Author: ezfacility

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5 Reasons Your Website Is Ineffective

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For fitness business owners the month of January could be your busiest time of the year… in fact, statistically, it should be.

We’ve all heard it over and over again, New Year’s resolutions, January rush, people wanting to do something about all the weight they’ve gained over the holidays. And sure, that all makes sense logically but does it translate into tangible results for your business?

● Do you get more web leads?

● Is your phone ringing?

● Are you generating more income?

● Does your active member/customer count increase?

The truth is that global search traffic for fitness spikes every January (and has consistently for the past 10 years) 

As an Internet marketing professional who is focused on the fitness industry I pay very close attention to these statistics and make sure my clients’ traffic/leads directly correlates with Google’s trends.

Fortunately, when things are done right, we see a pretty close match. In the graphic below we see what I call the “New Year’s Resolution Rush”: a spike in traffic the first week in January.

Everybody knows that Google has the majority of search engine market share– which means if you’re a fitness business, and your website traffic or leads do not directly correlate with these spikes in fitness interest, you’re doing something wrong.

The truth is, as you are reading this article, people are searching online for your kinds of services. If you’re unaware of this or not seeing it in your leads you either have poor SEO, or poor website conversion. Either of which is costing you money.

Here’s 5 things I see fitness professionals doing on their websites that’s hurting their SEO and killing their January rush.

1. Inaccurate Page Titles: Choose wording that matches the content of your page. This may seem straightforward… but consider programs with unique branding e.g. “360 Kickboxing.” You may be tempted to name the page the title of the program but you shouldn’t. Why? Nobody searches the keywords “360 Kickboxing.” Instead you should name the page what the most common search phrase will be e.g. “Kickboxing Classes in [city name]. Then in the content of that page you can talk about 360 Kickboxing all you want. You will notice that the closer your title is to your audience’s search the more clicks you will receive. Use Google Trends to discover how people search – or just use common sense.

2. Talking About Yourself: Your website should have 1 goal in mind: generating interest and leads for your business. Imagine you’re on a first date… sure, your date wants to know about you but if you talk about yourself the whole time, it’s a turn off. The same thing is true for your website. In your website sales text you should clearly cover the following points immediately:

A. What kinds of people do you help?

B. What can people expect? e.g. What kinds of results can they achieve?

C. What do you want them to do?

Interested prospects do want to know about your business’s history and culture but one quick scan of your social media accounts will give them all the information they need about that. My advice is to ask someone unrelated to your business to look over your website and be honest about whether you talk about yourself too much.

3. Using Text Images You know…. the text that really is just an image? Like this:

 

 

Search engines can’t read the content of that picture so it does nothing for your SEO. Keep relevant text and links in HTML and instead design the format of your page to handle any fancy fonts/colours you want to include.

4. An Incomplete or Inaccurate Google My Business page: Google Maps, Google Places, they’re all the same things now: branded as “Google My Business.” As Google gives more and more prevalence to their mobile search results, Google my business will play an even bigger role. If you don’t have a Google My Business page, it’s free, and you should make one right now. If you do have one, check it, make sure it’s complete, and then ask your happy customers to leave some 5 star reviews!

5. You’re Not Mobile Friendly: I can’t emphasize the importance of this enough. With more than 60% of traffic coming from mobile devices, how you look on a mobile device is now more important than how you look on a desktop.

Additionally Google now penalizes your SEO if you’re not mobile friendly. It’s been years since mobile responsive technology came out. You no longer have an excuse to not be mobile friendly.

The Internet is full of tools to help determine your mobile compatibility. If you’re unsure about your own website, reach out to us, or find a tool online and do a quick scan.

If the above points sound like a bunch of nerdy tech jargon to you, don’t worry, you’re not alone. The majority of our fitness customers focus on what they do best: helping their clients achieve their fitness goals. Outsourcing your Internet marketing/ website/ SEO is quickly becoming your best time management decision for you.

BUT if the above points make sense you can implement them in your website to make sure you stay relevant across ALL search engines through 2016.

97 Display ONLY works in fitness industries, so your business is our expertise.We offer:

● Websites – beautiful template designs with SEO included

● Incredible customer support – dedicated Account Reps 24 hour request turnaround.

