JUNE
2019 ISSUE
FITNESS CLUB
NEWSLETTER
FITNESS CLUB SUCCESS
Issue 8 - June 2019
Greetings from the Team
6 Week Beach Body Programme
10 Best Freemium Offers
1-2
3-5
6 - 10
The Importance of Follow Up Emails
11 - 13
Onboarding New Members
14 - 16
Recovering Lost Customers
17 - 19
Reduce Barriers to Entry
20 - 23
Running a Member & Guest Day Campaign
24 - 27
Running Reactivation Programmes
28 - 31
1
Greetings from the Team
Welcome to this months Fitness Club Gold
The ability to tell a story around why your Club is the obvious and only place for your prospect to train is one of the “must have skills “of fitness marketing.
Its about being different and standing out in a crowded market. Your club needs to build an aura of “Pre-eminence “and “authority “. It’s the “we mean business” and the “home of expertise” theme that needs to come across as you express yourself on the written page or your website landing areas. Try this copy for size. Its designed to get interested prospects to visit your club and establish that you have something unusual to tell them and infers that your club is markedly different to the rest of the competition.
Here’s how words can make a difference to the perception of your club. For the purpose of this example We have replaced the “Tour” stage with a similar event, now termed “Consultation.” It’s a strategy we have used many times and it works a treat.
See what you think and if it’s right for you … swipe and deploy readers! “Get a Lifestyle Consultation with one of our Body Conditioning Specialists at Sample Club. Find out what exercise regime your body type is most suited to. Do you know what it takes to own the body you've always wanted? Don't waste your time and money doing things that simply won't work. Ask our transformation Gurus! That's the promise when you book a 45-minute Personal Consultation Session with Body Transformation Specialists at Sample Club. Whether you're ready to train at *Sample Club* or you just want some advice on the right things to do at home then this evaluation session is a crucial starting point.
2
Greetings from the Team
Normally £45 this session is available FREE of CHARGE in *JUNE* to the first 25 people to book a slot in. With so much miss-information surrounding diet and training regimes you need to know the truth about what will work fastest for your DNA and body type. That's why when our *Consultant* meets with you one to one at *club* studio, we will conduct a comprehensive interview and range of non-invasive tests to uncover the right diet and exercise regime precision tailored for you. It’s worth £45 – but for a limited period only you can take advantage of an incredible new route to a stunning new you…for just the time it takes!”
Hopefully you get the point of the power of language and the importance of standing out and being “remarkable”. There is a lot of good stuff in this month’s issue. Feel free to milk every drop of it!
Duncan Green
T: 0207 917 2780 E: duncangreen@momentumbd.co.uk W: www.momentumbd.co.uk
3
6 Week Beach Body Programme
Why you should promote a 6 Week Beach Body Programme
Once the beach is in sight, we all start to think about how we are going to look when we are stripped down and basking in the sun. Motivation to get a quick fix exercise programme is at one of the highest points of the year.
For the commitment phobia prospect, the 6-week programme is an acceptable bridge to get to know you and your club before they make a longer commitment to membership. They will do in significant numbers if they get the service and the results in this phase. For some people access to your club facilities for 6 weeks will be all they need or want. For others, they are going to need much greater levels of help, guidance and support. That’s why when the Beach Body prospects come to the Club to enlist …You’re going to give them a branded graphic containing 3 different options of the 6 week offer containing varying levels of support at 3 different price points for the client to choose from.
4
6 Week Beach Body Programme
So, if you want to run a “fast track” 6-week option at £30, so be it. But for me who wants and needs the help of your exercise team to programme me and to monitor me , I will pay the gold option at say £ 75 or the VIP option complete with PT sessions at £250 – You decide what goes in the options and what you charge! We know that the triple price sandwich approach works brilliantly wherever we do it and it will for you too! The other benefit is that it broadens the appeal of the programme to a broader audience.
So, who are the audience for the 6-week Beach Body Programme?
