How To Get FREE Advertising (No Kidding!) Part 2

By now many of you have read "How To Get FREE Advertising (No Kidding!) Part 1", so you are aware that we really know what we're talking about. If you've haven't yet read that article, click here to check it out now: http://www.cuecd.com/article.asp?ID=31.

In Part 1 we did a great job of letting you know how to get FREE advertising once each year (when the Entertainment Book is published).

Now in Part 2 we are going to explain how you can set up a SYSTEM where you can not only advertise for FREE each and every month, but in addition we're also going to explain how you can ACTUALLY GET PAID to have your own health club advertising distributed!

Hey, where else are you gonna get information like this? Only www.cuecd.com gets you quality information like this, and does it for FREE! If you find this information valuable, please take a moment to let other fitness center owners know about www.cuecd.com and all that we offer!

Without further ado, here's exactly how you can get your gym advertising distributed not only for FREE, but also how you can actually GET PAID to advertise your own health club!

Okay, first it's important that you implement step #1: You need to set up a fundraiser for non-profit organizations. This may not seem like it has much to do with advertising, but rest assured, it most certainly does!

With this fundraiser, you will offer non-profit groups the opportunity to earn money for distributing your brochures and/or coupons. This is best accomplished by the tried-and-true door hanger method.

Although door hangers take longer to disburse than windshield-talkers or direct mail, they are also a very effective way to advertise your gym. Door hangers are very similar to direct mail in that they get the advertising message in front of each household in a neighborhood. The advantage to door hangers is that you can ‘blanket’ a community for just a few pennies per house. The disadvantage is that door hangers are very time-consuming to distribute.

The most effective door hanger will be double-sided, with the ‘hook’ on one side and additional information on the other. The side that is facing away from the house (what the occupant will see first when they get home) should have the ‘hook’, which is a coupon or other offer. Remember to include an expiration date for that sense of urgency! The ‘hook’ side of the door hanger shouldn’t have a lot of words, but should be designed to catch the eye of the consumer. The people that are interested in the offer will be able to turn the door hanger over and read the detailed information on the back.

There are companies that will print door hangers for you, and there are companies that will distribute them for you. To save expense, however, it is recommended that you begin by printing and passing out your own. Double-sided photocopies are all you need for the first run; cut them in half and start walking! Carrying a roll of Scotch tape will allow you to secure each door hanger to a door or window. At 8 cents per double-sided copy, you can cover the neighborhoods for only 4 cents per household. You can expect to distribute about 100 door hangers per hour.

As a fitness center owner, you may find that your time is too limited to go walking door-to-door. This is where the non-profit organization comes in. We highly recommend that you 'hire' a non-profit to distribute door hangers for you. A word of caution about hiring people to pass out door hangers: use a reputable organization whenever possible! Hiring some kids off the street not only raises liability issues, but you have no assurance that they’re actually going to do the work. It’s a lot easier to throw the stack in the trash and go watch a movie.

The best way to guarantee that the non-profit you’ve hired is working hard is to build in an incentive. When printing your door hangers, use several different colors of paper. Give blue door hangers to non-profit group A, yellow door hangers to non-profit group B, and so on. By doing this you will be able to track which groups are getting results, because when the door hanger coupon is redeemed the color will indicate which non-profit distributed it.

Tell the organizations that they will get paid 6 cents for distributing door hangers for you + a $10 bonus for each person that joins using one of 'their' door hangers! (Remember, each door hanger will include a coupon that has to be brought in to the gym to be redeemed.) Talk about incentive! With this simple offer you’ve motivated them to not only hit every house, but also to do it quickly so they can get all of their door hangers out.

The www.cuecd.com team recommends that you pay the non-profit group 6 cents per flyer distributed, which works out to about $6 per hour. In addition, you will pay them a $10 bonus for each person that joins your health club using a flyer (coupon) they have distributed. The benefits of this arrangement are obvious. You get your advertisement in every household for only 12 cents each, which is an absolute STEAL compared to direct mail! Additionally, you don’t pay the bonus if you don’t get the results. To the non-profit, the appeal is that they have a guaranteed return of $6 per hour. If they achieve a 1% return from the ads they’re distributing, then they get paid $16 per hour! A 2% return on their ads will pay them $26 per hour! It’s a win-win situation! The non-profit immediately perceives that there’s no limit to their earnings, and no limit to your membership results!

