Posts Tagged ‘health club marketing ideas’

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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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Posted in Health Club Managment, Sales Sniper - Fitness Sales, The Fitness360 System | 1 Comment »

Big News!

Saturday, June 5th, 2010

Hey Guys and Gals!

I am sorry I haven’t made a post in so long.

Nevertheless I will be starting back up helping fitness professionals all over the USA.

We have a ton of great advise that will be released so we need as mush feed back as possible to help us deliver the goods.

Keep your eye out for our next wave of helpful info.

Your in health and fitness!

Joshua

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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:

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Posted in Health Club Managment, Profit Centers For Health Clubs, Sales Sniper - Fitness Sales, The Fitness360 System | No Comments »

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.

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What Makes For a Good Health Club Business Plan?

Thursday, September 17th, 2009
Sucess With Health Clubs

Sucess With Health Clubs

The fundamentals of goal settings will involve deciding what you actually wish to do with your private life and what short term and long term goals you must attain it. Then you have to break down goals into the smaller and controllable targets that you have to complete in your way to achieving your lifetime targets. Once you have your list waste no time in tackling your goals.

So having a Health Club Business Plan is a no brainer.

Lets talk about a few key point to writing a Health Club Business Plan.

What makes for a good country club business plan is the same things that make for any good business plan, which just a few differences. The most significant thing to keep in mind in any plan, though, is that having A plan is far better than having NO plan at all, even if the plan is a little misty, to start. This can always be corrected down the road. What’s a fact, though, is that enterprises that begin with no written plan regularly go down to beat inside their first 3 years. Health Club Business Plan reveal your weakness.

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Posted in Health Club Managment, Profit Centers For Health Clubs, Sales Sniper - Fitness Sales, The Fitness360 System | 6 Comments »

Knowing When to Call in the Consultants

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
Fitness Consultants

Fitness Consultants

Could your health club or weight loss business benefit from fitness consulting? In today’s market, every member counts and many businesses are struggling to maintain membership roles as people make spending cutbacks. Deciding whether fitness consulting is the right thing for your business can be tricky. After-all, as the recession affects your member’s pocketbooks it affects yours. Many club owners are tempted to ‘batten down the hatches’ and attempt to weather the storm of economic uncertainty. Before you do that, however, there are some basic things you can consider to see if fitness consulting is right for your business now.

Fitness consulting from highly qualified professionals with solid industry experience could be just the thing to strengthen your business and help you weather the storm of economic uncertainty. One of the keys is gaining market exposure. It is possible to gain new members from the ‘couch potato’ set – those people who would not normally walk into a health club. Fitness consulting can help you create a marketing plan that reaches out to these people. Getting a broader spectrum of people through the door in the first place is one of the prime goals of fitness consulting. But what do you do with these people once they arrive?

Working with an experienced fitness consulting company, you can learn the steps to effectively sell memberships to the ‘uninitiated’. Someone who has never worked out in a gym before or thinks of gym as the place of school days torture will be sceptical about the benefits. They are likely to come through the door with a ‘prove it’ attitude. Working with a fitness consulting company you and your staff can gain the skills needed to effectively sell the benefits of working out at your club. Good fitness consulting is specifically aimed at helping you look at your business through fresh eyes – to see what the customer sees, and understand what they need.

In the end role, a fitness consulting company is there to help you re-evaluate your business, to expand upon the things that are working, and to make changes where necessary. With a focus on proper promotion, fitness consulting can help bring in new members from that segment of society that is not already on-board with the fitness revolution. If your business is flourishing, adding new members and expanding services in today’s economy, great! If not, you should call a professional fitness consulting company.

Call today and ask about how our Consulting Programs could help you.

You will receive 1 FULL hour of consulting for FREE!

Thank you!

Joshua Fleming

Fitness360

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Posted in Direct Mail Tips, Health Club Managment, Personal Training Solutions, Profit Centers For Health Clubs, Sales Sniper - Fitness Sales, The Fitness360 System | No Comments »

Fitness360 Video Intro

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

Hello World….

