Fitness Business University Podcast

SPEAKER_00: All right, buckle
up.

Got a good one for you today.

Talking, getting new clients
without Facebook ads.

It's funny, you know, these
things you create come back

around.

I mean, I never went out of
style, but in right when I

started doing consulting, it was
like 2016, and there was this

the boom of Facebook ads, or you
put a piece of dog poop on

Facebook, and all of a sudden
you got a hundred clients.

And whatever reason, that
stopped working.

People panicked.

So I put out a post.

I sat down at my office.

I remember I was at my old
house, and I sat down at my

office and I was planning to do
a blog post on 10 ways to get

new clients without Facebook
ads.

And so I sit down and I start
writing, and I got to 10.

I was like, oh, that was easy.

I was like, let me get 15.

So I did five more.

I was like, oh, I can get to 20.

And I got to 20.

And I was like, this is feeling
good.

And I literally got to 101 ways
to get new customers without

Facebook ads.

Not some of them are not direct,
not every one of them is like a

direct client.

Some of them will take a little
longer than others.

Like one of them I read, and
this was I wrote this a while

ago, but one of them I read is
write a book and then do a book

tour on it.

And I was like, all right,
that's that's not something,

that's not something you're
gonna be able to implement like

right away.

It's gonna take some time for
that one.

But a lot of them are like that.

But it's a 101 ideas to grow
your company, grow your

business.

Some of them are getting new
customers, some of them are

strengthening retention, which
will drive word of mouth, but

the majority of them are were
around growing your growing your

client base.

And so we're actually running
this.

We we kind of beefed it up.

The original blog post was
literally just a list of things

to do.

It wasn't actually like a it
wasn't actually like a book.

It was really just like a list
of 101 ways.

It just like one of like the
first one is reach out to your

past members.

And it's just like that's so
simple and so stupid, but a lot

of people don't do that.

Like you hopefully are thinking
that, like, yeah, Vince,

dumbass.

Of course I do that.

But a lot of people aren't.

And so they need just that, oh
yeah, maybe I should do that.

That's a place I can go to get
new customers.

So somewhere like that.

But so I wrote this list, and
what I want to do is I'm gonna

do a couple different podcast
episodes.

I'm obviously not gonna be able
to, if I went through all of

them and did, you know, color on
each one, this would be like,

you know, an audiobook, you
know.

So I'm gonna like go through
that.

I have the list in front of me,
and I'm gonna go through the

list and just kind of add my
comments to it.

But we did re-release this.

I mean, there's a landing page
to get it.

We re-released it, and what what
I added on top of just the

actual thing it was, I added
about a hundred words describing

each one, right?

So it's now somewhat of a robust
resource for you.

But you can get it free.

The link is in the show notes.

I don't have a like a wicked
crazy URL, but actually the URL

is too complicated to tell you.

So just click the link in the
show notes to get it.

But basically, so so it is.

So I sat down, I wrote a list of
10, then that list came to 15,

and now we're at 101.

So let me pull out the list here
and I'm just gonna go through

each one.

So number one on the list is
call your old members and invite

them back.

Now, I think that that's a key
word is call.

I, and again, you could probably
use call or text

interchangeably, but I think
that a lot of times people

automate things that that should
not be automated.

I'm not saying they shouldn't
have an automated email sequence

that goes out, you know, once a
quarter to the past members, you

know, and reminds them to come
back.

But if it's even if it sounds
personalized, people kind of

know at this point.

And I think if you literally
just did a personal reach out,

my one of my favorite, I've been
saying this like crazy, but if

you're a podcast listener
regular, you've heard me say

this, so I apologize.

I'm repeating myself.

A pound, I always screw it up
too.

A pound of an ounce, shit, an
ounce of personalization is

worth a pound of automation.

An ounce of personalization is
worth a pound of automation.

And so, like picking up the
phone and calling a past member

to invite them to come back or
sending them a personal text or

sending them a long drawn-out
email, there's a much better

likelihood that someone's gonna
come back if you do something

like that versus like a blanket
email that everybody gets,

right?

So that's kind of the the first
one.

I don't want to spend too much
time on on each one.

And sorry, if you hear a delay,
that means I'm pulling off the

list again.

So that was number one.

Uh, number two, optimize your
website with a better call to

action.

I think one of the first things
you should understand is your

website is not designed to be
this brochure where people go

and they like browse and look at
all the cool stuff and look at

all the different exercises and
look at the trainer bios and

look at all this stuff.

The job of your website, it's
like you almost got to think you

got one shot at it, right?

The job of your website is for
someone to land on your website,

and if they're hopefully a
target customer, that they take

the next step and give you their
email and phone number.

That is the number one goal of
your website.

And I think that a lot of
websites are black holes,

meaning people are going to the
website and they're not coming

back.

