Full Episode Transcript

Stop Renting Your Audience: Why Every Fitness & Wellness Business Needs a List

How many potential customers have you reached in the last year who you have absolutely no way of contacting today?

Someone saw your ad, liked your post, stopped at your booth, visited your website, or even walked into your business—and then disappeared.

In this episode, we're gonna talk about why reaching more people isn't always the answer, why your list may be the most valuable marketing asset you own, and how to start thinking list first before you spend another dollar trying to find more customers.

You're listening to Wellness Means Business with Casey Conrad.

I'm Casey Conrad, and I've spent more than 35 years helping fitness and wellness businesses grow. If you've got expertise, a product, a program, a service, a wellness modality, or some combination of those, but need to build a better business around it, you're in the right place.

Wellness Means Business gives independent fitness and wellness entrepreneurs practical strategies to attract more clients, increase sales, grow revenue, and build stronger, more profitable businesses.

So, let's get down to business.

I want you to stop and think about the opening statement that I just made.

Say someone saw your Facebook ad. Maybe they saw your Instagram reel. You did a trade show and 20 people stopped at your booth. You met someone at a networking function who seemed really interested.

Maybe you had a website visitor. Could be that someone even walked into your business and asked a question.

How many of those people can you actually follow up with today?

Well, if you said the majority, then you probably don't need to listen to this episode.

But if you think there's a possibility that you're leaving opportunities on the table because you're not capturing enough of a prospect's info, you're gonna love this episode, because we're gonna dive deep into the conversation about list building.

One of the most common frustrations that I hear my clients—and just small business owners in general—say is:

"I need more customers. I actually have a pretty good conversion rate, but I just need more customers."

And that makes sense.

One of my mentors is Jay Abraham, and I've invested a lot of money in his mentoring. One of the very first lessons he teaches is there are only three ways to grow any business.

Doesn't matter what business you're in.

Number one, get more customers.

Number two, get customers to spend more.

And number three, get customers to buy more frequently.

Now, most small businesses dramatically underutilize number two and number three. The thing they're uber-focused on is:

More customers, more customers, more customers.

So they spend their time on advertising, social media, networking, open houses, maybe sponsorships, referrals—all of those things.

The problem is that if you're not using those activities to build your list, those things dissipate the minute they're done.

So I want you to drill a concept into your head:

Marketing shouldn't just generate exposure. It should generate an opportunity for continued communication.

Now, I'm not saying that every single person who's given a call to action to open a line of communication is gonna do that.

No.

But you want to always be creating that opportunity.

And this is where a conversation needs to come in about the difference between networking and prospecting, because this is important.

My brother's a commercial fisherman.

He takes his boat out and casts his net. They drag that net—it could be an hour, could be four hours—and then they pull it up onto the back of the boat.

But here's the thing.

If he's fishing for squid and other fish get caught in the net, which they do, these guys pick through and put things into buckets. They're only looking for the squid.

But now they have that squid. They've got it, and they can go sell it.

So I want you to think about the difference between networking and prospecting this way:

Networking is casting your nets out. Prospecting is actually generating a contact—a way to communicate with somebody.

Networking is all about exposure. Being visible. Being seen.

That's all great brand awareness.

But prospecting is actually creating communication.

I say this to my sales teams all the time:

Look, if you don't have a name and either a phone number or an email, that's not a prospect.

That's just a networking opportunity.

Yes, of course, networking is important. It's going to build visibility and awareness, maybe even interest.

But if you don't have a way to contact that person, really, it's just hope.

That's it.

Networking generates hope.

"I hope they call."

"I hope they come in."

"I hope they get back to me."

But prospecting actually generates a way to follow up.

And don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that you shouldn't be networking. I'm not saying that you shouldn't be doing social media or events.

No.

All of those things are part of a larger marketing strategy.

But I want you to think specifically about capturing the names and contact information of people who are interested.

If you don't, that's a big mistake.

And in essence, like I said in the title of this episode, it's like renting.

You're not buying your audience. You're not getting those prospects. You're just wasting the opportunity.

I always say to my nieces and nephews:

"Try to buy the house. Don't spend the money on the rent. It's going nowhere."

