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Health & Fitness

TriJake Marketing

Being in business for yourself is fun, exciting, and somewhat stressful. Since opening my own business I always get asked the question, “How do you market yourself.” I keep it really simple.

When you think about marketing for yourself, keeping it simple is a lot easier said than done. Most people I talk to who start their own businesses spread themselves too thin. Whether it be their message, their mission, or their spending. Will talk about spending later. First things first let’s talk about the mission. At TriJake Fitness I send the message that I believe in fundamental fitness training compatible with all fitness levels. That’s it, simple. The mission is to create a comfortable environment under which the people feel safe and supported throughout their training sessions. As long as Everything I do at TriJake Fitness, falls in line with that message and mission i am in sync with success. That is where the discipline comes. I am reminded of a story I heard From the CEO of Southwest Airlines. Southwest Airlines is the “low-fare airline.” Any time during a board meeting somebody brings up that they should have more complementary services or more broad meal choices, the question is asked, “Does it help us be the low-fare airline?” If the answer is no, then the topic or suggestion is dropped. This is how I recommend you make your business decisions. Write a message, make a mission, and stick to it.

Once you have your mission, it is time to make some real-time decisions. I started with a website. I recommend you do as well. Everything happens on the Internet these days. You’d be crazy not to shell out a little bit of money to get your own website. And when I say your own website, I mean your ownwebsite. Not one of these freebies that has no encoding, one click ads, takes you miles from your product, and has 100 different bugs and glitches that send an unprofessional message. I mean your own website. So how do you do it? Look up my main marketing guru Christian Habermann at auctusmarketing.com. Christian has years of experience helping start up companies get rolling. He has a vast network of Internet encoders from around the world. He helps me create a website that is professional, helpful, and legitimate. This should be your first investment. Not newspaper ads, not Internet ads, not signage on the business, but a professional website. Look up Christian and start taking yourself as serious as the Internet does. The other piece that Auctus Marketing Adds to the pie is search engines optimization. Whether we like it or not, Google is where people go to find information, goods, services, and anything else that they need an answer to. Christian has written and co-authored books on this topic, and is currently writing another. He knows what he’s talking about when it comes to SEO. TriJake Fitness has only been open for 7 weeks and the business is all over Google. This is because I listen and do what Christian tells me to do. The bulk of my clients come from Google. And I’m not talking about Google ads either. Although they can be helpful. I believe Google itself, mastering the SEO techniques and diligence make the difference in being found.

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Let’s talk a little bit about bootstrap marketing. This is a technique that was brought on by a lot of agencies in the 80′s. Bootstrap marketing is making your brand site available to other people so they can promote their products. The idea would be to allow people in the same business sector that parallel with your services, but not direct competition, to utilize your space as a means to promote themselves. Bootstrap marketing is brilliant. Not only do you get visibility in a parallel market, You also look like a legitimate place because others want to latch onto you. It is important when you do bootstrap marketing that you let everybody know, for lack there of a better phrase, “Who’s the boss.” Remember any time you do something like this you are endorsing and promoting a product. Make sure you agree with it, make sure it’s relevant to your mission, make sure it’s relevant to your message. Bootstrap marketing is also a wonderful networking tool. It brings like minded people, with like minded thoughts together. In my case we talk about health, wellness, and fitness. I have nutritionists come and do workshops, I have health food sales people come and do workshops, and people love it. Say yes to as many people as possible, and your world will get bigger. The sales representatives will talk you up, the other small businesses will respect you and talk you up, and you will have a genuine feeling of giving back to the business community that you are a part of.

Contact local media. There is no publicity too small that you don’t want an article written about you. Since being open I’ve been on local access television, had articles in local papers, and been featured in local blogs. Always make sure that people hyperlink whatever they put out there about you to your website. Remember the one that Auctus Marketing made for you? Yeah, that one. Articles and videos link to your website do wonders for your search engines optimization. You will fly up the chain of command on Google. When people Google your name or your company’s name, them seeing articles in any sort of publication only validates and gives your name value. I’ll say it again, there is no publicity too small for your company. Say yes to everyone.

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Social media is a third tier marketing tool. I use YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. All of my social media is connected. If something goes on Twitter, it goes to Facebook, it goes to LinkedIn, and so on. Social media is a wonderful vehicle to scatter information about yourself to the masses. But, I have found that social media alone does very little to growing business. Let’s not forget that one grows business by making money. It doesn’t matter how many “Likes” you have on Facebook or how many people follow you on Twitter. @Trijaketruth if there is no substance behind your social media people wont stay hooked. Use your blog. Write many articles, and share them on social media. This will create an inter-web storm. The more your name floats around cyberspace, the easier you will be found on Google and other search engines.

Personal networking. Join your local Chamber of Commerce, go to the events. Tell people you’re a member of the Chamber. Hand your card out and talk to anyone that’ll listen. Get involved with the police station, local high schools, junior high, eat lunch and drink coffee from the local shops around your business. Introduce yourself to everyone. Be of maximum service. That’s personal networking. People will put a face to the brand. Do the next right thing and people will come to you for answers in the future. Personal networking ties Everything we just talked about together.

In summary, to have a successful marketing plan for your business you must: Develop a simple mission and message, design a professional website, work with a marketing professional to develop an SEO game plan, contact any and all local media outlets to publicate stories about your business, make yourself and your business available to same sector businesses, create social media accounts, link them together, and become a personal networking fanatic. Remember, you do all of this just to get one person in the door. Then it’s time for execution. I know something about execution. Call or email me anytime. I truly love this stuff.

Oh yeah, always say please and thank you. Stay grateful and you won’t fail.

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