And what I would do is I would
have a website that says, like,

call it the one-shot website.

Like, we got one shot at this.

If they come and they leave
without getting off their

contour, they're gone forever.

Right now, if you're smart and
someone lands on your website,

you're setting up, you know,
retargeting, and you know,

you're you're retarding them
with a Facebook ad or something

like that.

But this title of this book is
101 ways to get clients without

Facebook ads.

So I'm not allowed to mention
Facebook ads uh in this list.

But your website just have it
cleaner for what you want them

to do.

Make it really clear.

And even to the point of like,
you know, a lot of people ask if

they should put prices on the
website.

And my answer is no.

But should you have a price
section?

Yes.

You should have a tab that says
price or investment or whatever,

right?

And when they click that, there
should be a pop-up that goes to

a form that says enter your
name, email, phone number, we'll

reach out to you with our
prices.

Simple, right?

And a lot of people don't make
it clear for what you want them

to do on a website, and that's
the job.

The job, the website is a lead
generation tool, and that's what

you want people to do.

So that was number two.

Optimize your website with a
better call to action.

Number three, email your list
three times per week.

I say three times per week
because I think it's kind of a

sweet spot.

Majority of people are not
sending one email a week.

And the people are sending one,
I think they would get better

results if they sent two or even
three.

And so I think it's a it's a
really, really great thing to

work towards.

And understand this is that the
reason why I think email is

really powerful is a lot of you
guys are generating leads on

that thing I'm not allowed to
mention on this podcast.

And you get mad about how it
works.

Now, I'm not beating up that
platform that I'm not allowed to

mention, but understand that
most people don't buy right

away.

Most people buy over the next
year or so.

And actually, the study was
done.

It's like 15% of people buy in
the first 90 days, and 85% of

people buy in the next 100
weeks.

So it begs the question for a
really well-done email

newsletter.

I think three times a week is a
sweet spot.

Here's a framework for you.

This is the most basic that it
can get.

So the Ben Settle taught me,
email guru Ben Settle taught me

that the job of the email is to
educate, entertain, and inspire.

And if your emails can do those
three things, you're going to be

on the right track.

Okay, the next one is
interesting, and probably I

haven't heard this one taught
much, but is run a ladies' night

with yoga and wine.

And the only reason why I could
come up with a silly, crazy idea

like this is because we did it.

And a lot of the things that
I've talked about, I've either

done at my gym or I've had other
gym owners in my mastermind do.

There's really not anything I
talk about in here that I've not

seen done.

Now, I'm I'm not gonna say that
everything is like a killer.

There's some that are better
than others, but I have tested

and I'm not gonna, if something
totally flopped, I wouldn't put

it in here.

Um this was a great, this was a
great event.

We had, I think we probably had
like 30 ladies come in and they

they did a yoga class.

We had a yoga teacher come in,
and then they had a bunch of

wine, and then we sold a bunch
of gear.

We sold like shirts, and I think
Vanessa got connected with Lulu

and we had stuff like that.

And I think like I out of the 30
people, we we signed up like

five non-members to do a trial
membership.

So it was like a small event
from a new client standpoint,

but it was a great client
building thing, and they just

enjoyed it and they had a
really, really great time.

So you could enter yoga and
wine, you could enter lifting

weights and pizza, like it's
like whatever you want to enter,

but it's they're really about a
community event that I think

could be you know a cool idea.

So that's number four.

Uh number five.

This is a loaded one, so I'm
gonna gloss over it quickly.

And if you're interested in
this, I'm gonna make it hard for

you to get to me uh for this
one, but I am gonna make it

worthwhile.

So the number five is run a
sweepstakes giveaway.

This is the most successful
marketing campaign I've ever

run.

Many people have followed me in
doing this, but I was the first

person to do it in 2016, and
lots of people have followed me

since.

And essentially what it is, is
you do a giveaway, and the

giveaway could be a year of free
training, it could be six weeks

of free training, whatever.

It's some type of big giveaway,
something really, really big

that you're gonna give away.

And the entire thing is built
around following up with the

people that don't win.

So you give people, you give
something to the winner, but

then you have however many
people that opt in for this are

not winning, and you can offer
them some type of a different

offer, right?

And so if you're offering a year
of training, you could offer a

free two weeks of training to
the people that don't win.

Now, here's what I'm gonna do.

We'll see how many of you
actually are listening to this.

So I have a guidebook for this
program.

I've sold the guidebook for
loads of money, and this is

something that I'm just testing
right now.

I don't actually don't know how
much I sold it for, but I don't

even remember so so anyway.

So here's how you get I will
give you a free copy of the

sweepstakes guidebook if you
send me an email to my personal

email.

This will come to me.

So my personal email is Vince at
GabrielFitness.com, and I want

you to send me a personal email
and write me a nice message to

say, please, Vince, please give
me the sweepstakes guidebook.

