My friend Veronique isn’t a Marketing Expert, but she will be by the time I’ve finished with her!

I met Veronique about 18 months ago at a social event in our village. We got chatting about the fact that she wanted to set up an outdoor exercise class, so I offered her some advice on how to get started and how to promote it. On my suggestion, she decided to run the classes at 8.30am on a Saturday morning, so I thought that I should support her by going along. I really enjoyed the first class and I’ve been going nearly every week ever since. Veronique is really supportive, encouraging everyone who takes part, no matter how fit, or unfit they are. We complain a lot and laugh a lot; and everyone feels a lot better by the end of the session.

Here’s what Veronique has learnt about marketing in the last year.

Know Your Market

Veronique knows her market. She knows that many people don’t like the idea of going to a gym, which might be full of people clad in lycra and sweat. Her class is aimed at the slightly less fit types who prefer to be outdoors to take exercise. Because she’s so well trained as a personal trainer, Veronique can give personal help to individuals in her classes, to help them with their specific fitness needs.

Who are your ideal clients? What is their biggest problem right now?

Know What Makes You Different

The fitness industry is a competitive one, so Veronique knows that she needs to stand out from the crowd. One way she does this is by being highly qualified in personal training and fitness. She is constantly looking for ways to improve her skills and keep her training up to date. In addition, she’s not one of these ‘young things’ who might be quite fit, but have had no experience. Veronique is in her early 50s (not that you’d know it to look at her!) and she’s been doing fitness and exercise to a high level for a long time. She used to run sub 3 hour marathons – proof that she knows a thing or two about training and commitment. In addition, she has a very good understanding of nutrition, allowing her to look at the whole picture of each client.

What makes you different? What makes you really different?

Focus on What You’re Good At

Like the majority of the people I work with, Veronique suffers from the ‘too many ideas’ syndrome. There are many different avenues that she could pursue and new services and classes that she could offer. She’s looked at more training that she could do and franchises that she could buy into. But will that bring her the new clients that she wants? Will that help her to build up her reputation as a top class personal trainer in our area? Or will she end up spreading herself too thin. My advice to her – and anyone else who provides a service – is to stick to what you’re good at. Get really good at that, your reputation will grow and your ideal clients will come and find you.

What are you really good at?

When you can answer these key questions – who are your ideal clients, what makes you really different and what are you really good at – you’ll be able to focus your promotional activity and really build your business, without wasting more money on your marketing.

Need help with answering any of these questions? Get in touch and we can have a chat about them. Call me on 01635 578 500.