The Ultimate Guide to Online Marketing for Basketball Trainers

BUILDING AN ONLINE MARKETING SYSTEM THAT GENERATES NEW CLIENTS OVER AND OVER..

How to Build an Bulletproof Basketball Training Business Online.

If you’re like most basketball trainers, you’ve spent countless years developing your skills, knowledge, and experience to deliver athletes the results they desire.

Yet somewhere down the line, it seems as if no one had the common courtesy to mentioned this whole “business” side of being a trainer, right?

They never explained how to properly build and establish your brand, use social media properly to attract new prospects, filter them through email marketing, the follow-up process, referral generation and so on..​

Only if there were a school equipped with the proper resources to learn about marketing for basketball trainers.

This is why the majority of basketball trainers are baffled in their business.
Whether they’re puzzled with:

• Finding a facility to call “home” to train your clients.
• Generating consistent clients that are willing to pay your worth.
• Becoming more known in the industry to get out of Basketball Trainer’s Obscurity.
• Understanding Social media and which platforms trainers should use.
• Understanding how your website should be structured to make your job easier.

Just to name a few, but the list is Long!
If you fall into any of those categories, understand it’s not your fault, but if you stay in any of them, that isyour fault.
In the age of information and with all of the internet noise, there’s just so much to learn when it comes to running a successful business.

As mentioned above, there hasn’t been any place specifically for basketball trainers to learn how to build their program, aside from looking at what other trainers are doing and trying to model their success (Which isn’t completely a bad idea by the way. We deep dive on topics like this on The Basketball To Business Podcast).
But…
Have you ever asked yourself, “Where are these successful trainers who actually understand marketing and branding, getting their information from to make it look so easy and professional?

Look no further.​

Maybe you’re already familiar with what to do and you’re overwhelmed and just looking for an All-In-One Solution to remove yourself from all of the Day To Day tasks.

Rather you’re brand new to marketing your training services online or you’ve been running your business for multiple years and you’re looking to take your business to the next level, everyone’s looking to get better results and a higher ROI (Return on Investment) from marketing.​

This is the single Most Essential Guide on the fundamental principles of online marketing for basketball trainers. This guide will serve you as a roadmap, showing you exactly how to build an unstoppable basketball training business online with steps included to save you hours of your time and hundreds of your dollars.

Literally…

This Guide is here to help you master this whole online marketing thing, by utlizing…

THE SYSTEM

Here’s a neat and accurate acronym to remember about what we call: S.Y.S.T.E.M

Saving. You. Stress. Time. Energy & Money.

It’s a repeatable process that, when put in place properly, continues to run delivering results over and over for the long term.
Once you understand that the most effective companies in the world are run with systems, you’ll never look at your business the same.
You’re about to learn how to:

• Put yourself 10 steps ahead of the competition.
• Automate your marketing by using your website as a System.
• Generate new prospects month after month.
• Turn every client into a walking advertisement for your business.
• And have the ability to focus on why you got into this business, delivering results to athletes.

It’s the same system Starbucks and McDonald’s have used to Dominate the coffee and hamburger industry. It’s the same system Amazon uses to Rule E-commerce.
This system works for the Solo trainers all the way up to the Top Training Organizations.

It doesn’t matter if you’re part-time or want to make a full-time living from your training business, this system works because it’s built to serve the principles of business growth:

There are only 3 ways to grow a training business:

• Increase the number of clients
• Increase the average transaction value per clients
• Increase the number of transactions per clients

We call it Client Value Maximization or CVM.
Read this guide carefully, multiple times as a study guide. Print it out to view consistently as it will be the main resource for developing your business.

This is the stuff they don’t teach in school.

LEARN THE STEPS TO THE CLIENT VALUE MAXIMIZATION

The following flowchart outlines the CVM system.
Download a PDF version for Free here​

When you’re learning new tactics like Facebook Marketing, Instagram advertising or email marketing, you’ll need to constantly remind yourself of the CVM process. Otherwise, you’re wasting time and money.​

Consider this as a Warning: There is little profit in understanding, for example, Instagram or Facebook advertising in and of itself.

But…

There is Enormous profit in understanding how to apply these traffic strategies to the CVM process.​

Here is a flowchart of the Client Value Maximization system…

 Here are the Steps to follow…

DETERMINE YOUR TRAINING OFFER

​Articulating the Move from The “Before” State to The Desired “After” State.