Okay, can't always do that. Maybe you can get a rent-to-own, right?

This whole concept is particularly true when it comes to social media platforms.

I don't know what your experience has been with it, but I've had clients who built a huge following—say on Instagram, in particular, especially in the fitness and wellness space.

And for whatever reason, maybe they violated a policy unknowingly, and poof—their account was shut down.

Bam.

Now your reach is completely gone.

Compare that with an audience that you can directly communicate with via either email or SMS.

So I wanna be really clear:

I'm not telling you to stop building social networks.

What I'm telling you is to stop confusing followers with actual prospects that are in a database.

And here's what I tell all my clients:

The single most valuable asset that you have is your list.

Actually, said a better way, it's your organized list of tagged and compartmentalized names—but that is a conversation for another episode altogether.

For now, the takeaway is:

Your list is your most valuable asset. End of subject.

So what does that mean?

It means that every single marketing activity you do should have a capture mechanism.

A capture mechanism is a way, a place for them to go—whether it's a QR code, a URL, a DM—a way for you to get that person onto your list.

So if you run an ad, what's the capture mechanism?

So many people do what Jay Abraham calls "tombstone advertising."

They just put their ad out there. Maybe they even put an offer in it, but there's not a sub-offer that's gonna scoop up the people who aren't ready to take action and drive them to something that could be of interest.

If you've got an expo, what's the capture mechanism there?

If you're on stage giving a seminar, what's the capture mechanism?

I do this all the time. I put my QR code up there:

"Hey, here, get this free course."

It's on a topic related to what I'm speaking about.

Maybe I'm giving a sales talk.

"Go here. Get my free Selling Fitness miniseries, my Selling Wellness miniseries, my Selling Personal Training miniseries."

If you're posting educational content, is there a way you can get them to opt in for more of that?

Maybe it's a chapter to a book or a Substack or whatever the case may be.

When someone comes through your facility—someone comes to my wellness center—or if we're at an expo, I'll give away my book if they opt in.

It comes in on my phone, and I can see that they did it.

It's cheap for me. Maybe it's a $7 investment.

But what's the value of that person on my list?

I'm not suggesting that you need to do that. It could be something that doesn't cost you nearly as much. It could be all electronic.

I can give away an electronic copy. Doesn't cost me anything.

I like things physical because I think it creates more social proof.

But anyway, even if you're running a demo at your facility—we do that, and we have our disclaimer electronic—these are all things that you wanna think about.

That's the big concept.

And here's the important distinction:

Your list is bigger than just putting someone on a newsletter.

Let me make sure I'm clear about that, because there's nothing wrong with a newsletter.

But your list is the gold mine.

Then that allows you to slice up that list into buckets.

You might have prospects, current customers, former customers, referrals—whatever it is—and communicate with those groups through very targeted marketing.

Let me give you an example.

I was working with a client once. It was a fitness club, and they launched a massage program at their facility.

They put out a coupon for a discounted massage.

Let's just suppose they had 100 people who registered for the coupon.

Maybe 40 of them actually called immediately and booked the discounted massage.

That means we have 60 people who were very, very interested in that service but didn't take action.

Now, instead of just blasting out to our entire list to market massages in the future, we're marketing to the 100 people who showed:

"Hey, I'm interested here."

So what I want you to think about is that the database is about relationships.

That's really what I want you to think about.

You've heard this, right?

People say this all the time:

"The money's in the list."

Notice I didn't say that.

I said your list is your most valuable asset.

Because I don't actually believe the money's in the list.

I can buy lists, but if I don't have a relationship with them, it means nothing.

The money is in the relationship that you build with the people who have come into your list.

And that is a huge distinction.

I can have, say, 2,000 people in a database that I send a generic newsletter to, but if I've got a 10% open rate, who cares?

Versus maybe I have a very targeted list of 200, but my open rate is 50% or 40%.

That's a fantastic open rate on a newsletter.

The difference there is massive.

It's not just statistical. It's actual optimization.

You're gonna have more value-added transactions—and I don't mean that monetarily. I mean that in terms of the value you're giving somebody when you have a very targeted micro-list.

