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5 Elements of a Successful Health Club Website

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

Hey,

Joshua here, and I have a very special post for you today.

See, I’m so busy helping health clubs nationwide with their marketing, that I have to hire outside help for marketing my own business! To do this, I looked no further than expert marketers Louisa (Lou) Levit and David Tendrich.

They are complete experts when it comes to making your website a profitable, client-grabbing machine. And they’ve agreed to share some of their secrets right here.

Make sure you read to the end for a special free offer from them (it’s really cool)…

So, without further interruption, here they are:

Hey there,

We’re Lou Levit and David Tendrich, and we’re here today to talk to you about 5 key things that make a website successful. And by successful we mean that it brings you clients day and night – even when you’re on vacation. Pretty cool, right?

*Note: the word ‘copy’ is used quite a bit throughout this article. If you’re not familiar with copywriting, here’s a definition for you: it’s the art of writing words that make people want to take action. So copy is what copywriters write.

So let’s get started…

1. Research

Knowing what to put on your website isn’t guesswork. It comes down to finding out what your customers want, and giving it to them.

Talk to your ideal customers (you know, the kind you want more of) and find out in their own words what they’re getting out of being a member, why they joined,  what problems they’ve resolves, and how this impacts various areas of their lives (work, personal, etc.). Also find out what objections or fears they had before joining.

Write down or record everything they tell you. These are gold mines. When you write copy for your site, include the most common points you’ve gathered from all the conversations and use the same phrases and terms your members used. It only makes sense that to get more people like your ideal customers you’d use the same language they use when they speak.

When you do your research, also pay attention to your clients’ personalities. Are they mostly girly girls? Athletes? Moms?  Ask them what colors they like, what kind of things appeal to them, etc. Copy and design for house moms, for example, will be very different from copy and design for male athletes. Take these things into consideration when deciding what your site will look like and what you say on it.

Remember – find out what your customers want, and give it to them.

2. Clear focus / message

A lot of sites fall short because they have so much going on. Keep it simple – decide on one clear goal for your site, and make sure every page you add contributes to that goal. For health clubs that goal is usually to get more customers.

Take, for example, the about page. Prospects don’t want to know that you’ve been in business for 30 years – they want to know what they will get out of that. They don’t want to know how many certifications you have – they want to know why that benefits them.

If you mainly offer one service, we’ve found that, especially for fitness professionals, long copy sales pages work significantly better than regular websites. If you’re not familiar with what a long copy sales page is, you can take a look at one here. Basically, they’re those long pages, without navigation, that keep you scrolling down until you reach an ‘add to cart’ button or sign up option at the bottom.

Now, you may be thinking “who’s going to read all that?” – but when done right, these pages are extremely powerful since they draw the reader in, without distractions, and lead them to signing up.

To sum it up – always keep your goal in mind.

3. Attention grabbing headlines

When someone first opens your home page, you want to capture their attention and start making the sale right away. The most powerful way to do this is with an attention-grabbing headline that shows them the benefits they’ll get from joining your club, and tell them what makes your club so unique.

To make sure it gets noticed write it in big, bold letters at the top of your home page, and infuse it with benefits, excitement, and personality.

Here are a few examples to get you started:

“How this New York health club is helping people lose up to 12 pounds every month!”

“How this Atlanta health club can help you instantly boost your energy so you’re awake and alert all day long…”

“It’s not just the incredible fat loss you’ll get that makes this Detroit health club so powerful…”

As you can see, all three headlines describe the benefits someone will get from joining in an excited and energetic way. They really get your prospects pumped up about the changes they can start seeing in their lives, and give you a perfect lead-in to talk about all of the awesome features of your club like your equipment, supportive staff, friendly members who encourage each other and become friends, etc.

4. Testimonials

Testimonials are an absolute requirement. It’s good to have them on a testimonials page, but also make sure you include them on other areas of your site. The home page is a great place for that, since it’s your first contact with your prospects, and it’s where you make that first impression.