To get non-profit organizations involved in this project, simply send them a letter like this:

ABC Health Club is looking for a group that is interested in distributing our flyers door-to-door. We will provide all the materials, and all you have to do is walk through the surrounding neighborhoods and put one door hanger on each house. You set your own hours. You set your own days. What a GREAT way to get some extra exercise and raise some much-needed funds!

If your non-profit group is up to this challenge, you'll be paid a set amount for each flyer distributed plus a bonus! The current rate is 6 cents per door-hanger that is distributed + $10 for each new gym member that joins using one of the door-hanger coupons you distributed.

Experience has shown that non-profit organizations can earn about $6.00 per person, per hour as a base rate. If your group experiences a 1% return rate on the coupons you distribute, then you'll be earning $16 per person per hour. A 2% return rate will bring
your group $26 per person per hour……and so on.

At ABC Health Club, we want to help your non-profit raise funds without having to spend a lot of money in inventory. That's why our fund-raiser doesn't require any investment at all!

This door-hanger project is limited to just a few organizations at a time..........so be sure to call ABC Health Club today for more details. This is one opportunity that won't hang around for long!

Okay, now you've laid the groundwork to get FREE advertising and possibly even GET PAID to distribute your own gym advertising.

Now we're on to the next step.....

Since you're already paying a non-profit group to walk door-to-door and distribute SOMETHING, you need to ask yourself why they should only be distributing your one piece of fitness center advertising.

Why couldn't they distribute more than one marketing piece at a time?

The answer is that they can, and most certainly will, distribute more than one door hanger for the same 6 cents per house. After all, their workload is the same whether they're distributing information for one or five businesses!

The strategy now is to approach a few businesses that are similar to your own and see if they're interested in advertising locally for FAR LESS MONEY than they'd spend on postage. Have these businesses provide their own door hangers and pay you 6 cents per item distributed. That's not a bad deal! How else are they going to get something on the door of local homes for a fraction of postage expenses?

If you get just one business to give you door hangers to distribute locally, then you've basically saved 100% of the distribution costs of your own door hangers.

If you get two businesses to give you door hangers to distribute locally, then you're actually going to be GETTING PAID to advertise your own health club!

By approaching businesses that are similar to your own (companies that cater to the same customer you do) you'll also be able to form other partnerships with them as well. For example, you could run a cross-promotion with them where you display your brochures and they display yours in their building. This is called cooperative advertising.

(Opportunities in cooperative advertising are virtually endless, and if you're interested in more of these ideas we highly recommend that you purchase our Gym Sales Manual, which you can find here: http://www.cuecd.com/store.asp?Category=Health+Club+Business+Tools).

Another idea is to approach businesses that are in the same strip-mall as your gym. You could create a one-page, double-sided advertisement that contains smaller ads for all the companies in your local strip-mall. The overall theme would be inviting the local customer to the local strip-mall. You charge the other firms 6 cents per household + their portion of the photocopies. The other businesses win because they're getting their message on local doors for very little money, and you win because you're organizing the entire thing. You're getting your health club advertisement out on local doors not only for FREE, but you're actually GETTING PAID to do so!

Now, think about the possibilities for just a minute. If you organize one of these non-profit fundraisers and include some other local businesses, you'll actually GET PAID to advertise your health club. You can repeat thsi process several times annually to generate even more income!

If you're really on your toes as a health club owner, you can even issue a press release about how you helped raise money for the non-profit, which will generate even more FREE advertising and publicity for your gym!

The bottom line is that this strategy is a win-win situation for the non-profit, other local business owners, and especially for you.