And speaking of value-added, have you actually gone and subscribed to the Wellness Means Business Brief?

Look, this podcast is only 50% of what I put out every single week.

I put out an entirely different piece of value-added content every single week in my newsletter.

So go to CaseyConrad.com/wellnessmeansbusiness and subscribe.

You're missing out if you don't.

Now, that newsletter is something that I spend a lot of energy and attention on.

Why is that?

Because I want you to open it.

Think about how many times you've gotten a newsletter and you literally just click delete because you know that it's just a promo.

It's just a push for you to come to the next thing or whatever it is.

But think about the times when you constantly open something because you think:

"Ooh, maybe that's got a juicy little piece of content that I want to have."

At the end of the day, my goal—and your goal—should be that the people receiving your content might consume your content for free for months, years.

But when they're ready to buy, they think of you because they think:

"Wow. Casey's delivered a hell of a lot of content and not asked for a dime in return. I'm gonna call her."

Okay, getting back to the valuable content for you.

I want you to remember that your existing list is literally a gold mine that you're not optimizing.

Remember we talked about the three ways to grow any business?

You can get new customers, get customers to make bigger purchases, and get customers to buy more often.

When we get into future episodes, we're gonna talk about number two and number three.

But number one—getting new customers—is this whole concept of a structured CRM.

Here's what we know.

Somebody who's had exposure to your business is 300% more likely to buy from you than a cold lead.

Let me say that again.

Anybody who's in your list—who put themselves in, not that you jammed them in—they put themselves into your list. They are 300% more likely to buy from you than somebody who's a new cold lead.

This is huge.

This is absolutely massive.

And a good CRM can do the heavy lifting for you, especially as it relates to getting those new customers through the door.

So here's what I want you to do.

I want you to condition yourself to start thinking:

List first.

Anytime you're gonna do any marketing activity—whether it be swag, a poster, a business card, a coupon, an ad, a social media post, it doesn't matter—I want you to ask yourself:

"How can I structure this to help build my list?"

Yes, of course, you're still building brand awareness.

You're still getting social reach.

You're still getting general exposure.

But always have a call to action that drives people to a place where they can start that relationship with you through your list.

Now, I know some of you are thinking:

"All right, Casey, I get it. I get it. So how do I do that?"

Well, here's the good news.

In our very next episode, we are going to have our first Wellness Means Business podcast guest.

It's going to be a marketing expert who is actually my mentor in this entire list-building strategy.

She's going to come on, and she's going to give you very specific strategies that you can use, no matter what business you're in.

So look, don't wait until you need the list.

The worst time to start thinking about building a list is when you're like:

"Oh, darn, if I don't get new customers, I'm gonna be in trouble. I'm not gonna make payroll."

Or:

"I'm getting ready to launch this new modality. I guess I better build a list."

No.

That's not it.

Revenue's down?

Nope. That's not a good time.

The best time to start building a list is before you need the list.

Build the relationship by building the list.

And think about this in relation to Episode 4.

If you haven't listened to it, go back and listen to it.

Remember that I talked about launching that new modality or service?

Just imagine for a second how different it would be if you had 2,000 people on a list that were already segmented, and you knew that this sliver of people would have a much higher likelihood of being interested.

Your entire marketing campaign would be different.

Trust me on that.

So here's my parting challenge to you today.

I want you to go back to the last six months of your marketing.

If that's too much for you, do it for the last 30 days. I don't really care.

But I want you to go back and ask yourself the question:

"Did I have a call to action that drove someone to a place where I would actually capture that information and put it into a CRM?"

And remember, I'm not saying they're going to a place where they need to buy something.

Like my Wellness Means Business Brief, it could be something totally free but value-added.

It could be a webinar.

It could be a live webinar or a previously recorded webinar.

It could be a download.

It could be a coupon.

It could be a discovery call.

It doesn't matter what it is.

Just ask yourself:

"Is there a call to action to get into a list?"

The possibilities truly are endless, and in the next episode your head is gonna explode with creative ideas.

So remember, go out, make a difference, make a profit, because Wellness Means Business.

Until next time, this is Casey Conrad.