At first, the process might be frustrating and seem like nothing but trial and error, it’s definitely not easy finding prospective customers and getting them to realize it is your services they cannot live without! You may find one strategy that works better than another and a few along the way that may miss the mark entirely. Soon you’ll learn that it’s not just identifying your prospective customers, but also constantly communicating with them, the customers you have (to keep them!) and even the customers you may have lost. Oy! Starting to feel a little overwhelmed? What you might also learn then is just how valuable a strong fitness marketing team is to your survival as an owner of gym, health club or yoga studio.
New Ways of Communicating
Today’s business world is far more complex than it used to be. Technology has changed the way that the health and fitness market communicates with its customers, and now more than error your customers want oodles of information and communication. With short attention, your service is likely to go South if you’re not keeping up with the trends and changes of the times because you can be sure your competitors are emailing, tweeting, and Facebooking their way to success! But here’s a little secret – with minimal effort, you can build the type of mailing list that puts you in direct contact with your members. The frequent communication you have with them gets them builds trust and confidence in you, and gets them off their sofas and into your gym or studio where they belong; their ravenous appetite for instant info kept at bay. Below are just a few tips for getting it all done.
1. Through informative emails – tell them something they need to know, don’t constantly barrage them with sales offers (though a few well placed promotions are necessary). Become a trusted source of accurate, reliable information. Get them thinking of you as a resource for any question they may have at any point in their journey…think of getting them in the door to sign (acquisition), getting them started (new members), keeping them going (retention), and getting them back (follow-ups & recaptures).
2. Through brief but helpful tweets - this is a place for you to shine in customer service & dependability. People often put questions “out there” and the first to reply with the info they are looking for is who wins the client. Follow your clients, support & encourage them, answer their questions, and be real. Social media allows you to establish the “voice” of your gym, so represent who you are. There are something like 100,000,000 (that’s one hundred million!) twitter users, half of which are known to tweet at least once daily … the potential here is massive.
3. Through weekly fitness tips, newsletters, & blogs - these goes along the same lines as your emails. Helpful, reliable information that establishes you as the trusted resource, the expert (that you are!) in your field. Sending something weekly keeps you at the forefront of their thoughts. You can bet if you’re not there, someone else is. A tip, a newsletter, a blog – they all keep your customers coming back to your site consistently. A necessity for any successful business these days.
4. Through groups on Facebook and LinkedIn - more ways of communicating the voice of your business and establishing your internet presence. Again, the popularity of these social networking sites cannot be ignored. If you’re to be successful at capturing your audience, you must “be” where they are, and they are on Facebook and LinkedIn.
While it may be (technologically speaking) to be “in touch” with your customers and your prospective customers, staying on top of these communications strategies can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for any small business fitness owner, yet the necessity of taking these steps remains astronomically high. By employing fitness marketing strategies like the ones that we offer through our subscription service, you are guaranteed a long and successful road ahead. It is not enough to simply reach out. You have to steer your customers in the right direction if you want to see long term results. Consider us your one-stop shop to success…give us a call and we’ll see which one of our plans is right for you.
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