Want even more FREE ideas about how you can boost your health club sales to new heights? Simply click here: http://www.cuecd.com/articles.asp

Want even more ideas about small business marketing for your gym or fitness center? Simply click here: http://www.cuecd.com/marketing.asp

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Mother's Day In 2008

Is it possible to honor motherhood while at the same time enrolling lots of lots of new health club members?

Absolutely!

One secret is to sell gift certificates as Mother's Day gifts so that you'll boost sales immediately. Be sure to get a sign outside the health club stating that you offer gift certificates for Mother's Day. You will want to post some signs inside the gym too, perhaps even offering existing members a discount on any gift certificates they purchase prior to Mother's Day.

Since Mother's Day in 2008 is fast approaching, the success of the Mother/Daughter/Grandmother advertisement cannot be forgotten either. Although this promotion is typically reserved for Mother’s Day or Grandparent’s Day, many gym owners use it any time during the year. There are many variations on this type of referral contest, but the most successful seems to be that if an existing member refers their mother, daughter or grandmother, then they both receive one free month.

Yet another tactic to increase fitness center sales is to invite a mother/daughter combination to give Mother's Day presents to each other. In other words, you could invite them to "Give The Gift Of Good Health" this Mother's Day! When mom & daughter join together they pay only one registration fee!

Take a quick look back at Mother's Day 2007 results. How many new members did you enroll? How many gift certificates did you sell? Write down those results, because those are your targets to beat for Mother's Day in 2008! Happy selling!

Health Club Systems Design

Let's be honest. Most gym owners try the "hit and miss" approach to business. They try newspaper advertising, but that doesn't immediately work so they move on to something else. They try a new referral program, but that doesn't work immediately either so they move on to something else. They try....well, you get the idea.

What most fitness center owners need is a system. A system that will pay big dividends time after time, regardless of the market.

Here's the bad news: we don't know which health club system will guarantee you great results.

Here's the good news: we DO know that there's a health club system that will guarantee you great results.

We just don't know which one it is.....and neither do you.

The fact of the matter is that nobody, unless they also own a successful health club in your market, can tell you for sure which health club system will work in your area. Each and every market around the country is different, so what works in NY may not work in CA.

So what's a gym owner to do?

We highly recommend that you check out the following resource:
http://www.marketerschoice.com/app/?Clk=1384908

Bedros Keuilian Health & Fitness is an awesome tool for one reason and one reason only: here you will find a variety of fitness center systems strategies that you can put into practice immediately. Will all of these systems be right for you? Of course not. But one of these systems will be right for you.

The www.cuecd.com team is also a big supporter of FREE health club systems design tools. That's why we give you so many FREE articles for gym owners and managers, which you can access by clicking here: http://www.cuecd.com/articles.asp

What health club system works for you? Let us know and we'll share your story with other fitness center owners!

Me? A Fitness Expert?!?!

The day that you open the doors of your gym location is the day that you become a fitness expert. What?!? A fitness expert, you say?!? But I just opened……..I’m not ready………I need more time!

Scary as it may seem, a gym owner is considered to be an expert in health and fitness. Your members will start asking you questions right away. Perhaps they want to know if a crunch is better than a sit-up. Or maybe they want to know if they should start supplementing with creatine now that they’re exercising. Whatever the question may be, you’ll get it!

Although you may not yet be an expert, there’s no reason why you can’t start learning today! In the meantime, the most important thing you can do is to simply be honest with your members. If you don’t know the answer, don’t fake it. More often than not, the member will eventually find out the real answer, and then you’ve lost all credibility. So be honest. Say that you’re not sure of the answer, but you’ll do some research and get back to them with a response.

Some practical things you can do to become a fitness expert:
1) Subscribe to ‘muscle’ and health magazines. Read each copy cover-to-cover.
2) Become a certified personal trainer.
3) Subscribe to a health and/or fitness news clipper service.
4) Take physiology classes at the local college or university.
5) Talk with other gym owners.

