Category Archives: Crossfit Affiliate Business Video Series

Getting Your Crossfit Affiliate Noticed By Google

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Lisa was flipping channels the other night when she
stumbled across the Crossfit Games on ESPN.
After watching for about 5 minutes, she knew Crossfit was exactly what
she was looking for.  So, she grabbed her
phone and typed in Crossfit Ames as she lives in (you guessed it) Ames, Iowa.

This is what she saw.

 

Isn’t this awesome? The ESPN broadcast is
responsible for a new Crossfitter. 

This is awesome…for Crossfit West Ames.  Not so awesome if you are Crossfit Ames.

What you see above is the result of Google’s local
pages.  There are two ways for your
Crossfit Affiliate to have a local page:

1.
Your business was around when there was
this thing called “The Yellow Pages”.  If
it was, then you likely have a local page already.

2.
You have created and claimed the Local
page for your business.

You might be thinking, do I really need another
piece of online real estate to manage?  While I understand your reluctance:

1.
It won’t take you a lot of time.

2.
Creating and claiming a Google+ Local
page for your local business adds tremendous authority and credibility to your
place profiles…i.e. big impact on local search rankings

 

Here’s how.

1.
First, set up a Google account (http://google.com/accounts) or sign-in if
you already have one.

2.
See if you already have a page.

a.
Go to Google Maps.

b.
Search for your affiliate name

 

3.
IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A PAGE SKIP TO STEP 7

4.
Click on More Info to see your page

 

5.
You’ll be prompted to re-login to your
Google account, or pass a validation test before continuing (either accepting a
call at the published number Google has, or receiving a post card in the mail
with a PIN number on it).

6.
Once you complete the validation,
you’ve claimed the page and can begin to manage it.

a.
Add as many details as possible…especially
photos, hours, and a URL.  Reviews are
incredibly helpful as well.  However, note that review “stuffing” will be penalized by Google.

 

7. For those without a Google+ Local Page

1. Go To Your Google+ Account and Click on Pages

2. Click Create New Page

 

3. Choose Local business or Place and enter your Phone Number and Country

4. Select your Business if it appears or Add Your Business to Google

5. Add your business name, address, and select a category (note you will be able to add multiple categories later)

6. Add your website and agree to terms

7. Add an image (or 2 or 3) and click finish

8. You will be sent an email to verify you own this business.  Once you complete the verification, you are ready to go.

So, there you have it.  In a matter of minutes, you can have a dramatic impact on your Google rankings.  This is a simple thing that becomes more important as other boxes enter your market.

Let me know how this works out for you and how it does impact your rankings.  

Until next time…don’t forget to check out the best affiliate program on the planet for awesome Crossfit Training Journals.

Part 3 – Finding Your Ideal Crossfit Clients

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In Part one and two of Finding Your Ideal Crossfit Client, we went through a process for identifying the clients that bring the most value to you box.  So, if you followed this step, you should have all your clients highlighted with red yellow or green.

Next we want to divide that list again to identify your best referral sources.

Before we get started…do you know how your members found out about your box?  Knowing where your clients come from is arguably the most critical piece of information for any business to know if they expect to be successful.  You need to be collecting this for every person that walks in your door, visits your website, or sends you an email.   If you do nothing else, start doing this immediately.

How’d They Get Here?

Review your list of clients and for every client that you are able, list how they found out about your affiliate (website, article, and referral).  For most of you, you will notice the majority of your membership comes from referrals.  For each of the referrals list the member’s name that referred them.  Then count up the referrals for each member and give them a point for each.

Those with the highest points are your ideal clients.

Why?

In our post How to Get Proactive Customer Referrals, we talked about acknowledging that referrals are a risk for clients and not something that they take lightly.  So referrals are infinitely valuable because:

  • they can be hard to come by
  • they will likely drive more business to your box than any advertising you can do (and are cheaper than any advertising you can do)

 

However, the other critical reason is that referrals are the best way to find your ideal client.

In Duct Tape Marketing, John Jantsch points out that “Only happy clients refer, and happy clients are most often found because you and your approach are a good match for what they needed.”

If you look at your client spreadsheet where we highlighted clients green, yellow, and red, you will likely notice that the majority of your best referral sources (and those that they referred) will be highlighted green.

Why?  Simple.  Because they are the best match for what you deliver…so, they will be happier, more profitable (i.e. be long-term members and heavily engaged in everything you do), refer more people like them, and will ultimately be the clients that get you excited about opening the doors in the morning.

