The concept of experience marketing is generating a lot of buzz among business consultants and academic thinkers right now. It encapsulates the emotional and subjective associations that come with using a product or taking part in a service. It is how your members feel about how they get along at your gym. It is all of the subjective associations and emotions they have relating to everything from the hygiene levels to the staff's attitude and the results members get from their workouts. A State Of (The Customer's) Mind As long as members are happy enough to keep coming back, whether [...]
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Digital Media Puts a Human Face On Business Here's an ironic fact: Digital media can actually add a human touch to your gym! In this day and age it's absolutely imperative that, as a business owner, you take full advantage of the low-cost high-impact resources that you can find online, in social media, blogging and video blogging. If you're a bit more ambitious, even podcasting can be a great way to promote your gym. The subject of social media is vast and rapidly changing. I'm just going to put this out there as an idea. It's just a quick overview, [...]
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These days it's almost impossible to avoid the online community and customer feedback. Think of that as a good thing! Make the effort to be aware of reviews of your gym or studio and be prepared to respond. The secret is first knowing where to seek them out and then responding to them, before you find yourself digitally tarred and feathered. Of course some of what you get is going to be positive. However in business it's almost impossible to do anything that provides a customer experience that's universally loved. Misunderstandings and miscommunications can occur even in ideal conditions. Just [...]
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The Memorial Day Weekend is approaching as I write this and I am reminded that those who served our country are among the most deserving of our support. When it comes to charity donations gym and fitness center owners can make a great contribution by including marketing promotions that give back. I have a bias toward giving to veterans' causes and I make no apologies for it. There's a vast amount of need because, as a country, we've been asking so much of so many for so long now. It also troubles me to hear of the delays and shortcomings [...]
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This is part 2 of a multiple part series. Fitness Metrics Revisited It's about time for an update of fitness industry trends once again. Although many of the numbers that I relied on last year are still to be released, there are enough statistics around that I thought i could get an early start. There is a lot of information out there and I don't want to dump it all at once. It's much better to put out chunks of numbers in a controlled way. There is some Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data about employment in the industry to [...]
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Pre-Sales Fill The Void In the lead up to the Christmas holiday, members and prospective gym members have their thoughts elsewhere. This always means less foot traffic into gyms and fewer inquiries for memberships. So, you need some sort of seasonal boost to your small gym's revenue stream. The bills still come in, of course, and your staff needs to have something to keep them motivated and sharp. You don't want your trainers looking elsewhere for income and making connections that may lead them away. You can't afford resignations, right as you need your trainers the most, when the members [...]
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You know that you need to establish your brand name and image in the fitness industry, but how will you do that? Giving excellent customer service and providing state-of-the-art gym equipment and facilities are just some of the initial steps. You also need to create some buzz about your gym and appeal to the public at large. While we strive to get creative promotion ideas, we tend to overlook one of the simplest and most effective promotion technique - giving out promotional products. Using branded promotional products are one of the sure-fire ways to increase brand visibility and ensure member [...]
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Flyers and leaflets give you an inexpensive way to promote your gym and attract new members. Whether or not they offer an effective solution is up to you and what you decide to do with them. Not every flyering campaign brings you the reputation that you want or the clients that you need. If your campaign is not done correctly, you might end up running at a loss and dealing with a bunch of agitated residents complaining about the littering. To ensure that your flyering campaign brings you the good exposure and business that you need, you need to ask [...]
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Like I've mentioned before, the fitness center market is highly competitive (as if you didn't know that already). To gain any leverage in the marketplace you have to be extremely creative in the way you attract new members. I've developed some enticements for members by experimenting, building on what works and letting all the rest go. Gym Membership Management With Self Service Marketing There's one promotion that's worked particularly well over the years. I let members work for discounts on their monthly rate by bringing in referrals, down to a certain amount. It works like this: my monthly membership amount [...]
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When you're aiming for success in the fitness industry, there are a number of factors to consider during the start-up period. That's why it's always a good idea to have a checklist in place for everything to ensure smooth business operations. A detailed checklist helps you keep the gym organized without unnecessary effort and also improves your chances of establishing a name in the industry. Let's find out why each of the following checklists play a role in the growth of your fitness business: Supplies By having a supplies checklist for your gym, you can see to it that every [...]
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As the Southern hemisphere experienced a change in season - from winter to spring - on September 22nd, the Northern parts of the world entered autumn. The transition, known as the autumnal equinox, from summer to fall in the North marks the beginning of a season filled with festivals and celebrations in the United States. With important holidays like Thanksgiving and Halloween around the corner, it's time to draw up plans for promoting your brand and bringing in more members to your gym. Here are a few ideas to help you with your fall promotion: Halloween Although fitness and Halloween [...]
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A lot of jargon is thrown around in the world of fitness. Walk into any gym at any given moment in any part of the world and you will hear a conversation about too much muscle one day going through some magical, Narnia-like metamorphic journey to fat. Well, if muscle cells can somehow break the laws of everything humankind has discovered about biology, then be careful because your fingers could just as likely turn into a pack of hungry wolverines at some point. Many popular fitness terms are riddled in conversations like the one mentioned above. Probably the most popular [...]
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As a gym owner, health club operator, or as a freelance personal trainer, without a doubt, one or more of the following questions crosses your mind daily... How much personal training did our Brentwood gym sell last week? Who is the top grossing salesperson at our Freemont club? How did our Spring Valley team perform against their goals last month? How much EFT do we need to set up at our Downtown club to hit our goal this month? Which one of our health clubs is selling the most annual membership agreements? How much EFT did we set up yesterday? [...]
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The age old adage "what gets measured gets improved" holds a lot of value for businesses. This phrase is often tossed around when you are being convinced to add a metric to your scorecard or in today's world of technology, the dashboard. The basic theory underlying this phrase is that if you can measure "x", then you will improve the performance of your business. But the implementation of this phrase isn't an easy task. Merely measuring a quantity doesn't ensure that if actions are taken the performance will improve. For instance, consider how a rain gauge works. The gauge shows [...]
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As an owner or operator of a fitness center you're probably going to find in the near future that your clientele will include more members of special populations. By this I mean groups such as seniors and people with fitness and diet related health issues. These are growing segments of the population and there is a market to be found by catering to their needs. Start With Special Population Certified Trainers The reason special populations are distinct categories; separate from your average gym member is that they start from such a delicate level of health. They need to work with [...]
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