How to Get 397 Leads in 13 Days

About 8 years into owning my gym I hit a brick wall. My revenue was flat, I was forced to lay off staff members, and I was completely burned out. I needed to do something drastic to inject some life into my business and myself. 

I got an idea from a friend to run a giveaway for my personal training gym.  The idea was to give away 6 weeks of personal training for free to four people that apply. 

I had never done anything like this and honestly was hesitant. Since I was desperate, I ran the campaign and life has never been the same. 

The campaign brought in a shocking 397 people to fill out the two-page application to be selected. We selected four out of the 397 as the winners, and had 393 people still interested in something.

Immediately, we brought in 30 new members, each paying $400 per month for small group training on annual contracts.

Exactly how I structured this is outlined in my book the Ultimate Guide to Marketing Your Gym, which you can get a FREE copy HERE.

Something incredible happened at the same time: We selected a local woman named Cathy Balsamo as our winner.  She had a long history of hating exercise, eating Twinkies and a laundry list of health problems, which made her the perfect person for this project. 

The plan was to record her progress on social media over the 6 weeks and create a mini documentary. 

Cathy ended up losing 25 pounds in those 6 weeks and her story went viral. She continued after the 6 weeks and lost a total of 83 pounds over the next few months.

This created a buzz in my community like nothing I’ve ever seen. 

She became a local celebrity and, in turn, my gym became the most talked about place in the entire area. A flood of new clients followed. 

The fame for Cathy did not stop locally. She was contacted by Oprah, Dr. Oz, Rachel Ray, Women’s World Magazine and several other national publications. 

Close to 7 years later, people still call us and say they want to get results like Cathy B. 

The giveaway has been a business game changer and is a campaign we use 2x per year. 

As a business coach for gym owners, I’ve taught this to many of my clients who have used this method with similar success as noted above. 

I created a 22-page guidebook that outlines exactly how to implement this into your business.

The guidebook is a bonus resource included in my book, The Ultimate Guide to Marketing Your Gym. Click HERE to get FREE access. 

Here are the 5 steps to follow:  

• Step 1: Decide on your offer. Create an offer that will draw a ton of attention. We’ve always had massive success with “free” and value-stack the heck out of it.

• Step 2: Create the marketing plan. Promote this offer for 2–3 weeks on email and social media.

• Step 3: Select the winners. Pick people you think will have good stores that will be engaging

• Step 4: Convert leads into members. Reach out to the people that did not win with an offer to train at your gym or studio.

• Step 5: Share the stories. Document the progress your winners make on social media throughout the time they’re with you.

Want to learn more about how to run this campaign for your business?

This money making game changer is discussed in detail in my book, The Ultimate Guide to Marketing Your Gym. Click here to download a copy for free.