Fitness360 Marketing Intro from Fitness360 Marketing on Vimeo.

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Posted in Sales Sniper - Fitness Sales | 4 Comments »

Fitness Boot Camps 101…. A Three Step Plan

Monday, July 20th, 2009

personal_trainer_boot_camp

In today’s market place you not just have to be creative but you also have to be able to deliver. As a fitness professional, if you’ve spent any time researching paths to increase the profits you generate from your business, you know that boot camps are an excellent way to do just that.

Running a fitness boot camp makes it easy to :

* Book multiple clients at the same time, augmenting your output
* Train folks with little or no equipment
* Set everything up without having your own gym or studio
* Work with huge groups of folks all at the same time
* Earn more income an hour without doing more work

Folk are flocking to these boot camps because they’re fun, effective, and convenient. Health club owners are missing a massive amount of money by not integrating boot camps into there inventory of programs.

And since you can perform fitness boot camps at local parks, playgrounds, or even in your own yard, there’s no need for a gym membership - or any overhead fees for you. That means that the average Joe personal trainer can suck uplarge amounts of  business with just a few easy advertisements. This leaves you Joe health club owner with less clients, less cash and more worries.

So lets go over a few thing to think about before just leaping into doing boot camps, then I will help you get the ball rolling.

(Step 1)

Ask why? Why are you wanting to start a boot camp? The first question to ask yourself is what are your long-term goals is in regards to your personal training profits center. If your not producing at least 25% of your club money in some kind of personal training, boot camps, weight loss, etc then you not running a successful club. Now you may be saying  “wait, I am not making that sort of cash on PT but I am doing OK.” I’ll just say that different folk may have different standards for success.

If your goal is to maximize your profits and cut back your workload then boot camps are great way to do just that. So what is a fitness boot camp? The term “boot camp” just means big group training class. A boot camp will ideally have 10-20 clients. Sessions will last 60-90 mins. The price tag should be between $125-$199 per month. We all know that one on one PT sessions are a waste of time. Sure if a client wants to pay you $90.00 per 1 hour sessions take the cash, but your personal training profit center will never grow if you’re still thinking Old school.

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21 tips in developing a profitable Telemaketing Program for health clubs.

Monday, July 13th, 2009

Telemarketing for health club marketing There are many forms of health club marketing. Some produce a higher ROI (Return on Investment) than others. Phone sales or Telemarketing is an under valued method to effectively contact your potential health club members and close sales. Receiving a phone call from an energetic health club professional, with a purpose driven phone script, is very powerful. Be aware that effective phone skills will show your personality over the phone. Someone that has been thinking about joining a health club may just be waiting for a motivated health club owner to give them a call with an invitation to come in for a free 2 week pass to the “best health club in town.”

Benefits of using Telemarketing for Health Club Marketing:

1. It will affect your entire market. Having your prospects name, phone number, address, etc., reduces the sales cost greatly. A health clubs staff will no longer need to souly depend on lead boxes for names and numbers. It is also easier for sales staff to let current members, as well as hopeful members, know about new or upcoming products and services the club would like to showcase.

2. It is synergetic.In other words, telemarketing will cross promote the other marketing streams you already have in place like: direct mail, lead boxes, etc. The health club establishes the conversation with the prospect rather than just waiting for them to walk in. This is proactive marketing.

3. It is flexible. Different from other media in Direct Marketing, a Telemarketing campaign can change the communication of the marketing on the basis of the answers we receive. This skill set is invaluable in today’s struggling economy where every new member is worth their weight in gold. You can’t risk losing 1 prospect.

4. It is measurable.Telemarketing campaigns have many steps that can be modified to achieve the best possible results. After comparing the results from other campaigns on a week by week basis, a health club is able to develop, analyze the benefits, point out the mistakes and take corrective actions needed to maximize its’ effectiveness.

5. It is fast moving.Phone calls are short - appointments are made quickly. A professionally ran health club telemarketing campaign will generate on average 25-75 new appointments a week. If you have 50 appointments show up, and close an industry standard 75%, you will receive 38 new sales a week.

