Fitness Marketing Group | Blog

Are You Keeping Up with the Jones’.. Or at Least Trying?

Eric Vyborny — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 23:30:04 +0000

When was the last time you painted the walls in your health club? When was the last time you got a new piece of exercise equipment, I mean really new? When was the last time you bought some new accessories for your health club? If you answered, “I can’t remember” or “It’s been awhile” then it’s time for some change. Some people embrace change, some fear change. Those who fear it are the gyms that are out of business today. Take for example, cell phone companies. How many of your friends go to a new carrier because they bought a new type of phone their current carrier doesn’t have? Why is the health club business any different? It’s not! Health club members like to see change, they like to see new things in new places and any improvements made to the gym. Painting a wall is such a simple thing, it doesn’t even have to be all four walls, it could just be an accent wall. It goes a long way with your members, especially the females. You don’t have to replace all your equipment every 5 years, but your members will appreciate something new from time to time. A new piece could be as simple as an Ab Coaster. So go out there and make some changes in your health club. You will be amazed at the responses you’ll get!

Offering Health Club Groups Leads to Retention

Chris Batchelor — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 23:50:14 +0000

You probably have not thought about it before, if you have you’re in the minority. Offering free social groups at your health club is one of the easiest and most cost effective ways to improve retention and it can also lead to additional new gym member sales. Odds are that many of your health club members enjoy similar activities, running, biking, reading, bible study, the list goes on and on. Think of ways to organize social groups in your fitness facility. Groups should be free to all, and lead by someone on your health club staff. This is a great way to get your gym members involved in activity at your health club facility that is not completely centered on fitness. Organize a weekly run, or a book of the month club, and keep your gym members abreast of these happenings via signage, newsletters, emails and staff. If executed well, your health club will become more than just a gym. It is much harder to walk away from your social life than it is a gym membership. By getting them more involved, your gym members will stay and pay you longer.

The Importance of Thank You cards

Chris Batchelor — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 21:06:39 +0000

A simple thank you card can make all the difference in your customers experience. It’s a pretty simple concept, right? I bet you’re not using it. The Health Club industry is becoming more and more about building relationships now than ever before, especially for middle market facilities that are searching for an identity and competing in an always changing market place.

By adding a simple, hand written thank you card to your new member process, this will help build that relationship, it will also reinforce the offers and amenities that the member can participate in at your club. A thank you card is also a perfect place to leverage a specially unannounced referral prize and incentivize your member to bring friends or family members with them. Couple a thank you card with regular follow up, including birthday cards and event invitations, and you will be well on your way to improving customer loyalty at your club.

Retention Starts on Day 1

Eric Vyborny — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 23:49:20 +0000

Retention must start on the 1^st day that your new member joins your health club, with a simple Thank You card. Ask yourself, when is the last time you purchased something and 2 days later got a Thank You card for buying your item? I personally can’t recall the last time I got a Thank You in the mail from a business that I bought something from. The second your new member leaves your club, print out the Thank You card, sign it, write a little something on it by hand, such as “Thank You!” or “Have a great day NAME!”, hand address the envelope (don’t be lazy and print a label), stuff the envelope with a few guest passes and your clubs information sheet. You’ll be amazed at the compliments, and the thanks, that you will get from your members, for taking the time to send them a Thank You card in the mail!

Measuring Retention

Chris Batchelor — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 23:56:35 +0000

Retention is arguably the most important factor to long term success in your health club. However, before we can discuss how to improve it we have to identify exactly what it is and how to measure it. Contrary to popular belief retention in our industry is not measured by the amount of new members vs. the amount of lost members, it is measured by how long a member pays you before he or she eventually cancels their memberships.

The first thing you need to realize is that EVERYONE CANCELS. Take a look around your facility; chances are that the people who you see are not the same faces from five or even two years ago. Health clubs are constantly turning over their membership base and that is why getting your members to stay and pay you longer is critical. A simple thank you card, or birthday card can make all the difference. Take the time to appreciate your members and show them you care. Increasing your average retention rate by only one month can add tens of thousands of dollars to your bottom line and it costs almost nothing to do it.

Ask Your Members What They Want

Frank Emanuel — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 22:45:43 +0000

Don’t you agree that your health club members would renew…if you do a good job of meeting their needs? You bet! The only way to meet the needs of your members and clients and improve member retention is to first know what they want. There are many ways to find out what your members are looking for: surveys, client panels, suggestion boxes, open door management policy, etc. Whatever it takes to to stay in tune with what what the majority is expecting. Sometimes the requests of members gets a bit crazy, and some of the suggestions I’ve received through the years…there is definitely a line you must draw. But as long as you are keeping the majority happy and satisfied, then the majority will always stick with you and that’s the best you can do. By the way, one of the best requests I ever received was for doggy massage. I didn’t implement it, but if the majority wanted it, heck…I’d massage the dog myself!

Health Club Internet Marketing for Newbies

Frank Emanuel — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 21:17:14 +0000

This is actually a forum post I responded to on www.gymsuccess.com but I thought it was relevant enough to share with you here.
I assume you mean a site designed for your gym. There are local webmasters in your area possibly even in your club if you posted an announcement you might could trade out for services. If not then I’ve had success with 99designs.com

Another and sometimes more affordable option are websites like Scriptlance, elance or one Curtis covered on FitBizTV this week Odesk. These allow you to hire contractors many of whom charge peanuts per hr for high quality work. I’ve seen outsourced web design on these sites for less than $5/hr. It’s important to check references and see examples of their work but if they check out it can be a great way to go.

