First, I don’t believe in corporate looking websites that only try to make a brand look good, but doesn’t give the gym prospect any actual info about your gym like prices, equipment, contact info, childcare, programs, actual video tour ( My biggest pet peeve is a gym website having a so called “virtual tour”, but is actually nothing but someone with a digital camera set to video while their turning in a circle making you sick to even watch and makes a treadmill look like a boxing bag). If your doing this, STOP IT!!! your killing your website business.

Next, If you have Flash buttons, a shoddy virtual tour, no email sign up form, content that doesn’t tell the prospect what they want to know, diet info, no pictures of the actual equipment, and one of the most important things is if you don’t have specific keywords on your website pages and web post for SEO keyword optimization, STOP IT TOO!!

Below is a snapshot of my Fitness Center Website, Some people act like my fitness center website is as ugly as a butt rash, but it works and I’ll compare the stats of visits, calls, and email sign ups just from my website to their very corporate looking website.

Notice how simple the gym website is to navigate. I have tweaked it for over 4 years now with all the marketing knowledge and website simplification things I’ve learned from thousands of hours of studying marketing and website design and SEO 

Now look at this snap fitness website. It has no email sign up form for them to keep prospects thinking about them, no video, no compelling content except one offer for a week free. I’m sure since they have a big brand name it does ok, but my gym is in a town where snap fitness is also, but i have double the membership they have, they also don’t do any marketing to speak of.

You think being a big name like snap fitness they would have a staff of Internet marketers, NOT JUST WEBSITE DESIGNERS, because most designers are just that, not marketers, I am a fitness marketer first, then web designer. Snap fitness is a great gym and the owners have done a great job, but it cost them about 1 to 1.5 million to open a snap fitness. I have less than $100,000 in mine from start to finish. Which would you rather do, own your own, or a franchise that tells you where to pee and how to do it. I’ve got an ex wife, it’s not for me but may be for you. HIRE SOMEONE TO WRITE YOUR FITNESS MARKETING MATERIALS, don’t follow what all the other gyms are doing.

Now, I haven’t wanted to learn how to build websites from scratch though, I have learned to read web code, but not enough to build a site from scratch because you don’t need to these days for most businesses. I use templates now to build my customers websites, that way i can concentrate on the content that gets customers to even find the website to start with. You do however need to know some coding to install stuff like email forms and install videos and put headline tags in the right places for SEO optimization.

Below is an example of some website statistics from a website I built to replace a website that got from 0 to 3 hits a day before i built this one with specific content. notice the increase from 1 the first few days to over 150 hits a day within a month after i got the content added in several post and pages and optimized for search engines

I build website just like mine for many industries and people. want to see some more websites like mine? here are a few. www.thebamabelle.com and www.herringfitness.com and www.templegym.tv 

Notice how Herring Fitness website is identical to mine at Temple Gym except colors. The owner of herring fitness is NFL New Orleans Saints Player Will Herring #54 from Auburn Alabama and formerly played for the Seattle Sea hawks for 4 years. Will hired me to be a consultant to open his gym and set it up as a 24 hour fitness center since he is away most of the year in New Orleans. I built his website and he gets between 40 and 120 hits a day on an average week, which is about what i get at my gym.

Other gyms may get a lot of visits but they probably only get a phone # or address without getting convincing evidence that sells them on that gym

If you try to get a website built from scratch you’ll spend from $2,500 to $5,000. But I can build a website like mine for under $1000 including editing a video tour that you shoot and send me, also all the specific copy writing SEO which is most important to drive prospects to your website when they search for a gym in your town. You’ll also get a video of me showing you how to go to your admin control panel and change or add stuff so you can do it yourself from then on.

By the way, my gym website video tour pre sells my gym memberships to roughly 90% of my new gym members. They come in to sign up instead of just look around now. I start to show everyone around and they say “I already know how everything works, i watched your video tour”. I basically took the idea of showing one person around and made that a video. so its like they are the camera following me around just like their there in person. except now, i don’t have to take 10 to 15 min showing them around the gym.

Need a website for your gym or fitness center? email Shannon Cook at fitnessmarketing@comcast.net  

www.fitnessmarketing.tv

In this video Will talks about his experience’s with the system and opening a gym form scratch.

