Heeey – Steve here.
One of our Fit Body Boot Camp owners in Illinois named Dustin Martorano, just sent me an email with a darn good “out-of-thebox” boot camp marketing idea.
(Our Fit Body Boot Camp owners are always pushing the envelope… I love it)
Here is the email…
“Hey Steve, I came up with an idea of how us trainers can get daycare for FREE and blow up our businesses all at the same time. I attached a word document with details. Let me know what you think”
And here’s the blueprint for his “Day Care Optimizer” strategy.
FREE-4-U Day Care Optimizer
Why should you have day care available?
It’s simple really.
How many times have you had a prospect completely sold up to the minute they ask about day care?
Do you recall how crappy it felt to lose a client because they didn’t have a baby sitter?
I can’t tell you how many prospects have slipped through my fingers for that very reason. I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be that way.
I’ve figured out a way to get local day care centers to practically beg you to send your clients there allowing you to never have to deal with the “I have no-one to watch my kids” objection ever again.
And the process is simple really.
First you make a list of all the local private day care centers or babysitters within a five my radius from your training location (stick to family owned places with multiple employees).
Next, get in contact with each of the owners and let them know you’re looking for the perfect place to refer your clients to.
Tell them you’d like to send tons of business their way simply by making them the preferred child care specialists of your specific training business.
Then, conduct a short interview process.
Ask them questions regarding their experience level and also that of their employees.
Let them know that you don’t take yours clients safety lightly and that a thorough interview process is necessary.
Finally, ask each owner what they think would be a fair price to charge your clients to drop their child/children off for an hour and a half every time they were scheduled to train with you.
Be sure to explain to them the benefits of partnering with you such as increased traffic to their business, added emails to their subscriber list and of course added revenue.
Once you’ve gotten quotes from 10 or more local day care centers /babysitters, take a day or so to review the all the answers you’ve gotten through the interview process.
Be sure to factor in the vibe you got from each of the owners, compare their locations, contact lists and finally their prices.
After you’ve done this your list should be down to about 3 to 4 serious contenders.
At this time setup a second in-person interview and a tour of each of their respective facilities.
At this point you should be able to narrow the list down again to about 1-2 finalists.
And at this stage of the process either of the finalists will likely be a good fit for your business so simply make a choice between the two.
Upon making your final decision ask the day care center you’ve chosen to send out an email blast to their list announcing their partnership with you.
Be sure to compose this email yourself and don’t try to sell boot camp/training off the email.
Instead use the email to introduce yourself and extend an invitation for their clients and prospects to come try your boot camp/group training program free for two weeks but only for a limited time.
If doing a mailing insert a gift card into each envelope and compose the letter in a manner that makes it appear handwritten.
(I’m sure there’s software capable of this)
Last but not least offer to train the owner and staff of the day care center for free in exchange for referrals.
This is simply another way you can tap into their network.
As you can see by utilizing my “FREE-4-You Day Care Optimizer” you can easily solve your child care issues completely free, all while adding a new stream of training leads to your ever expanding fitness business.
Dustin Martorano
FBBC Grayslake
Let me know what you thought of this post and if you have any questions for Dustin about his boot camp marketing strategy.
This is genius! I never thought about going to the daycare centers for this…and they have our niche sitting in the palm of their hands. The only thing I would add to this is maybe offering a Fit Day Challenge for the kids at the daycare. Most daycares do a summer camp and this would be a great way to keep the relationship going and have the parents eating out of your hands at the event.
Comment by Joyce — June 29, 2010 @ 3:50 am
Great ideas!!!
…few questions: did you manage to get anyone day care to do it for FREE?
Is it possible to post your example letter/email to them?
Comment by Georgette Pann — June 29, 2010 @ 6:03 am
Great idea! Thanks for sharing!
Lisa ;o)
Comment by Lisa Pozzoni — June 29, 2010 @ 6:26 am
That is such a brillant idea! I am all over it and actually will do the Fit Day Challenge for the kids at daycare! So awesome!!! I love the help you give us Steve! Just when it seems I am running out of places to go to boost my business which is low right now, I get a boost like this. GOD IS GREAT!
Thanks again Steve Hochman!
Bless you and your family.
Comment by Brenda Lee — June 29, 2010 @ 7:04 am
Awesome idea Dustin!
B
Comment by Bedros — June 29, 2010 @ 7:41 am
I’m not seeing how this is a “free” service. Basically, my business is not going to pay a daycare provided but my clients will? So aside from having a “go-to” daycare provider that I can recommend to my clients, I’m not necessarily making life any easier or making the deal with the potential client that much sweeter.
Now if I were able to say to that potential client, “Yeah, we offer free in-house daycare for all members so bring the kids along at no extra charge”, that would be a huge selling point. I suppose I could even charge a nominal fee per kid and it would still be a deal closer…as long as it was in-house.
Folks in my area won’t pay for a sitter so they can come to a class. Its unfortunate but true. I’m offering a morning class right now and we have an adult watching kids for the hour at $2/head. This has helped a little. But, its all in-house and gives the client a higher comfort level.
Comment by chase — June 29, 2010 @ 9:02 am
these ideas always come in @clutch times!
Comment by jin — June 29, 2010 @ 10:13 am
There’s doggie daycare within half a mile of my facility. Kids can stay in cages for an hour right……..
Comment by Nathan Cragg — June 29, 2010 @ 10:34 am
Joyce, your “Fit Day Challenge” idea is brilliant. I’ll be adding that to the “free-for-you” daycare optimizer immedietly.
Chase, call me and i’ll explain to you how and why this works. 224-430-8708
Thanks Steve!!!
Comment by Dustin — June 29, 2010 @ 1:18 pm
Sick Idea that is awesome so smart thanks for sharing.
Comment by Jesse — June 30, 2010 @ 1:52 pm
Definitely had not looked at it as an interview process and qualifying them. I’m potentially going to be doing daycare in house and just getting one of my billboards to do it. She hasn’t been able to refer so this is a great way to still utilize her. She’ll workout in the early 6am class and do day care in the later morning class. Definitely had a few moms decline joining because of no day care and this will definitely be an added value for prospects.
What could even be easier (just thought of this now) is posting an ad on Craigslist for a qualified person/mom where you give them free boot camp in one timeslot and have them babysit the kids in the second class if they are willing to come back for that time or that would work even better if you had back to back classes
Comment by Jonathan — July 7, 2010 @ 8:58 pm