Keep in mind many of these techies are good programmers not marketers so make sure they are implementing SEO tools within the design. There is a cheatsheet in the download area of GS to share with them to ensure they are doing the right things to maximize search rankings not just building a feature rich fancy website no one ever sees.

To help your cause register a domain name that relates to what people will be searching for. Not a gym brand name or even worse an unknown club name. If I’m new in town I’m typing in names like Atlanta gym or Vinnings Personal trainers. These specifically related search terms are a more effective strategy than Joe’s Fitness. They will have no idea who Joe is so try (nameofyourcity)gym.com or fitnessclubin(nameofyourcity).com or even (town)healthclub.com.

Another key thing to remember is to make sure the site is not only optimized correctly, has an easily found domain but, most importantly serves its purpose which is NOT necessarily to sell the gym.

Think of your website as a lead machine. The homepage and every other page of your site needs to offer a free VIP pass including something else of value in exchange for contact info.The sale takes place in the club so to get the lead “Try 7 Fitness Infomercial Lies” or 14 Quick Weight loss Tips! Once you have email or phone number then you can follow up relentlessly.

Finally, don’t go overboard with all the flash, virtual tours,online enrollment, bells and whistles. Your site should be easy to navigate,give relevant information, share some testimonials, establish value and build enough excitement to compel the prospect to submit their contact info or call the club.

I am still not a fan of giving prices on the web or giving every little detail as I think sales opportunities are missed when folks think they have all the information without speaking to a rep.(If there is some crazy promotion your running it might be ok to announce that but still have them call the gym for details or request info.

Again a website should be professionally done, help you establish a local web presence,get high rankings in the search engines, be informative and ideally act as a lead generator. There is certainly more you can do with your site such as scheduling , bill payment, add-on services for members, build a network of followers or add a blog but this is a great start and should help get you going.

Regards,
Frank

PS
Once you go live let me take a gander at it and I might can make some suggestions or help improve the design a bit. This goes for anyone else out there who would like to have me critique their website.

Busy Doesn’t Make Fitness Business Work!

Frank Emanuel — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 18:24:52 +0000

People often ask me how do they know when their club is performing at optimal levels to which I answer “Could you leave for a couple weeks with out any decrease in overall performance.

If the answer is yes then you are well on your way!

Sadly, more often than not the answer is a resounding NO WAY the place might burn down, because blah blah blah!

Guess what, its your own damn fault. You can blame staff, economy,competition whatever comforts you but, the reason your club is not performing at optimal levels is YOU!

It’s time to install the systems you’ve been meaning to operate by, launch the marketing programs you’ve considered to increase traffic, hire and/or train the right staff for better results and get help if you need it.

Each of these issues taken at face value can be blamed for a lack of success but blame doesn’t solve problems ACTION does….It’s easy to think we are staying busy so I must be making a difference. The reality is most time the tedium of day to day prevents us from doing the high impact activities. The most important things you can do are marketing, selling new members or training, servicing existing clients, and developing additional profit centers for your fitness business. If you are not spending at least 60-70% of your time on these areas it will be very difficult for you regardless of how hard you think you are working.

Happy Halloween It’s That Time Again

Frank Emanuel — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 20:28:32 +0000

In business it sometime becomes difficult to come up with new and interesting ideas
for marketing and promotions. That's why holidays are so nice other than the general enthusiasm days like Christmas, Thanksgiving or even July 4th generates because of the fellowship, the good meals, and the mini vacation Fitness Business owners can capitalize on the easy advertising opportunities the holidays provide.

Shoppers just expect specials and promotions and the bargain hunters senses are seemingly heightened looking for that great holiday deal.

I've always considered Halloween the unofficial start of this holiday shopping season as it get's people geared up for the Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah rush but it is less capitalized on from a marketing, promotions, and out reach stand point. I would argue this is the perfect time to start sending gifts to clients, spreading a fun promotional message, host a party, and create fun activities around the club that invite in members and non-members alike. Start now and get the attention of prospects before everyone else is battling for attention. You might get a new member if you beat the rush at the very least plant a seed, make a friend, establish a dialog and start sales process. Once people are in your pipeline its a much easier conversion so get them now before everyone and their brother is vying for their attention or the focus is on doing for others.

If you start in October you'll have more to be thankful for come November and probably be able to be more generous come Gift-giving season

Ready When You Are!

Frank Emanuel — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 18:25:43 +0000

Having just returned from Club Industry I am eager to introduce some exciting new programs I learned about and infuses the infectious energy some of the young upstarts shared with me. It was a great show and as always it was good to see some old friends as well as make some new ones.

A ton of folks asked what I learned and I think the main thing I realized is that clubs everywhere are very similar. Those who struggle suffer from the same deficiencies and challenges.Or they struggle very little and never experience the huge downswings by those reactive and overexposed to changes in the economy or industry.

Conversation after conversation it became clear that the seasoned owners/managers who focused on the me and my club being proactive, marketing effectively and staying ahead of the trends were all doing fine in their businesses while anyone who complained about the competition, made excuses, and talked about how tough it was out there generally had very little if any action plan to right the ship and seemed dougbtful if they’d be around for next years show.

So what was the difference. Ironically I got to talk to several club owners from the same area especially Chicago where the show was held and if there was a prevailing positive attitude and a lot of energy those clubs had nothing but success stories while the woe is me crowd all were struggling to stay alive. Keep in mind they both operated in the same enviromnt and shared the same opportunities yet had vastly different stories to tell.

This begs the question, which one are you? The excitable go-getter or the excuse maker. Are you the cheery proactive rainmaker in your community club or have you cornered the market on excuses and reasons why things are bad. Obviously, there is room for both but, the cool thing is it seems we get to choose.