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This is the Pilates Business Podcast welcome back to another episode of the Pilates Business Podcast. I'm your Glanfield and I'm so excited to be having this chat with you guys today. It's actually something that I talk about quite a bit with the studio owners I get to work with because my approach to the way that we grow revenue in a business like yours is that we are looking to guide our clients forward and that we can help support that with lots of different things that we can do, tools that are at our fingertips every single day. And for me, it's not about huge Big flashy, high ticket sales or salesy sales strategies or tactics. For me and for the studio owners that I work best with and that work best with me are those studio owners who love what they do and who want to optimize their revenue in their business. They want to make the most money that they can make in their business, but they don't want to do it with and feel awful about it. They want to do it and feel good about what they have to offer. And so I have a lot of little tricks up my sleeve that I share with my studio owners that can help them to be able to, to get there, to be able to optimize their studio for maximum revenue, but also maximum fulfillment. And one of the things that I talk a lot about is how we can really influence our clients and guide them forward and showcase what we have to offer and help them to understand why perhaps our studio is the best place, your studio is the best place for them to be. And so one of the things that, one of the little tricks that I share and that I implement with my studio owners is this concept of micro conversions. And if you're wondering what that means or why it's relevant, then you're not alone. This isn't a term that you hear every day in this industry. Often when we talk about conversions, we're talking about a conversion, one big conversion that usually we think about happening, maybe going from an introductory offer or a first time client into a membership or a package. And when people talk about conversion, they're usually talking about that particular time period or part of the customer journey. But micro conversions are a little bit different because you know, these big wins, the big conversion that happens from an intro offer into a membership or a package is in fact the result of a lot of smaller steps that have to work absolutely perfectly and be in perfect alignment in order for your clients to make the right decision and continue to move forward. And those steps are what I call, what we call micro conversions. And when I see studio owners struggle most with retaining clients throughout that intro period and keeping them active in their business, it's often because they haven't paid attent the right level of attention to these small actions. And these, these small actions begin from the moment a client hears about you and from the very first touch point. So whether or not that is their website, walking past the studio, hearing about you from a friend, truly it's these small steps that keeps them moving forward. And if the interactions they have and what they hear about your business is positive, then they're going to take the next step forward. And the what the real, I think the, maybe the myth is that we don't have control over those moments or those touch points, but the reality is that we do. And those are the key micro touch points that ultimately lead your clients to becoming those long term loyal clients. So I want to talk a little bit more about this today because I think these are incredibly powerful. But I think one of the reasons why I love these micro conversions so much is that they are very simple and usually very low cost to implement. And so these are really the small incremental actions that you're going to take to help to guide your clients forward. And ultimately what we know is that we're building long term relationships with our clients. We want them to stick around for as long as possible, which means that we want to build that relationship right from the very beginning. And so let's talk a little about what are micro conversions? When do they happen exactly? Well, these are sort of the small incremental actions that a potential client really takes on their way to becoming a fully fledged, awesome, loyal advocate of your business. And they're not full on purchases or memberships, but they're rather the steps towards those goals. So a micro step could be signing up for a newsletter, signing up for your as a lead for your intro offer, could be checking out your website, it could be accessing or coming to an event that you're hosting. These are sort of beginning stages of that customer journey. And once we find, once clients sort of really start to interact with your business is when we start to really see the power of these small steps, that these small conversions along the way that help your clients to stay active and to be excited about what you have to offer. So it's sort of like your series of mini commitments. So when a client says yes to a small step, it's easier for them to say yes to the next step, next step, and the one beyond that. And so yes, an intro offer is one of part of this. But in order to get your clients to the point of saying yes to an intro offer, there's a few other things that also have to really line up for this. And the psychology behind all of this is that it's really about building trust and engagement. Over time, people really jump straight into a big purchase. But with these smaller steps, they become much more invested. And so when you start to focus on those smaller steps, then what we see is that you can see you have the opportunity to really stop clients from dropping off that sales funnel from falling off of that sales funnel and also allows you to perhaps address specifically where and when you see your clients, perhaps not continuing on. So let's talk about where micro conversions exist in the customer journey for Boutique Fitness Studio. So what we know is that pretty much every client goes through a similar kind of process before they commit to you, right? This could be finding you online, hearing about you from a friend, following you on social media, perhaps even signing up for an event that you might be collaborating with in another business. And