What Does Mobile Mean For Fitness? The latest trends in mobile apps for fitness and healthcare are heading toward an exciting destination. Mobile devices are everywhere, and it's amazing what you see when you observe at any gathering of human beings these days. Half or more of any group seem more involved with the devices in their hands than the world around them. So, what are the ramifications of this behavior for fitness centers and health clubs? It's About Millennials And What Controls The Lives Of Consumers As a gym business owner, you always need to look to the future [...]
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Boost Your Search Engine Results Page Position A search engine optimization or SEO strategy that gets the highest possible ranking on Google or Bing is one way to stand out in a crowded marketplace. Even a simple presence on the Web is something that you can tweak to resonate with the consumers that you want as members. The Search Engine Journal Website had an excellent post about boosting the search visibility of restaurants; I want to sum that up for gym businesses because what applies there also works in the fitness industry too, but first, a little background. Search Engines [...]
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How Do You Connect With Prospective Members? Across all of the activities that you organize to market your gym business, do you know what the critical touchpoints are in the structure of your membership marketing and management process? Touchpoints are the events and situations that define how you monitor and measure the customer journey that your members experience throughout their customer lifecycles. Converting Lookers Into Loyal Members When a prospect walks into your facility and asks to get more information it is probably not a spontaneous impulse that brought them to that point; they most likely had been thinking about [...]
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Crank Down Sale Costs To Maximize Gym Membership Revenues Selling more gym memberships is a good thing in principle, but do you know how much it costs you to get that sale? There are two parts of the expense required to generate revenue in any business, the cost of sale and overhead cost. Those costs you can attribute to making each sale and everything else, which you pay to vendors, but which you cannot assign to a particular transaction. One of the great features of the fitness business is that to bring members on board you do not need to [...]
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Predicting The Unpredictable As we hit mid-year in 2017, I'd like to touch on a few points about where the fitness business is going. You just need to look at the news to wonder if things will be unpredictable. I think we have reached a time in which you must be the certainty. By that I mean it is up to fitness entrepreneurs and gym business owners to have the discipline and do the things that make your world a little more stable. Preparing For The Future That Is Next Year The days when you would set up and open [...]
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New gym memberships make owners and managers feel great, no doubt! But it's even better if you can hold on to the old memberships longer. Reducing your rate of club turnover and increasing the customer lifecycle are critical practices in building successful fitness businesses. Here on the Gym Insight Blog, I have made the point many times before that retention matters as much as sales. But getting these numbers right is so important that it doesn't hurt to dive into retention and selling gym memberships once again. If you structure your sales and onboarding process well, saying "no" at the [...]
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Blockchain? Bitcoin? Ether-what? In my head, I hear you say, "What does this cryptocurrency stuff have to do with the gym business and my fitness club?" Well, it turns out that the robust technology behind these new things is useful for many different industries, including fitness. Technology is hitting the fitness industry as hard as any other business vertical. Here at the Gym Insight Blog, I've been trying to keep up and inform readers about what's new and what's likely to be coming along soon. So, considering the excitement about cryptocurrencies lately, I want to highlight it here too. Another [...]
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Podcasting Revisited For 2017 Podcasting is a topic that I think is worth revisiting. So, this is an update to a classic Gym Insight blog post, with more good stuff for gym owners. Through podcasts, you can discover insights for gym owners, stay current with issues in fitness, business management, and any other topics that might help you keep up with ideas and opportunities. Producing a podcast is hard to do but don't ignore a fantastic opportunity for fitness professionals if you have something to say, just because of a little hard work. Listening: A List Of Noteworthy Podcasts In [...]
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Putting your employees and representatives in sharp uniforms is one of the most fundamental ways to put a professional face on your fitness center operation, studio, or small gym business. There is a whole range of reasons to put your staffers in uniforms, and the key features are the associations that tie it all together. Branding By Association Members want to know who is in charge - Some common sense guidelines apply to uniforms in any business. Successful branding is about putting all of your visual and written material in one marketing strategy framework. The obvious factors include things like [...]
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When you work very hard to build something significant, and someone makes what sounds like an unjustified remark, it hurts. If you don't restrain yourself from attacking it can turn into a circus in all the wrong ways. Ever see a minor complaint turn into a public relations disaster? It seems like it happens all the time these days and companies still miss opportunities to turn customer griping into chances to amaze larger audiences. Negative Reviews Can Make Your Service Better When someone makes a complaint in public or gives you a bad review, it's going out to the whole [...]
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Someone recently made a very excellent comment on the Gym Insight Blog. The commenter posted that, while walk-ins are great, they don't just materialize out of thin air, clubs have to work for them. Yes, that is absolutely true, you are going to have to invest some time and effort to generate walk-in inquiries. The result you want is a new face loitering by the front desk asking questions and taking the tour. Advertise and Brand Building The old school concept of marketing is as valid as it ever was, you need AIDA: attention, interest, desire, and action, to cultivate [...]
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The Digital Natives Expect You To Bring Your A-Game There is a simple logic that justifies marketing to Millennials; it is the fact that, being young people, they will be around for years and years to come. So if you can capture the mood and attitude that appeals to them, you have a shot at building relationships with a valuable demographic. Millennials are the offspring of past generations that were subject to sophisticated marketing, even if the media was less advanced. This recent generation has grown up within that context, and they are the first generation that is truly native [...]
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Big Fitness is doing well these days, and that can have an impact on small gym businesses. However, the market looks set to continue growing over the next few years, which means there's enough business to go around. The shape of the fitness industry is changing, and it may be unrecognizable by the mid-2020s. Success at the top is a good thing; it represents expanding opportunities for small gym business owners, here's why. The Shape Of Big Fitness Companies I was reading a report about the Top 100 Health Clubs of 2016 that Club Industry posted last August, and as [...]
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Here's some more economics stuff, but it's golden, so if you're an aspiring fitness entrepreneur, stick with me here. If there were perfect competition, no one would make a profit. The fact is there are hidden opportunities that arise because the gym industry has quirks that make it possible for an enterprising gym enthusiast-slash-professional to make a splash. Getting In The Mix While Standing Apart Even if the biggest McBigBox franchise were to open right across from your studio or club, the fact that it's there might be a sign that you are in the right place and you can [...]
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The Armchair Stage Of Starting A Gym Business Do you dream of starting a gym or fitness studio? If so you may have made serious inquiries into what it takes. Like starting a restaurant, founding a gym captures the imagination of people at all levels of experience and qualifications. The fitness industry seems like an easy entry; passion is a great starting point. Running a gym is a consumer service business, and there are many resources available, including software like Insight for Gym Owners. Visit the Small Business Administration website, determine your strengths and weaknesses, set your goals and outline [...]
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