7 Powerful Ways to Use Testimonials
Do you have members or PT clients who have lost weight, overcame illness, or feel more alive after exercising at your club?
Of Course You Do!
We all know of members who have overcome the odds, or lost 50 pounds, or fit into a size 4 again or can make it up the stairs without shortness of breath. Everyone at your club who has improved their health, image, or overall well being is a walking talking billboard!
There are several ways you can share these success stories with your prospects.
1. Print Marketing: Use a testimonial along with a picture or perhaps a before and after picture in all of your print marketing efforts. Prospects are much more likely to read about someone who lost weight and feels great thanks to your club, rather than some boring old ½ off enrollment fee coupon.
2. Online marketing: Make sure to have lots and lots of testimonials on your website. If you have before and after pictures, these are very powerful. I would recommend even using video and audio testimonials to offer even more interactive ways for your web visitors to see what they can expect as a member of your club.
3. Internal marketing: Your current members may not even be aware the success stories of those who invest in personal training. Make sure you have some testimonials and pictures throughout your club. Make sure to put a new picture and testimonial up every couple of weeks so the other members will see that there are several people getting amazing results.
4. Lead boxes: A before and after picture along with a “Want to feel as good as Sharon? Enter your information to receive a complimentary 2 week membership to XYZ Fitness” is one of the more powerful lead box strategies I’ve ever seen.
5. Billboard, TV, Radio: If these are mediums that will work in your market, then make sure you are using pictures and testimonials. It is so difficult to generate a direct response from these marketing mediums, but you can maximize your efforts with powerful social proof that “XYZ Fitness has helped others, and can help you too!”
6. Wall of Fame: Find or create a bare wall in a high traffic area of your club. Set up a clean, professional looking wall of fame for your members who have experienced great success. You can collect testimonials and before and after pictures to post on your wall. Your members will feel appreciated and your prospects will be blown away and ready to sign up before you ever present prices.
7. Success Book: Similar to the Wall of Fame, fill up a three ring binder with lots of success stories of your members. This is a great tool to hand a guest if they have to wait a couple of minutes for you to finish a tour or sign up another member. They will likely be sold on your club before you even say a word.
Social proof such as testimonials and pictures are the most powerful forms of marketing you can use at your health club. It doesn’t matter what type of marketing: internal, external, guerrilla, internet, etc…Seeing the success stories of others will ALWAYS help you sign up more members and more personal training clients.
Dedicated to your success…
Curtis Mock
Tags: gym success stories, health club marketing, personal trainer marketing