Today we just wanted to give a few tips we have learnt over the years when it comes to Marketing and Self Promotion. You should strive to be known in your industry, the best way to achieve this is to Market yourself and ensure that your service offering is the best it can be!

First we will take a look at Marketing & Self Promotion.

Use of Social Media

If you are reading this blog, chances are you are already on social media, that’s great! In this era we should not underestimate the power of social media. Businesses have risen and fallen based on their communication with their potential and current client base, what better way to communicate and promote yourself than using Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and all the other niche social media options out there! Just think of how easy it is to run campaigns, competitions, inform and reward your faithful followers; these simple, cheap and fun marketing ideas are a great way to expose yourself and your brand to the world! PT Live – our Personal Trainer software will allow you to send out promotional marketing via your favourite social platforms. We will have you covered.

Building of a website

Your first priority when bringing your business online is to get yourself a website! A place to tell people of your service offerings, give a greater overview of you and your business, testimonials of your successful clients and finally to give clients and potential clients alike a way to see your pricing! (Trust me, people want to see how much you cost – they don’t want to have to contact you to find out.) On launch of PT Live, we will be offering our clients this as part of the subscription. An online web presence with user login to allow for your clients to purchase and sign up for your sessions online, all linked to your online dashboard!

Email Marketing

Is email is dead? Nope. Some of the largest and most successful companies in the world still rely on email marketing as a great customer acquisition and information delivery tool. Email marketing is tricky, but done right can yield great success. Your mail goal is to stay relevant to your market by offering them ideas, inspiration (occasional freebies?) – Generally things they want to know from you. Getting the right frequency of email outs is important. Some people may want to hear from you weekly, others monthly – finding the right balance is crucial.

Ok, so there we have it, a brief overview of the marketing side of things – let us now take a look at your service offering.

Understand your value

By identifying your strengths and passions, you should be able to confidently talk about what you can offer, the best thing you can do is to excite people the way you get excited about what you are offering them! Be it getting them off the couch and into a marathon, getting them fighting fit or simply getting them healthy through the teachings you have learnt being in this industry!

Demonstrate your value

Identifying and understanding the value you offer is one thing, demonstrating it is another. You should engage your clients and potential customers as often as you can. Sorry – I know we spoke about Marketing before, but I need to get back to that for one moment, have you thought about guest blogging, forum contributions? These are great ways to gain some authority in the industry and get some promotion to your online presence.

Do you want to know what we believe is the key way to demonstrate your value? It is to actually be fantastic at what you are selling. Don’t spend all your time seeking other ways to enhance your service or add-ons to make you an extra dollar on the side. Seriously, just focus on your programs and communication and the money and joy of prosperity will follow. Make sure that you put 100% into what you offer, while there are so many marketing avenues out there, there is no better one than word of mouth referrals. Getting these referrals through your fantastic program and service offerings should be and always remain, your focus!

Thanks all for reading, If you have any ideas or suggestions for further blog posts, or would like us to expand on any points I made in this one – Hit us up on twitter @ptliveapp – don’t forget to follow for our weekly blog articles! And remember, we are still taking beta signups for our Personal Training software – which we truly believe will make your lives so much easier! We would love to grab your email so we can tell you more about it as we get closer to launch.

Let’s face it, the main reason we go into business is to make a living (more if we can). We can break down business pretty easily. Find out how much it is going to cost to offer your service, if you do not, you will likely make a loss. By setting a good price point for your services, you will be able to make profit and your business will sustain you financially. Let’s take a look at some pricing strategies.

Pricing your services.

The positive about being in a position to price the services you offer is that you can choose your profit margin. However, you must consider the following factors.

Pricing Options

Cost-Plus Pricing

This is the gold standard in pricing, first find out how much it will cost to offer your services (direct costs, fixed costs and indirect costs – Including Utility expenses, rent, and other overhead that your business could incur. Once you have how much this will cost a month, your next step is to determine how much profit you will require to live sustainably. Factor in how many clients you have, how many sessions you will need to run to meet these points and price your service accordingly.

What your competitors charge

While you believe you will offer a superior service to your competition, you really should find out how much they are charging for similar services. Find these details on their websites, from friends or associates or even calling them up. While this can help you determine your price points – You still need to know your costs.

Perceived value to client

When setting your price points, the perceived value of these services in your client’s eyes are what matters. If you can offer added services or products, you can quite comfortably increase your price point (meaning more profit for you!). This is where we can help. By becoming a PT LIVE user, you will get access to your own website built with data direct from the system, offering your clients a way to sign up for classes online, PAY YOU online (No more chasing payments in person!). And send marketing material to your users (such as empty classes, special package offers, etc.)

Ok, Costs….

Ok, we have talked about costs, let’s take a look at some of them in a bit more detail.

Equipment/Location Costs

All services require the need or certain equipment or specialised training areas. Make sure you know what it will cost to lease or purchase this equipment and space.

Labour Cost

This is the cost incurred directly for labour, for example, you have other trainers working for you, and they need to be paid hourly, daily or by the session. Figure out what works best for you and get them on board!

Overhead Costs

Even if you train in the park, there are always overheads. Think about insurance, supplies, rent, supplies, depreciation, utilities, and advertising costs! Make sure you have enough incoming when it’s needed. This is also another thing that PT LIVE – Our Personal Training Software will help you with. Getting your clients paying you online guarantees weekly payments direct to your bank account! And with our package and training creation tools, you will be able to get your clients to prepay you in advance.

Pricing Models

Flat Fee

Most trainers will offer a flat fee for their services, this ensures your client knows what they are paying for up front – and it is recommended. With our Package setup through our PT LIVE Personal Training software system, you can set flat fees for your services, offer discounts on package deals – getting you money now!

Hourly Rate

While similar to flat fees, this is also another way to charge for your services. While a normal PT session might take an hour on average, having an hourly rate allows you to charge more if the session runs over time.

Flucuating charge

Don’t do this model, it will make accounting difficult and your clients will not know what they are paying for on a day to day basis.

And finally, make sure you review your prices over time (yearly is good!) overheads will always continue to inflate, make sure your profit margin keeps up!

Thanks for reading.

Remember, we are offering beta signups to our Personal trainer software system right now! We are aiming to launch in the coming months, and all beta signups will be getting special benefits when we launch to the public! (How would you like our premium package, at the standard price!)

 

Just like any business, you need to market yourself to increase your clients to reach your maximum profit. Here we will take a look at some simple techniques to increase your client base, thereby increasing your revenue.

Build a referral scheme

Once you have successfully implemented the membership registration you can develop a referral scheme where your current clients whom are satisfied with your services get referral bonuses when they successfully get someone to register as a member with you. Remember that satisfied clients are your ambassadors out there and however small the bonus given to them for introducing someone they will definitely spread the word about your services.

For more referrals you have to strive to ensure that your services are top-notch and that your client’s matters are handled with the shortest turnaround times possible. This will give the clients the impression that you care for them which is very important in the industry.

Find what makes you different from your competitors

In your nature of services it is advisable to carry out a research to identify what your competitors are offering and identify what makes your business different from theirs. You should find out whether you offer your clients what you competitors do not. What experience do your clients get by training with you that they will not get from your competitors? Once you have identified what makes you different you should then go ahead and improve on it to make it perfect. When we launch PT Live, our advanced personal trainer software, you will have the advantage over your competitors. While they are managing their schedules and staying on their phone messaging their next client, you will be providing your clients your full attention, knowing that your business is running smoothly. To keep up to date with our progress and launch please fill in your email address on our front page.

Be sure to look out next week when we post part 2 of this blog post.