If you look on our website you’ll see that we have testimonials practically on every page. That’s because when people read what our clients took upon themselves to write about us, they’re much more likely to want to do business with us.

You want to feature testimonials that:

  • Show quantity (i.e. lost 5 pounds in 2 weeks).
  • Describe the environment. (i.e. everyone was supportive and friendly)
  • Counter objections (i.e. I never thought I could lose the weight, but… I never thought a gym environment was for me, but…)
  • Validate the price (i.e. this was a great deal considering how much it changed my life)

If you don’t have any testimonials yet, getting great ones is as easy as asking your favorite customers. You can also offer a free training session or a free month of membership, give something else away, or enter them in a raffle in exchange.

5. Call to Action

Earlier in this post we talked about having a single, clear focus/goal for your site, and making sure all of your copy and design lead to that goal. Your call to action is the last thing between you and your visitors - this is the goal your entire website is building up to.

A call to action is extremely simple to write. That’s probably why it’s so often done wrong! All you need to do is tell your visitors exactly what you want them to do next – in clear, concise language. That’s it.

For example… a lot of people will just have their phone number placed throughout their site, or say “call now 1.800.111.2222”. But we want to get a bit more specific. We want to give people a good reason to call too.
Here’s an example:

“Call 1.800.222.3344 right now to start your completely FREE week at Awesome Bodies Health Club!”

As you can see there’s a free offer in that call to action. If you don’t already, we highly recommend having a free trial period for your club: it lowers the barrier of entry into doing business with you. You want to make it as easy as possible for prospects to become members, so ask yourself this question: what makes joining this health club a no-brainer? Free or one dollar trials definitely answer that question.
Now, here’s another cool tip…

Take your call to action a step further. For example, tell people what will happen when they call you. See, sometimes people subconsciously fear what will happen when they call. In the back of their heads they think that somehow they’ll be charged for something, sold something, dragged into a long conversation.. etc. By letting them know what will happen you dissolve this fear.

For example:

“Call 1.800.222.3344 right now to start your completely FREE week at Awesome Bodies Health Club!

“Our wonderful receptionist, Martha, will answer the phone, take down your name, and set up a time for you to get a tour of the club.

“Then you can come on in, and start getting in shape as early as today!”

See how inviting and approachable that is? It completely takes the mystery out of the picture. People know what to expect – so they feel safer about calling.

So there you have it!

We hope these tips help bring you even more business, and see even greater success. Feel free to ask questions in the comments below.

Lou and David are the founders of an advertising and marketing firm in Atlanta, GA called Unexpected Ways LLC. In the past year they’ve helped literally dozens of fitness professionals all over the world achieve results they once thought impossible – both in online and offline marketing.

You can find out more about them, and get in touch with them personally, by visiting their website: http://www.unexpectedways.net.

One more thing!

Lou and David have been kind enough to offer a FREE 10 min. website critique for the first 10 people who contact them at support@unexpectedways.net.

Make sure you mention my blog to get your FREE critique.

Have a great one,

Joshua

PS. I have a GREAT new tool that I will be telling you about on the next post so make sure you opt-in to receive my “Sales Sniper Newsletter NOW“

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Are You Ready For The Next Level Of Fitness Marketing & Health Club Management?

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

Hey guys, I hope everyone is having a great week. I just got done teaching a fitness boot camp. Yea, that’s right, I’m a certified personal trainer and a fitness business owner myself. Although I haven’t talked much about it, being an owner myself, I understand the frustrations and challenges that health club owners face in this type of economy. I specialize in marketing and management systems for the health club industry, yet with all my knowledge and 18 years experience in the fitness industry, I can tell you it has never been harder than it is right now to earn a living in the fitness industry. I mean it used to be like shooting fish in a barrel…do some direct mail, have a fancy promotion and you could simply sit back and fill your gym up with happy, high paying members. Life was great! But all of that has changed. Now the fish shoot back!

shooting-fish-barrel-big using Fitness Marketing

In this new era of the fitness industry, it’s not good enough to have new equipment and freshly painted walls, and you can forget about things being like they used to be. So what do we do as fitness business owners? How do we stay afloat, or better yet, how do we flourish in an atmosphere that is hostile to the growth of a fitness business?

