May 2009 - HEALTH CLUB MARKETING GYM RESCUE - HEALTH CLUB MARKETING GYM RESCUE

FITNESS LIFE MARKETING…… Strategies to Improve the Effectiveness of Your Health Club’s Website!

Your Health Club's Website

FITNESS LIFE MARKETING……7 Strategies to Improve the Effectiveness of Your Health Club’s Website!

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. This is especially true when it comes to your health club’s website. In this day and age, your prospects will seek you out on the Internet long before they stop in or even call. So you want to make sure your website offers an attractive peek into what they can expect as members of your club. Here are 7 strategies to help make sure your website drives prospects to your club.

First and foremost, you need a way to collect visitor information. This is probably the most important element of an effective health club website. You already know you need to collect visitor information when a prospect visits your club. Apply that same strategy to your website! It is as simple as offering a 14 day trial membership in exchange for your visitor’s email address. The best way to do this is to have an opt-in form on your site, that is linked to an autoresponder system such as Aweber or Constant Contact. By collecting their information, you will have the opportunity to send them information about your club, fitness and nutrition tips, and a method of communication if they forget to redeem their trial membership.

Try to use pictures of your actual members on your site. Too many websites have the same stock photographs on their website. Images of real members from your club as well as your staff members are always more powerful than using images of people who are obviously models. Prospects will be turned off if you have a site loaded with pictures of people they cannot relate to. I recommend a “Gallery” of photos somewhere on your site.

Set up a “Partners” page on your website. This works well for a couple of reasons. First it looks like you’re a major part of the community. Prospects will likely see stores where they’ve shopped, and in turn feel comfortable with you through a mutual connection. But more importantly, this provides you a great opportunity to offer something of value to your neighbor businesses in exchange for something they can do for you.

Emphasize your most important message on your home page. If you’re the best, make sure you tell them you’re the best. If you’re the biggest club, the only 24 hour club, the club with the best service, the “guaranteed results” club…you have to tell them right away! What is it that is your best selling feature…your Unique Selling Proposition? What makes you different from the other fitness options in town? You want to make sure they know this right away. Make sure there is no doubt what message you want a visitor to know right away.

Always use dark font against a light background. Too many websites try to get fancy and put a dark background with light colored font…this is a mistake. If someone tries to read more than a few sentences of light text against a dark background, it will strain their eyes. Menus and headers can use a darker color, but the main content area needs to be white or a very light color.

Limit the number of menu tabs on your site. I’ve seen some websites that have up to 20 different menus on their site! I say no more than 6. You can easily develop subcategories for each of these. For example, don’t have a tab for group fitness and boot camp and massage and tanning and personal training and childcare. Have a tab called “Services” and have each of these a subcategory. Drop down tabs are especially useful for this.

Make sure your website is better than your competitors’ sites. This one probably goes without saying. If your prospects look at your website and look at your competitor’s website, they will call or visit the one that they like most. Make sure your site is prettier, more user friendly, and more informative than the websites of your competitors.

Sponsored by: Fitness Life Marketing 1-888-541-0714 ext2

Article Research Contributor: Amerishape Weight Loss

FITNESS LIFE MARKETING….”Imagine selling a health club membership without selling.

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“Imagine selling a health club membership without selling. If you have ever given this much thought, I have some good news for you…”

We’re continually asked by health club owners across the country how to get new sales people (or even non salespeople) to be more effective in selling health club memberships. We recently completed an assignment with a health club that was struggling with their new hire membership reps and here is what we told them.

FITNESS LIFE MARKETING….”Imagine selling a health club membership without selling.

The sales approach is simple… first, you must genuinely care about your health club member and guest. Always put them first. As a result, you will gain not only a membership, but also their trust and their referrals. Commit yourself to making a difference in your members and guests lives, and you will prosper-you’ll be selling, but you’re not selling.

Ok, so how do we do it? Here are some proven approaches that can help you sell more health club memberships without selling.

FITNESS LIFE MARKETING….”Imagine selling a health club membership without selling.

1. Put your health club guest first!

Get to know your guest first before you start talking about yourself and everything your club has to offer. Be more interested in their goals…instead of what you have to say. Ask questions about their fitness background and what’s most important to them. Don’t rush to present your memberships. Ask questions early on that help you uncover your guests’ needs. Put your personal agenda to make the sale on the back burner for now. Your membership presentation will come in due time.
Stay focused on your guests’ wants and needs, not your own.

“…six valuable words to be spoken often in your health club: What can I do for you? Here are five others to be spoken in your health club: How can I help you? “

2.Be genuinely interested in your members and guests

First of all, you don’t push. Stay focused on your guests’ wants and needs, not yours. You don’t chase after your health club guests. The eventual membership sale is not the first and only thing on your mind. Instead, you show you’re genuinely interested, you’re willing to listen, you want to help, and you’re on the lookout for a way you and your health club can make a difference to your guests and members.

3. Be willing to ask

Here are six valuable words to be spoken often in your health club: What can I do for you? Here are five others to be spoken in your health club: How can I help you?

