In this episode of The Pilates Business Podcast, host Seran Glanfield unveils simple strategies you can implement today to boost your online and local visibility.
Learn how to claim your online presence, create engaging content, leverage local partnerships, and encourage positive reviews to attract new clients and transform your studio from a hidden gem to a local landmark.
In this episode of The Pilates Business Podcast, host Seran Glanfield unveils simple strategies you can implement today to boost your online and local visibility.
Learn how to claim your online presence, create engaging content, leverage local partnerships, and encourage positive reviews to attract new clients and transform your studio from a hidden gem to a local landmark.
Hey there, studio owners. Do you sometimes feel like your studio is a hidden gem? Perhaps you are frustrated that clients can't seem to find your studio, even though you're right there in the middle of your community, even though it's right around the corner. You're not alone, and what I want you to know is that there are a few simple and effective strategies that you can implement relatively quickly and relatively easily that will make your studio more discoverable locally and also more visible locally. So in this episode of the Pilates Business Podcast, I'm going to share some of the secrets to boosting your local visibility in your community. Well, hi there, I'm Saren Glanfield. I'm a business and marketing strategist just for boutique fitness studio owners like you. If you're ready to be inspired and make a bigger impact, you're in the right place. All you need are a few key strategies, the right mindset and some support along the way. Join me as I share the real-life insights that will help you grow a sustainable and profitable studio. This is the Pilates Business Podcast. Welcome back to the Pilates Business Podcast. I'm Sarah and I'm thrilled that you're here with me today.
Speaker 1:
We just got started here at Spring 3 with a fabulous new cohort inside of my program. We kicked off last week with a round of the Marketing Intensive. This is the beginning of my Thrive program now, and I am encouraging everybody to do this program. First because the Marketing Intensive is where we make sure that you are not missing any revenue opportunities in your business, so things gaps that might be perhaps costing you money right now, and this is also we look at how we can streamline, how you're bringing clients into your business and how you're retaining clients over their lifetime with you. And so it's been a busy week. I've been getting to know all of the studio owners inside and learning about their businesses and what they want to get out of their businesses. Because, as you know and I talk about this a lot and if you've ever worked with me, you'll know that I'm a firm believer that no two businesses are the same, and so when you join my programs, I get to know you, I get to know your goals and what it is that you want to get out of your business so that it works for you, not the other way around. And so when we go through the marketing intensive programs and we go through these exercises that I invite you to participate in, and we talk about all of these things we do talk a lot about, obviously, about marketing, and we do also talk a lot about visibility, right, and it's kind of, you know, it's one of those things because visibility is often very, very overlooked.
Speaker 1:
It's kind of tricky to measure. We don't really know how many people know that your business exists, so it can be something that we don't tend to be able to put a number on, and maybe that's one of the reasons why we don't really think about it that much. But it truly is, I think, one of the key ingredients into making your studio business thrive. And when we look at it from that perspective, we think about that marketing funnel and we think about how many people know that you exist and are aware that you exist. That visibility component is often sort of that invisible ingredient into your sort of marketing success, that recipe that makes your marketing a success, right. And that's kind of interesting to me, because when we think about what does visibility really mean? Well, it's a lot of different things, okay.
Speaker 1:
So I wanted to talk to you today a little bit about this element of your marketing funnel, this kind of component of your marketing funnel, and how you can make sure that you are not making the mistake that many studio owners are making right now, which is overlooking this component. And so having a beautiful studio, having amazing teachers, having an amazing experience for your clients, like I know you all have, is only half of what makes your business successful, right? The reason being is that if no one really knows that you exist, you will continue to be the best kept secret in town, and that, by the way, you guys, is not a good thing, no matter what people might take pride in telling you about how they've never done any marketing and never any advertising, and they've gotten all these clients. That's great. My thought is always wow whenever I hear people say that to me, and they say that to me with a lot of pride in their voice, and I always think, gosh, imagine what you could have done or who you could have impacted with your work if you had perhaps just done a little bit of marketing, and how many more people could be benefiting from your movement, that you offer in your business. And so to me, it's not just about how much it impacts your profit and your revenue.
Speaker 1:
Obviously, as a business consultant and coach, that's pretty important too, but we want to make sure that you're also reaching the right people and people who want what you have to offer. And I believe that there are millions of people out there that need exactly what you're doing, and so the gap between them finding you and where they're at right now it has to do with taking them on that journey and pulling them into your business, and the first step is that they just have to be aware that you exist right, and that's why increasing your visibility is only going to help your business, and it's absolutely crucial for getting new clients in the door and making sure you've got a nice big pool of people to pull into your classes and into your sessions. And the good news is in fact, I think this is actually the best news that you might hear all day and that is that you don't need a huge marketing budget or a team of advertising experts to get started. There are I'm going to share with you today. Let's see.
