We teach Affinity Marketing, which is the overarching practice of focusing on your best clients, and making new connections through the “Help First” strategy. That means we don’t usually focus on lead generation or social media advertising, because there are WAY too many easier opportunities to get new clients. People who find your brand online are usually unqualified “cold” leads who are nowhere near ready to sign up for a long-term service. They might not be able to afford a premium service like CrossFit. They might live too far away, or be too busy, or prefer to do Barre in the basement. But sometimes, we DO tell gym owners to run a six-week challenge. We’re a mentorship practice, so we don’t have to stick to a script. Sometimes a gym simply needs some new faces. Sometimes the owner needs a short-term win, even if it’s not a good long-term strategy. And sometimes an owner would simply not worry about their marketing. Tommy Hackenbruck shared his six-week challenge (the New-You Challenge) on our podcast nearly two years ago. Many of the others are copies, so I’ll use NYC as an example. Here’s how to do it best, what to avoid, and what to focus on: First, your focus should be on the long tail. Online challenges are often good at generating leads. Most of these are cold leads–they’re uneducated, unqualified, but curious. It’s hard to convert them to long-term clients, in my experience. But the real value of the challenge is to start a conversation, not convert cold leads into sales. If a person clicks through the ad, reads the landing page, fills in the form…and then suddenly goes dark, it doesn’t mean they’re disinterested. It doesn’t mean they’re scared. It just means they can’t sign up right now. They might not see how your service can solve their problem. They might not yet know they HAVE a problem. Their credit ...
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