Asking these questions to your member and guest reflects your genuine interest in their well-being. When you show this interest in helping someone else, they will feel, “Wow, this person is really interested in helping me.” And that’s exactly what all of your members and guests want. That’s the atmosphere you want to create in your health club.

“In a nutshell, selling health club memberships without selling is a method to get club guests to come to you because your health club reputation is based on the fact you’re not just out there to make money, you’re out there to make a difference in people’s lives.”

4.Give your members and guests more than they ever expected

Find out all you can about your members and guests. Ask them what would make a difference for them in your health club. Then, get to work and get it done. If you want to provide super service and have your members and guests become raving fans, then go the extra mile and show you genuinely want to help them to get to where they want to go and get the results they desire. What do you want your health club to be famous for?

5.Be accessible

Make yourself accessible to your health club members. Make it easy for your members to reach you, either by email or by phone. Let your members know that if they have a problem, you are available to them. Also, check in with your members to find out how they’re doing. Just because you get the membership sale doesn’t mean that it’s over and done with for your members.

FITNESS LIFE MARKETING….”Imagine selling a health club membership without selling.

In a nutshell, selling health club memberships without selling is a method to get club guests to come to you because your health club reputation is based on the fact you’re not just out there to make money, you’re out there to make a difference in people’s lives.

Ask yourself this question “Am I applying these proven steps with my members and guests?” If the answer is “yes,” congratulations. You’re making a difference in your health club. If the answer is “no,” then I suggest you to do the following.

Each week select one of the 5 approaches listed above and start applying it with your members and guests. Notice how your members and guests respond to you and notice how it makes you feel when you provide these 5 steps in your health club.

Now, let’s start selling…without selling!

FITNESS LIFE MARKETING….”Imagine selling a health club membership without selling.

Sponsored by: Fitness Life Marketing 1-888-541-0714 ext2
 Article Research Contributor: Amerishape Weight Loss

When it comes to retention, too many clubs aren’t concerned enough with the person

When it comes to retention, too many clubs aren’t concerned enough with the person who just signed up. Instead, they are still keeping all eyes on the next person walking through the door; after all, membership sales are most important, right? Just sell, sell, sell!

Frankly, I’ve never believed in that approach, and now more than ever it may be time to reevaluate your club’s strategy. It’s like a degenerative disease; too often, people don’t worry about doing the right things nutritionally until they become sick. Once they wind up in a critical situation, they finally begin eating the right things to try and get better – the very things they should have been eating all along. If we listen, it almost seems like our bodies are trying to tell us to start doing the right thing… or else! Similarly, our economic woes are much like a degenerative disease – they are an illness that is affecting us all. Perhaps it is time to reevaluate.

Ask Yourself
Why do members stick around? There are many reasons, but they all are interconnected. Here are some of the big ones:

• Achieving performance goals

• State-of-the-art equipment

• Relationships

• Habit

• Ancillary services like personal training, group fitness, youth programs and juice bars.

Believe it or not, you are in control of most of the points mentioned. For example, when it comes to building relationships, cultivating good habits and helping members to achieve performance goals, including a juice bar in your facility can have a strong positive impact. I have been giving nutritional seminars for a decade, and there is always one common denominator that seems to be present everywhere I go; from Aberdeen, S.D. to Miami, people are confused about diet and continue to make poor food choices that either slow or completely halt the progress of performance goals. The lesson: Nutrition is indeed up to 80 percent of the battle.

Juice Bars in Transition
Juice bars have come a long way since the 70s. The stigma that was attached to juice bars back then was present largely because gyms primarily catered to individuals who wanted one thing – to be like Arnold. So, they willingly bellied up to the bar to drink synthetic, scientifically engineered protein drinks. Taste didn’t matter because results were what they were looking for – that is, until their bodies began to reject all of those chemicals.

Today, many clubs still offer the synthetic drinks made from a pouch or automated blender system, but more and more clubs are also making healthier versions out of ingredients that you can recognize and, more importantly, your body can recognize. If you are considering a juice bar, don’t take the easy route; do some research. Know that this is just like any other business and it is necessary to do a business plan and ROI.

Follow These Simple Guidelines:

• Do not try to circumvent the Health Department. Clubs with a “build it and they will come” attitude often wind up having to rip out some of all the work they’ve done in order to make necessary adjustments.

• Use the healthiest products available.

• Develop a simplistic approach to preparing and serving the drinks.

• Make the product in front of the customer; it shouldn’t be a secret what’s going in his or her beverage.

• Educate members about nutrition.

Benefits

• People are gregarious by nature; they want places to hang out and socialize. The more this happens in your club, the more they will buy and the more others will join in.

• Profit – if done correctly, juice bars can increase your bottom line.

• Members can achieve their performance goals more quickly by adopting a healthier diet.

As the demographics of health clubs continue to become more diverse, with whole families joining and folks becoming increasingly more educated about health and fitness, choosing to offer a healthy nutrition option can help clubs retain more members by supporting one of the most important aspects of fitness.

Dan young is president of Performance Food Centers Corp.