Niche marketing is one of the fastest ways to build your fitness business fast. It is a lot more effective, faster and easier to become the go to expert to a small niche then to everyone. Think about it; if you had to have brain surgery would you want to go to a general surgeon or a brain surgeon.

One of the things you need to consider when going into a niche is passion. Are you passionate about the niche? Are you passionate about the product or service you are providing them? Are you passionate about the problem you are solving?

This is a lesson I learned the hard way. My first fitness info product was for women’s soccer fitness. I am passionate about soccer, but not women’s soccer. Unfortunately for me, I found this out after three long months of creating the program, sales copy and building a list of over 2,000 women soccer players. I was into the fitness aspect of it, but they wanted to talk about professional women soccer players (which I knew nothing about) and a lot of other off topic but related stuff that I wasn’t interested in at all.

So learn from my mistake and don’t just pick a niche to go into because you think there isn’t much competition or that you think you know what the problems and issues they are dealing with. More than likely you have no idea.

You have to know and understand what they really want. What are their biggest problems, fears, and insecurities? What keeps them up at night? What solution can you provide? Can you make multiple products? Is there an opportunity for a continuity program, service or product?

You need to do extensive market research. You need to know their likes, dislikes, what they do, what they read, where they travel, what they buy. You can start by interviewing people in your niche. Surveys are also great for market research. You can use Survey Monkey to create surveys for free. You can also go to Amazon and look up books related to your niche and read the reviews and see what people liked and didn’t like so you know how to model your product, program or service.

Find related blogs and forums and join in on discussions to see what everyone is talking about. If you find the market research boring or uninteresting, take it as a red flag and pick another niche.

You can also use Google Alerts to notify you of news and information related to your niche. This is a good way to see all of the new content being put on the web that pertains to your business.

Once you have found a niche that you are passionate about, it is time to gain exposure. You want to become the trusted expert first, and then become their go to guru for life!

You can start by writing articles, guest blog posts, public speaking, and host free workshops. Use all of these opportunities to start and grow your email list. You should also start a blog of your own, even if you don’t currently have a product or service to sell.

Remember at this point you are gaining exposure and becoming the trusted expert. If you try to sell too soon, you will lose a lot of potential clients.

There is a lot of expenditure, effort and hard work you have to do while laying the foundation and gaining exposure. You should be networking with other guru’s, business owners or potential affiliates. Go to events that they either host or ones that they attend. These people have the ability to give you credibility, position you as an expert and also help you grow your business at a rapid pace.

Remember at this point you are gaining exposure and becoming the trusted expert. If you try to sell too soon, you will lose a lot of potential clients.

The next step is to look for traffic opportunities. You should focus on SEO (search engine optimization), not only for your blog and sales page, but your articles as well. Make sure you have your keywords in all of your articles, blog posts and sales copy. You may also want to invest in hiring a good SEO person to start the link building process to your blog and articles.

Social media (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube) is a great way to get free or cheap traffic to your blog or sales page. Facebook ads to a custom fan page with an opt in has worked really well for me.

Affiliates can make or break you. Focus on building the relationship with them first. Promoting you, your product or service will then come naturally. Affiliates work just as well offline as they do online. I have had success with my offline business using local business affiliates. Offer to promote them, their service or products. You can also interview them. Interviews are a great way to get introduced to an affiliate, especially if the affiliate is well known in the community. People will automatically associate you with them.

You want to be a top authority figure on all the top related sites. Make a list of 10-20 sites that get a lot of traffic. You can either offer to write a guest blog post, comment on their posts, or even buy banner ad space on their site.

Once you have the traffic, the next step is to make them an irresistible offer. Do whatever you can to build value and make the initial sale. Then over deliver and you will quickly become the expert in your niche.

For more tips on how to grow your fitness business, follow along on my Facebook page.