● Fast launch – only a 2 – 3 week build time

● Ongoing SEO & support to keep you relevant

● New designs and feature upgrades for free

 It doesn’t matter how good of a trainer you are – if people can’t find you, then you WON’T get the kind of business you’re looking for. Make sure your website is fully optimised and ready for the rush at the start of the year and you’ll have tons of online leads pouring in with minimal effort.

About the Author:

Timothy Sarazen is the director of 97 Display and, along with his team, manages hundreds of websites & Internet marketing campaigns for fitness businesses. 97 Display fitness websites are a collaboration of web traffic data & global A/B testing to help fitness professionals stay relevant and generate new leads for their businesses online. Timothy works with businesses like Roufusport, Net Profit Explosion, NESTA & Hyper Martial Arts to create website solutions for their customer base. 97 Display is a certified Google partner located in Winston- Salem, North Carolina. Learn more tips for improving your website performance at www.97display.com! Authored By: Timothy Sarazen – Director of Operations at 97 Display. 97 Display Creates Websites & Lead Generating Campaigns for Fitness Business. Learn if 97 Display can help your fitness website! Visit www.97display.com.

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2016 Recreational Sports Trends

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If I asked you what the most popular recreational sport of 2016 is, what would you choose? Football? Volleyball? Maybe Tennis?The answer may surprise you.
According to a recent study conducted by GreenPlay Consultants, the number one recreational sport of 2016 (so far) that recreational facilities are adding is Pickleball. Strange, no? Well, though it may seem a strange at first, the rising popularity actually comes from the growing popularity of “simple” and “small” sports and activities. More trending sports in this area include small group training, mini-soccer, body-weight training, Ultimate Frisbee, and more recently, shortened sports seasons.
There are a couple key benefits that come from adding these “small and simple” activities. For one, facilities have an easier time integrating them into their existing programs as these activities usually require smaller spaces, less equipment and time. Mini-soccer only takes up about half of a traditional soccer field and Pickleball takes up only about a quarter of a regular tennis court, allowing for about four matches to take place at once.
An added benefit of these scaled down sports is that people of all physical capabilities can play them. While they are popular with children and adults, older players are jumping on the trend as well because they don’t need to exert the same amount of energy as they would in the traditional forms of these sporting activities.
Many facilities are also adopting the trend of smaller seasons for sports leagues to accommodate the busy schedules of adults. As a result, the cost and use of equipment goes down and there are more opportunities for incoming revenue as leagues begin back-to-back.
Also trending are leisure or less athletic sports such as wiffle ball, kickball, dodgeball and hula-hoops. These activities are nowhere near as intense as other competitive sports, and work nicely into schedules as they can easily be played right after work and virtually anywhere. Some of the more popular leisure sports include foot gold, archery, and more recently Bubble Football which involves inflatable “bubbles” that players don which protects them upon impact with other players. Essentially, it’s bumper cars but with bubbles!
These rising trends have proven to be extremely beneficial to recreational facilities as they have driven down the cost of operation while increasing demand for new recreation possibilities. This is why it is so important to pay attention to predicted trends and consistently update services that your facility offers. All of the trends we’ve mentioned generate more interest in your business and creates various new streams of revenue. Get ahead of the curb by tapping into your local community. Find out what activities are generating the most interest and don’t be afraid to ask what new trends your clients have heard of that they would like to try!

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Fitness Trends of 2016: Explore the Possibilities

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Can you believe we are already half-way through 2016? We’ve gathered up 4 of the latest fitness trends that have surfaced this year as well as what’s to come.

1. Exercise as an Experience

This developing trend views fitness as a lifestyle rather than a painful chore to “get over with” before moving on to more enjoyable activities. You may have noticed the emergence of smaller, specialized, boutique studios such as Crossfit, yoga, boxing, MMA and indoor cycling in recent years. This trend is a direct result of clients looking to get stronger, fitter and participate in a more social, intimate, and less stressful environment. Studies have proven that partner workouts or workouts done with a friend produce better fitness results and increase client motivation to reach fitness goals. These smaller studios provide a place where people with similar interests and fitness goals can come together and view exercise as a social and enjoyable experience. That’s not to say larger health clubs can’t tap into this specialized fitness trend. Many facilities are incorporating these boutique classes into their list of offerings. For example, there has been a notable increase in large gyms adding Zumba classes, boot camps, barre classes, and ever increasingly popular themed races and outdoor obstacles to establish their facility as a hub that people are drawn to have an atypical, community experience outside the gym walls. There has also been an increase in demand for body weight training exercises (which actually ranked No. 2 as a trend to watch for 2016 and beyond) as well as high-intensity interval training (HIIT) which involves short burst of high energy exercises followed by short periods of rest and is crammed into a 25 to 30 minute workout. Clients are looking for a less time consuming workout that they can easily fit into their work and social schedule that still produces almost immediate results.

