Before I show you exactly how I did this and how you can do it to, let me explain the story.
‘Cause lets face it. There is ALWAYS a story…
And even when there isn’t, its still better if we pretend there is one right?
So anyway:
About 3 weeks ago, I met with a friend for lunch who just so happens to be a personal trainer.
We were in the Sydney CBD having a feed on a Sunday, and it wasn’t long before I got the chance to ask my most favourite question of all in any conversation with a business owner.
Which is of course, the only question that really matters.
“How do you get a client?”
This steered the conversation into the inevitable topic of marketing, and we discussed different strategies and mediums and all that jazz.
Eventually though, we got to my most favourite answer to this truly great question.
I hear it all the time and its’ just as good as the question is itself in my opinion.
And that answer is:
“Well, not through Facebook naturally.”
To which I lovingly respond:
“Ummm, why not?”
And, just like clockwork, I am privy to these tried and true answers:
“Social media is dead”
“Oh yeah, but Facebook doesn’t really work for getting leads or customers”
“Well it might work for you but Facebook doesn’t work in this industry”.
Stop for a second.
Let me tell you something:
That is BULLSHIT.
Straight up.
But I still love hearing that answer!
Because I normally give myself no other option than to go away and prove it, as I have done in the article below, so stick with me.
At the end of lunch I said to my mate something to the effect of “Give me $30 and a couple of days and I’ll bring you at least 10 new leads from Facebook”.
He didn’t give me $30 or believe that I could do it, so…
I went and did it anyway.
I mean, why not?
As a result of that I want to share with you EXACTLY how to do it, and EXACTLY how easy it is (once you know what you are doing).
Now it took me a few attempts.
I had to test my Facebook targeting and change my messaging, offer and copy.
But I got there, and I’m glad that it took me a few tries because I learnt HEAPS.
So here it is, in uncovered detail….
CHALLENGE: Get 10 leads from Facebook for a Personal Trainer for under $30.
Now, firstly I want to cover off on something.
You don’t have to look far to see articles where marketers are showing how they generated 3,000 leads in 4 months or something like that.
But I purposely kept this small.
And for one main reason:
YOU.
I have found in my experience that the bigger and more complicated something seems, the more it will lead to overwhelm and the less likely it is that anybody will take action on it.
So I wanted to restrict it to a few key variables.
$30
10 Leads
2 Days.
Very simple.
When you finish reading this you should be able to go an implement the entire thing yourself.
So when I started, I literally made the fatal mistake from the beginning.
I did no research, and just went out on a whim with what I thought would work.
BAD IDEA.
So this was the ad I rolled with.
It was advertising a Free Report (which is known as a Lead Generation Report or a Lead Magnet) on how to find the perfect personal trainer.
It was targeting 30 to 45 year old professionals in Sydney CBD.
I thought those who were busy in that environment would be looking for a personal trainer and interested.
By the way, Ivy League Fitness is just a Facebook page I made so I could run the ads.
That just shows how easy it is to do this.
Anyway:
After running the ad for only a few dollars, I wasn’t getting the uptake I knew it should be getting.
Given the underperformance of the ad, I knew I had to change the targeting to something that was more specific.
Doing this and making the messaging on the ad more direct to that target market would allow me to reach a far more qualified audience with the ads.
So in defining a more specific segment of the market, I started asking myself questions.
What would I look for in a personal trainer?
Why would I go and see a personal trainer?
What results would I want from a personal trainer?
You may wonder why I asked myself these questions.
And here’s the reason:
A lot of the great marketers and business owners in the world sell products and services to an audience that has a problem that that owner had 5 years ago or so, and has now solved.
It is the easiest and most effective way to run a business whose marketing messages speak to the core of their audience.
Why?
Because the owner / marketer can RELATE to the audience and the person with that EXACT problem.
They know exactly what that person in their target market is going through.
They were there themselves.
They thought just like that person does now.
And they know what it takes to get out of there and solve that problem.
Now given that I am not a personal trainer and I wasn’t creating this campaign for anyone else, I just made myself the target client.
On a side note, about 5 years ago, I went on a serious diet & training routine and lost about 13kgs.
I didn’t use a personal trainer. I didn’t need one.
But, if I was going to use one now, it would most likely be for weight & muscle gain.
