Fitness Professionals who work with or are expanding active aging programming will identify how to take research on what clients needs, and combine it with the emotional reasons customers want it, for optimal marketing that helps more, sells more and creates more profit.
Preview- A set up of the Active Aging population, who they are, how to address them, the areas important in conveying what you offer- how it can help them- and appealing to them.
Middle- we’ll talk specific recent research and TIE that to program design.
Provides Press –Release information, marketing, and a reason to educate to market
Both examples above give us a continuum – slightly different
80 year olds who perform endurance events, 83 year olds who become certified in fitness for the first time
And 45 year olds who are “old”
The Way We Do It
Better Way……..Marketing isn’t yet present though
The starting point.
Take your existing programs and go back and use these steps. Who is the ideal customer, participant, attendee. What do they want, fear.
49…..emotional reasons that I want to start exercise….
What are the top 10 fears of your customers:
Alone, alone and depressed, alone –broke –and depressed, health concerns, unattractive to opposite sex or to spouse,
Goals and Aspirations:
Be more attractive to the opposite sex, have better job and career opportunities, be able to do what I want, travel, stay independent
27.4 Million 55+ use social media, 19 million of those use Facebook, My mother’s 87 year old friend…Faye
Are you ignoring them on Facebook or giving them a reason to be there?
Pictures of you or of them?
Be thinking about the fact that they used to read Readers Digest, Golf Digest..and now they want to digest!
Value: family, travel, volunteering, legacy, health policy, what will affect their children and grandchildren
These are their motivations. They fear? Falling, lack of independence, embarrassment, getting hurt, soreness
For everyone one that doesn’t want to go to a class with older adults there’s one that doesn’t want to go to a class with younger….focus on ability, develop a way to categorize for ability
Conservative for most of the environments we work in, not all. Yet our greatest opportunities come from working with those new exercisers who have not exercised for years, possibly decades.
To be successful marketing to them you have to be able to remember what it was like when you were clueless.
Be able to think of that relative of yours who dislikes exercise- or at least their exercise experiences. The one who thinks that it’s a choice to exercise or not. Talk to them in your marketing efforts rather than to someone already active.
You’ll have to learn to speak another language.
Increased need to look at alignment, mobility, decrease stiffness, discuss source of stiffness, challenge within safe parameters
Apply Sagittal> Frontal> Transverse in that order and conservatively over weeks for some with static, slow, then dynamic
-Natural decline in the hypothalamus of 1-2% a year…(memory central)
Can be increased with simple regular walking 3x a week 40 minutes (progressed to)
-Recruiting fast twitch muscle fibers(2x as quickly lost) and visual issues
-repeat instructions and remind frequently
-Go through familiar (to you) exercises and stretches step-by-step every time
Let them talk….before, during and after class, facilitate it, Be their source, Let them provide Social Proof with photos, videos, testimonials,
Names of wellness letters, classes, sessions,
Beware of cute and clever and favor clear
Live Well, Age Well, Active Aging, Real Age Reduction, Grey Matters, Silver Sneakers, Spiff After 50, Nifty After 50
Why do they like Perkins?
Set them on a “board,” create events and invite them. In exchange before they leave poll them about what they’d like to see, what they do participate in, their fears
Format of our time
Power
Balance
Suggestions for water exercise, band exercise, light cable exercises, heavier weight training in general
Small Group- partnering up to reinforce learning, spotting, rest and recovery
e.g. four machines – four people, or eight people (recovery ‘coaching)
e.g. Four machines + bands – eight people (no recovery- machine or bands)
e.g. four machines + bands + recovery (12 people)
Maintenance program plus continue with new participant marketing
An example of marketing questions
Marketing Questions
These are probably what they tell you are their goals. When you ask questions about what does that mean, or prompt with “tell me more” what do they say?
Greatest area of growth potential
Think about where your marketing will appear. In the zoo or outside it?
Already captive audience? Or need to come in?
Look at how I have left off parts that can be assumed if you use the right images.
The three little words we want to hear most?
I love you?
Customer to trainer….
Avoidance
Series of sessions, series of recipe cards (brand them)