then ultimately they love everything that you have to offer and they move forward into purchasing a membership. And so the first step is to really recognize and to see and be aware of as a business owner where these sort of beginning stages happen. And so this might look like on your website, perhaps signing up for that intro offer, or it might be perhaps when you host that event and the collaborate will collaborate with another business. And the key is that you want to guide your clients through that journey really, really smoothly and you want to make sure that you are offering them the right level of information and inspiration to keep them moving forward. And the reality is that there is kind of a sequence that has to be followed by a client in order for them to feel like they want to continue on the journey. And so in order for them to really follow that sequence, you kind of have to take control of the journey itself and put thought and effort into the way that you structure your interactions with your clients. At each and every touch point. There are some things that you're going to tell new clients that you no longer need to perhaps tell clients that have been in your business for maybe three or six months. So you don't need to overhaul your sales process completely, but you might just want to fine tune what is already there. And that might mean reviewing, for example, your website to make sure that it fully, it fully addresses the questions that new clients might have and that you're not waiting for them to ask you about how it works, how often they should come, what it feels like to be a client in your studio. So you want to make sure that you're really, really clear with your value proposition. You don't want to overwhelm people with too many options early on. You want to give them one simple next step. On social media, for example, you want to make sure that your bio is really designed for new clients to feel excited about what you have to offer and that what you are sharing and posting on there is engaging to the followers. Too off too often I see too many posts that are not designed to actually be engaging with the followers. They are, they post and goes, they post something because they feel they have to feel they should. And they're not truly engaging with their content. And so people aren't really engaging with their content because they're not really engaging content. So we want to make sure that whatever we're doing and where we are showing up as a business, we are looking for ways to connect with people and we're looking for ways to inform and educate them so that they are excited for that next step. And all of that is conveyed in the words that you use, the language that you use, the pictures that you use to showcase what you have to offer. Now once people have come into the studio, the whole thing becomes, gets a lot more life. And at that stage we want to make sure that they are really, really sort of keeping your client, the new client, informed and educated so that they are not even just aware of what's going to happen next week, but they know exactly what their expectations should be for the next 45 minutes in the studio and even before that perhaps what the expectation should be before they walk in the studio. And so you are, you are both kind of on the same page from that very first visit, which is I think critical to the long term retention of, of your clients. So every single small action you take to interact and to engage with your clients really helps to build that relationship. And the work that you do early on really does pay you back later because it makes it a lot easier for your clients to trust you to that gives a lot more credibility to what you do. And it also helps to enlighten them perhaps and to showcase a little bit more about what might differentiate you from the competition. What we know is that there is a tremendous amount of competition out there and that there are increasing numbers of franchises and studios opening on a regular basis. We also know that in the next couple of years we probably are only going to see the number of boutique fitness studios grow. So one of the things that I want you to be thinking about is how can you make sure that you are standing out and how can you make sure that you have a very sustainable revenue level that is, is not a roller coaster, but is very sustainable and that comes from having great retention efforts. So we want to make sure that we are standing out, we're bringing people in that bringing quality, qualify people into the door. And then we want to make sure that we are not giving them any opportunities to perhaps forget about booking their next class, to perhaps to get a little bit too busy for it or even perhaps because they're not even sure why they're there at all. And so it's up to us, up to the studio owner, to really take the reins on this and to really guide your clients forward. And when we think about how we can do that, using small state steps, small stages, and guiding people forward step by step by step truly helps your clients to really feel like they are being nurtured, that there is a lot of clarity for them. And what we know about consumer behavior is that people tend to be much more opening, open to buying when they trust the person who is selling to them, and when everything that they are learning is clear and transparent, and it just makes sense. So you want to make sure you're very consistent with the way that you're engaging with clients in this period of time, and that you perhaps even are utilizing those amazing automations that you have access to, many of you have access to in your scheduling software. And so it's a bit like, you know, you're tending to a garden in this. In this kind of. With. With the micro conversions, you know, you. You plant the seed, and that might be their first visit. Right. And then it's about the regular watering and making sure that you give everything to this plant, to your garden that can help it grow. It's the same with these relationships you're building with new clients. So we want to make sure that not only are we aware of these micro steps, the micro conversions, these small steps that people take on their journey to becoming your amazing client. Right. But we also want to make sure that we are thinking about how we can, or how we. How