Want to know what kind of door access and software systems Fitness Centers like Snap Fitness, Anytime Fitness, and 24 hour Fitness use to automate their gyms? Here’s a complete system I use at my gym, Temple Gym, and I recommend my clients use to automate their gyms. It’s a complete system that comes with door access, gym software, and security system.
Shannon Cook of www.fitnessmarketing.tvinterviews Will Herring, New Orleans Saints Player #54, about the 24 hour gym access system (firebug software system) and how he used the book, “HOW TO OPEN A GYM OR CONVERT A GYM INTO A 24 HOUR GYM”, available at www.how2ownagym.com to open his gym, Herring Fitness 24 hour gym in Auburn Alabama. Shannon owns Temple Gym in Tuscaloosa Alabama www.templegym.tv

My name is Shannon Cook, I’ve written many radio ads for many businesses. I own Temple Gym and Tanning salon in Tuscaloosa Alabama and have helped others open Gyms also. I wrote a book about how to open a gym from scratch that includes how to market a fitness center.

If you’re interested go to www.how2ownagym.com or click on the book cover to your right and you can buy the downloadable book there.

I helped Will Herring open his 24 hour fitness center in Auburn, Alabama, Will bought my ebook off the internet and hired me to help him open his gym,  I write most of  his radio ads too and he’s had great success with them.

Will Herring is an NFL football player with the New Orleans Saints and has played for the Seattle Seahawks also. The NFL lockout of 2011 allowed him to fulfill his dream of owning a gym.

Im going to put the actual audio ads up for you to hear also.

Now, let me start by saying that I only run 15 second radio ads for my gym, but Will has tried 15, 30, and 60 second ads with success in all, but for the money, I get my message across in 15 seconds so I don’t do the longer ads unless I have some special that takes longer than that to get across.

As long as I can get Temple Gym (my Gym Name)  and Website (www.templegym.tv) said two or three times , and then a funny short message to fit in between, then im good.

 I’ve found that people usually tune out after that first 15 seconds if they’ve heard the ad before, but they’ll usually not change the station if they know it’s a short ad and there’s a chance the music will return after my ad goes off, so in that way I get my ad in their head even if they think they’ve tuned it out. Yes, subliminally they hear it anyway.

I forgot to mention that I’m also a part time Comedian, (Yes, a Standup Comedian and I own a gym) so I have plenty of experience with humor writing. I don’t shy away from fat jokes either, which you’ll hear in the radio ads.

Here’s some written examples of some ads i wrote, not funny but strait to the point

Temple Gym in Northport is a 24 hour fully automated gym. Temple Gym is also the only gym known to offer a 100% risk free
guarantee. Check out the specials at Temple Gym on the web at templegym.tv that’s templegym.tv or
call 333-9999
 
OR

 
Herring Fitness, located by makitas restaurant, is a 24 hour fully automated gym with a 30 day guarantee
ladies love our privacy and security and men like wide aray of equipment we have. check out the video tour on the web at
herringfitness.com thats herringfitness.com or call 887-9999

Listen to the ads below for Herring Fitness and see what you think

HERRING FITNESS FAT AND UGLY MIXED_6_28_11

HILLBILLY HERRING MUSIC 

 what can your Gym do to compete with

 a $10 a month Gym?

I had this happen to me and the owner of Worlds Gym in my town of Tuscaloosa Alabama

First of all, I must mention that my town was torn apart by the April 27th tornado that totally destroyed Planet Fitness and Worlds Gym which were about 300 yards apart

Now let me tell you how they came to be so close to each other and what happend because of that

The Worlds gym used to be a Golds Gym until the franchise raised their franchise fees so much the owner decided to change over to Worlds Gym a few years ago.

He did pretty well until he made a fatal business decision

He bought some property behind big lots which is in the same shopping center that his Golds Gym in was for 20 years, the loactionwas like going from the busiest shopping center with plenty of parking to a storage building in the shady part of town, which is what it looked like.

He then built a big metal 2 story building there and made his second fatal mistake. He didnt have but a few windows in the whole building and no store front really to make it look like a Gym Buisness.

Then Planet Fitness moved into his old Gold Gym space in the busy shopping center.

Needless to say, $10 a monthcompared to his $45 to $70 a monthfor single membership with a locker and towels is a no brainer especially when the economy went south.

He didnt do any advertising at all, when he owned Golds he really didnt need to because he was the only gym in town. Now he had competition and still didnt heed the call of Marketing his Gym.

he couldntcompete with$10 MONTH but the could compete with atmosphere and the exact opposite type gym members as Planet Fitness is going after, which are the treadmillers. His base is serious gym goers.

