NASM VIRTUAL COACHING CHAPTER 9 LESSON 1 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 2023

Learning Objectives Describe strategies to create and maintain an online brand. Summarize online marketing best practices. Identify engagement methods for digital marketing. Explain how to utilize word-of-mouth marketing techniques. Calculate the return on investment for an online marketing campaign. Virtual Coaching Marketing Many say that marketing is the lifeblood of any business. Marketing is essentially creating awareness of a product or service that is being offered. The primary aim of any successful marketing campaign is to generate leads that ultimately become clients The Importance of Marketing According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2020), the fitness and personal trainer professions are projected to experience a 13% growth from 2019 to 2029, which is faster than average when compared to most industries. While this is great news for the growth of the profession, it also means that it will become more difficult to stand out from the crowd. Leads A person who has expressed interest in a product or service and provided their information. Clients A current user of the product or service. Creating and Maintaining an Online Brand An online brand is vital to the success and sustainability of most businesses. By creating and maintaining an online brand, a fitness professional can establish themselves as a trusted provider, connect with potential customers, and leverage their brand for greater exposure and earning potential. To have a successful marketing plan, there must be a great deal of introspective work done to know where a business stands in the market, such as conducting a SWOT analysis, understanding the unique selling proposition, and identifying the ideal client Potential customer A person who may be interested in a product or service. SWOT Analysis A SWOT Analysis is one of the best exercises to get clarity for marketing efforts. A SWOT analysis will enable a fitness professional to understand where they fit within the marketplace and leverage their strengths while minimizing their weaknesses. A SWOT analysis should be done at least once a year, but, ideally, should be done quarterly (once every 3 months). The acronym SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Unique selling proposition (USP) The unique benefit or feature of a product or service that differentiates a business from other businesses offering a similar service or product. Developing a Marketing Calendar Marketing tactics can vary depending on the time of year and depending on the business type. To know this, the fitness professional must sit down and analyze the customer buying cycle, which is when customers make their purchases. This is highly dependent on what type of client the business is servicing and where the clients are primarily coming from. Customer buying cycle buying cycle The timeline of when customers typically buy products. Defining a Customer Avatar Defining an ideal client, or customer avatar(also referred to as a customer persona or profile), is an important item to establish prior to marketing an online business. The customer avatar is essentially who a fitness professional will be marketing their services to. It will impact every aspect of marketing, from the offer made to the potential customer, to the language used in marketing ads. There are three factors fitness professionals should consider when defining their customer avatar: demographic, geographic, and psychographic. A more simplified way to think about this process is identifying who, where, and the why of your potential customers. Customer avatar A detailed description of a business's ideal customer Demographic The defining traits and characteristics of a business's ideal customer The fitness professional should consider the type of person their marketing efforts will be directed to. They may ask the following questions pertaining to demographics: Who will this business serve? Who will buy these services? Who can afford these services? Geographic The geographical location of a business's ideal customer. Geographics are the where part of the equation. Where are the potential clients located? Familiarity is an important factor for a potential customer when choosing a fitness professional's services. In psychology, the familiarity principle is the tendency among humans to prefer things they see the most often (Simmonds, 2015). A goal for a fitness professional should be to "own" the area they service and become a "brand name" among the local population they serve. One advantage to starting an online business is that geographical location is not as important as it is for traditional gyms. Psychographic The desires, goals, and lifestyle choices of the potential customer. Psychographics is the why piece of the customer avatar and possibly the most important aspect of marketing. Psychographics are the goals, wants, desires, and overall lifestyle choices of potential customers. To be a successful marketer, fitness professionals must be in tune with their customers' needs, wants, and desires. The language used in an advertisement should be different depending on which type of potential client is listening.