6. It’s cheap. A telemarketing campaign will cost around $200.00 a week. That covers call list, payroll, phone lines.

Now that you’re starting to understand the benefits that Telemarketing can provide to a health club’s marketing program lets look at some of the steps in starting up your own telemarketing campaign. Every health club will vary its’ approach based on several factors, but the following steps will give the blueprint to follow.

Steps to develop a Successful Telemarketing Campaign:

1. Set up Call Room Rules.The staff you hire will need to know exactly what you expect from them. Things like: daily appointment quota, follow up rules, call conflicts, shift hours, conformation rules, etc. Have the rules in place to insure your telemarketing campaign is ran in a professional and profitable manner.

2. Buy a Call List. There are serious laws governing telemarketing. The “Do Not Call Registry” (DNCR) is a federal department that watches out for consumers? If a person has listed their number on the DNCR, and you contact them, you may be fined up to $35,000.00. There are services that sell call list that have been scrubbed against the DNCR and are safe to call. This list is KING get a good list that has been updated in the past few months.

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The 4 steps to have happy members using smart Health Club Marketing.

Friday, June 26th, 2009

Health Club Marketing MistakesThe members of a health club either make you the club a success or they can bring complete failure. It’s up to the club owner to decide which way it will go. Fitness360 realizes what owners go though on a daily basis. Bills, equipment, computers, employees, programs, advertising, etc. It’s never ending and it can get very crazy at times! But that doesn’t give anyone the right to slap the “gift horse” in the mouth. Experts know “word of mouth advertising” is the best marketing one can receive. Fitness360 realized this long ago, so after years of testing, finally we have the tool for the job. The Fitness360 “Membership Rewards Program” is finally here and it will birth “word of mouth marketing” for health clubs that will thrust a clubs’ profits through the roof.

Health Club Marketing starts with the members. I can tell you just what type of a club your running by simply asking a few questions of a sales person from GNC or a health food store in your area. Health Club owners forget sometimes that the customer is always right, even if their wrong. I have consulted with many club owners that actually believe they are doing the members a favor by “allowing” them to train at their club. This is unbelievable!

Owners, if you want to be successful, day after day, year after year…. WISE UP!

Ok, so how do you start to own your club and stop being owned by it?

Fitness360 has a 4 step method in taking health clubs
from second class to the TOP OF THE CLASS.

STEP 1
Understand you don’t know everything. Without getting this point your “helpless.” Health Club Marketing by Fitness360 is not a miracle solution for a failing club with an untrainable club owner. It’s a system that will save a health club from failing, like it has so many other times in the past, but can only do so if the owner is willing to learn.

STEP 2
Know that most people find change VERY difficult. The only way your going to become the best health club owner in town is to change. Bottom line! The reason health clubs fail is mainly do to the fact that the owner will not change their procedures, practices, mindsets, etc. This is a big sticking point for most owners.

STEP 3
Believe in yourself and in your business again. Can you remember the day you decided to open your club and how it felt like a new chapter in you life. If you can get back to that “on fire” mindset, your success is guaranteed. Without getting a fresh heart, your doomed.

STEP 4
Invest into your members and they WILL invest into “their” health club. It’s the law of “cause and effect” working to bring in paying prospects, create raving members and establish your brand. Now at this point I would remind you of STEP 1 if your doubting the power of a Membership Rewards Program.

Our customer reward packages are proven business builders.

fcs_161 Commercial quality
fcs_161 Great printing
fcs_161 Affordable
fcs_161 A package for every price point!

With our Customer Rewards Packages Members:

fcs_161 Feel like a part of your team
fcs_161 Advertise for you
fcs_161 Have tangible gifts to take home after joining

Packages start at just $12.95 each!
*Select from a wide variety of colors and styles
*Coordinate your package to match your business colors

And the best thing is:

YOUR LOGO ON EVERYTHING!

Reward your customers and advertise at the same time!

NOW your ready to implement our “Membership Rewards Program.” GO check it out for yourself.

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