Well …. we have been busy finding the solutions you need. Over the next few weeks and months, we are going to be doing a complete redesign of this website, our business model and our approach to helping fitness business owners like you. If your not part of our Sales Sniper Newsletter, Click Here to enroll to receive future updates.

Here are a few topics that we will be discussing in the coming weeks and months:

1. We will be revealing our “Membership Dominator” program – This program is a done for you marketing and promotion service that will drive in a ton of new members, increase your draft, give you thousands in new cash deposits, and supply your club with up to $30,000 in free advertising. All with no risk and no out of pocket expense for you. Plus, while our staff is on site running our “Membership Dominator” program, we will train your staff to be membership sales experts, just like we are.

2. We will be revealing our “Club Boss” program– This is the solution that successful gym owners have been looking for. If you have been trying to figure out how you can work less hours, make more money, reduce expenses and headaches, all without having to pay a butt load of money out for general manager salaries, and consulting firms, then “Club Boss” is your solution. We will give you an experienced management team, complete management, marketing, sales systems manuals, designs, and much more. We will take you from being a successful club to being the strongest gym in your area. All while giving you, the owner, less responsibilities and more free time.

3. We will be revealing our “Low Price Ninja” program – Fact: if a low price model club opens in your area, i.e. a Planet Fitness or similar type of model, it’s only a matter of time before your club and all the other clubs in your area begin to struggle, go out of business and fail. With our “Low Price Ninja” program, you can now convert your club to the low price model without any fear of it affecting your future business in a negative way. If you would like to add 200-500 new members month after month, year after year, reduce monthly expenses and grow your draft beyond your wildest dreams, than the “Low Price Ninja” is your solution. If you have been considering paying $25,000 to get a Planet Fitness franchise to compete in the highly competitive fitness industry…DON’T! If you have been thinking about simply lowering your price and calling yourself a low price club….DON’T…it’s more complicated than that. Fitness360 is the only company in the industry today offering a program like this. So we will only be opening this program up to a select number of clubs per year and the clubs we do accept into the program, have to meet certain qualifications. If this program is something you’re interested in getting more information about, stay tuned to our site updates for more information or contact us at 888-434-8360.

4. We will be revealing our done for you fitness consulting programs, built around diet and nutrition, ladies only gyms, group fitness programs, fitness boot camps, personal training studios, and many others.

As you can see we have a lot of things we have been working on and I can not wait to reveal to you, our clients, all the new tactics and strategies we have been developing. So if your not part of our Sales Sniper Newsletter, join now by Clicking Here.

And as always, feel free to contact us at 888-434-8360 for any questions about our products or services.

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Fitness Sales - Fitness Marketing Testimonial from City Fitness

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

Look what we did at City Fitness in Lynn MA. We converted them to the “low price” model to compete against the 3 Planet Fitness that opened up near them. People can’t help but to love the low price promise. Our fitness sales team in only 4 weeks brought in 180 new sales, $28k gross and increased the eft by $2,200 per month. Fitness360 is the best fitness marketing company in the world! :-) And to prove it we will give you a money back guarantee. Wait! I forgot. You don’t have to spend any money. We front everything!

What are you waiting for ?

Give us a call to see if your Fitness Center qualifies.