OFFER A LOW BARRIER OFFER

​Changing the relationship from with visitors from prospect to client.

​CHOOSE A TRAFFIC SOURCE

Are You Utilizing The Correct Platforms where your audience is hanging out?

OFFER A CORE SERVICE

​Success, bringing the new client in on multiple training sessions.

OFFER A LEAD MAGNET

Increasing leads with irresistible bribes, making the most of every website visitor.

OFFER A PROFIT MAXIMIZER

​The immediate Up-sell, would you like fries and a Coke with that?

Create The Return Path

Increasing the number of transactions per new client.

Step 1 – Determine Your Training Services Offer

The Training Business is pretty simple in theory.
You get paid to move athletes from a Beforestate to a desired After state.
In the Before state, the athlete may not be satisfied with their game.

They might need to improve their handles, learn to play better defense, improve their jump shot, etc.

In the After state, their game has improved. They’re able to dribble without constantly looking down, can defend the post, increased their shooting percentage and so on. ​ But We don’t need to go on about that process, you’re the professional trainer, not us haha.

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But, with that being said, here’s the tough truth.

Nobody, wants to buy your services…

EVERYBODY, wants to buy Results.
The harsh truth is that most clients could care less about the service, they just want the After state, the outcome that your services will provide them.
Make sense?
Your training and guidance will effectively move the athlete to their desired After state…
… and great marketing simply articulates the move from the Before state to the desired After state.

(Obviously Anthony Davis unnatural growth probably had nothing to do with the training necessary, but the illustration articulates the point.)

Most trainers that fail, particularly at start-up, do so because either…

• They fail to offer/deliver a desired After state (The training offer is no good)
• They fail to communicate the movement from Before to After (the marketing is no good)

Needless to say, getting clear on the desired outcome your offer delivers is fundamental to the success of your business.
Here’s how to get that clarity…
Ask yourself these 4 questions…

• What problem does your prospect HAVE in the Before state? What solution does your prospect HAVE in the After state?
• How does your prospect FEEL in the Before state? How does your prospect FEEL in the After state?

Athletes that purchase your training services are being transformed, for example:

• From HAVING a lack of basketball IQ, skill, to a prepared, self-assured ability to perform.
• From FEELING hesitant and frustrated with themselves to becoming confident in their game through preparation.

Most trainers only communicate what a client will HAVE if they purchase their services or products.
Great trainers speak to how a client will FEEL, how their Game and self-believe will change and how their STATUS will elevate. Here’s an Example below:​

Say Goodbye to feeling inadequate on the court, fear of lack of playing time and self doubt.
​Develop the skill set that your coach can’t ignore. Feel the confidence of knowing you’re at your best every time you touch the court, poised with your newly developed skillset.

Do you see how this copy clearly articulates how the training will move the athlete from a Before state of frustrated and hesitation to an After state of confidence?
It’s powerful stuff.
Understanding how you will transform your client from a Before state to a desired After state also impacts…

THE PRICING OF YOUR SERVICES

What is the distance between the Before and desired After state?
That distance is called VALUE.
Want to charge more for your services and/or products?
Create a greater distance between the Before and desired After state by communicating the movement differently or more clearly (better marketing). Along with great testimonials from clients as social proof is a killer combination.

This allows your website visitors to see the true value your company offers that other trainers don’t. Otherwise known as your Unique Value Proposition (UVP).
Articulating how you can take your prospect from the “Before” state to a desired “After” state can be the determining factor that expands your business or causes it to struggle.
In the next step, we’ll break down traffic generation…

(If you feel you have a handle on crafting your service offers, feel free to jump ahead and start your free basketball website trial by clicking here.)​

Step 2 – Choose a Traffic Source

There are multitude of traffic sources which include…

• Email marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Social Advertising (Facebook/Twitter/YouTube ads, etc)
• Blogging
• SEO

For a thorough explanation on how to effectively build your brand through social media click here.
Based on our research from working with 100’s of basketball trainers, the platforms that drive the best results are Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram.
But what if you’ve been using social media wrong this whole time?
Your main objectives for social media is to:

• Build brand awareness
• Create a community (fan base)
• Most importantly, drive that traffic (athletes and parents) back to your website.