1
Prospects after a quick non – commitment fix
2
Customers after a “supported “fitness programme
3
Students after a vacation programme
4
Current members after a serviced programme pre-holiday
5
Ex members to gently reintroduce them to your club
The most effective ways to find these groups is via Facebook advertising or by email. You can customise the copy to suit the audience you aim the advertising at so you can have different versions for:
Men under 35
Women over 35
Mums
Dads
Grandparents
5
In fact, any audience that you can think of who may be interested in this sort of programme.
Facebooks’ built in audience criterion will permit you to show the right adverts to the right audience. You simply book people in to visit the club and sell them the appropriate package when they arrive. (We know that some prospects will even join you as full members at this point!)
Here are 3 simple ways to make conversions easier for your Club staff:
1
Online needs analysis which will identify the good, better or best option most suited to the prospect.
2
A graphic showing what the ingredients of each package are, with an offer of a price discount to convert today.
3
A 14-day Money Back Guarantee to take away the barrier to starting.
6 Week Beach Body Programme
6
10 Best Freemiums Offers
10 Best Freemium Offers
Everyone likes getting something for free. Users of gyms and leisure centres are no different.
But just because it isn’t a form of marketing that costs the customer anything initially, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be using this tactic. It’s actually the start of a very important funnel…
Attract You’re gaining attention by customers by NOT selling anything, which is great for brand awareness.
Generate This should follow on from attracting the customers and generate leads for you. Once they’re a lead, it’s your opportunity to upsell.
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10 Best Freemiums Offers
Nurture A lead’s data is invaluable, so you should be using it to follow them up with regular communication to build a relationship. Slowly building up the price and value of any offers you want to contact them with, as their trust grows.
Convert As this point, the lead has shown a clear interest in your brand and services, so it’s time to hook them in, to becoming a paying customer. Special Promotions and Limited Time Offers can be used. Plus, as you’ve nurtured your lead along the way, you’ll hopefully know more about them, so can tailor what you offer them based on their behaviour so far.
So, with all that said, lets run down the Best Freemium Offers for Fitness Clubs:
1
Competitions
8
10 Best Freemiums Offers
2
Surveys
3
Personal Consultations
4
Open Days
5
Guest Passes
9
10 Best Freemiums Offers
6
Free Personal Training Session
7
Free Group Exercise Class
8
Downloadable Exercise & Nutrition Reports
9
Birthday Offers (Free Passes)
10
10
10 Best Freemiums Offers
Exercise at Home Email Support
All these freebies have the possibility of turning your bargain hunter into a valued customer.
When done in the right way, the freemium model can be a powerful way to attract customers and generate serious profits for your business.
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Importance of Follow Up Emails
The Importance of Follow Up Emails
So, you’ve done the tricky bit.
You’ve got a prospect to sign up for your offer and give up their information. This data they have given you, whilst also opted in to your communication, is not just information you can use to contact the lead for what they registered for.
It’s also a chance to nurture and upsell them into other various offers and products you have. Say your prospect has signed up to enter a Competition you were advertising. Great, but now what?... Well instead of just leaving them to find out if they won the prize being promoted, lets use this opportunity to build some trust and a relationship with the prospect. Contact them after they have entered, thanking them.
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Importance of Follow Up Emails
But now you can upsell them into other areas to give you more chance of eventually turning them into a potential customer. Here are some things you can follow them up with: • Contact them with a fitness survey
A perfect opportunity to qualify your leads and see who is serious about actually joining your club.
• Invite them for a FREE Personal Consultation
A chance to get them into the club, show them your facilities and your range of membership benefits.
• Hit them with Special Joining Offers
Maybe you want to give them the chance to take up a 1 Month Trial for a Special Discounted price. Or, if they’ve shown continuous interest in your brand, you could send them a full membership offer. 12 Months for the price of 10 for example.
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Importance of Follow Up Emails
• Send them an invite for an Open Day
If you’re not hosting regular Open Days (you should be) but if you are, here’s a great chance to again get them into the club, with no risk on their part and to experience your club for themselves. Again, a perfect opportunity to upsell them into membership.