we. That we want to be aware of the way that your clients feel at every stage of the journey. So I'm a big advocate of addressing hesitations early on, making sure that you're really tuned into your clients and what they're looking for. So one of the things that we know about human behavior and human biases is that, you know, I like to work out and move my body because I like to move out and move my body. And I'm pretty sure that you, as a Pilates teacher or studio owner or yoga teacher, yoga studio owner, feel the same way. And we have found ourselves in this place probably because at some point we kind of committed to a movement practice and we felt better because of it. Many folks have not experienced that outcome. And so one of the things we want to make sure we're doing is guiding and supporting folks to continue to stay consistent with their movement practice. And so they may not be as excited and we should be prepared for that. And so the next question is, how can we help our clients stay consistent and stay engaged with their movement practice at our studios? At your studio. And so what we know is that folks like to be perhaps celebrated for their, their efforts. And for many, you know, moving their bodies and committing to movement practice is a little bit of an effort. And so we want to make sure we're recognizing that, we're acknowledging that and we are celebrating that alongside them. Remember, every time that your client gets a very positive kind of reinforcement, a positive association with your business, it's only going to make it easier for them to move forward to that next step. And what happens is that when your clients feel really good in your business, perhaps just because they have done exactly what people have always done, but perhaps you're now highlighting to them that actually that's a really fantastic choice they have made, then it's really, really big, creates this forward momentum for them in your business. And so we want to make sure that we're not pushing people into sales, but we're, we're offering them a very easy next step forward that just makes sense. So there's lots of these micro conversions that happen throughout the customer journey and there's a lot of different touch points that you can leverage to make sure that you are supporting your clients moving forward. And as I mentioned already, you know, we, many of you have fabulous software that we want to make sure that we are utilizing to get and to keep clients and but the in person interactions are just so incredibly powerful. So as you are standing in front of your clients, maybe teaching them in a class, be mindful of how you can, what words and phrases and language you can use to really help your clients continue to stay engaged and inspired and motivated to keep coming back as your client. So retention is absolutely critical to your long term growth. And we want to make sure that we are tracking all of that. And that is another piece of this. And what we've seen is that when you really focus on these small details, they really do add up to these big, big results. And so perhaps you might want to take a little bit of time to perhaps review how you bring new clients into your studio, how they are treated in that first session, and what kind of communication happens before or after that first session, and the following, perhaps two, three, four or five sessions. And when we start to take a little bit of time to redesign that experience for your clients, this is a lot of shifts happening when it comes to the numbers as well, okay, so micro conversions, micro steps are really powerful when it comes to increasing long term retention. And it is often these small shifts, these small changes really that do make the biggest difference because you probably have all of the big building blocks in place and then it's about kind of refining and going from there. Okay, so to wrap that up, I just want to mention that these are the things that we talk about each and every week instead of thrive, these small tips, tactics and tools that really help to make a big difference and the impact is really incredible. And so we don't have to burn the house down to build a great business. In fact, I feel like actually we probably need to just refine what we already have. You have a viable business and it's about up leveling perhaps a little bit and growing and evolving what you have, developing your skills as a business leader, developing your strategies for lead generation and for retention and for running your business on the back end, the operations as well. And when we find that we have all of these sort of pieces of the puzzle that fit together really nicely, it sort of creates this ecosystem for growth. And that is my goal for you because I all I want is for you to build a business that is fulfilling, that is highly profitable, but also incredibly sustainable. So micro conversions could be the key, you guys, to those, those bigger, bigger revenue numbers. And when you are able to identify these steps in your, in your studio's client journey, you create very smooth and more engaging experience for your client that ultimately leads to higher long term revenue from your clients and for your studio. And so perhaps it's time to focus on some of those smaller wins because when clients start to say yes, then onto those smaller things, then they often also say yes to bigger things as well. So all of this really is about creating trust and building relationships step by step. These aren't quick fixes, but when you give clients small and meaningful actions to take, you'll create that momentum that really turns into that long term loyalty and sales that we all want. So thank you so much for listening in today. If you're feeling inspired to make some changes, look for one or two maybe that you can make a, a small adjustment and then let me know how it goes. So I hope this is helpful to you as you build your boutique fitness studio business. If today's episode was helpful and gave you some valuable insights, I would absolutely love it if you could take a quick minute to rate and review the podcast wherever you're listening. It not only helps me to make to, to reach more amazing studio owners like you, but I'm also helps to make sure that I know that you enjoy these episodes and I'll keep on going. All right, have a great week.