The last part, driving your social media traffic back to your website is where the majority of trainers drop the ball. The Primary reason you want traffic is so that you can convert visitors or prospects into leads, and leads into clients.
A lot of trainers able to build a fan base but don’t have any Call-To-Actions, or Lead Magnets to deliver further value to this new audience they’re building. They don’t have a reason for people to come back.
The purpose of driving athletes back to your website is for them to:

• Learn about your program (Exploring your site, testimonials, services, educational blog posts)
• Potentially Sign up for training (Request Consultation, Schedule Appointment, sign up for Camp/Clinic)
• Download Lead Magnets, free offers (Workout PDF, Tips, Training Ebook, something of value) in exchange for their email and contact info. More on Offering Lead Magnets in the next step.

Why is this so important?
The majority of people aren’t ready to invest and buy your services upon first interaction with your company. So if you’re entire plan is to solely get people to purchase your Core Training services, you’re in trouble. There’s a high chance the visitor may leave your site and never come back.
Lead nurturing is essential because people are getting smarter in the ways that they buy.
They want to learn about you first, so offering free content that’s valuable in exchange for their email is an easy first interaction to a new visitor. This helps you build the Know, Like and Trust Factor. Once people know, like and trust you, they will buy from you.
Tactics such as marketing on Facebook and Instagram are worthless if you don’t understand the complete CVM process.
This is the main reason why you are frustrated with the lack of results. You have no system in place for your marketing… YET.
More than likely you don’t have the time or expertise to build an optimized basketball website system to perform these advanced strategies, if you did, you probably wouldn’t be here.
Rightfully so, nor should you try to as your profession and focus is basketball training, not advanced website building and marketing.
Which is why we’ve created the entire Done-For-You marketing solution. You can learn more about that here.
The goal, is to drive prospects further into the CVM Funnel. Once you grasp this concept, you become unstoppable.
We will teach you to drive traffic through tactics like blogging, Facebook Ads and email marketing, but first you need to understand the system.
Your traffic strategy (if your goal is acquiring new leads and clients consistently while building your brand) begins and ends with driving athletes and parents into the CVM funnel.
Which begins with the Lead Magnet…

Step 3 – Offer a Lead Magnet

​The next two sections (Offer a Lead Magnet and Offer a Low Barrier Offer (LBO)) show you how to grow your business through the first method we mentioned, increase the number of clients.

The Lead Magnet is an irresistible bribe offer that gives a specific chunk of value to a prospect in exchange for their contact information.
Although no money changes hands, this is an important transaction. And, it is often the first transaction you will have with a prospect.
You will need to provide tremendous value with the Lead Magnet.
The Lead Magnet is usually offered on a web page called a landing or squeeze page that is optimized to convert even cold traffic into leads.
The landing page doesn’t need to be fancy.
Here’s one of the Done-for-You landing pages Hoops Institute built for one of our clients to convert visitors into leads with their website…
It’s purpose is to engage the website visitor to take an immediate action of downloading the workout guide buy leaving their email.

The Lead Magnet exists to increase leads, making the most of every website visitor that comes to your site by getting them to take action through leaving their contact information and downloading valuable resources. Instead of just browsing the site and leaving, never to come back again.
Because the Lead Magnet is the very top of the CVM Funnel, increasing opt-ins here will pay dividends throughout the rest of the system.
But all Lead Magnets are not created equal. The best will convert north of 50% of visitors into leads and you’ll be relieved when I tell you that the highest performing Lead Magnets have one thing in common..

Specificity: The Key to Getting More Leads

What irresistible value could you offer in exchange for a prospect’s contact information?
The good news is that you DO NOT need to create something lengthy or complex as an ebook. In fact, we’ve found that the more laser-focused your Lead Magnet is — the better it will convert.
Which is why we have 10 Done-For-You lead magnets to choose from with the Elite Marketing Plan, depending on the clients you’re looking to attract.
So, for example, this is Not a good Lead Magnet…

There is no offer in this Lead Magnet, much less a specific one. They want to solve a problem. They want an outcome.
Contrast the prior Lead Magnet with the specific problem that is addressed in this Lead Magnet…

A Lead Magnet that solves a specific problem for a specific position of athletes will generate more leads…
… and more leads means more Low Barrier Offer (LBO) sales.

Step 4 – Choose Your Low Barrier Offer

If you understand and execute on this step, you’ll be ahead of most of your competitors.

Remember, our first goal is to increase the number of clients. So far, we have only generated leads through the Lead Magnet. We still haven’t generated new clients yet.
What is a Low Barrier Offer?
The Low Barrier Offer is an irresistible, super low priced offer (usually between $10 and $25 for an intro training session that exists for one reason and one reason only… to convert prospects into buyers.
The Low Barrier Offer is made to those that have displayed interest through the Lead Magnet.

