Top Gym Management Software
This season, to startlingly effective results, the San Francisco 49ers have been flooding fans with infographics. The great thing about infographics, visual representations of data or knowledge, is their quick, clear presentation of complex information. And the great thing about infographics designed by someone who knows what they’re doing is their quick, clear, and beautiful presentation.
Continue reading “Creating Infographics”
I don’t know Albert, a fifty-two-year-old marketing specialist and father of two, but I know he lost fifty pounds at my gym. How do I know? The gym posted a video on Facebook of him telling his story. Last month there was one of Maria, a stay-at-home mother of three who faced dangerous health conditions because of obesity. She hadn’t yet lost much weight, but she talked about her commitment to doing so. And recently, in a blog on the gym’s website, there was a first-person narrative by a twenty-five-year-old man who was confined to a wheelchair for eight months because of a car accident. When he was finally able to walk again, he realized that he’d gained thirty pounds while wheelchair-bound. Even though using his legs was still difficult and painful, he set a goal of losing a pound a week, and, taking it slowly and steadily, he’d already lost ten.
Continue reading “Sharing Local Stories With Your Clients”
Back in June, for the third year in a row, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, won the American College of Sports Medicine’s number-one ranking for fittest metropolitan area. Last week, Virginia Beach, Virginia, won Facebook’s number-one ranking for the same title. But were these rankings based on the same factors and set to be used for the same purposes? Club Industry took a good look at both claims and explained the differences.
Continue reading “The Fittest Cities-They Are Worth Paying Attention To”
A couple weeks ago, Forbes ran an interesting article about getting online content noticed. “Want to make your content go viral?” the article asked. “Take a lesson,” it advised, “from”—and here’s the interesting part—“the fitness industry.”
The article noted that, while there is a lot of miracle-diet and exercise-fad gimmickry out there, the fitness industry offers up some genuinely rich and helpful Internet content, including workout videos, guidelines for better ways to work out, and tips for metabolism-boosting diets. In order to get the good information noticed, the article says, new types of fitness experts have emerged: “individuals who exist across the online and physical worlds and operate as equal parts trainer, writer, and social media guru.”
Continue reading “Keep Your Content Viral”
There’s been a lot of talk recently about the fitness industry and social media. At last month’s International Health, Racquet, and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA), for example, Nicholas Cristakas, the keynote speaker, discussed the potential impact of social networks on the industry. Six separate sessions at the conference were devoted to one aspect of social media or another. A Club Industry conference this fall will feature a session entitled “Social Media and the Fitness Industry.” And if you Google those two phrases together —”fitness industry” plus “social media” — you get a quarter of a million pages spouting a whole range of opinions on the topic, everything from “Top Five Ways the Fitness Industry is Screwing Up Social Media” to “Social Media and Fitness Business — A Perfect Fit?”
Continue reading “Facebook Might Not Get You Members, But It's Still a Great Tool”
Building good relationships with your customers is less complicated when they’re right in front of you. Sharing helpful tips and providing encouragement with a friendly smile are easy ways to build a personal connection with your clients. What is more challenging is maintaining this connection when they are not in your presence. Keeping your customers engaged and eager to come back requires a good plan, solid effort and commitment to your relationship.
Be Prolific
The more information you have about your customers, the more opportunities you have to engage them. Everyone has an email address these days, so make sure that your registration form includes this critical detail. Email announcements and newsletters are inexpensive to produce, and are a non-intrusive way to let your customers know what’s going on at your facility. They’re also a great way to build interest from prospective clients – the more you can highlight programs that they want to attend, the more likely they are to become customers.
Be Social
Today, maintaining your facility’s presence on Social Networks (such as Facebook and Twitter) is just as important as having a website. The key to an ambitious social media strategy is to provide a good incentive for your customers to like and follow you on a regular basis. A good start is to make a strong Call To Action that gets your customers engaged if they haven’t already done so on their own; for example, running online-only promotions or rewarding social media mentions with Perks. Not everything has to be as serious as a solicitation – posting regular “casual but relevant” messages of inspiration or humor will keep your customers interested in what you have to say without burning them out. Finding your voice and the right mix of content for your audience is as much an art as a science, so experiment and find out what your customers want to hear.
Be Mobile
Many of your customers probably have a smartphone in their pocket right now. If they have an App like MemberMe installed on their phone, you can send them instant Push Notifications about news, offers, and updates about your facility wherever they are. With MemberMe, you can schedule announcements ahead of time, or send out a quick alert immediately after an opening becomes available. That simple engagement can be the push they need to register for a session and keep your roster filled. You should plan for regular updates with tips and advice, star performer recognition, and special offers to keep your customers interested and checking your app regularly.
Be Engaged
Thanks to Email, Social Networking, and Smartphone Apps like MemberMe, maintaining that important relationship with your customers is made easier than ever. As with any relationship, commitment and dedication is the key. If you are diligent and work hard to stay engaged with your customers, they will return the favor.
As many of our clients may have noticed, we’ve been doing a big push around securing testimonials and success stories from our customers.
Continue reading “Using Member Triumphs to Boost Your Success”