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Your Online Fitness Resource	Amanda Vogel, MA Vancouver, BC, Canada 10 Steps to Writing More Persuasive Marketing Material As a personal trainer, workshop presenter, fitness manager or entrepreneur running a health- or fitness-based business, you probably don’t have the budget for expensive advertising. Chances are, you write some or all of your own ads, sales flyers, pamphlets and brochures. But could your marketing materials be doing more to bring in business? Fitness professionals often design a brochure to relay business information, but they overlook its capacity to sell. Or, they recognize the selling potential, but lack the skills to write persuasively. Ads and brochures don’t have to be slick to be effective. But the way you write them can have an impact on how much profit you generate. What’s the secret to writing promotional material that attracts more leads—and sales? Here are 10 tips for creating more persuasive copy in your next flyer or advertisement. 1) GRAB ATTENTION WITH A STRONG HEADLINE The headline is the first, and sometimes only, part of your ad prospective customers read. If it interests and intrigues them enough, they’ll keep reading. Many fitness professionals make the mistake of using their business name or a meaningless phrase like "Cutting-Edge Fitness" as a headline. But these are not big attention-grabbers. Headlines should appeal directly to the interests of your prospects. For example, “How to Lose Weight Without Ever Dieting Again.” 2) FOCUS ON THE CLIENT Like the headline, all or most of the copy in your ad should address the interests and needs of your prospective clients, not your interests and needs. Be careful about including long-winded mission statements. Potential members are interested in themselves. They want to know how they can benefit from your services. 3) EMPHASIZE BENEFITS Emphasize the benefits of your business, not just the features. The fact that your facility offers massage is a feature. The fact that massage helps busy members manage the stress of a hectic schedule is a benefit. Having a university degree in kinesiology is a great feature for your personal training business. But how does it benefit your clients? Don’t leave them guessing—tell them. 4) KNOW WHAT MATTERS TO PROSPECTS Sometimes fitness entrepreneurs get carried away with advertising what they think is really great about their facility or business. Luxurious change rooms are an attractive selling point, but are they a top priority for members? Maybe, if your center caters to a high-end, professional market. If it’s a family-oriented complex, you might be better off highlighting your childcare services. 5) ENGAGE THE READER One of the best ways to engage readers is by writing to them, not just about them. This technique is as simple as employing the word "you," like I have done in most of this article. Writing in the second person also helps make copy more conversational and easier to read. 6) USE TESTIMONIALS TO SELL If you use testimonials in your marketing materials, make sure they help make the sale. “A great workshop!” counts as a testimonial, but is it informative? Not really. Select comments that praise something specific about your services so potential clients understand what’s in it for them. Like this: “A great workshop! The presenter explained anatomical concepts clearly, which will help me plan safe upper-body exercises for my fitness participants.” 7) STRESS YOUR UNIQUENESS What sets you apart from others? What’s your specialty? Stress the things that make your business different from the competitors’. Potential clients may not recognize your uniqueness, so highlight your niche in the market. 8) WRITE WITH CLARITY (OR FIND SOMEONE WHO CAN) Clear, concise writing is a must. If you struggle to write articulately, consider enlisting someone else—perhaps a friend or a professional writer—to draft your marketing materials for you. People usually take only a few seconds to skim brochures and flyers. Most don’t have the patience to wade through wordy copy or muddled sentences. 9) USE LISTS, BULLETS AND SHORT PARAGRAPHS Since people don’t spend a lot of time reading advertising copy, you want to make it easy for them to get the gist as quickly as possible. Use lists, bulleted points and short paragraphs to highlight the features and benefits of your services. 10) PROOFREAD Its important to proofread copy before it goes to print. If the preceding sentence didn’t bother you, read it again. Confusing "its" and "it’s" is a common error but the two words have different meanings. (Find out what they are in the “Writing Tips” section of my Web site, www.activevoice.ca.) Everyone makes mistakes—proofreading can help you catch them before its (oops! I mean, it’s) too late. At the end of the day, you’re a fitness professional, not an ad copy writer. Clients who detect a grammatical or spelling error in your brochure probably won’t be deterred from spending money on your services. But sloppy writing and poor grammar do say something about your professionalism and attention to detail—two important virtues for successful trainers, presenters, managers and entrepreneurs. So why risk it? Making the effort to develop a professional marketing package contributes to the overall image you want to portray. Amanda Vogel, MA, has been active in the fitness industry for more than 13 years as a manager, presenter and group exercise instructor. She holds a Master’s degree in Human Kinetics from the University of British Columbia (UBC) and is a registered BCRPA Trainer of Fitness Leaders and a certified Can-Fit-Pro Fitness Instructor Specialist. In addition to being a contributing editor at Chatelaine magazine, Amanda regularly writes for national and international magazines, including IDEA Fitness Journal, ACE Certified News, Cooking Light, Health, Fit Pregnancy, Fitness, Self and Shape. Amanda has a hot new CD available. For more information on the CD, activevoice.ca, or Amanda in general please go to www.activevoice.ca or send an email to info@activevoice.ca Secrets to Scoring Publicity in Top Women's Fitness Magazines is a teleseminar recording created by Amanda Vogel, MA, freelance writer for Shape, Self, Fit Pregnancy, Chatelaine, Fitness, Cooking Light and Health, and Jim Labadie, co-creator of The Ultimate Publicity Kit for Fitness Professionals. The audio CD reveals valuable insider tips for gaining massive exposure in the most widely read women’s health/fitness magazines. Discover: -a surprisingly simple way to fast-track your success as a health/fitness expert and industry celebrity (most fitness professionals never think to do this) -critical dos and don'ts for dealing with editors/writers -how to present your ideas so they’re irresistible to journalists in this competitive, high-profile market -and much more CD available at Active VoiceGET YOUR COPY TODAY!!!