Call 888.434.8360

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The building blocks of a good Fitness Marketing Plan

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

091019_r18925_p233Fitness Centers are tightening their budgets and many of them are cutting their marketing budget. I understand that these times are tough and I know that many Health Clubs are even laying off employees, but it is important to understand that cutting your marketing budget can often cause more harm to the growth of your Health Club than you realize.
Studies have shown that Fitness Centers that continue to market during tough economic times often see growth during those times, where businesses that cut their marketing budget will often see a decrease in sales.
It’s not time to cut the marketing budget, it’s time to re-evaluate your marketing and analyze what is working and what’s not. Take time to explore new options of marketing that cost less, but can still deliver the results you are looking for.
We cannot ignore these financial difficulties that our country is facing, but today I want to help you understand the importance of marketing during the recession. Learn how to set a marketing budget that you can work with, and explore popular no cost to low-cost marketing tips that you can begin implementing today.
Every health club owner should develop a written guideline that sets forth the club’s marketing strategy. This document is used to judge the appropriateness of each action that the business takes. If a fitness center has to take an action that is off-strategy, it may indicate a temporary emergency action prompted by competition or other factors beyond normal management control. Or it may indicate the need to change or revise the club’s marketing strategy.

A good marketing strategy provides specific goals and can include:
• a description of the key target buyer/end user
• competitive market segments the fitness center will compete in
• distribution channels
• the unique positioning of the club and its products versus the competition
• the reasons why it is unique or compelling to buyers
• price strategy versus competition
• marketing spending strategy with advertising and promotion
• possible research and development
• market research expenditure strategies.

An overall fitness marketing strategy should also:
• define the fitness center
• position the club as a leader, challenger, follower, or niche player in the category
• define the brand or club personality or image that is desired in the minds of buyers and end users
• define life cycle influences, if applicable

Strategy statement tests. If the statements in your strategy are measurable and actionable and work to differentiate your company and products apart from the competition, congratulations! If they are not measurable and actionable and do not differentiate your company from the competition, revise them until they are.

A good working marketing strategy should not be changed every year. It should not be revised until company objectives (financial, marketing, and overall company goals) have been achieved or the competitive situation has changed significantly, e.g., a new competitor comes into the category or significantly different or new products emerge from existing competitors.
While a comprehensive marketing plan can be a vital component to any business plan, it’s often neglected by small business owners, online business owners and webmasters, and independent or creative professionals, for a few reasons:

• They simply don’t want to put the effort into writing a full marketing plan.
• They’re too short on time to write a comprehensive marketing plan.
• They don’t know how to write a marketing plan, and are flustered by the process.

A one page marketing plan can, in these cases, be a viable alternative to a full marketing plan, while still touching on important marketing strategy areas. This sample includes a variety of marketing areas that should be addressed.

A one page marketing plan can, in these cases, be a viable alternative to a full marketing plan, while still touching on important marketing strategy areas. This sample includes a variety of marketing areas that should be addressed. Use the following guide to help you fill out your one page marketing plan:

(more…)

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Health Club Management – Coaching your Team towards a Goal

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

Health Club Management

Over the past few weeks I’ve been doing a lot of consulting with club owners in regards to club management. This is one in particular that I’m very passionate about, mainly because that’s where I got my start in the fitness industry. It really drives me bananas when I walk into a health club and there are no systems in place. I can only imagine how aggravating it must be for the members and employees to be part of a chaotic environment. So that being said let me stop venting and give you a couple of tips that will help you on the road to developing in house marketing, sales and management systems.

First things first, let’s look at marketing.

A few rules to remember when marketing for new gym members.

1. Sale Solutions – When a member joins a fitness center they could care less about how fancy your equipment is. Planet Fitness has proved this. If you walk into any Planet Fitness you will find the same boring cookie cutter equipment. So why are they so successful? The answer is because they are selling a solution. The solution is an environment that anybody can feel comfortable in. That’s there brand and that’s the secret to their success. A good marketing piece we’ll sale a solution. Here are a few examples of the solutions people are looking for when they buy a gym membership: low price, weight loss, risk free money back guarantee, great social scene, no pressure environment, etc.