• Back up your credibility
Sending them advice on stuff like Nutrition, Exercise Advice, Free Downloadable Reports etc. All of this helps improve their trust in you as experts and shows that your services are valuable.
Hopefully you can see the importance of following up on your prospects with these sorts of methods. Just remember, joining a fitness club is like buying a new car. You want to see what you’re getting first, make sure it’s reliable, take it for a test run and then make the purchase.
This strategy can help you to give them the keys…
14
Onboarding New Members
Onboarding New Members
You’ve got the new member into your club, that’s the hard bit done. So, what’s the best way to make their initial phase of membership as pleasurable as possible?
The first 42 days of their membership is key to making the best first impression. With a New Member Onboarding Programme, you can do just that…
S.M.A.R.T START RAPID RESULTS PROGRAMME pular Most Po
Name:
Welcome Session
YOUR LOGO
Option
BRONZE
SILVER
GOLD
You are an experienced trainer, familiar with our equipment and confident in your programming knowledge.
You are new or returning to exercise member, who would benefit from additional support.
For individuals who would like a high degree of service, support, guidance and management.
Monthly Guest Pass
x1
x2
PT Session (45 min)
x1
x3
Fitness Services Discount Card
25% OFF
50% OFF
Heart Rate Monitor
50% OFF
100% OFF
MyZone Belt
50% OFF
100% OFF
SAVE £22
£67
SAVE £45 £135
SAVE £73 £218
£45
£90
£145
Date: Time: Instructor:
Personally Tailored Exercise Programmes Follow Up Refresher Session
Firstly, once they’ve agreed to become a member, it’s a great idea to present them with different Membership Options which are tailored to the different requirements of your members. Set out in Bronze, Silver, Gold packages. It gives them the feeling of flexibility to choose the type of membership they want and what they could get if they want to upgrade.
Online & Offline Programme Tracker Personal Progress Pack Before & After Photos Benchmarking Assessment Sessions Mentoring Support 6 Week Re-programme Sessions Friends & Family Nomination Scheme (5 x 14 Day Passes)
Joining Date:
15
Onboarding New Members
YOUR LOGO HERE
Then, you will want to have a New Member Newsletter ready to be sent out to them upon signing up as a member. This is a great way to welcome them to the club, make them feel more at ease and show them the level of support you will offer them. S.M.A.R.T START NEW MEMBER PROGRAMME NEWSLETTER
As well as a Newsletter, you could have a special website available just for new members in their first 42 days. Which contains all the offers, programmes and advice you’d like to communicate to them.
And how to communicate with them? Through regular emails and texts, showing them the benefits of the content and directing them to sign up for any of the services. Your first programme session should be supported with a choreographed PowerPoint presentation and an agreed script that all staff follow. Some of your new members will learn visually as opposed to absorbing your words so it makes sense to use both.
16
Onboarding New Members
So, what sort of things should you look to promote to new members? Your Newsletter and Website can contain such things as:
• A guide to what happens on their first session • A chance to book in for a refresher session • Special Offer to nominate several their friends to free passes • A guide & advice on how to track their fitness programme, with their own programme card • A chance to book in for a Before & After Photo session • Special limited time Personal Training Offer • A chance to book in for a fitness assessment • Special Offer on products like Heart Rate monitors • A guide to tracking their results, with their very own Personal Progress Pack • A chance to sign up for an Online Nutrition Programme • A Social Media Reviews Offer, where they can get a free gift for writing a good testimonial • A ‘where to find’ index, so they have all your Website, Facebook, Fitness Services, Contact details etc. all in one place and easy to access
With this level of service upon becoming a member, you’re giving yourself the best chance to make them feel wanted and help in retaining your membership fees. And it’s the type of programme none of your competitors will be doing….