Here’s how he could have competed:

1. Have a website that has the info potential members actually want and not flashy and corporate looking, for an example of what i do for my gym and others like mine you can look at my website and one of my clients website, Will Herring, a NFL football player for the Seattle Seahawks who hired me to open his gym and market it. my wesite is http://templegym.tv and Will Herrings Gym Website  is http://herringfitness.com

2. Target your market. stay away from the everyone is my target, because you’ll never hit your target market like that.

3. Use a email marketing system like I do with aweber email marketing at www.aweber.com

4. Use banners by the road side if your city lets you. I must say that i have had great luck with funny banners that get attention like this one that is a little risky but hey, that’s how I Roll, IE. Im also a part time Stand Up Comedian so people expect it from me.

Here’s the headline on the banner I came up with, by the way always use a headline on your banners to catch attention!!! Here it is, “TIRED OF BEING FAT AND UGLY? JUST WANT TO BE UGLY? THEN GO TO WWW.TEMPLEGYM.TV OR CALL 222-2222

Told you it was edgy, but i got a ton of compliments, especially from ugly people!

Anyway, after the Tornado swept through town and destroyed my competitions buildings, I heard the owner of World’s Gym wasntgoing to rebuild because he was losing money every month big time because of Planet Fitness, so he’s kinda of glad in a way.

Planet fitness is rebuilding and I’m considering opening a gym on the other side of town because i know i can compete.

Check out my book about how to open a Gym from scratch, or Convert your gym into a 24 hour gym at www.how2ownagym.com

If you would like to contact me about marketing, opening, or converting your gym, email me at fitnessmarketing.tv

Thanks and God Bless, Shannon Cook

If your starting a gym, fitness center, or health club, this is the system to use

Below, im also posting the youtube videos of the firebug software gym access system i have installed in my gym

click here for all info about The Firebug Software 24 hour Gym Access System

contact me for more info on the system or any questions and i’ll be happy to help

shannon cook  email:  fitnessmarketing@comcast.net

To learn how to open a 24 hour fitness center, build and start a gym from scratch, manage a gym, and fitness center marketing, check out my book at www.how2ownagym.com

What I learned about customer service from my ex-wife, and How to keep your Gym and Tanning members from Bad Mouthing your gym if and when they cancel their Gym Membership

When it comes to Fitness Center Marketing, this is just as important as any Marketing you can do for your Fitness Center, Gym, or Tanning Salon

So what did my ex-wife teach me about customer service? That some people will never be satisfied, Period! Oh, and never to go into court unless you have a bag full of money and bus full of lawyers, and that means not trying to sue a gym member over a few hundred dollars because it will cost you time, money, and more members than that one.

I know you think your gym and members are different from the one’s you hear about from new members that come in saying “that other gym is pitiful, they suckered me into signing a contract and didn’t tell me so and so”

Then two months later when these same people try to cancel their 1 or 2 year contract at your gym, and you tell them the same thing the other gym told them, they go out and bad mouth your gym.

There are some people you cant satisfy. I know, because I’ve got an ex-wife that would make the devil give his contract up on her soul.

Here’s what I do with someone who breaks their contract or just wants to quit because their unhappy at my gym.

I try to talk to them first and find out why their unhappy. Than I tell them they have a contractual obligation just like with a cell phone company.

If that fails, and I can tell they’re the type that will just cancel a credit card or checking account anyway, then i will tell them to consider their contract cancelled and hope they will return when they decide to join a gym again.

This has never failed to get a positive response, and some have come and rejoined later. But the best part is that the bad mouthing almost stopped.

I do try to make aware to the member at sign up, about our policy about cancelling their membership.

I started putting a cancellation notice on the bottom of our contracts that they have to initial so they cant come in and say, like I’ve heard so many times, “i wasn’t told about the cancellation policy. even though its on the back in all the fine print too.

I don’t like fine print about an important issue, so i have it on there twice so they cant say they didn’t know. Your employees are not going to remember to tell everyone that sign’s up about the cancellation policy, and even if they did, they’ll tell you that they weren’t told.

I know you hard nosed business folks are saying ” the contract plainly states the policy, so i dont care”, and your right. But i’m just telling you what i have expierenced for 8 years now.

I have members come in or call in and all the time saying they haven’t been to the gym in 9 months, and they should not be required to finish their contract out because of that, or they say “I called 2 months ago and left a message on the answering machine saying i wanted to cancel, and your gym is still drafting my account and i want a refund for the past 2 months.”

With these people i have no fear. Tell them to get their contract out and read it again. Of course they say then that they lost their contract. then i tell them I’ll mail them a copy if they like. All the time being nice. Usually this disarms these excuse makers, but sometimes i cancel them if they are the type of people that i spoke of at the beginning of this post.