2. Professional Trainers and Instructors

Gone are the days when fresh out of college staff are sufficient enough to teach clients proper form and offer fitness advice. Credentials matter. Recently, professionals certified by ACE or ACSM and other recognized agencies are in high demand. Health clubs should strive to ensure at least half of their staff includes individuals with certifications from accredited agencies. These trainers are able to challenge customers, keep them safe AND develop workouts tailored to a client’s needs. When clients see results, this increases their motivation to reach their goals and they’re willingness to keep coming back to your club! The focus should be on developing trust between trainers and members rather than spending the majority of their time recruiting new clients.

3. Functional Fitness

To put it simply, clients will get bored of the same old routines, so switch it up! Keeping workouts fresh will keep members motivated and enable faster fitness results. Interval training has been shown to be extremely successful as it allows the combination of different exercise methods to create versatile workouts. Some of the most popular examples include body weight training with elliptical running, indoor cycling with boxing, strength training and rowing and more. The key is to provide trainers with as many workout methods as possible to keep clients interested and dedicated.

4. Think outside the box…err we mean gym!

In the world of smartphones and social media, we are more connected than ever before. This means that trainers can influence client lifestyles and continue to assist with fitness goals outside of the gym. Apps that track nutrition choices, out-of-the-gym physical activities, heartrates and more are being adopted by health clubs to help trainers add value to existing workout regimes.

Additionally, clubs have begun adding outdoor activities such as obstacle course training, boot camps, marathon prep training, and sports league pre-season training to their repertoires. This is a great way to connect with clients’ interests outside the gym!

The key thing to take away from all of this is to keep the big picture in mind. If you are considering adding one or all of these trends to your club, understand that this is an ongoing social experience that will need to be constantly updated year to year. Give clients as many opportunities as possible to find their fitness niche, have an enjoyable and successful workout experience, and establish yourself as a trusted health and wellness community hub.

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5 Ways To Overcome Gym Membership Retention Challenges

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If you are a human living on planet Earth, chances are you pay a LOT of monthly bills. You have your car payments, your cable bills, cell phone bills, mortgage or monthly rent and, let’s be honest, who doesn’t have Netflix these days? With all of these obligatory payments each month, chances are you are going to be extremely picky about how you spend your precious leftover income. A recent study found that most people who cancel their gym membership –for reasons other than relocation or medical issues—do so because they aren’t utilizing their membership to its full potential and are sick of watching their monthly dues sucked from hard-earned paychecks.

With the rise of boutique clubs offering programs and services at lower prices, gym owners are now put on the spot to create rewarding experiences and perceived value for members. The cost to save a member is much less than the cost of acquiring a new member, so there is tremendous benefit in having a set of efforts, activities and resources allocated to trying to prolong the experience with the existing member. Now, more than ever before, gym owners need to focus on making clients feel motivated and confident in their membership investment.

So, how can big gyms compete with lower-priced alternatives and meet retention challenges head on? Here are 5 key ways to consider:

1. Exceptional Onboarding and the Right Staff.

Start off on the right foot and straight off the bat. You don’t want members to feel lost, intimidated or overwhelmed when they first sign. Make it a policy to place a personal phone call to a client two days after they join or send them a handwritten postcard. Let them know that your club is full of friendly people that are easy to connect and relate to! When it comes to hiring your coaches or personal trainers, focus on quality over quantity. A critical component of an exceptional customer experiences is matching a client with the right trainer and allowing for smooth connections with other members. Hire people who are great listeners and fully committed to keeping in line with your club’s image and goals. Trainers should easily be able to identify client needs and interests. For example, if a client is into group classes, trainers should know to pair them up with other attendees and create a mini “fit fam” they can turn to for support and help reaching their goals. It’s also important to avoid “friction points” during the onboarding process and first few weeks. For example, avoid frustrating situations such as forgetting to give them their membership cards or neglecting to teach them how to book a class or use equipment properly. You must give them the tools to succeed.