AH HA!
That is exactly who I will go after.
Young men who want to gain muscle.
Given that I am in this target market and there are a lot of personal trainers in this market, I knew it was not only a good fit, but also an example that another trainer would be able to use.
Now, due to Facebook’s somewhat stringent guidelines around advertising in the health and fitness market, I had to be careful with the image I chose.
I ended up going for one that shows a strong male physique but is partially covered.
As for the copy and message, I had to use what I call ‘power words’ that resonated with this market.
Now every market has these key words that they respond to. In this young male demographic, a large reason for wanting to gain muscle is obviously strength and looks, but also the perception of being an alpha male.
Given this, I offered a ‘Free Training Plan’ on how to develop the “Ultimate Alpha Physique”.
You can see how the ad looked below.
When I ran this ad I had no issues whatsoever getting the image or the copy approved.
When you clicked on this ad, you were taking to this landing page.
Which, if you don’t want to click on the link, is shown below:
Now, luckily, I did get my friend to agree to one thing, and that was lending me his training plan that leads would receive if they opted in.
Once I had set this up, I had to get my targeting right on Facebook.
I knew from the get go that I would be targeting 20-25 year old males, but I needed to be more specific than that.
As far as interests go, I needed to know:
What magazines did this audience read?
What websites did they visit?
What gyms do they go to?
What bodybuilders do they look up to?
What events do they support?
By making a conclusive list of these things, I was able to easily hone in on the market that I was targeting.
This isn’t a quick process. But trust me, it is a very necessary and worthwhile one.
After going through that process and honing in, I ended up with the following list of interests, which as you will see is bodybuilders and bodybuilding events:
Interests: Kai Greene, Arnold Classic, Víctor Martínez (bodybuilder), Jay Cutler (bodybuilder), Mr. Olympia
This was literally all I needed.
I was trying to keep this to a very specific niche, rather than a wider market.
With all that in mind, the Facebook Targeting looked like this:
So now I had my specific niche, the ad and landing page set up and an offer that was congruent.
All I had to do was run the campaign and see if I could get the results I needed to satisfy the challenge!
So without any further ado, here were the results:
Spend: – $28.06
Leads: – 11
Times: – < 1 day
So there you go!
Not only is it possible, its actually pretty simple.
Here is the screenshot:
So as you can see, at $2.55 a lead, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be using Facebook to get more clients for your Personal Training business.
Now, let me just address one other point you may be thinking.
What does that free training plan have to do with getting personal training clients?
How is that ACTUALLY helping a personal trainer to get more people into their training business?
And the answer is very simple.
That is just the start of the process.
That free training plan is getting prospects who are interested in gaining muscle into the start of your sales funnel.
There are more steps to be implemented after sending them this training plan.
Its the very start of what I call “The Ultimate Sales Funnel For Personal Trainers” – especially if you are selling high end fitness programs to your clients.
Now – the best thing about this funnel is:
None of these steps will cost you any money.
They involve email sequences, strategy sessions, trial sessions and converting your prospects into clients for your business.
The hardest part, which is actually getting the lead, is DONE.
Now that’s not to say that every person will become a client… of course they won’t.
But you are now at least able to enter a dialogue with a potential client, once they learn more about who you are and what it is you offer.
This is the reason why advertising straight sales offers to people who don’t know you very ineffective.
At any given time, studies have shown that only 3% of your target market is actually ready and willing to purchase from you.
By offering them an exchange of value up front, you are warming up prospects who otherwise would have ignored your offer for “a free session” or a “discounted membership”.
This is a vital part of marketing, particularly in the social age we now live in.
Anyway!
There you have it.
The exact blueprint for generating cheap leads from Facebook.
I will add though, I believe that with some optimisation and changes that I would make to the ad and the copy, that you could get lead costs under $2. However, in this case, I wasn’t too worried as long as it met my initial goal.
But its certainly cool to know! Once this campaign has been optimised, I would almost guarantee you could get the same results for less than $20 per day.
How many clients do you think you could convert, and how much extra money could you bring in to your business if all you did was implement a campaign like this?
Its very powerful hey…
If you would like to chat to me about getting this done for your own business, whether it be in personal training or not, please get in touch with me here.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments!