79: The one page fitness marketing checklist. Just do these things.

In this episode Dan shares the one-page marketing plan he recommends to every fitness business he mentors, focusing on 11 proven marketing areas that consistently drive long-term growth without chasing fads.

Download a PDF version of the one page marketing checklist here.

Four things you’ll learn in this episode:

• How to simplify your marketing by focusing on 11 essential categories that actually work.
• How to build systems for storytelling, referrals, and reactivating past members to drive growth.
• The most effective way to run paid social media ads without wasting money.
• Why consistent, low-glamour marketing actions outperform chasing trends and short-term tactics.

 

---

Transcription:

I’ve spent 19 years in business searching for the magic bullet of marketing – first for my own businesses, and then for the hundreds of business owners I’ve mentored. And believe me when I tell you I’ve tried everything.

Spoiler alert, there is no magic bullet. And the more people search for it, the more they’re distracted from the tried and tested basics of marketing… the things that actually work.

There’s an exercise I’ve found myself setting for a lot of the business owners I mentor. I tell them to create a list of non negotiable marketing tasks. A one page marketing manifesto. A list of actions they need to regularly take to ensure they’re covering all bases of marketing. Then, as long as they’re ticking these boxes, I don’t have a problem with them running off chasing the shiny objects and short term trends that they hope will be the next big thing that promises to bring them 30 clients in 30 days. Almost always, this thing will be a waste of time and money, but if they’re incessantly doing the basics, at least they’ll experience the consistent, persistent, regular, steady growth that comes from doing the basics well.

So I thought I’d formalise this one page marketing plan, and share it with you guys so that in a world of distractions and broken promises, you’ve got something simple, tried and tested to come back to.

Here’s how I’m going to structure this.

First, I’ll give you a list of the 11 areas of marketing you need to focus on.

Second, I’ll give you a broad description of each, so you know how and why that marketing strategy works, along with a rough overview of what you need to be doing.

Third, for each of the 11 areas I’ll give you a very short and succinct, and HIGHLY actionable task list for that area of marketing. I’ll tell you what to do, and how often to do it, with no bullshit.

And finally, I’ll summarise each of the 11 areas into a weekly task lists to give you your one page marketing plan.

Two big caveats before we kick this off though.

Caveat number one:

The single best marketing strategy is to be so good they can’t ignore you. Without this, your churn rate will be high, and retention will be low. You can build a solid business with no marketing strategy other than providing a remarkable experience to your clients. By the same token,  even if your marketing plan is absolutely world class, you simply won’t be successful if the product and experience you provide isn’t up to scratch. You should combine this with a system to identify clients who are at high risk of departure, and a system to minimise the risk of this departure.

Caveat number two:

If you don’t know who you’re for, don’t waste your time starting the process of marketing. A marketing strategy needs to begin with an intimate awareness of your avatar – your target customer. You need to create highly detailed documentation of the avatars your business serves. This should include demographics, relationships, dwelling, occupation, education, values, personality, spending habits, content consumption, future goals, and roles in purchasing decisions. For each avatar, you should understand their level of awareness and summarise their pain points clearly. These avatars should guide your decisions about your products, services, and customer experience. Your marketing needs to be purposefully designed to speak directly to them.

Ok, with those two disclaimers out of the way, an