Grow Your Personal Training Business With Free Advertising

Recently I've had the opportunity to work with a few personal trainers on growing their business. There have been a few common challenges that seem to come up for each trainer. They are;

- Finding new clients - Motivating clients outside of the gym - Sporadic hours throughout the day

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This week I like would like to focus on the challenge of finding new clients.

Whether you are a seasoned trainer with many clients to fill up your day, or new to the profession and wondering why people are not knocking at your door, listen up. This advice is going to help build your business.

Let's start with those who have a handful of clients. You need to ask yourself some questions. How are you performing as a personal trainer? The first step is to know that you are offering and delivering the best possible service to your clients. In short, the way to do this is to ask your client questions. Let's be clear. For you to be delivering your client the best service it's not about how much you know and tell your clients or how many courses you've taken. Seems contrary to what you've been taught, doesn't it? Allow me to let you in on a little secrete. It's not about you; it's ALL about your customer.

Serving the customer This not a new concept as people now realize the only difference between them and the guy down the street is customer service. But do you really know what that means? Let me ask you this, what is the ratio between ears and mouths on the human body? 2:1 correct? See what I'm getting at. We need to listen to our clients and fully understand why they are here to see us. When the middle aged lady is here to see you to lose weight, get healthy and 'feel good', what does that actually mean? You need to be digging a bit deeper here. Summer is upon us and people want to feel comfortable taking off their shirts and walking down the beach. That's what it means to 'feel good'. We have to paint that picture for our clients for this, and only this, is truly going to motivate them. The very first step in customer service is to know why your customer is here to see you. Keep on asking yourself "why" until you've hit the core reason. This will also help with motivating your client outside of the gym. Once you have found their 'why', use it at all times.

How this relates to free advertising? As you gain happy customers and they feel that you truly care for their success, your business is going to grow. There's a catch though. This is not going to happen on its own. The way to grow your business and not have to spend a dollar on advertising in the newspaper is to ask for referrals! You can see why it's important for us to first have a happy customer. Now you can ask, "You know Sandra, I looking to grow my customer base, do you have any friends who would be interested in my service?" And here's a little tip after asking for the referral - keep your mouth shut! I've seen it too many times where trainers then interrupt the client by filling in the 'awkward' silence and then moving away from the topic. Ask and you shall receive. When people are happy with your service, they will actively seek out new clients for you.

This means we have some work to do. Whether you are a new trainer or a seasoned pro, call up your past clients, friends, and relatives and let them know that you are actively building your customer base and would like to ask if they know anyone who might be interested in; losing weight for the beach this summer, or any other of your core focus you have. This is where you have to be specific! Paint a picture of that person you would like to work with. The key here is to ask for the referral and not seek out business from them. Chances are they know what you do and don't want to be pitched to. This also alleviates any pressure on you.

Grow Your Personal Training Business With Free Advertising

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Promote Your Business With The Latest Advertising Tools

Most of us think that if business is running well, there is no need to promote it more. People might name their laid-back attitude- lack of time or contentment.

Business is like a human being, it can be developed to any extent if you keep on improving and becoming better. We all know what we have become and achieved but we don't know what we could be. Certainly, we stop ourselves from growing further after a point and accept the things as they are. Your business and its state is an extension of your personality. If you fail to understand that why your business is still there where it was long back and, others have gone way ahead- here is the answer: You don't want to grow.

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Were you equally concerned about expansion as much as you were about setting a shop, you would have reached the sky. Sky is the limit for those who want to grow. Well you might be wondering what if we wish to grow but don't know how. The first step is to start promoting it. Promotion is challenging process. One needs patience for a constant and on-going marketing.

There are various tools to keep your advertising on forever without worrying much. Here are some other tips that can help you grow and make your business a success.

Promotion is a dire need of today's business if you want to keep it alive even in the future and many years to come. It is usually misunderstood as a one-time step and linked with a new business. Even an old business must promote in different ways to reach and amass new customers. Marketing a product may seem easy but it's not just distributing leaflets. Of course making your existence known to others is important but to keep a spark in the business, you should bring something new for the customers every now and then.

You can't completely rely on just your regular customers. There is always a need to add more customers to increase your business, and that can happen if you know how to attract them. Entire setting of the shop should appeal the customer even before he enters the shop.