Being “remarkable” is your aim. That is doing things in an unexpectedly good way that inspires customers to talk about you. This is the most powerful and cost-effective way to compete without reducing your prices.
17
Recovering Lost Customers
Recoving Lost Customers
In addition to the ability to attract new customers, Clubs would be foolish to ignore the potential of recovering those they have lost. The costs of signing a new member can run to significant sums. When you know what that figure is you can then gauge how aggressive you can be to get back members who have left you. First up you need to adopt the view that your terminating members are no longer paying you anymore so you can’t lose in this game. You do need to change the circumstances to get any positive outcome. Go the extra mile to get them back.
First off: The Follow up Call The direct approach is best and its shows intent. This should be within 7 days of notification to leave and needs to be done by your most skilled of staff members.
18
Recovering Lost Customers
It’s vital to acknowledge if not actually to apologise that something must have gone wrong with the service they received to lead to this situation. Often members will be on the back foot when you make the call. They are not expecting it and often will do anything to get you off the phone. Surveys are almost always 100% useless at this point. The ex-member will say just about anything to avoid upsetting you and get you off the phone. They will most likely praise the club to such a level that its often impossible to work out why they left!
It’s safe to assume that your ex customer is going to need the motivation of a new supervised programme with a member of staff that they have respect for to change the mindset.
Secondly: The Face to Face Once you have presented your proposed way forward, you need to get the commitment to sit back down with you face to face to arrange the new programme.
This is no different to the prospecting stage with new members and you need to use the same techniques. A useful tip here is to offer a very appealing FREE GIFT just for coming back into the club to meet you or at worst to come to the club in their own time. Utilize any F&B facilities you may have such as free coffee, meal, and if you need to broaden the appeal so its something that the ex-member can share with a partner. The critical point to repeat is that if they don’t come back you have Zero and if they come back you could make a further £500 for example. The question is how much are you prepared to spend to get the next ranch of revenue?
19
Recovering Lost Customers
Finally: The Call to Action Finally, and most importantly you need to create a “Hurry Up”. A call to action. To summarize the process so far:
• You have apologized for the circumstances that they find themselves in. • You have uncovered the motivations they had when they were active members. • You have presented a solution that’s exclusive, valuable and hits the spot for that member. It’s time to get the customer to act and come back down to the club to meet you. In order to incentivize this, you need to have a Fixed Deadline on the offer.
Probably 14 days is the longest period I would use, and I would leverage milestones in that period to email the customer and remind him or her to book that there is a ticking clock on the appointment and that after this period the benefit will not be available.
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Reducing the Barriers to Entry 10 ways to Make it easier for Prospects to say Yes
1
Sessional Bundles The price of Group classes has never been higher thanks to the rise of the boutique clubs. The price of Fitness membership has never been lower. The solution for Clubs is to break out the Group Exercise programme from membership and market it as available by buying bundles of sessions.
Reducing the Barriers to Entry
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Reducing the Barriers to Entry
Pay as u go in advance and paid for predetermined volumes of classes with an expiry date. The market for Classes is x4 the size of the club membership market so you are on solid ground and customers relish the chance to try you out with a reasonable level of commitment.
2
Month to Month Flexible Agreements Flexible noncontract memberships offer Clubs the chance to elevate their price while appearing to offer a unique customer service benefitted ability to stop paying at any time without financial penalty. This is an option that is popular with prospects who are new to exercise, unsure about you, or simply want a benchmark your annual membership price for value.
3
Trial Offers Term memberships of 14 days upwards to 90 days are effective ways to promote. They provide a level of immediate revenue that helps to fund your marketing costs and allows you to be more aggressive in recruiting without the cash flow issues that sometimes affect membership marketing.
4
Good Better Best Options Offering a choice of 3 options allows you to advertise a compelling price while still being able to satisfy prospects who need a more intense supported programme. This strategy is being increasingly adopted in Clubs at the moment.
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5
Reducing the Barriers to Entry
Money Back Guarantees Guaranteeing your service does several good things for you.