2. Incentives/Rewards:

Who doesn’t like presents? Offer rewards and incentives to keep clients coming back. This is extremely critical for the first few weeks and months. Offer a $25 reward for attending a trainer’s program or for getting their picture taken. Offer a free class to clients who attend classes twice a week for 60 days, or 3 free PT sessions once they reach 3 months. Maybe after one month, you give them one month free (who doesn’t like free!) or a special discount at your smoothie station—the possibilities are endless. The point is, you need to keep your clients interested and perceive the value of returning to your club.

3. The 21-Day Rule and Effective Software for Tracking Activity

One of the most frustrating issues clubs face is figuring out WHY a client leaves. Most of the time, it could have been anything. Did they dislike one of your instructors? Was the music too loud? Did they face gymtimidation? WHAT WAS IT? The challenge is your lack of information. Aside from asking how a client is doing every time they sign-in at the front desk, how can you track client activity and identify “fragile” members before they leave?

The solution here is all-in-one management software. Most gym software out there has more sophisticated tracking tools that will allow you to identify information such as who hasn’t been visiting your gym as often. Once you have this precious information, you can start putting together a strategy to interact and re-engage them. You can also use sophisticated tracking tools to easily see which classes have the highest attendance and focus your marketing efforts on promoting them even more.

Using these tools, you can then implement the 21-day rule. The rule is simple: if a member has not visited your facility after a full 21 days, your club reaches out to re-engage them. Be sure to establish a membership retention team to reach out 21 –days, 60 days or even once per quarter. Methods of re-engagement can range from sending an encouraging email to personally checking up on the client the next time they attend a class. Your goal is to reignite their motivation to be a part of your club’s culture and “family”.

4. Cutting Edge Classes

Last but not least, offer classes and programs catered directly to your clientele’s interests. Keep on top of trends! Want to compete with that boutique Crossfit gym down the road? Offer Crossfit classes and, while you’re at it, create a Groupon to encourage clients to bring a friend! Do your research to make sure you remain on the cutting edge.

These are just some tried and true tactics to combat retention issues; but in reality, the possibilities are endless. Start with these 5 key tips and use what works best for YOUR facility.

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Features and Fixes -Online Rentals

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Our Development Team is constantly working to improve your user experience with EZFacility. Between major updates, we release small but important Features and Fixes that address issues and add useful new options/tools to better help manage your business with EZFacility. These changes are documented in our Release Notes, found in our Support Center under the “Product News and Updates” section.

Current EZFacility clients may already be familiar with the myriad of benefits our rental scheduling software provides; however, with the addition of Online Rentals, we aim to make managing all the aspects of your business even easier so you can get back to what really matters—providing the best client experience possible.

If you run a sports or fitness facility, chances are you have a lot of venues to manage. From batting cages, fields, ice sheets, pitching and hitting tunnels, turf fields and multipurpose areas, there’s a lot to juggle. Not only are you trying to optimise your resources while building this complex schedule, you are also tracking payments, accounting for any extra equipment services and managing instructors, all while attempting to operate all the other parts of your facility. It’s exhausting just to think about! With Online Rentals, EZFacility users will be able to take the customer experience a step further by allowing clients to book their own rentals through the Self-Service portal.

On the client-facing side, clients will be able to search for available rental time by using filters such as type, length and venue and days of the week. As usual, the system will prevent any double bookings as clients attempt to schedule rentals. Additionally, when a rental is booked, a confirmation will be sent to the client, as well as a copy of the invoice for their records.

Online Rentals will function very similarly to session bookings. On the administrative side, users will be able to manage rental preferences such as rental types, rates, cut-off times, paid in full or pay later options, active membership requirements, and more. Furthermore, all necessary revenue categories and tax rates will apply to ensure efficient and accurate reporting.

EZFacility is extremely excited to provide this new feature as we too strive to make the best customer experience possible.

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Corporate Fitness Programs

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Remember a little something called the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010? This federal statute has completely changed the landscape of corporate fitness programs. In an effort to reduce health insurance costs, the ACA established new incentives and policies to increase the accountability to corporate fitness and wellness programs.

These incentives can be broken down to two types of programs:

Activity –Based: With “activity-only” programs, employees simply have to engage in a certain activity in order to be rewarded. For example, employees might be required to run for 45 minutes three days a week, follow a particular exercise plan, or stick to a strict diet. The point is, they don’t have to reach a specific weight, measurement or numerical goal to be rewarded.