And if you email me, I will give
it to you for free at no cost.

Okay, it's my test.

This is my test to see, are you
out there?

Is anybody listening?

Am I talking to myself?

Is there actually people that
listen to this podcast?

So I will know if I get maybe
one person to get this.

And here's the thing this could
like change the trajectory of

your business.

Like it really could.

Like, this is like all of a
sudden you could flood your

business with you know what I
did.

I I had 400 leads when I did
this the first time.

Now, I'm not promising that
you'll get that too.

We had a very, very large list,
we were established in the

community.

So I'm not promised that you did
that, but it is a really, really

big opportunity for you to grow
something awesome from it.

Okay, so that's number five.

Number six is create a joint
venture with a local physical

therapist.

Now that's easy, right?

You're like, oh yeah, Vince,
good one.

So here's here's what I am gonna
share with you, and I think this

is very helpful.

People do a very bad job of
teaching joint venture clients

how to refer.

And so this is what you need to
do is when you have a discussion

and you're gonna refer to a
physical therapist and they're

gonna refer to you, and you
create a relationship together.

One of the things you need to do
is teach them how to refer.

And basically, what you say to
them is like, hey, Mr.

Physical Therapist, I want you
to know if you ever get someone

that you know you think is good
for our gym and they're coming

off of physical therapy and
they're ready to get back into

fitness, what I'd like you to do
is just send me an email

introducing me to the client and
then CC me on it.

And that way I'll just take it
from there and I'll know that

you send them over and you know
we'll take really good care of

them for you.

And I did this with a local
physiotherapy company, and I am

telling you, this guy was
sending us one referral like

every week.

I would every week I would get a
new email.

Hey Vincent, CC, this person on
there, you guys take it from

here.

And it was like an unbelievable
source of new leads, and not

even new leads, because when
they come from a physical

therapist, they sign up.

It wasn't even a lead.

It was like a if they referred
somebody, it they became a

customer.

Like we had almost like a
hundred percent close rate from

this physical therapy because
they their physical therapist is

they're telling them what to do.

Like, go to this place now,
right?

And so that was right.

So, so yes, go do joint
ventures.

But what you may need to do is
start training the people that

are going you're gonna do joint
ventures with how to refer you.

You should do the same thing
with your customers.

So that is number, what was
that?

Number six.

I'm skipping number seven, I'm
skipping number eight, I am

skipping number nine, because
this will take forever.

I am skipping to all right, here
we go.

Number 13.

Run a bring a friend day, week,
or month.

I was sitting in our CEO
mastermind, and one of the guys,

we we did this thing where we
went around the room and said,

Where'd you get all your
clients?

And this guy had a monster
amount of people from referrals.

And we're like, How'd you do
how'd you get all those

referrals?

He's like, Well, it just is
bring a friend week every month.

I was like, You did 12 bring a
friend days every month?

And he's like, Yeah.

And I was like, How many new
customers did you get from each

one?

He's like, on two.

And everyone's like, that's like
guess what 12 times two is?

That's 24.

Okay.

He got twenty-four new customers
from this bring a friend week

thing.

And he it was like didn't cost
him anything.

There was no cost to do it, it
was really a couple emails to

his current members to bring a
friend.

I think he said he ended up
getting like, you know, between

five and ten people each time,
and then converted two into

memberships, right?

On the on the back end.

So what a hey, if I told you you
could get 24 referrals for

almost no cost, like would you
do it?

Yeah, a hundred percent.

And the cool thing is, as you're
getting this podcast, we're

coming into the month of
February, which this is a great

time to do what's what I love to
call a spouse transfree offer,

where for Valentine's Day you
could do a spouse transfree.

So if you have women in your
your gym, you can they can bring

their men.

If you have men in the women,
they can they can bring their

ladies, right?

And so you could do something
like that.

So it's a really good time for a
bring a friend week.

I mean, you could do a bring a
friend day, you can do a

bringable week, you could do a
bring a friend month.

But the reality is like
sometimes what you need to do to

get new customers is you need to
orchestrate events.

You need to orchestrate things
that are gonna happen to get

people to refer.

You know, there's only so many
people that are gonna refer just

to refer.

It's so much like a hard thing
to have happen.

A lot has to align for it.

But if you create events that
get them to actually do it, it's

going to happen much more
frequently.

So that's a really good one.

Uh number 14 is set a goal of
three Google reviews per week.

I I think Google reviews are
such an important, powerful

thing.

And I'm hoping many of you are
doing it and reaching out and

getting your customers to give
Google reviews.

But one of the ways that we
started getting more Google

reviews at my gym is we put it
on our scoreboard, our weekly

scoreboard, and we're like, how
many reviews have we gotten?