6
A
It makes it very easy for customers to take a chance on you.
B
It says something very positive about your club's quality that you can offer such an apparent risk-free benefit. It allows you to charge more because of it and is a very effective counter to any objection around time, money, facilities, spouse resistance.
Transferable Annual Memberships The main argument put forward by prospects against taking paid in full long-term options is the what happens if objection. If I get ill If I move out of the area If I stop using you By having a transferable option on your annual memberships, you can generate higher take up on these options which boosts cash flow and reduces your reliance on retention activities. Clubs charge a nominal administration fee to transfer the membership and that enhances the income generation while appearing to make it easy for members to get the value from a discounted annual option. This works best when juxtaposed against a month to month noncontract membership.
7
Transferable Enrolment Fees In the day, Clubs were very comfortable charging a Joining Fee which covered the cost of recruitment and induction of the member. Good clubs can still levy such a fee and making the investment transferable helps to make this a smooth sale.
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Reducing the Barriers to Entry
Members can sell on their enrolment fee to anyone they want for whatever they want. The club charges a nominal transfer fee for each transition. The best thing about this promotion is that members replace themselves!
8
Annual Renewal Cash Back Schemes If a club is levying a reasonable joining fee, one idea that can be used to reduce the pain is to refund the fee upon renewal in year 2 of membership. Essentially this can act like a bonus renewal gift and reflect the ACTUAL VALUE PAID rather than a fixed sum for all, bearing in mind the promotional offers that may be run throughout the year.
9
Non-Usage Insurance This concept has been covered elsewhere in this issue but essentially the Club agrees to behave in a certain manner whenever the member falls inactive for an agreed amount of time and the costs of reactivation are buried in the membership charged or levied as an add on. Clearly people with a history of non-compliance to their fitness programme will see this as a very important benefit and perhaps be the deciding factor in choosing you over other clubs.
10
Long Term 5-year or 10-year Residential Membership Offers This is a variation on the Transferable enrolment or Annual membership. It is used when the Club wants to do a fund raiser to finance investment in facilities or marketing. How it works is that Clubs issue a certificate linking the membership to a fixed address which can be sold on with the house sale.
Back in the 90s I used this technique to sell over 200 5-year and 10-year deals that raised over ÂŁ250.000. Sufficient revenue in the day to build a new club!
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Running a Member & Guest Day Campaign
Running a Member & Guest Day Campaign
When it comes to trying to attract new customers to join your gym, there’s not many better strategies than running regular Member and Guest Days at your club.
Despite the promise of free access to your facilities, a campaign like this has various benefits which you shouldn’t ignore. • Gets the prospect into your club • Gives them a taste of what they could get • Makes it easier to upsell them into membership • It’s a chance to run special offers specifically for the day So first off, you want to promote your Member and Guest Day through various social channels.
25
Running a Member & Guest Day Campaign
•
Facebook adverts
•
Google adverts
•
Emails & SMS
•
Facebook posts
All these strategies together give you the best chance of the best possible reach to your prospects.
Promoting to Non-Members Creating a landing page which encourages prospects to book their place before the event is also a great way to capture their information, even if they’re not able to attend the event for whatever reason.
26
Running a Member & Guest Day Campaign
Which makes any follow up offers you’d like to target them with an easy task.
We then want to create engaging advert content to get them to the page to sign up.
Promoting to Members As mentioned, this can be done through email and text messages to your Member Database. With GDPR rules in place, we recommend encouraging the member to share the sign-up page with their friends and family (so they’re not entering someone else’s personal information).
We also want to post the event on your Facebook page, which has the addedpossibility of reaching members who may not be on the database or have opted out.
27
Running a Member & Guest Day Campaign
Running offers on the day So, the prospect has signed up and is at the event, what do you do now?...
Well if they’re interested in joining, this is a perfect chance to offer them extra bonuses to increase your chances of a membership. Having a Good, Better, Best Membership plan is a great way to offer the prospect the type of membership that best suits their current needs.
