In this solo podcast episode, Richard Toutounji shares practical, inexpensive marketing tactics aimed at driving attention and leads for fitness studios, especially those targeting mothers. He emphasizes the power of outdoor attention—using A‑frame signs, window signage, and even a single piece of cardboard with a marker—to break the visual monotony of daily routes. He advises rotating sign messages each school term or holiday (e.g., back‑to‑school, Easter) to align with the routine and mindset of the target avatar. He suggests using relatable props (like nappies) to instantly capture a mum’s eye, and keeping the creation process ultra‑quick (2‑5 minutes) so it can be built into daily operations. The core message is that a modest, consistent effort—changing a cheap sign every few weeks—can generate a handful of high‑quality leads, creating a roll‑on effect without needing thousands of clients.
Chapters
Welcome guys, the Marketing Muscle Up Podcast Show. This is the car edition. Wanted to take you through some. Simple marketing strategies today. I just dropped my 2-year-old off. He does daycare for 2 days a week and he hasn't been back for 2 months. And it was a pretty heavy crying match to get him in there and I felt so bad. But yeah, checked in, 5 minutes, he's all good. So crazy. It's, Crazy times. Anyway, I was driving back home and I'm driving through at the moment and I just really wanted to take you through some simple marketing strategies that will help you drive more attention and most importantly more leads into your fitness studio. And I had this conversation with one of our clients a couple weeks ago, but It was kind of more, um, it was more stronger now when I'm seeing it, you know, in real life. It's February, and I guess the reason why I, you know, had 2 months break from, um, my, my son over Christmas, uh, in Queensland, I had an extended holiday period. My other son just went back to school, and obviously This time of the year is a time when if you are training, and a lot of people, their target market are females, could be mums, it's a time when everybody is like, okay, doing that first week. In New South Wales and other states, that's gone back. They're doing these first weeks of dropping kids off and taking the extra 20 minutes it took him to get to school today and things like that. People are now back into some routine. January, everybody got smashed through COVID and people pausing and canceling and isolating, all that kind of stuff. And, and I, and I look around and I go, okay, what's a simple marketing strategy that we can use right now that doesn't cost us too much or very little to get people's attention? So I just want to take you through that because This is something that's underutilized, that people are not seeing. Some are, some are, but I would say out of all studios and gyms that I drive past, I'm thinking around maybe 15 to 20% of people are using this. The rest are not. And so if you're not already using this, listen very carefully. So what we want to do is we want to keep things as cheap and simple as possible. I want to go back to the simplicity of attention. Attention is where people put their head when there is something new and something exciting, or you are driving past a location and you go, oh wow, I didn't see that building before, there is a new sign up there, or the road is getting constructed, or they have mowed the lawn, or something that you see, you go past the same way every single day, right, there is the same routine. And so a lot of the time, if there's something like not dramatically different, right, same, same, your blinkers are off, you'll just be in your routine. And so that's a real challenge for regular, you know, community people that are driving the same way, doing the same thing. They're not maybe seeing your studio. And, and it's the same as it looked every day. And even though you might have You know, clean the inside of the studio and you've got some new equipment and all that kind of stuff. But what I'm talking about now is that what does the studio look outside? Is it looking different? And so the simplest thing and the most cost-effective thing is that you want to be putting some A-frames or signage up on the window, really easy. And this is a non-negotiable for anybody. Like, you may have already signs, you may have big signs that are already in place that are sitting there, they look great, amazing. However, what I'm talking about is attention at this time at the moment. In February, as I said, routines are happening, especially if you are targeting mums with kids. A lot of people are targeting that. It's a time where you want to tap into their mind at the moment and ask them, put signs up to say, Are you ready to get back into routine? Are you ready to build that body? Do you want to take time out for yourself? Kids back at school, come join us here at this time. So you want to use signs and messages to resonate with your potential audience now. But I guess what I'm trying to get to, guys, is that it's not going to be forever, right? In a month, something else is going to be happening. In 2 months, Easter will be happening. And so you want to be acting like supermarkets act or department stores act, where they're always on to the next