How To Thrive Post-COVID Era In Your Fitness Business 🤔

The new age of how we actually have to do our marketing to attract the clients that we need in our business. Now is one of the best times to go out there and to tell people what we do. Welcome back to the Marketing Muscle Up podcast show. It's Richard Toutounji here, founder of ComMarketing. And in this episode, I want to talk all about what's happening at the moment with your marketing in a post-COVID world. Yes, that's right. Let's draw the line in the sand, team. We had pre-COVID. Marketing was easy, simple, basic. Ran Facebook ads. They worked. The market was smooth. We had this thing, COVID, 2 years, bang. Stressed, tension. We all thought we're going to die. QR coding, mental health. We retained our clients. We served them well. We're in a post-COVID world. Government grants have been cut off. People are re-deciding what they need in their life at the moment. They've moved, they transition their work environment. Things aren't as smooth as they once were. However, we are in the greatest time to market at the moment in your fitness business. We are in a post-COVID world, a post-COVID world to market our fitness business. This is a post-COVID era. This is a time that's never been seen before in history. But what we do know is we know at times of change, opportunity is here. What we do know is there still is more people overweight. We still have more unfit people than ever before. We've got way more unhappy people. And the motivation levels at the moment are at an all-time low. So we, do we still have Potential clients. Yes, yes, yes, and yes. So what is the problem? Why are we not hitting the mark at the moment where we once were? Well, team, welcome to this episode, the Marketing Muscle Up Podcast Show. I have been searching the globe, talking to so many people around this subject. How are they marking in this world? What are they doing? What are the problems with their clients? What are they saying? Why are people canceling? Why are they leaving? Why are they pausing their membership? And quite frankly, when we have change, all these things are going to happen. But as a fitness business owner, we need to know what to do in the post-COVID era. We need to understand how to talk to our clients in a post-COVID era. COVID era. I recently did a talk at Filex, was called The New Age of Online Marketing. And the new age online marketing is in fact, you know, the new age of post-COVID marketing, the new age of how we actually have to do our marketing to attract the clients that we need in our business. Now is one of the best times to go out there and to tell people what we do. But there's a big problem with that is because when we put an ad out, when we put socials out, if we just put it out like we did before 2 years ago, it doesn't have the impact. Why doesn't it have the impact? Let me tell you a few reasons why it doesn't have the impact. Number one, we have more micro influencers now than any time in history. Micro influencers, they can pick up the camera, they can go straight to live, they can record content on YouTube Shorts, on Reels, and they can get their content done fast. Why? Because they got nothing to lose. They just need to move on and get it done. They're used to using technology platforms, and now is their time to shine when they have an audience. Remember, we had huge audiences, people stuck at home for so long. The second problem is that now people are able to understand how to use technology like Zoom. People that were never able to be on computers, they are now using this technology, meaning that once the content that you put out or once the events that you put out is not that interesting anymore because they're able to understand how to use the internet in its fullest and how to get to places they didn't get before, they're taking up different courses, different languages. They're doing more things they didn't do before. Using digital platforms. Number 3, number 3, the Facebook Lives that you once did, the attention that you once got in the newsfeed is not there anymore. Why? Because we have been accustomed to watching Facebook Lives, to using our social media to see the next greatest alert, the breaking news. Somebody is being locked down. There is danger happening. The world is changing. That's what we've been used to hearing. So when we come on and we come on with our Facebook Lives talking about how we can help you to lose weight or get results, it doesn't have the same ringtone to it than the breaking news. We have been focused on hearing these reports 11 o'clock. Your clients have, you have. And so when we put our content out that's not breaking news, it doesn't have that same impact that as a society we have been used to. So if you've been having any of those challenges, you're not alone. It's not your fault. It's not your fault that the landscape has changed. It's not your fault that your marketing is not working. Everything has changed. But as I said before, there is more potential members than any time in history, any time in history that have realized that they've been locked down and they've been overweight. They're unfit. They haven't moved. They're unhappy and they're definitely unmotivated more than any time before. And that stats are there. We can see it there with the amount of money that's pumped into mental health. We can see it there with the way that people are now buying and consuming different things. We can see it there. People have been locked away, not able to go anywhere, and now they have choices. Now we're back out in the world in a post-COVID world. So what are we doing with our marketing to adjust that? So I'm going to take you through 3 things that you can do quickly. And efficiently to make the changes today, to get out there, to readjust, to ensure that you're understanding what the post-COVID era is and how you can use it to grow your business. Number 1, first of all, if you've been thinking that you can fix a potentially big problem by listening to the gurus that are popping up on Instagram that