Speaker 1:
I've got about four different ways that I want to share with you today that you can make sure that your business is optimized to be visible to your local community Some simple but quite actionable things that you can do quickly that will pay you back not just one time, but over and over and over again, regardless of your tech skills or your budget. Now, obviously, whenever I do a marketing audit and we look at the entire customer journey, there's a lot to that, and so when we work through that inside of my marketing intensive program, we don't just look at visibility, we also look at all of the other components of what makes your marketing recipe a success. But this I'm going to share with you a few of the things that, when it comes to visibility, is going to be super important for you, okay. So, number one, you are going to want to make sure that you are optimized on all of these search platforms, okay, and what that means is that I want you to go to Google my Business right now and I want you to claim your listing, and if you haven't visited Google my Business for a while, or you haven't looked at your profile for a while, let this be a little reminder to you to go and check that out Now. I talk to my Thrive folks about this on a regular basis. This is something that we talk about a lot, and I show them exactly what they can do. We talk about what they can do to make sure that their listing is optimized right, but you need to make sure that you do have a presence within the search platforms, okay, and you need to know where you rank there, because there's often quite a few things you can do to help make sure that you are not the bottom of the page or even perhaps a few pages deep when it comes to your Google listing.
Speaker 1:
Google is, I would say, one of the most important search platforms out there, but it's not the only one. There are quite a few others, and you'll find that, I think you know, over time, people might find that they start using some other platforms as well. So you do want to make sure that you can be very easy to find and you want to make sure, really, that you're showing up not just you're showing up on Google, but you're showing up on Google Maps, and the other one that people often forget about and neglect is the Apple Maps as well and so you're going to want to make sure that you are findable and searchable on both and that you show up in the way that you want to be seen by people who are looking for what you have to offer. And don't forget, when people find you on these platforms, they don't know you yet, right? If you're popping up in a Google search, that's the very first impression they have of your business, so make it a good one. All right Now.
Speaker 1:
You also want to make sure, when it comes to your online presence, specifically, that you are also active on social media. Okay, now, I don't believe this is the only way for you to get clients In fact, I don't think it is actually the best way always to get clients but it is important that you have a presence, and so if it's been a few weeks since you posted something to your feed, then let this be a little reminder for you to go and post something. All right Now. I do not think that there is anything that you need to make everything you do online perfect. In fact, I think a lot of the reasons why you might get new clients is because you're sharing what's real and what's really happening in your studio.
Speaker 1:
But you do want to make sure that you are posting regularly to that feed, and that's quite different to your stories, and the reason why I I'm letting you know that you want to be um posting to your feed is because, if you haven't posted a post there for a while, if someone finds you online and they go to your profile. You may not have posted a story within the last 24 hours, and so they're going to start looking at your feed, and if they see that you haven't posted anything to your feed for a few weeks or a few months or some cases, I find, a few years you're going to be giving that impression that you are closed, and I don't want that for you, because if your business is open for business, then one way you can make sure everybody knows that is if you're posting regularly to your feed Now, regularly, how often does that really mean? Well, that's a question that I like to talk through with my clients, because it's a balance between what you're looking to achieve with your social media marketing. Okay, so we want to just make sure that you've got a presence there, that you are consistent about posting there, and if you haven't been for a while, this is a little reminder that maybe now is a good time. All right, okay, so we've talked a bit about the online presence.
Speaker 1:
Now you also want to make sure that what you're saying in all of these profiles, what you're sharing in your content, is going to be content that resonates with your ideal clients. This is also the way that you introduce your business and the words that you're using to describe what you do. And again, inside of the Marketing Intensive, we dive into this in so much depth that you walk away with not just one way of introducing your business or one tagline. I give you a toolkit that you can pull from, because there are many, many, many places along that customer journey that you're going to want to share and affirm the value that you add to your clients. And there's lots and lots of ways to do this, lots of different ways to present this kind of information and sometimes education and sometimes inspiration, to not just your current clients but also potential clients, and even when you're trying to win back past clients. So content, and the content comes in a lot of different shapes and sizes, but we want to make sure your content and what you're sharing is relevant and it does resonate with your ideal clients.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so you want to make sure you're not just pitching constantly, not just promoting constantly. It's not. It kind of tends to often fall eventually on kind of flat ears. We want to make sure that you are engaging with your content. Is we want to make sure that you are engaging with your content, you're providing information and inspiration and education that is going to be of interest with your clients some potential clients and make them sit up and take notice, and that means that you need to develop this as sort of a skill, and I think that the number one skill that was really overlooked when it comes to building and growing a business is communication, and you might think but hey, saren, I'm talking all day long to my clients.