It also can give them a preview of things they may look to upgrade to if they choose the cheaper option.
As well as different membership options, why not offera Special Joining Offer too? Give them the option of earning a FREE Personal Training pack when they sign up. Little touches like this just make the prospect feel more wanted and should help make their initiation phase more comfortable for them.
Hopefully you can see the benefits of running Member and Guest Days at your club. Members can be acquired in different ways, you just need to know how it’s best to nurture them along.
28
Running Reactivation Programmes
Running Reactivation Programmes Are You Taking Member Inactivity Seriously Enough?
Your Club Member Reactivation Programme should be one of the most important Systems you run. Without exception, people who leave you as members will at some point prior to cancellation have become inactive. When you calculate the financial cost of inactivity on attrition, then how effectively you drop into a pre-designed reactivation routine is vital on economic grounds alone. It should almost be your No. 1 business strategy ahead of anything else.
Member Inactivity comes about from 5 Common conditions: 1
Personal Injury or Sickness
2
Enforced break in exercise usage patterns
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3
Holiday Commitments leading to usage pattern change
4
Falling out of Love for the Club due to customer service issues
5
Seasonal breaks like Xmas leading to usage pattern disruption
Running Reactivation Programmes
Obviously, Clubs can’t be expected to know the lifestyle changes of every member 24/7 but some things are predictable, and there are measures that can be taken to reduce incidents and to provide appropriate recovery processes that re-engage the inactive member.
How to reduce Member Inactivity to a minimum
1
Sequential Interventions
All high performing clubs provide sequential interventions as a feature of memberships. These normally take the face of Reprogramme sessions offered every 30 days or 42 days of membership. This should be reinforced at the point of sale and actively promoted to the member by text, email and or phone call.
If it is infeasible for Clubs to proactively operate this service, then members should have a web based facility or offline equivalent which is child simple to use to request an intervention. Where budget is tight, this type of service can also be used as an added value service SOLD as an add on to the base member benefits.
Alternatively, Clubs can use a 14 session Programme Card system to manage the interaction process where completion of the 14th session triggers a reprogramme session.
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2
Running Reactivation Programmes
Supervised Reactivation Experiences
The quality and structure of the Reactivation measures play an important part in efficacy.The golden rule is that hey must be more than just a single unsupported member session. There needs to be a degree of personal responsibility built in to incentivise the member attending the reactivation session and that means it’s a commitment with other members or with a supervising fitness leader. Ideally it should be a multiple session to establish the usage pattern ritual.
Examples of effective reactivation strategies: • PT Supervised Programme
• Tribe Small Group Gym
• Personal Evaluation and
• 14 Session Gym Challenge
Sessions
Programme Set Up Session
• Personal Evaluation & Programme Set Up Session
Training Course
such as “Wear the Shirt”
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Running Reactivation Programmes
These can be offered at any price range to suit Club budgets from free upwards. Charting the results of the session will give the best steer on how to price.
3
Pre Brokered Services
Clubs “Pre agree” the intervention process with the member BEFORE Inactivity kicks in.
This can involve a membership enhancement or as a secondary product that the member can buy into. There are various times in the calendar or the members life when a period of inactivity is more likely. After the summer holiday or around the Festive season when activity patterns are compromised and lifestyle changes around overeating and heavier drinking can mitigate against the prospect of exercising. Because this is predictable behaviour Clubs can seek to reduce the impact by arranging special offers and programmes BEFORE the member encounters these periods. There is certainly evidence to suggest that pre booking the solution before the problem reduces absenteeism and cancellation.
Finally, Clubs could also consider “Inactivity Insurance”. This is an agreement between the Club and the member to carry out an agreed recovery programme in the event that the member goes inactive for a certain amount of time. The costs of the reactivation scheme to be covered by the revenue from the Insurance premium paid at that front of the membership administration process.
This allows Clubs to act in a “Remarkable” way without suffering from the financial weight of rising overheads.