Subscribe to ‘muscle’ and health magazines. Read each copy cover-to-cover.
One of the best ways to learn about any topic is to read the trade publications. Reading the Wall Street Journal® front-to-back every day for a year, for example, would teach you everything you ever wanted to know about finance. In much the same way, you can go a long ways towards becoming a fitness expert by reading the trade publications. Some recommended magazines to read are:
Muscle & Fitness ®
Muscle & Fitness Hers ®
Fitness ®
Shape ®
Health ®
Prevention ®
Fitness Rx ®

An added bonus to subscribing to these magazines is that, when you’re done with them, you can add them to your gym library for your members to read.

Become a certified personal trainer.
Becoming a certified personal trainer is not as frightening as it may sound. On the contrary, you should be excited about the new opportunities that will open up for you once you’re certified by a national organization!

While there are many groups out there that offer fitness certification, the old rule of thumb that ‘you get what you pay for’ is very true in this area. Be wary of internet-only certification, where you don’t receive any hard-copy materials. You should also stay away from any business offering certification for less than $100. You get what you pay for.

The two best national fitness certification organizations are ACE (American Council on Exercise) and ISSA (International Sports Sciences Association). ISSA, for example, charges about $600 for their first level certification. The training materials you’ll receive include a textbook, a video, a CD, unlimited access to their website, unlimited telephone support, and admittance to a two-day conference. The ISSA certification exam is quite lengthy, but well worth the effort in terms of the knowledge you’ll acquire.

Not only will the certification process provide you with a solid education in health and fitness, but most organizations also provide you with unlimited resources for asking questions and continued learning.

Subscribe to a health and/or fitness news clipper service.
Subscribing to a health and/or fitness news clipper service is easy, free, and effective. One of the best on the market today is the YaHoo ® home page service. Simply set up your YaHoo ® home page to post all health and fitness related articles as ‘My Front Page Headlines’. Then, every morning, you have immediate access to the latest health news! Rest assured, when a news story breaks that impacts fitness, you will have members asking you about it. If you’ve already read it on the internet that morning, then you’re prepared!

Another benefit to the health and fitness news clipper service is that it allows you to print pertinent articles immediately. So, if the AMA (American Medical Association) issues a press release about the hazards of trans-fats, then you can quickly print off some copies to distribute to your members. You might even consider putting up a small brochure rack solely for this purpose; you could title it “Breaking Fitness News”.

Whatever course of action you decide to take, it’s vital that you stay on top of the newest and latest health news. That way, anytime a member asks you about new fitness developments, you’ve already heard about it even have additional materials for them to read! After a period of time, this will help to establish you as a fitness expert in your community.

Take physiology classes at the local college or university.
Depending on how much time you have, you may consider taking some basic physiology or sports nutrition classes at the local college or university. Where you live will, of course, have an impact on how much this costs. Another possible drawback is that, with a class, you are time-bound in your education efforts: the professor will not re-schedule the class just for you! On the positive side, classroom learning allows you to interact with other students and ask pointed questions of the instructor.

Talk with other gym owners.
Finally, one of the best ways to become a fitness expert is to frequently talk with other gym owners. Whether you discuss marketing, sales, operations, or just plain old ‘health’, the information you can glean from this group will be invaluable.

No matter which of these methods you use to become a fitness expert, it is vital that you do something. Word-of-mouth advertising is the best kind of advertising in the world, and when you are recognized as a fitness expert in the community your word-of-mouth advertising will multiply tenfold! Your goal in this area is to become knowledgeable, so that your members will always refer to you as their source of information. Comments like “I’ll ask Jane at ABC Gym.. She always knows about this stuff” are golden! This is exactly the kind of publicity you should be seeking!

Tom Nicoli BCH, CI is a nationally recognized hypnotherapist that was featured on Dateline NBC. He offers several different self help CDs including Weight Loss, Stop Smoking and Exercise Boost! CDs. Click here for More Information.

Just a quick reminder from the www.cuecd.com team…..

The fastest, easiest and most effective way to advertise is simply by handing out “Free Trial” coupons.

We have a great article on this subject, which you can read here: http://www.cuecd.com/article.asp?ID=7

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