2. Go Big or Go Home – A fitness center’s marketing budget should be a minimum of 10% of your current draft per month. You may be asking yourself, “How can I afford to spend that much on marketing every month?” A better question would be, “How can you not afford to spend that much money on marketing?” I know some great and inexpensive ways to market your health club that I will go into in a different post. The main thing I want to get in your head is that you have to spend money to make money. And your marketing should be both proactive and reactive.

3. Budget, Budget, Budget – Setting up a marketing budget is the key to successful marketing campaigns. So you ask, how should I go about setting up a marketing budget? Well, I already gave you one key: spend at least 10% of your monthly draft on marketing. There’s a lot more to creating a marketing budget for your gym, so feel free to shoot me an e-mail or give us a call and I can give you a few more free tips.

Next we’ll look at sales.

(more…)

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Going Old School in Fitness Center Sales across America - Muscle Trap Gym makes $16,000 in 14 days with Fitness360 Marketing!

Saturday, November 28th, 2009


If I told you that Fitness360 can help your gym I would be telling you the truth. But when it comes to marketing fitness centers & gyms the proof is in pudding. They say,”A picture is worth a 1000 words.” I say a phone call could be worth $1,000’s.

Fitness Sales systems by Fitness360 brings the thunder!

Fill out a “club profile” or call 888.4.Fit360 right now!

We may be able to help you in your time of need.

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Health Club Madness

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

insanity in health clubs

WARNING!- I would like you to read the following paragraphs with the utmost care. What I’m about to say is not only a warning, but is also a friendly suggestion from a fellow professional in the health club industry.

If you need help, don’t wait, call today!

I have talked with several club owners in the past few months that are on the verge of destruction. The one thing that these health club owners have in common is a fear of change. The gym business as we know it is changing. Gone are the days of beating the competition by having the best instructor in town or the new Hammer Strength equipment. There is no such thing as “better” in the gym business, there is just “different.”

Let me explain what I am talking about. If you think your club is better because your equipment is new – you’re wrong! If you think your club is better because you have great group fitness instructors – you’re wrong! If you think you have the best health club in town because you have the cheapest memberships - you’re wrong! If you think that infrared sauna that your so proud of is the reason that you’re the best club in town – you’re wrong! Remember there is no such thing as “better,” only “different.”

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Fitness Sales - 3 Secrets to Success

Saturday, October 31st, 2009

Fitness Sales

Fitness Sales is very easy if you understand a few key facts.

OK so let’s look at this for a minute. For this example my name is John. I walk into your health club expecting to get some pricing on how much memberships cost. Now I’ve never been a member of a health club in the past, but my doctors tell me that I need to start exercising if I want to live a little longer and increase my sex drive. So, reluctantly, I drive down to my local gym and now find myself standing at your front counter. The conversation will go something like this:

Joe Gym Owner:
Hey, how can I help you today?

John:
I would like to know what your rates are.

Joe Gym Owner:
Well, we have several rates. What exactly are you looking for?

John:
I have no idea. My doctor just told me I need to start exercising. So here I am.

Joe Gym Owner:
No problem. You can take a look at this rate sheet here, as you can see we have several plans.

John:
Okay well thank you very much. Do you mind if I take a look around?

Joe Jim owner:
No problem, help yourself.

Now I’m no rocket scientist but I’m pretty sure that John won’t be signing up at “Joe’s Gym.”

All John is thinking is:

You want me to pay you money to make me sweat? You must be joking!

I want to give you 3 keys to increase fitness sales. Each one of these keys depends on the next, if you take one of them away, the system won’t work. One of the best things about training someone to do fitness sales is that they’re learning curve is very small, and with proper training anybody can sell more fitness memberships. So let’s get right into.

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Fitness Center Marketing

Thursday, October 1st, 2009
Fitness Center Marketing

Fitness Center Marketing

Finding New Customers For Gyms

A solid and highly focused fitness center marketing plan is one of the keys to long term success in the health club business. You need to keep the members you have as well as encourage new membership. Marketing to these disparate groups can prove confusing and frustrating if you do not have a very clear fitness center marketing plan to outline the overall marketing strategy. By taking the time to establish a clear and effective fitness center marketing plan that helps you achieve your membership goals you will be laying the groundwork for future success.