• They are used to introduce your services to new potential clients.
• They are low commitment and low price.
• They are meant to wet the appetite.
• They are much easier to sell than larger programs.
• They can make a huge difference in your business.

The goal of the Low Barrier Offer is to fundamentally change the relationship from prospect to client. The conversion of a prospect to a client, even for $1, is magical.
The key is to make a Low Barrier Offer that leads are unable to resist.
Why Do They Work?
The most famous example of the Low Barrier Offer is McDonalds.
They attract millions of new customers with their initial core offering which is the hamburger…
But they make their money with the up-sell of fries and a coke.
There are examples in every industry.

• The car mechanic offers you $25 for a simple oil change but then tries to sell you additional services for your car.
• The dentist that provides Free teeth cleaning but then tries to sell you additional services, like a teeth whitening.

You are not trying to make a living from selling Low Barrier Offers. You are trying to acquire buyers because there is nothing more valuable than a list of buyers.
When you understand the rest of the Client Value Maximization funnel you will understand how the Low Barrier Offer is the single most powerful addition you can make to your business, even though you make little profit from it initially.
The strategy behind the Low Barrier Offer is simple:
Convert the maximum number of Lead Magnet leads into paying clients, with the understanding that acquiring a paying client will deliver profit through the next three steps:

• Core Offer
• Profit Maximizer
• Return Path

Ok, now that you understand how to increase the number of clients, let’s talk about increasing the average transaction value per client.
(NOTE: Want to have this complete process Done for You to start marketing your training business more effectively this week? You can do with The Playbook.)

Step 5 – Offer a Core Service

You likely already have a Core Offer. It’s your top notch training services.

Most trainers get nowhere by making Core Offers to cold prospects that come across your business online. You’ll see your Core Offer sales explode with the addition of the Lead Magnet and Low Barrier Offer.
After all, you’ve already had two successful transactions with this buyer.
This is why it’s critical to over deliver with the Lead Magnet and Low Barrier Offer.
If you follow through on the CVM process, you could take income you make from the Core Offer training services and reinvest it to acquire more clients.
Again, this is how you become unstoppable. You build a repeatable marketing system in which you can spend more to acquire a client than your competitors.
It is your opportunity to, for example, spend more on traffic acquisition and increase the value of your offers.
Here’s where things get very interesting…

Step 6 – Offer a Profit Maximizer

The second method of business growth is to increase the average transaction value per client. The Profit Maximizer does just that.

Most trainers don’t have Low Barrier Offers and they don’t have Profit Maximizers. They live and die selling cold prospects on their Core Training Services.
This is why they struggle to build their business for year after year growth and you won’t.
As we mentioned earlier, it’s shocking that McDonald’s makes almost no money on the hamburger. The hamburger is the Core Offer, but it’s the fry and Coke Profit Maximizer that built the Golden Arches.
This type of Profit Maximizer is called an immediate upsell…
Any offer made after the initial sale is a Profit Maximizer. Because the single biggest expense most trainers will incur is the cost of acquiring the client (which is the job of the Low Barrier Offer) and everything else increases the client’s immediate and lifetime value.
What kind of training could you offer as an upsell? What could you bundle with your Core Training Service?
How can you incorporate a product or membership into your business model?
How about offering leads and clients online training?
Find your Profit Maximizer and you begin to become unstoppable.
But there is one more way to grow…

STEP 7 – CREATE THE RETURN PATH

The last way to grow your business is to increase the number of transactions per client.
Enter the Return Path.
The goal of the Return Path is to have frequent, strategic communication with your clients and prospects that cause them to buy again and again.
Because you have received their contact information through the Lead Magnet, you have the ability to continue marketing to them.
Most effectively done through Email marketing.
You can offer new Lead Magnets, Low Barrier Offers, Core Services and Profit Maximizers because you have permission to market to them or bring them back to the Low Barrier Offer, Core Service or Profit Maximizer that they didn’t buy the first time around.
The Return Path is anything that brings the customer or prospect back more frequently including…

• Exit Popup Offers
• Organic Social Media (like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn)
• Email Marketing
• Loyalty Programs
• Content Marketing
• Sales Calling

… but none is more powerful than automated email follow-up.
The single most impactful action you can take right now is to take action to have this CVM process started with The Playbook Plus by Hoops Institute.