And when you put it on your
scoreboard, what happens is if

you get enough goose eggs in a
row, you're like, all right,

well, we got to actually start
doing shit and it just happened.

And so we started putting things
in place, and then we started

getting more Google reviews on a
regular basis.

But I think sometimes just
setting a goal of a certain

number of Google reviews,
whether that's Google reviews

per week, whether that's Google
reviews per month, whatever you

want to do, it doesn't matter,
but setting some type of a goal

around how many Google reviews
you're getting would be a very

powerful tool.

Number 15, and I'm gonna stop in
a minute because I'm getting

fatigued.

No, not.

I was lying to you.

Number 15 is send a nine-word
email.

This is a very, very abused
thing.

A lot of people do this wrong,
and it was popularized by a guy

named Dean Jackson, who's one of
the smartest marketers, and I've

done a lot of personal coaching
with Dean, he's a genius.

But basically, what it is is
it's a very short question-based

email, and it says something
along the lines of, hey, first

name, are you still interested
in personal training?

And basically, what it kind of
feels like it's a very

personalized email because it's
a really short question-based

email that people aren't used to
getting.

And what happens is they respond
to it.

And a funny story about
nine-word emails.

So I had lunch the other day
with the pastor at my church,

and we, of course, got to
talking marketing because I I

love like talking about
marketing.

I love talking about marketing
in general, but just for like

churches for some reason.

I just like I love it.

I love the the creativity that
comes out in my mind when we

talk about it.

And I we we were talking about
new ways for to get people to

come to the church, right?

And you know, we start
originally start talking about

all right, we could run ad
testimonials, and you you get

put, you do testimonial videos
of clients or or of people from

the church, and you they talk
about like where they were and

where they are now.

And basically, like we talk
about transformations, right?

And you run ads based on um
those uh transformations, right?

And so we get, and I was like,
but I was like, hold on, wait a

minute, wait a minute.

That's not your butt, that's not
your best thing to do.

Your best thing to do is this.

I said, Pastor, how many people
are not coming to church right

now that are on the church list
or members of the church that

are that should be going to
church, that know they should be

going to church, they're just
not going to church.

And he's like, Man, we got a
whole bunch of those people.

A whole bunch of those people.

I was like, exactly.

You have their email address,
you have their phone number, you

have a lot of them you have a
personal relationship with.

The best way, because that's
their metric, their metric is

getting butts in seats, right?

I was like, the best way,
Pastor, is for you to send this

email to all the people that
haven't been.

To church in the last 90 days.

And he started laughing.

I was like, here's the email.

I was like, hey, first name.

Are you still interested in
coming back to church?

Now, I don't know if he's gonna
send it.

I don't think he will.

Okay.

But think about that.

Yeah, it's like then you're
getting the nudge to come back

to church and pastor sending
them this email.

And it's like, yeah, I'm still
interested, of course.

I've just been busy and say, All
right, I'll come back.

And I know it'll work for the
church, but it also would

probably work for your past
customers.

It would probably work for your
unconverted leads.

It works, right?

And so you just got to hang it
out there like a question and

just pick, are you still
interested in enter the thing

you think you sell, the product
problem you solve, all of that

stuff.

So that's the nine-word email.

I mean, I could go on forever
about the nine word email.

It's just I've used it in so
many different ways and so many

different variations, but it's a
very, very powerful tool.

So that's number 15.

Send the nine word email.

This is so stupidly simple, but
not enough people do it.

When you sign up a new member,
give them a card that is for a

free month to give to a friend.

Right when they sign up, because
understand that that is there's

the reticular activating system
in their brain that's lit up.

They're most excited about your
gym right when they sign up.

And they're much more likely to
talk about it right when they

sign up.

And so have that conversation
with them.

Congrats on being a new member.

One of the things that we do is
we give you a card and it's for

a free 30 days for anyone you
want to give it to.

And the question you say is,
who's the first person that pops

into your mind that you think
would benefit from doing

something like this?

And the goal is that you get
someone's name, and then if they

don't give you the name right
there or introduce you to them

right there, that you reach out
to them in a few days, be like,

hey, do you want you to know you
still have that coupon for the

30-day free membership to give?

Have you decided who you're
going to give it to yet?

Just ask them a question like
that.

So, really, really powerful
stuff.

I am going to stop there.

I'm going to keep going, but I'm
going to stop there.

Do not make this episode like a
full hour long and give you a

little break.

And I'll come back with another
episode, part two, of this, and

I'll keep going through most of
them.

I'm not going to go through all
of them, but if you want to get

the list, I have posted the list
in the show notes so you can

actually read the list.

So click the link in the show
notes, and it will send you

right to get the 100 ways with
the short paragraph on download

of each one.

So hopefully this was helpful,
and I will talk to you soon.

Peace.