Replace your boring banners with more stylish ones and give your store a refreshing look. Banners should sum up everything about your business. Style is an important term that is impacting everybody these days. There is a wide variety of display solution available in the market. One can go for classy bamboo Banner stands and customized postures fixed on it. It's about how you package your shop even before packaging your products.

Promotion material should be distributed on and off. One should keep festive discounts or off-season sale (if applicable) to attract customers. Give regular advertisements in print and always provide brochures to the customers.

Promote Your Business With The Latest Advertising Tools

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Professional Advertising

There are so many places to advertise these days. It could be on websites where people go to find services; it could be in telephone books, signs, etc. No matter what way you decide to advertise your business, people will see it as long as you chose the right places. If you have the right supplies or access to them such as prepress equipment and CTP, which stands for computer to plate, then you can have all the supplies you need to make a sign that looks professional and appealing to people. If people find an ad that fits their needs, they will use the services you provide and will most likely recommend you to friends.

When friends need advice on something, they usually ask their friends and this is how businesses grow. If you know how to put yourself out there and update your advertisements due to what is 'in' at the time, you will be able to appeal to more people. You also need to take into consideration the people who you are aiming the advertisements at. If you want to advertise or produce a commercial and you are aiming to parents or an older crowd, a later time would be best and if you are aiming at younger children, the morning or afternoon would be the best. If you want to attract a teenage crowd, put your advertisements on websites that they are sure to visit such as blog websites or social websites where they spend most of their time and talk to friends.

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Advertisements can be very manipulative and unfortunately some companies have to be like that in order to get business. There are many studies that have proven the fact that we see many advertisements every day. When we watch television, go on the computer, drive down the road, read a magazine or newspaper, etc. we see things and do not even realize that we see them. When we see them in the store, we think we recognize the product and buy it because it seems reliable and familiar. The trick to this type of advertisement is to make it very noticeable. No one reads a magazine for the ads, but if one is bright and looks appealing to our eyes, we will look at it and move on without even realizing it and this is how they pull us into the trap.

You do not have to be manipulative in order to get customers and you do not even have to be flashy, but you do want to relate to the customer. If they can relate to you, they will most likely trust you; that is how the human species works.

By looking professional and acting in a way that serves your customers, they will come back and bring people with them. No matter what your service provides, you can help anyone by providing one thing for them and remember that the customer must come first. If you do not have customers, then you will not have a business.

Professional Advertising

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A Brief History of Advertising With Promotional Calendars

Calendar advertising has a rich history dating back to the 1850's when The Ketterlinus Lithographic Manufacturing Co. of Philadelphia began printing calendars that contained advertising. Promotional wall calendars became even more popular as printing technology improved. In 1878, Andrew and Jacob Geiger opened a printing shop in Newark, NJ and began printing advertising calendars, fans, posters and other paper ephemera.

Calendar advertising became increasingly popular in the late 1880's, thanks to the efforts of two enterprising Ohio newspapermen, Jasper Freemont Meek and his competitor, Henry Beach. They were fierce competitors, and between them, they figured out how to put ads on a myriad of items from aprons, hats and a wide variety of household items. They even invented the classic metal trays advertising colas, which are now prized by antique collectors.

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Two more newspapermen, Thomas Murphy and Edward Burke Osborne, both of Red Oak, IA, are credited with inventing art calendars that became immensely popular in the late 1880's. Like Jasper Meek and Henry Beach, they needed new business to keep their presses busy and bring in additional sales. Osborne printed a watercolor of the new Red Oak courthouse on cardboard, printed advertising around the painting and added a calendar pad. It was a huge success.

Until then, nobody had thought to place attractive art on calendars. The two men purchased fine photographs and paintings from a variety of artists and improved their printing capabilities to include 3-color printing. By 1894, Murphy and Osborne employed a total of 94 people, including 14 traveling salesmen and printed an estimated three million calendars.

At the end of 1894, Murphy sold his interest in the business to Osborne, who moved the company to Newark, NJ to be closer to art and business centers in the New York metropolitan areas. Osborne then seized upon a new printing technology - letterpress printing - to produce calendars of the highest quality. The resulting success of those calendars allowed him to set up printing plants in Toronto, London and Sydney, Australia.

Since then, promotional calendars have continued to grow in popularity as a promotional product. Today, imprinted promotional calendars continue to be ranked among the three top product groups in the promotional products industry.

A Brief History of Advertising With Promotional Calendars

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