Nice will get you so much further in life. My ex-wife has much to learn in this area, thank god i cancelled her contract!!!

To learn how to open a 24 hour fitness center, build and start a gym from scratch, manage a gym, and fitness center marketing, check out my book at www.how2ownagym.com  

Questions or comments?

email:  fitnessmarketing@comcast.net

Pro’s and Con’s of personal member security alert system, or 911 pendant, and which one you should you buy when starting a fitness center or tanning salon

You can also use this in your fitness center marketing campaigns like I do by stating the safety factor for women and older folks

There are many options out there now that allow your gym members to feel secure when alone in your gym or tanning salon

I’ve seen different kinds of emergency pendants, like the in-wall mounted kind, in gyms like snap fitness and 24 hour fitness. If your like me though, you don’t want a monthly fee for monitoring. There’s only one product I’ve found that you can buy and just plug the base into your phone line  and that’s it. There’s only one button on the pendant and when pressed, the only phone number it knows is 911.

You do have to have a phone line for this to work right though. I had a VOIP router  by T-mobile and it kept interfearing with my cable router and that in turn made the pendant keep going dead so I kept having to check it and restart it all the time.

In my gym I use The Guardian 911 pendant

The only one that requires No Monitoring Fees, Service Charges or Contracts ever.

Talk Directly through your pendant to a 911 emergency operator at the push of a button.

The Guardian Alert 911 system is a set – a base station which plugs into the phone jack – and a pendant which is worn by the user.

The system can operate anywhere in and around the home – with the base station plugged into a phone jack in the central part of the home.

The Pendant runs up to a year on a AAA alkaline battery (included). The pendant is splash resistant so it can even be taken into the shower. The Test Button on the bottom of the unit gives an audible confirmation of battery condition. Hold the Test Button in an extra few seconds – and you can confirm that the full system is working.

System Suggested Retail: $199.95.

I didnt try to push my gym or sell memberships at all when i sent out this press release.

I knew they would see that i really and truly wanted to get this great life changing info out to their readers.

I read tim ferriss’s new book “The Four Hour Body” and thought this new way of dieting and exercising would be great for people who think they could never lose their weight and would not want to exercise because they think it takes being in a gym for hours at a time for many days a week.

Tim’s book dispells all that, and so did i.

You may not believe that a gym owner would ever tell anyone to stay out of a gym more if they want to lose weight and build more muscle, but in fact its psycoliogical, because they will still have to come to the gym for the tools they need to exercise, i just tell them how they can do it easier.

Here’s the press release that got picked up, and im sure it didnt hurt the sells of  Tim’s book either.

Press Release

“spend less time in the gym and lose more weight?” 

YES, a gym owner said this. “I see people come in all gung ho when they first join the gym only to see them fall off a month later from overdoing it and being so sore they cant move for days, after their first few workouts.

 they think that’s the way they’ll feel after every workout”,and they don’t have to do all that to lose weight and tone up, says shannon cook, owner of 24 hour temple gym and tanning salon in northport, alabama.

he goes on to tell why you don’t have to become a gym rat to get results

spending 30 minutes 3 to 4 times a week is adequate according to “The colorado expriment”. a study done in 1973 by creator of nautilus fitness equipment, arthur jones, and the same expriment done in 2007 by author of the book “four hour body”, Tim Ferriss.

the study states

“High-intensity training is not easy . . . the training sessions are brief, indeed must be brief, but there is an apparently natural inclination on the part of most subjects to hold back.” Most exercises are terminated at a point well below an actual point of muscular failure, then, in an effort to compensate for the reduction intensity, the usual practice is to add more exercise to the program.

However, no amount of additional exercise will compensate for a reduction in the intensity of exercise … and if carried to extremes, which such training frequently is, the subject may actually prevent growth by exceeding the recovery ability of the system”.

What is going to failure? (I.E., REACHING THE POINT WHERE YOU CAN NO LONGER MOVE THE WEIGHT). TIM FERRISS ALSO PERFORMED EVERY REPETITION WITH A 5/5 CADENCE (FIVE SECONDS UP, FIVE SECONDS DOWN) ACCORDING TO HIS BOOK.

arnold schwarzenegger made exercising to muscle failure popular, and won a record number of competitions by doing it.

however, arnold did more than 30 minutes of exercising, but he also wanted to have over 200 pounds of muscle on his frame, most of us just want to be TONED, feel good, and have more energy which can be achieved simply by devoting the 30 minutes you exercise to actual intense exercise.