Start looking for trends in these current “ideal customers” and we’ll go a little deeper next time.

MetCon5 Training Journals.

Part 2 – No Jerks Allowed: Identifying Your Ideal Client

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In Part 1 of No Jerks Allowed: Finding Your Ideal Client, we started the discussion about how to find your ideal Crossfit client.  In the next four posts we will cover:

 

  1. Identifying Your Most Profitable Crossfit Clients
  2. Determining Where Your Referrals come from
  3. Where your clients come from
  4. Why they buy

 

So, let’s get things rolling with Identifying Your Ideal Crossfit Clients.

 

1.    Create a spreadsheet of your clients and list the annual revenue from each over the last 3 years (assuming your Crossfit affiliate has been around for three years).  You should be able to export this from your client management software or you may have to do this manually.  Not much fun, I know, but I promise you this is a worthwhile process.

 

2.    Break the revenue down in major categories like monthly dues, personal coaching, workshops, and hard goods (t-shirts, MetCon5 Training Journals, etc.).   Have totals by client and by category.

3.    Carefully examine each client in detail.  Sort the spreadsheet by most revenue to naturally group clients.  You will likely see that there will be an obvious grouping of your clients at the top of the list that are “all in”.  That is, those clients that have full memberships, likely pay for some extra coaching, attend workshops and own an entire wardrobe with your logo on it.

 

4.    Identify The Clients That Bring the Most Value to Your Box.   Examine each client and (in the same spreadsheet) assign them with a simple numerical rating out of 3 that essentially measures the value they bring to the gym and more importantly how much you and your trainers like to work with them.

 

The rating scale can go something like this.

 

3 = a GREAT client that adds to the community, is fun to work with, has drank the kool-aid, etc.

2 = a GOOD client that shows up, does the work, and that you enjoy working with

1 = a PAIN IN THE ASS client that complains about cost, takes a ton of your time but never listens, generally adds nothing (and potentially even takes away from other experience) to the community, and someone you don’t enjoy working with

 

Note that referrals are a huge part of a clients’ value and we will discuss this in detail in the next post.

 

 5.    Highlight Your 3’s in Green, 2’s in Yellow, and 1’s in Red.

 

 6.    Sort the list again in order of revenue.

 

Now take a look at the clients highlighted in green at the top of your list…these are your ideal clients.

 

In the next post, we’ll start with how to get more of these clients through your door…more of the clients that bring the best out of you and your coaches.

Until next time, MetCon5 Training Journals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crossfit Affiliate Business Series: Using Video on Your Website

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Hey guys…in a previous post, we talked about YOU being your best competitive advantage and using the about us section of your website to show off a little personality.

Another great option is using video to accomplish the same thing (and possibly do it even better).  Check out the video below by Karma Crossfit that mixes in “what is crossfit” with an intro of their coaches.

You get a little taste of what you’re in for if you walk in the door at Karma Crossfit. More importantly, you get to know a little bit about the coaches you will be working with and why they do what they do.

A few tips for your video:

1. Put it on your front page…there is a ton of research to support that video is sticky (get your mind out of the gutter)…that is, the engaging nature of video encourages users to spend more time on a page, thereby increasing the likely hood that they will call,  fill out a contact form, etc.  So with this in mind, get it right up front.

2. Be authentic.  While this sounds like a touchy feelly marketing buzzword, it is important to be yourself…because:

  • you’ll come off like a tool if you don’t
  • clients will be disappointed if you are someone different
  • who you are in the video will serve as one way to attract or find your ideal clients
3. Don’t worry about it looking like a music video.  The video should be professional but there is no need to be over the top…nothing you can’t do with some inexpensive video editing software.
4. Just do it!  Don’t over think this.  Your first video will not be great; and that’s OK.  Get something done, learn from your mistakes and keep improving it.  Have some fun…it will show in the video.

A potential client watching the video will make a judgement of whether the coaches are people that they want to work with or not.  Does their personality match with theirs, etc.

Understand that you have potential members out there that are simply intimidated to step through that door.  Using a video that does a good job to communicate the personality of the coaches and your affiliate can remove a huge barrier for potential clients.  It can also help you to attract future members that will continue to support your culture.