Outcome-Based: This type of program requires employees to attain a specific wellness goal. This can include hitting a specific numerical goal, such as weight, BMI or blood pressure measurement. This can also mean quitting smoking or drinking. When employees achieve their measurable goal, the benefits kick in. Some corporate programs will issue up to 30% in refunds when a goal is met.

What does this mean for fitness clubs?

Well, first of all, if your club currently doesn’t offer corporate wellness memberships, you are missing out on some serious revenue. To keep up with ever-changing corporate programs, clubs have had to rethink their programming and product strategies. Clubs must offer outcome-based membership programs that include efficient documentation of results. Club operators must track everything from participation to outcomes including biometrics, health improvements, smoking cessation, etc. so that corporations can present these results in comprehensive formats for insurers.

Health facilities can capitalize on this new trend in corporate fitness incentives. Instead of just offering corporate memberships with lower pricing, clubs can work with corporate HR departments to add certain programs and services to these memberships in order to add value and increase the company’s wellness benefits. For example, one company worked with a client corporation to create a 12-week program that aimed to lower cholesterol. Employees that participated in the program reduced their cholesterol by 5%, resulting in about $18,618 in healthcare savings for their company. Clubs can also work with corporations to create competitions. For example, create a weight-loss competition where the team wins a monetary prize and a full refund of their registration fees if they maintain their weight for a specified amount of time. The possibilities are endless!

The goal is to establish your club as a valuable centerpiece to the companies’ wellness program. Don’t simply watch from the sidelines. Set up your club to be part of the ongoing effort to promote health and wellness in the work environment. It’s not going away any time soon!

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Supercharge Your Blog: Blogging for Fitness Website SEO Benefits.

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It’s no longer a secret that blogging is one of the most important features on your website if your goal is to improve SEO, increase conversion rates, and generate leads.

97 Display manages hundreds of fitness websites globally, and our most successful clients have a few things in common, one of which is that they all blog.

Blogging doesn’t have to be scary. Many of our clients aren’t professional writers and fear that the content they produce won’t be helpful or that people simply won’t read it. Ultimately they fear wasting their time over something that may not generate any immediate results. But the fact is that blogging can be used for technical and SEO benefits… not just for audience education. This means that even if no one ever reads your blog it can still be beneficial to your website! Let’s discover 3 ways to supercharge your blog for SEO:

1. Backlinks & Sitelinks

Your blog is one of the most natural ways to include large numbers of backlinks & sitelinks on your website.

Backlinks: hyperlinks on your website to other URLS (such as your social media business profiles)

Sitelinks: Hyperlinks on your page to other pages on your website (such as “click here to view our new schedule)

Backlinks and Sitelinks are beneficial to your SEO because it communicates to Google specific keywords that your URL is talking about. The more backlinks & sitelinks, the more confident search engines are about the content on your site and the more likely you will rank higher in search engines.

One of my favorite way to naturally include backlinks on your blog is to end EVERY blog post with this:

“Learn more at our social media channels!

Timothy’s Fitness Facebook Page

Timothy’s Fitness Twitter Page

Timothy’s Fitness Google+ Page”

Where each of the lines hyperlink directly to the respective social media page.

BUT DON’T STOP THERE!

Next: Go to each other the social media channels and link back to that specific blog post.

● Facebook: New blog post! Learn more about our group training spring schedule:

www.fitnesstimothy.com/blog/group-training-spring-schedule

● Twitter: New blog post! Learn more about our group training spring schedule:

www.fitnesstimothy.com/blog/group-training-spring-schedule

● Google+: New blog post! Learn more about our group training spring schedule:

www.fitnesstimothy.com/blog/group-training-spring-schedule

This will create a web of links back and forth between your blog and your social media channels.

 

Get into the habit of doing this! Over time you’ll build a strong web of backlinks between your website URL and your social media channels which will clearly communicate to search engines the content and services of your website…. which is essential for top rankings!

2. Be Smart With Your Blog Titles

Your blog title is the most important aspect of your blog post. It is what tells search engines what your blog is about and it has the most SEO influence.

Avoid titles like:

“Ten Fat Burning Tips for January”

For a fitness business website, this title has no strategic keywords in place. It has no location keywords, and no service keywords. While it may read nicely it’s missing out on the natural opportunity to plug more strategic keywords on your website as titles!

