There’s an old fable about a farmer who sold his land to go and search for diamonds during the diamond rush. The farmer rushed off in a hurry to search for these riches.Upon taking over the farm, the new owner explored his property. When crossing a river that cut through the land, he found a massive diamond.How does that relate to marketing and your gym? In two words: stale leads.Finding and nurturing new leads takes a lot of effort.But leads that we’ve lost or that have disengaged might be hidden diamonds. All it takes to find out if they still hold potential is a simple email hack.
No vs. Not Now
One key concept of sales is understanding that not everyone who is interested in your product is ready to buy right now. Sometimes the timing is off.Over the course of your gym's lifetime, you will interact with thousands of people. Most will not end up clients of your on the first go-round.But at any given moment in time, a good number of them might have been thinking about their health, wellness, fitness or nutrition. In fact, many of them likely had some thoughts about "losing weight" or "getting back into the gym".This is why the 9 word email is so effective.
The 9 Word Email
This is the 9 word email. (Actually it's 10, but who's counting?)
This is simplicity at it's best, but let's break it down.
The Subject
- Personalized. In order to take advantage of this, you will have to use an emailing system or CRM which can do mail merges. This personalization make it slightly more appealing for the person to read. If your system cannot do mail merging, just omit the name and make it "Hey, quick Q".
- Friendly. It's written in a way that seems/feels very human. You could write "quick question", but a real person speaking to a friend would be more apt to write "q" instead of "question.
- Open Ended. It leaves the reader wondering what the question is, so they are compelled to open it.
The Body
- Simple and Short. Leave no room for distraction or the reading spacing off in boredom.
- Speaks to an Emotional Pain. Many people feel pain about being out of shape. They are constantly fighting an inner demon (and mainstream media) telling them they need to get in shape. They might have a doctor advising them. IT might be a burden to them to have to figure out how to get in shape. You're speaking to this pain and presenting an easy solution to explore.
- Is a Question. Since this email is so short, personal and ends with a question, people will feel compelled to reply.
The Reply and How to Deal With It
More often than not, since this email is crafted so casually, you will get a casual reply. Do not be surprised if you see a reply like:"Yeah!"What they say is not as important as the fact that they replied. As long as they replied somehow to the affirmative, pick up the conversation and get it going.Ask them about their specific pain point, and where they need help. Then craft your conversation around those things. Focus on how you can help them solve something in their lives, and you'll be closing deals left and right.
The 9 Word Email Strategy For Your Boutique Gym
Like any special weapon, if you deploy this too much it'll lose all effectiveness. Do not use this email more than 2 times per year.Also, obviously, only send this to non-clients. Ideally only people who never became a client to begin with. You can device a seperate 9 word email strategy for people who used to be clients and have quit ("We've missed you! Can we help you get in shape?")