Until next time…MetCon5 Training Journals

No Jerks Allowed: Finding Your Ideal Client

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If you do nothing else from a marketing standpoint for your Crossfit Affiliate, identifying and understanding your ideal client will:

- make your affiliate more profitable

- lead to a superior culture and community within your box

- ensure a predictable number of prospects turn into paying clients

-  enhance the ROI of everything you do to market your crossfit affiliate

Most importantly, identifying your ideal client will allow you as an affiliate owner to work with only those that you choose to (i.e. No Jerks Allowed).  That is, clients that:

Value what you offer…meaning that you won’t have to explain why you cost more than the local Globo Gym up the street

View the client coach relationship as partnership where both of you are responsible for the clients success

Want you to succeed…these clients are emotionally invested and “all in” … they will grow your business with more referrals (we’ll get to this in more detail in later posts) than you can handle

Sound like people you want in your Gym?  Absolutely. The good news is that you can proactively choose to work with this kind of client.  The kind of client that gets you excited about coaching crossfit.

But first, you need to define what this ideal client looks like.  Without a clear and detailed understanding of who your ideal client is you will spend too much time with unprofitable clients that are simply no fun to work with.

Here is a quick video I found that outlines the process of Finding Your Ideal Client at a high level.

Over the next couple of posts, we will go over looking at your current client list to paint the picture of your ideal client.  Start thinking about the following at a high level…we will be showing you how to identify:

  1. Where your revenue comes from
  2. Where your referral sources come from
  3. Where your clients come from
  4. Why they buy
At the end of it all, you will have a very detailed view of what this ideal client looks like.  This picture will then become the foundation of everything you do to market your affiliate (i.e. the fun stuff).
See ya next time, Metcon5 Training Journals.
ABOUT US: MetCon5 Training Journals is the latest in a successful career starting and growing businesses from the ground up.  We wanted to give something back to an amazing Crossfit Affiliate community that has been so amazing to us.  So, we thought we would share some of our experience in the Crossfit Affiliate Business Series.  Hope you enjoy it and please send feedback and any experiences that yo have had that ill help your fellow affiliate owners..

 

How To Get Proactive Customer Referrals

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Good morning, everyone.  As I am sure that everyone’s minds are on Crossfit Open Workout 12.3 today, I will keep today’s post short and sweet.  However, it is an important precursor to some more posts centered around getting more client referrals for your crossfit affiliate.

It is important to acknowledge that referrals are a risk for your clients.  They risk their relationships and credibility with others when referring any product or service.

 

For a client to refer your Crossfit Affiliate to friends and family, they need to trust in you to perform in an exemplary manner and not jeopardize those relationships.

 

Actively asking for referrals can be uncomfortable for you and your clients.  To get proactive referrals (i.e. ones that you don’t need to ask for), the following things must be in place.

 

  1. A strong relationship with your clients.
  2. Your clients consider you reliable and someone that does what you say
  3. Your clients should consider you the expert in your field.  Your Crossfit cert does not guarantee you this.  It must be demonstrated.
  4. Your client must trust you to do everything in the referred third party’s best interest.  They will base this on how you took care of them when they started and how you take care of those who joined since them.
  5. You have a track record of performance.  Helping your clients exceed their goals is the best way of demonstrating this.  Success is contagious and they will want to share their success with everyone they know.
  6. Your clients consider you valuable…a resource…not just someone trying to get their monthly dues.

Your current clients are your most powerful marketing tool.  If you are consistently delivering the above to your clients, the referrals will come.

 

Crossfit Affiliate Business Video Series: Getting Things Done

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Welcome to the start of our Crossfit Affiliate Business Video Series by MetCon5 Training Journal.  For this series, I will be posting videos and articles that will help you enhance the profitability and the enjoyment of running your own Crossfit Affiliate.  Posts will be a mix of things from inside and outside of the crossfit community as I think we miss out on some great learning opportunities if we limit ourselves to the crossfit affiliate community.

So let’s get on with it…

As a Crossfit Affiliate Owner, you need to wear many hats.  Coach, manager, salesperson, accountant, bill collector, etc…to start our Crossfit Affiliate Business Video Series, I thought a great place to start would be to help you develop strategy for getting things done.  I have provided two videos here:

1. A 45 minute lecture from David Allen at Google who created the GTD (Getting Things Done) process.  It is a great video and worth the time…make sure to take notes.

2. For those of you with ADD, pressed for time or just looking for a quicker fix here is a quicker video (3 minutes) that talks about some simple productivity rituals to help you get more stuff done.

David Allen’s Google lecture

 

4 Productivity Rituals from the Harvard Business Review