are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in their marketing, well, they're going to give you the wrong advice. You want to focus on advice that's going to help you as a small business owner in the area and the community that you're in. So number one, we want to get away from anything that is smokes and mirrors, anything that is a a free concept, opt in here, do this, not understanding what this market is and the opportunities and the problems that we've had. A lot of people in this time have turned to, you know, cheap and, you know, free programs to help their business grow. And that clearly is not going to do anything if you've got a $10,000 problem. Fixing it with $20 is not really going to solve the problem. You need to make sure that you're getting advice and support from people that actually understand what is happening in your particular business, not your neighbor's business, in your business. So you need to be able to understand that, does this person that's giving me advice that I'm taking aboard understand what is happening in my business, not as a broad in your business? Because you can take this information on But you need to make sure that what are the key entry points and changes I need to do just to change my messaging slightly to ensure that it can work for me. Number 3, when we talk to our clients, this is the biggest thing, guys. When we talk to our clients, we need to understand what their problem is. Like, you know, like you've never understood this before. Like, yes, you understand the problem. They want to lose weight, but that's not really the real problem. The real problem is that They, they just don't have the energy or the patience, and they're exhausted to even think about fitness, to think about exercise. So that is the problem that you need to solve. Once you solve that problem, then you can open up and have a conversation about what you can do to help them solve that problem. So people don't want to get fit fast, right? People don't want the six-pack abs. People don't want that. They want to solve their biggest problem. So yes, they might get 6-pack abs. Yes, they might get fit. They might get, they might get, you know, trim. They might feel great. But at the end of the day, feeling great is not what they want. They want to get out of their pajamas when they've been stuck in it. They want to get back into routine when they don't know what routine is. So we need to talk first of all to a really specific audience at the moment. And this is information that You've probably done, but haven't done well enough. I don't think anybody's done this well enough because we assumed that as a broad society, we didn't have major problems like we do today. You know, we, we have problems and your customers, your clients, your members have real specific problems. And if you're not solving these problems, you can't solve your problem. If you can't solve their problem, you can't solve your problem. Your problem is to grow your business. Their problem is they're so unmotivated, they don't know where to start. Start solving their problem and then your problem will be solved. So what you can do now is you can create a list of the 3 biggest problems that your clients are facing at the moment. And don't think it's fitness and don't think it's exercise. Go deeper in that. What are their problems at the moment? And you can do that by asking them Reading reviews, you know, listening to internal groups, free Facebook groups, seeing what people are asking. And it's almost like you need to smell the air. You need to be a good strategic operator now and going, well, what are my clients saying at the moment? Nothing about fitness and health. And you can solve their problem. With your service, which is health and fitness and wellness, well, you can offer them exactly what you do. If it's the right price, if it's close enough to the house, if it solves the biggest problem, we're good to go. So team, in a post-era world— what am I saying— in a post-COVID world, we are in a new era. We're in an era that this will be the greatest time that you can grow your business, but the way that we communicate must change, and how you communicate must change, and how you connect with your potential client must change. Because if we keep doing the same thing that you've been doing, uh, in the COVID world It's not going to work in the post-COVID era. If you were doing the same marketing and pull out the marketing trick 2 years ago before COVID that is not going to work. Industries have been destroyed. And if you're here today, it means you are a good operator through COVID. If you want to be here for the next 2 years, we need to learn the new way to market. We need to learn the new way to sell. And this is a new dawn that we're going into. So team, use right now as an opportunity to say, hey, we're still standing, we're still here, um, but we'll need to go to our clients and we'll need to really understand their problems. And then all the marketing, the strategy structure of it, the structure will remain the same. It's just how we talk to our messaging, and that can be done through videos, that can be done through content, images. Everything needs to change so you are exactly talking about your client's biggest problems and solving that issue. Hope that helps, team. I just want to unpack what's going on at the moment. A lot of people are confused at the moment of how to market. Guys, we have the solution. Jump in if you need extra help on this. Jump into commarketing.com.au. You can fill a form in here and learn how you can adjust your marketing, your specific marketing, in a post-COVID world. We run complimentary 15-minute chats, and then we also run a thing called the Marketing Muscle Up as well. The Marketing Muscle Up is a great way for you to identify what you need to adjust in your particular business. So jump into that, called the Marketing Muscle Up. Jump into commarketing.com.au and you can find out more about that there. I'll catch you up next time on the Marketing Muscle Up podcast show. Bye for now.