024)

If you want to reliably generate new clients for your fitness business then you need to create a fitness marketing funnel. I’m sure you’ve spent a lot of time exploring different marketing methods for your business. And yes, it can be frustrating and confusing because there are so many options out there. It also takes a lot of time and patience to choose the right marketing methods, deploy them in your business, and see if they produce results. But there are a few things you can do to make sure that you’re headed in the right direction when building your fitness marketing funnel. And that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about today. Let’s jump right into it!

What is a Fitness Marketing Funnel?

Your fitness marketing funnel is a series of marketing methods that you use in conjunction to attract leads, turn them into prospects, and then eventually a paying customer. The first step is typically an advertisement, whether it’s on Facebook, in a newspaper, or even a flyer you hang up locally. An advertisement’s role is to create brand awareness, capture the attention of a person that is looking for your services, and generate leads. Once you’ve captured their attention, primarily through the messaging in your advertisement they move into the next stage in your funnel. 

This is the nurturing stage. The role of this stage is to show the lead that, essentially, you can solve their problem. You’re building a relationship with them, showing them how you can solve their problem (your methodology), and the results they can get by working with you (social proof). In digital marketing, this can happen through various forms of content including video, email, blog posts, and more!

Now that you’ve got their interest and started building a relationship, it’s time to turn that prospect into a paying customer. This is where the prospect enters your fitness sales funnel. You can learn more about that in this post: 5-Step Fitness Sales Funnel.

Let’s focus on your marketing funnel and a few things you need to address if you’re not reliably generating leads that turn into paying customers. Here are three questions to ask yourself about your marketing funnel.

1. Have you identified your ideal client?

If your funnel isn’t working then the first thing you have to do is to identify your ideal client. If you don’t create an avatar of who that is then you won’t know how to craft your messaging to reach that type of person. Your avatar needs to be based on real data. You want to understand that person’s goals, obstacles, and the emotions that are driving them. With that information, you can craft a message that connects with them and brings them into your funnel. But you have to do the research. The best part is that you have a gym full of people that already love what you offer. So you can conduct 1-on-1 interviews or send a survey to your client’s email. You can ask questions like:

  • What are your fitness goals?
  • Why do you want to get fit?
  • What’s your biggest obstacle?

Then you can build your ideal client avatar off of real data, real desires, and real people. When you build your messaging like this then you will be able to craft a message that really connects.

Check out this training to identify your ideal client:

2. Are you positioning your offer the right way?

Now that you’ve created an ideal client avatar based on research and real people you can take a look at your offer. The reason you need to identify your ideal client first is that your offer needs to be positioned to solve their biggest problems. You may feel as though you and all the other gyms in the area are essentially doing the same thing, but that’s not true. And when it comes to positioning your offer, you need something that really resonates with your ideal client. If your ideal client is a busy person that struggles with weight loss. You’ll want to focus in on the time of the workout and the weight loss results. It could be as simple as “Lose Weight in 30-Minutes – 3 Times a Week”. Do you see how we aligned the avatar up with the position of the offer?

If you don’t spend the time to hone in on creating an offer that connects with your ideal customer then you aren’t going to stick out. You want your business to stick out like a sore thumb. So, when your ideal client sees your advertisement or content in your nurture process they say “YES, THAT’S FOR ME!”

Read this post to learn more about designing and positioning your offer.

3. Are you tracking and testing?

When it comes to marketing your fitness business, there is a science and an art to it. You can use data from your advertising campaigns, email campaigns, website, and social media to help you make decisions. Then there is the art of marketing which is more of a creative act. Like thinking through how to best connect with your ideal clients or creating content that educates and inspires. The best thing you can do when marketing your fitness business is track results and test out new things. You can use data from your campaigns to guide your marketing decisions. For example, if a certain video does really well on Youtube or you get a lot of feedback from a specific blog then maybe you’re hitting an important desire for your ideal clients. You can use that information to create a new offer or a new advertisement.

Similarly, if a certain topic or a certain message (in a Facebook ad, website content, or otherwise) doesn’t get a lot of attention, clicks, or leads then evaluate it. It might not need to go to the throw-away pile immediately but maybe just needs some adjustments. Be prepared for changes and let data guide your decisions. 

Tracking the progress of your campaigns will help you ensure that you’re staying on track and always learning more about your ideal clients. Oftentimes, gym owners (because they’re so busy) don’t track their campaigns and learn how to evaluate the data – which leaves them jumping from marketing method to method without getting the results they’re looking for.

If you want to skip all of that, the best way is to get help. You have a lot on your plate as a gym owner. Part of what we do is help gym owners build fitness marketing campaigns that reliably generate new clients. We’ll show you how to choose marketing methods based on your strengths and your top assets. We give you the tools and guidance to plan, execute, and track your marketing campaigns so that they get you the results you’re looking for. There is no sense in doing it alone, it’s not meant to be that way.

If you’re looking for additional help in building a fitness marketing funnel that reliably generates new clients you can learn more about our coaching programs by clicking the link below.

Click here to learn more about our coaching programs.

Need more marketing tips? Check out The Ultimate Guide to Creating Your Gym Business Marketing Plan.

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