promotion. They're always on to the next activity. Christmas decorations down, and then they're doing Easter already. You know what I mean? That's already, yeah, because they're starting to promote already. So my thinking is that get an A-frame. So my thinking of how to do this, simply get an A-frame sign. They're not that expensive. I don't know, $100, $150. I saw one the other day advertised. And make sure that you can interchange the signs. Interchange the signs. They're very popular now. And what I want you to do is that meant Just go, okay, every school term, I will change the signs and the messaging to attract the audience at that time. When we attract the audience, we just go, what is the problem and what's the solution we're offering? Going back before, I said there's 20% of people that are probably doing this activity. But even that 20% of people, if I narrow that down like 20% of A-frames and they change the signs, I'd even say a smaller percentage Actually a change in the signs based on their avatar's problem at the moment or what they're thinking at the moment. They're just going, 7-day free trial, scan here. I saw that this morning. It was like, it was good because it was a different color, but still it's not really talking to anybody. It's just a 7-day free trial. Who cares? 7-day free trial. Who cares? A 14-day free trial. Who cares? Right. You're— that sign is attracting somebody who is literally looking around to join a studio at that moment and that sign pops up. What we're looking for, guys, is we're looking to attract the potential audience that you want, who's your main avatar audience, and you want to tap into their brain, what they're thinking, what they're going through, and make it funny, make it hilarious, make it, you know, their style. So they go, oh wow, that caught my attention. Remember, it's the old theory of if you want to get someone's attention, let's say if you want to get a mother's attention, right, new mum's attention, right, what you want to be doing is put a sign and literally put a dummy, some nappies, and that will get the visual attention because that's what they're going through all the time. They're a new mum, they're going, wow, dummies. They understand nappies. They understand brand names that they didn't before. They see that. They resonate with that. You want to tap into what they are doing at this time, i.e., we stick with the mothers' examples. They are dropping their kids off at school for the first week. I am dropping my son off to school after 2 months. He's having a bit of a fit to get into his school because it's been so long. I'm thinking, okay, now I get into some routine here. Can you offer a service to help that person out? Can that be displayed on the front of your shopfront, if you have a shopfront, the front of your street, if you're allowed to do that? I know a lot of councils don't allow you to do that. But what can you do that will get attention? If you have been using the same A-frame, Or if you've got signs on your studio wall and they've been the same, change them up. At the very least, I want to talk about really cheap strategies. Go get a piece of cardboard from Officeworks. It costs you about $1.50. Then, get a big black marker, thick black marker. Make sure it's a colourful— make sure it's a coloured piece of cardboard. Then, get a black marker. Put that in the front window or put that just outside and put it there for a couple of days and then change it again. Because that's going to keep getting attention for somebody driving past. I'm going through the same route every day and everything's looking the same, same, same, same. But what I'm not expecting is a bright sign at the front, or it could be near a coffee shop that I might go to. Think about the avenues that people get to. And ensure that you're talking to them in their language by using something simple. I say A-frame, I see a piece of cardboard with a black marker on, and then they gotta go, they may not walk in the door, but they go home and they do a Google search. They go home and they get served your Facebook ads. They go home and they talk to their partner about it. They go see it tomorrow and it's the same sign or a different sign. So think about these activities that They may take you, I don't know, to do a marker or a sign up, it might take you 5 minutes, 3 minutes, 2 minutes. It's not long, so program it in your daily routine. Train your clients in the morning, okay, let's go change the sign at the front. Train my clients, okay, I'm going to put my A-frame up. Every month, I'm going to change the A-frame design or sign so it keeps people's attention all the way through. Team, I hope that's helped you. Just a quick one today. Simple marketing strategies, simple lead generation strategies that really can make a massive difference and dent in your business. Remember, you don't need 1,000 clients. You probably don't need 100 clients. You just need the next 5, 10, 15 clients to get a roll-on effect to get the business back where you want the business to be. Guys, I'm Richard Toutounji. I hope this episode's come received well from my car, and that makes sense. It's a bit of a thought for today. I want you guys to make sure that you get this right and you maximize your fitness marketing.