Speaker 1:
I think I'm pretty good at that and I agree with you. When it comes to teaching, I have no doubt that you are phenomenal at communicating what it is that you need your clients to do in their classes or their sessions, but what I find the big gap, where I find the big gap really exists, and when it comes to talking about your business and what the impact is of your work, and being able to do that in a way that engages that person you're talking to, or the person that is reading your website or scrolling through your feed on social media, and there is an art to that and that truly is a skill. And again, I show you, I'm showing folks how to do that right now. It's like the marketing intensive, and this is one of my favorite things to do, because there are so many sort of light bulb moments of oh my gosh, why didn't I think of saying that before? And I can't believe that I haven't been sharing this information already. And it's just so incredible to watch the change that happens for so many of the studio owners inside, and so it is really powerful when you lean into learning this skill and when you finally find that voice and those words. It's so incredibly powerful. So we want to make sure that what you're saying is important and you want to make sure you've claimed your online presence.
Speaker 1:
The third element of making sure that you are visible in your local community is and this is going to sound super obvious, but it is that you have to be active in your local community. Right, you have to get out of the four walls of your studio and you have to start to network and be present in a lot of the events that exist in your local community. You might want to think about and consider collaborating with other local businesses so you can cross promote to each other's audiences, but you want to make sure that, if you do that, that you are doing it in a way that actually targets the right kind of people so that you're ideal clients. Okay, so think about where there is a crossover and you know there are scenarios I've seen where you can go to another fitness facility and partner with them. But I'd encourage you to perhaps look a little bit beyond the boutique fitness world and think about where else in your community your clients tend to go and see if you can find some very creative and fun and exciting ways to collaborate with other businesses, and I think this is another area where you tend to be really good at finding fun, creative ways to do this, and so lean into that and see that as opportunity, because it truly is. When you perhaps organize workshops or events in partnership with other folks who are doing things that you know your clients would be interested in, it can create a lot of buzz in your business, and that is only a good thing.
Speaker 1:
Right Now, you also want to make sure that you are getting involved in local community events. This is really important to raise awareness and to build relationships and again, as you know, with marketing it is not just a one-time thing. You can't just check that box once a year. It's something that you need to be doing on a consistent basis, and the reason being is I want to see you stay top of mind with your clients, so you want to make sure that you're doing this on a regular and consistent basis and you want to make sure that you are encouraging people to leave reviews for you in all the places, whether that's Google, yelp, social media. You want to make sure you are getting glowing testimonials from your clients and you're sharing them in the best possible places. Okay, that social proof component is really powerful and can really help to elevate your status within your community in terms of being the go-to place. So if you've got a client who sees their friend in your social media feed share a testimonial, then they're going to be more inclined to come to you because they've seen someone they know, who they trust, who is already your client. So there's just a few ways that you can help to boost your visibility locally, in your local community, and we tend to lean and look at social media and online platforms quite heavily, but it really is a mix of both being active and present online as well as being active and present in person in your local community.
Speaker 1:
I always say the fastest way to get more clients is to find ways to meet more people locally and have that verbiage and that stories and the invitation really available to you at the tip of your tongue to be able to create that rapport with the people that you're meeting and being able to share with them a little bit about why your studio might be a great spot for them to come and check out. So there you have it. You want to make sure you're claiming your online presence. You want to make sure that you're sharing key information about what it is that you do on a regular basis, online and offline, and look for ways to leverage local partnerships and create a network of folks in your community who you can lean on to refer people to you, host events with and cross promote alongside All right. So there you have it. Some of these quite simple, right, but very, very powerful strategies can really transform your studio from being that hidden gem to being that local go-to studio that everyone goes to. And that combination of having a solid online presence and a strong local connections really is key to attracting new clients in the door and retaining them over a long period of time, and it's those two parts together, those two things together, is what builds a thriving studio business Okay, and I want to make sure that you are not invisible.
Speaker 1:
I want to make sure that people know who you are and know what you do and see you in the best possible light. So if you're looking for a little bit more of an in-depth guidance and support on growing your studio, then check out Thrive. It's where all the cool kids hang out, and we talk about this stuff in a lot of detail every single week, with some very specific examples that might be relevant to your business. And we make sure that they're relevant to your business because, as you know, this is not something that is a one size fits all check the box once situation Marketing is unique to your business and what you have to offer, and it's a game of consistency, which is a whole lot easier when you've got someone else to look to for inspiration, ideas and support. So I hope this was helpful to you as you build your boutique fitness studio business.
Speaker 1:
If you enjoyed this episode today, please go to wherever you're listening to this and write a quick review. I'd be so, so, so appreciative. It would mean a ton to me. I would also help to get this podcast out there in front of, or to the ears of a few more studio owners just like you, so that they too can feel encouraged and supported on their journey in our industry. Did you love this episode and want more? Head to spring3.com and check out my free resources that will help you run a profitable and fulfilling studio business. And before you go, one last reminder there is no one way to do what you do, only your way. So whatever it is that you want to do, create or offer, you've got this. Thanks again for joining me today and have a wonderful rest of your day.