Here is an example of an SEO friendly alternative:

“Beat the Cold: Denver’s Best Fitness Program Tips for Burning Fat this January”

This title communicates the same content but includes valuable keywords such as “Denver” and “Fitness Program.” This is especially helpful for small towns and surrounding suburbs that you want to rank in. Remember, you can always go back in time to old blog posts and update titles with these keywords!

3. Include Video & Image Tags. Videos and images will increase user engagement and improve the likelihood that your readers will actually read your blogs.

Just placing images & videos on your sites without tagging them, however, does nothing for your SEO.

An image is a perfect place to place otherwise awkward keywords in a perfectly “Google-friendly” way. Anytime you upload and image to your blog, simply name it something keyword rich- like “Denver Personal Training and Fitness Classes” EVEN if the picture is something completely unrelated.

Search engines will crawl your blog, however they can’t see your images – they can only see your description of the image. By naming your image something keyword rich you’re telling search engines that this image has to do with your specific keywords. This is HUGE! Any image or video gives you an opportunity to plug as many keywords as you can into the description or title of that image.

Since your website visitors most likely won’t see the title of your image, you won’t have to worry about how readable your keywords are- just make sure they are there!

Learn more tips for improving your website performance at www.97display.com!

Authored By:

Timothy Sarazen – Director of Operations at 97 Display.

97 Display Creates Websites & Lead Generating Campaigns for Fitness Business. Learn if 97 Display can help your fitness website! Visit www.97display.com.

 

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Safety First! Exploring Risk Management Best Practices

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Aside from making sure clients are having the best experience possible at your club, you’re second largest priority should be ensuring visitor safety. However, as most club and facility owners know, this is no easy task. From establishing safety protocols and procedures; scheduling inspections; forms and contracts to sign, and making sure all other aspects of your business are running seamlessly, it’s a lot to handle. How can one person accomplish all of this? The answer is: you can’t, and you shouldn’t.

The key thing to take away from this is it takes a whole team. Do not assume all the responsibility yourself. Instead, create a risk management team and network made up of both internal and external sources of support. Having a team to delegate specific tasks to increases productivity and makes for a well-oiled safety machine.

Before looking for help outside your facility, consider your current resources. For example, do you have employees with a medical background? Do you have any individuals on staff with a law enforcement or engineering background? Look for individuals who can bring valuable knowledge and experience to the table. For this internal team, maintain a consistent meeting schedule to address risk management on safety concerns and protocols. These meetings should happen quarterly at the very least and should have a delegated leader to hold all members accountable for all current and new initiatives.

To further grow your risk management network, look to outside sources such as local fire departments, police forces and EMS teams. These resources can help you and your team practice drills for potential situations you may face as well as keep you up-to-date on local incidents.

You can also consult your insurance agent and carrier for resource and educational materials regarding risk management best practices and procedures. Some carriers also have loss prevention professionals who can be brought in to advise your team on proper safety measures and protocols.

Another great option to pull resources from is your local American Red Cross or other local agencies. American Red Cross assists businesses both small and large with educational materials, seminars, and guides for keeping your members safe in the case of an emergency.

The key thing to take away here is that you have a multitude of resources you can pull together to make the best risk management strategies possible. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and make sure new staff members are trained on all safety measures put in place at your facility.

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Hot Retention Strategies: Member Loyalty Programs

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Have you ever heard of Endowed Progress Effect?

It’s the idea that when we feel we have made progress towards a specific goal, we are more committed to reaching that goal. If we do not recognize any progress we are making towards a goal, the more likely we will abandon all efforts to reach it. So, the key to this phenomenon is perception.

So where is this going?

Loyalty Programs. Yes, it turns out that this psychological concept has resulted in the ever-increasing popularity of loyalty programs across all types of businesses. Coffee shops, large-restaurants chains, merchandise stores, and spas have all adopted this trend, and more recently, so too has the health and fitness industry.

So what loyalty and retention strategies can you use to accomplish this?

There is a myriad of strategies to choose from. Awarding clients “free” points up front is a great tactic. Punch cards have proven to be extremely successful across all businesses. The idea is that once a person has had all the slots on their card punched, they will be rewarded. For example, you can give members a “punch” every time a member comes in per week or uses a certain machine. A great tactic that coincides with this is to start them off with three or so punches (for signing up, being a new member, etc.) so that they feel they are that much closer to their reward. This plays right into the Endowed Progress Effect because we know that people work harder to achieve a goal when they feel like they are close to reaching it. Rewards for full punch cards can range from a discount, free item, or a free class or program.