“I know being a gym owner people will find it hard to believe that im telling them to spend less time in my gym, but i’d be doing them a disservice by telling them to spend 2 hours per session in here and get burnt out, people don’t have that amount of time these days shannon cook says”, but having a 24 hour fully automated Gym and Tanning Salon makes it eaiser for gym goers to have all access to the Tools they will need to acomplish any physical goal.

END.

Shannon Cook can be reached at fitnessmarketing@comcast.net  for questions or comments.

Website: www.templegym.tv

Email: templegym@comcast.net

That’s the exact layout for my press release. always give the reporter or editor good information that they and their readers need to know, and you’ll get free publicity for your fitness center or gym.  this is how i get a lot of my marketing done for free.

If you’d like Shannon to write your press release contact him at fitnessmarketing@comcast.net

To learn how to open a 24 hour fitness center, build and start a gym from scratch, manage a gym, and fitness center marketing, check out my book at www.how2ownagym.com

By: Shannon Cook         Fitness Marketer

               I get all kinds of postcards in the mail about a wide range of subjects from dentist to medicines to gyms, and I always see the picture on the front and throw them away. So when I decided to do my postcards I decided to make them look like there something very important. I had the unfortunate luxury one time of getting a past due notice from the power company, and that red postcard stuck with me when I was trying to figure out how to get my postcards read.

What would you do if you found a past due notice in your mail box, the first thing you do is put it in the “read” stack. Then you open it to find that it’s not a real past due notice for a utility company, but a past due notice on extending your life. With a headline and body copy that keeps them as interested as watching Barack Obama figure out what to say without a teleprompter, or watching George Bush dodge a shoe like a cat being hit with water from a hose.

So, now with the bipartisan politics out of the way, here’s how you go about this scratch and sniff marketing project.

 I start with a red post card stock that tears into 4 postcards. I print ½ the page with my copy on one side and the same copy n the other ½ of the page, this way I can fold the ½ together and tape it so they will have to open it to look inside and the post office only charges me for the small postcard rate.

            Then on one side of the back I use a stamped font that you can download off the net, and I write “Past Due,” to look like a past due power bill, so they will be worried enough to open it and read it, but you must keep the curiosity going inside from the past due that got them to open it to start with. For my mailing list I use Info USA, online, where you can select certain demographics and areas around your facility. I recommend not going more than 3 miles from you facility with any mailing list.         

            For a note: I never use any postcards with a picture on it like a bodybuilder or really fit person, or even a piece of exercise equipment, if you must use a picture make it a unique one and one that directly goes with your message.

To learn how to open a 24 hour fitness center, build and start a gym from scratch, manage a gym, and fitness center marketing, check out my book at www.how2ownagym.com

            Shannon Cook is the owner on Temple Gym in Northport, Alabama and a fitness marketing consultant, you can view my blog at www.fitnessmarketing.TV or contact Shannon at fitnessmarketing@comcast.net with questions

 I like to be different, so instead of getting tattoos to stand out, i use things that will be memorable, and when it comes to business cards i want people to keep and share my cards with others

whats the best wat to do that, being funny  

Being a part time comedian, I love making people laugh, so I decided to give prospects something that is out of the ordinary when it comes to business cards.

Here’s the card I made, its two sided, so they see the fat guy and his BEFORE picture, then the AFTER picture on the other side, but either way they read it they laugh

I wrote this out in about an hour and sent it to my printer and had 250 cards made

Every time I hand them out, I get a laugh and have many people come back to me and ask for more to give to their friends, which is the whole point anyway, isn’t it?

What can you come up with that will make a prospect want to keep your card and show it to others?

My wife tells me some of the fitness marketing copywriting ads I come up with may be offensive to someone, but it always the people that aren’t gonna use my gym anyway, so who cares.

One banner I put up said, “being dead 24 hours a day, or exercising 30 minutes a day, which fits your schedule better?”

Another banner I put up was, “Fat and Ugly? Just want to be ugly? Then visit www.templegym.tv for the fat loss, and the plastic surgeon for the other?

I had people sending me emails all the time and stopping me and telling me how much they loved the banners, and not one complaint.

Want me to write funny stuff for your ads or cards and even radio and tv commercials?

To learn how to open a 24 hour fitness center, build and start a gym from scratch, manage a gym, and fitness center marketing, check out my book at www.how2ownagym.com

Shannon cook-  fitness, gym, and tanning salon marketing consultant

Shannon can be reached at fitnessmarketing@comcast.net