In this post, I’m going to break down an incredible strategy for getting more youth athletes into your gym. Many gyms struggle with marketing strategies for this population and having a tool like this gives you the power to get new, highly qualified athletes in your gym.
The FREE Speed Demo
We have used this method several times with great success and actually can clearly track back close to $20,000 in business from one member alone.The total revenue from all the demos we’ve run is well over $100,000.
Bottom line: THIS WORKS
Here’s what you need
- A Relationship with a local influencer
If you are active in the community one of the big things you should be doing is building relationships with influential people. When I first opened GFP, I pushed hard to get to know coaches, youth directors, athletic directors and athletic trainers in my community.
These people hold a very important key to bring athletes to your door: An email list. Step 1 in having a successful speed demo is having a minimum of one of these relationships that is strong enough that they will send an email for you to their list. I have found these speed demos work best with the younger populations (3-8th grade)
Here are 2 important lists you need to keep.
People you know: List all the contact you have in your community in a spread sheet. Include their name, title, league/school, email, phone.
People you need to know: This is the list of all the people that you don’t yet know but are people that you really would like to have in your corner. List them all out and then think of someone you know that has a connection with any of these people. Once you find the connection as the person you know to introduce you to them. My favorite is the email introduction.
Although a phone call is best and my preferred method when asking the coach to promote one of these events, you can also use an email
Here is a sample email I would send to a coach I have a current relationship with.
Hey John,
Hope all is well with you and your family. I wanted to touch base and see if you would like to offer a free speed training demo to your athletes.
Let me know,
Vince
Notice the email is very short and to the point. The goal is to just get a YES.
This only works if you have a current relationship and have regular contact. Sending an email like this to someone you have not spoken to in 3 years or someone you don’t know will probably not work.
Again, a phone call is your best bet to ask for something like this.
- Planning the event
Once you get a commitment from your local contact to promote the event now you need to plan it. Here is what you need to decide. It may help to ask the coach what he thinks would be best for his audience.
Where: The absolute best place to have this in in your facility. If your facility is not equipped or you do not have a physical location then ask permission to use their local field to host the event.
When: We have had the best success having these events on Saturday or Sunday mornings. You want to avoid weekdays as parents are busy and may not be able to attend.
- Create A Landing Page
These are super simple to create but after you decide on the best day and time with your contact, create a cool visually appealing landing page. There should be only one thing for them to do on this page, enter their name and email to register for the demo, that’s it! Just know that not all of the people that register will actually show up.
This is normal with free stuff but totally ok. You now have the contact info of a local interested parent. They may not come in this time but now they are on your list and you can market to them on a regular basis. This is one of the great benefits of this program because it acts as a local list builder as well.
This should be set up so when they register they are put on an email list for this specific event.
Email me for a sample of a landing page we used for one of these events.
- Write the emails for the coach to send
One of the keys here is making this as little work for the coach as possible. Do not leave it up to them to pick the dates to send, create the email subject line and write the actual email. Most coaches have very little marketing experience.
You do everything. Send them exactly what you want in the email but write it from the coach that is sending it, NOT YOU. The subject line FREE SPEED DEMO has worked very well for us.
Include the basic info of the event in the email and put the link to the landing page. Give them the exact date you want it sent. I like them to send 3 emails a week apart leading up to the event.
If you would like to access to the exact emails we use, respond to this email and I will gladly share them with you.
- Set up reminder emails
Since lots of people register for free stuff but many time do not show we need to get out in front of this. We will send several email reminders to the people that register building excitement for the event.
We’ll ask them to arrive 10 minutes early to give them a little urgency. Make it very clear that this is NOT a drop off session and parents are strongly urged to watch the event. The key to making sales in these events is impressing the parents, hard to do if they are not there. In these emails also tell them there is limited space in these events and if they have to cancel to please call you.
What this does is create another opportunity to make a connection. If this pushes them to call you to tell you they cannot make it, it gives you an opportunity to offer them a free consultation at another date.
- Run the event
9:50-10 AM
Greet Parents and kids as they enter, try to avoid any awkward silence, the parents and kids will be somewhat nervous, introduce yourself to each kid and parent
Be sure they fill out all necessary legal and contact info(Email, phone and address)
Send kids back to Interns to start warm-up
10 AM- 10:05 AM
Initial Parent talk(5 Mins)
Tell them everything thats gonna happen, make them feel comfortable
Intro yourself tell your story and what their kid will take away from the event. Talk about your philosophy and how its different.
Tell them about the opportunity to sign up for a free assessment after, hand them assessment coupon and Flyer for program
Ground Rules for parents(Nicely and funny): No coaching your kids, no using the equipment, stay off the turf and in the weight room
10:10-10:30 AM
Take over session from Intern and do the drill that most demonstrates how kids can improve speed and/or agility, this is most important time as the parents will be seeing the head coach instruct the skills
10:30-10:45
Talk to Parents(Ask them questions about their kid, as them to point them out to you, tell them a positive thing and one thing they need to work on)
This is a time where easy drill should be used that are productive and fun but and intern can run on their own i.e. tennis ball sprints, cone cut drills.
10:45-10:55
Nutrition Lesson(Ask parents to come close and listen, be sure to send them home with some type of physical handout from this lesson.
10:55 to close
Address parents, ask about any final questions, this is where you recap the structure i.e. times, days and answer any questions they have specifically about the program,
If they would like to sign up for an assessment have them see Ellen/Karen, they should be standing by you with the clipboard
- Follow up emails
The best case is that they take you up on your offer at the event. If they don’t we still have a great chance with email follow-up. We send an email that night, 3 days and 7 days later to push the offer we proposed at the event. If they do not take advantage add them to your regular list to stay in contact with them.
Conclusion
If you train youth athletes just know a very disturbing stat. You will lose a least 25% of them each year. Even if you’re the best coach in the world, they go off to college. They stop playing sports, they get too busy with all the other stuff in their lives. Its very hard to have a stable base of athletes year round.
Having tools like the free speed demo does not solve this problem but gives you a tool to get new athletes to your door to fill the bucket that is unfortunately leaking!
Please reply to this email and let me know if you’d like me to share any of the resources here.