The best part is, you are rewarding members for actions they are most likely already doing including attending classes and referring friends and family, but you have just added a huge incentive to increase this behavior. That client may not be more inclined to refer more friends, purchase more classes and buy more merchandise just to reach that full punch card reward. The revenue and recognition possibilities from these programs are endless! Excited yet? Well, before you begin your new endeavor into loyalty programs at your facility, here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Ability to Document Progress:

We mentioned before the Endowed Progress effect is based on perception. This means that clients need to see physical proof that they are making progress for these programs to be effective. Make sure you are able to document when clients reach each milestone.

2. Instant gratification:

First, clearly define each milestone of your motivational program and then ensure that clients who meet them are rewarded immediately. If clients have to wait forever to receive their prize, they will lose steam in their efforts to reach the next milestone or their ultimate goal.

3. Achievable goals!

It is physically impossible to lose 30 pounds (at a healthy pace) in a week! Therefore, make sure to speak with clients about their goals and manage expectations. Remember the flip side of the Endowed Progress Effect: When there is no perceived progress, this results in demotivation.

4. Invest in management software that tracks client progress:

If your programs rely on client information that you cannot integrate with your current software solution, this is counterproductive. If your software solution cannot provide accurate results, clients will become frustrated and less motivated to keep working towards their goals.

5. Valuable and Relevant Rewards:

If you are a fitness facility, rewarding members with ice cream coupons would not be beneficial to your clients and would consider moving business elsewhere. Instead, reward members with merchandise with your company logo, such as shirts, hats, water bottles, towels or any other items that reflect back on your brand and the industry.

A rewards program–if implemented correctly–can be a major source of revenue and growth for your business. Build relationships with your clients by offering efficient, trackable, result-driven programs to promote brand loyalty and establish a community that members and prospects want to return to.

 

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Booming Trends: Anti-Gravity Yoga

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Once upon a time, I had no interest in yoga at all. I thought yoga was all about meditating by candlelight and singing “oms” in unison with twenty or so strangers. As a health and fitness enthusiast, I was under the impression that a “good” workout had to include intense cardio and heavy weights — neither of which, to my knowledge, were present in most yoga classes. It wasn’t until a friend of mine invited me to an Aerial yoga class that I realized how little I actually knew about this ancient fitness practice.
First of all, I had no idea that there were different types of yoga with varying degrees of intensity. Aerial Yoga (also known as Anti-Gravity Yoga) just so happens to be the most rapidly growing variation, popping up in clubs all over the country. Aerial Yoga includes the use of silk hammocks to support participants as they move through various yoga poses, midair. When I walked into the class and saw lines of these silk hammocks suspended from the ceiling, I immediately thought of the acrobats in Cirque Du Soleil. I thought, if I didn’t get a real workout, at least I’d have fun swinging from the ceiling.
About fifteen minutes into the class I realized I had severely underestimated it. I was sweating, breathing hard and channeling all of my energy into holding what felt like a hundred different positions only a contortionist could pull off. However, I felt great! I felt muscles aching in places I couldn’t normally reach with a typical cardio or weight-centered workout. It was a completely different kind of experience. After class, I thanked my friend for introducing me to this new-found addiction and immediately went home to do some more research about this practice.
What I found was a recent study conducted by the American Council of Exercise that examines how effective Aerial Yoga is as a form of exercise. As I was still feeling the endorphin rush from class, I wasn’t surprised by the results. The study aimed to track how this form of yoga affected participants on a cardiovascular level after three 50-minuteclasses a week, for a total of six weeks. The study included sixteen participants (all women) of various ages who were asked to wear a calorimetric measurement system as well as a heart rate monitor during each class. The results were extremely positive. At the end of the six weeks, participants not only experienced weight loss and a reduction in body fat, but also an increase in “good” cholesterol and improved respiratory function. Furthermore, it was found that each participant had reduced their risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
The study went on to say that each 50-minute class burned about 300 calories! That was impressive enough for me to go back for another round. In fact, I now go about three times a week and each time I go I see a significant increase in attendance. It’s become so popular that my gym had to start offering three more Aerial Yoga classes to accommodate all the members jumping on this new trend.
From the health benefits to the positive, fun, intense environment Aerial Yoga provides, it might be time to consider adding it to your facility’s programming. The flexibility of the hammocks allow for all different fitness levels to participate. I highly recommend it!