There are two basic components to fitness center marketing – new members and existing members. Let’s examine new member marketing first. If your club holds to the national averages, the members who actually come into your club to join comprise only 1% of the potential market in your area. A fitness center marketing plan that targets the 99% of the people who don’t come in on their own can return amazing results. There are many people who are intimidated by health clubs or assume they are places only for the ‘fit’. When you use a fitness center marketing campaign that targets their concerns you will get them in the door and have an opportunity to sell memberships.

Fitness center marketing to existing members is actually about member retention. It is more costly and time consuming to recruit a new member than to keep an existing one. Membership reward and retention programs should be a regular part of your fitness center marketing strategy. Give-aways are one great way to increase loyalty and advertise your club as well. Gym bags, sports bottles, t-shirts and workout towels bearing your logo are all great ways to say thank you to members who renew their membership. Building membership loyalty should be an integral part of your fitness center marketing plan.

You can increase your membership roles with a focused fitness center marketing plan. Direct mail, corporate incentive plans, print, radio and television advertising and telemarketing can all be part of your fitness center marketing strategy. The key is to reach out to that 99% of people who don’t come into the club on their own. You can reach out to the shy, the couch potatoes, and the busy executives to convince them of the benefits to be gained by regular exercise. By creating a positive fitness center marketing campaign that encompasses both existing members and potential new members your business will thrive.

Take a look at our Fitness Center Marketing program to see if we could help your heath club gain the edge on the computation.

We book up fast and are now booked until the first on the year.

Fill out a Club Profile or Call to reserve a promotion date RIGHT NOW!

To you Success….

Joshua

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Health Club Management Software

Saturday, September 26th, 2009

Fitness Center Software

Fitness Center Software


Save Time and Effort with Integrated Health Club Management Software

Should you invest in a health club management software package for your business? Running a health club can be very time intensive and the need to transfer data between separate membership and back of house systems just adds to the weekly workload. Having an integrated health club management software package means that information on membership updates and payments is automatically transferred into your receivables system, saving steps, saving time. With a good quality package of health club management software, it is possible to have your sales, member services and accounting data linked. Individual password management allows you to control access to the various sections to guard against loss of data integrity.

For most health clubs, their current health club management software is a series of programs that do not interlink, so most data is transferred via the use of spreadsheets. This is both time a labor intensive and can lead to time consuming and frustrating errors. With an integrated health club management software package, all of the data is stored in a central database. There is no reason to produce spreadsheets or manually cross enter departmental data. As a manager, integrated health club management software can have a real positive impact on your time. You spend more time evaluating the data, and less time collating it.

One of the key challenges in health club management is to manage the day to day operations but not lose sight of the bigger picture and long range plans. An integrated health club management software package can help you do this, not only by freeing up time, but also by helping you quickly and easily track trends in sales and membership attrition. Health club management software that is specifically tailored for the health club business, will give you an insight into your business that can help you plan for the future.

Here are a few Health Club Management Software platforms I can recommend:

1. iGo Figure
2. ASF International
3. ABC

    Simply buying a health club management software package isn’t enough on its own. You need to learn how to use it most efficiently. That why I can recommend these companies. They have outstanding training and support. What these tools can do for your health club is to much to go over now so check them out and make sure to let them know Joshua with Fitness360 told you about them.(I get a box of cookies for everyone I send over..lol)

    An integrated health club management software package can save you remarkable time and effort. You will need to configure your health club management software to fit the exact needs of your business. Learning how to generate useful reports, track your data and make the most of sales and membership trends using your health club management software will take some time but the effort will be worth it. The more you know, the better equipped you are to help your business thrive.

    Be Blessed!

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