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Health Club Marketing Success in 3 Easy Steps
Are you randomly throwing marketing strategies against the wall, hoping for something to stick? This type of marketing is commonplace in struggling health clubs. The more successful clubs have a plan and follow these three steps…
By Curtis Mock
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…if you look closely, you will find some areas to cut costs or increase profit centers by a few dollars.
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Marketing is not rocket science, but it is easy to fail if you do not have a system in place. Stop wasting your marketing dollars and follow these simple steps to health club marketing success.
Step 1: Allocate A Percentage Of Your Total Revenue To Your Marketing Efforts
Don't wait until you need a boost in your revenues to begin marketing. Your marketing efforts should never end. Marketing textbooks will tell you that the average amount you should put toward marketing is 13% of revenues. Not profits, revenues. You might think, "I'm not even making enough money to pay myself!"
Ah, the age old question: what comes first, the chicken or the egg? You can't make money without spending money, and you can't spend money if you don't have money! But if you look closely, you will find some areas to cut costs or increase profit centers by a few dollars.
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What comes first, the chicken or the egg? You can't make money without spending money, and you can't spend money if you don't have money!
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Begin with 2% of your revenues, then 5%, then 8%, and so on. You must allocate a portion of your revenues to marketing, and you must plan how you spend that money. Once you receive some cash flow from your initial effort, you need to allocate that money to your marketing budget, perpetuating the marketing cycle at your club.
Step 2: Create a Marketing Plan
Successful marketing is not a one-time mailer or purchasing ad space because someone came to your door with an amazing ValPak offer. If you perform a la carte marketing, you will never experience a steady flow of prospect traffic. You need to set aside an uninterrupted hour this week to create your marketing plan. Begin by creating a separate page for each month of the year. After evaluating your budget, you should know how much you can allocate to marketing. Think about what type of marketing works best at certain times of the year. For example, January is New Years Resolutions, March is Prepare for Bikini Season, June is Summer for Free, August is Back to School.
"Think of ways you can volunteer or get involved…As a health club owner, you are accustomed to constantly bobbing and weaving."
Those are the obvious ones. If you're a Northern club, you have cold weather set in faster than in the Southern states. If you're in the South, people want to beat the heat during the summer by exercising indoors. Or maybe your demographic will help determine your marketing plan. If you live in a blue collar area, what better time to advertise than tax return time! Or if you have childcare at your facility, the summer is a perfect time to give parents a break from their kids while they work out?
Based on the theme of the month, what types of marketing will best reach your prospects? Perhaps a direct mailer in January? Getting involved with youth organizations in the Spring and Summer? Is there a parade or festival? Think of ways you can volunteer or get involved. Obviously your plan might need to be tweaked as the months progress, or if you're presented with unique marketing opportunities. As a health club owner, you are accustomed to constantly bobbing and weaving.
Step 3: Don't Try To Do It All Yourself
You have enough responsibilities. And think about this...If your marketing efforts are extremely successful, are you the one who will have to sell all the memberships? While an increase in members is always a good thing, is your sanity worth it? In addition to managing the club, handling member concerns, monitoring billing and member check in, managing personal trainers, maybe even training a few people yourself, cleaning the club, training your staff, and finding time to eat...can you imagine trying to give tours and sell a few memberships a day and follow up with missed guests?
Whew! I'm exhausted just thinking about it. Allocate certain marketing responsibilities to your staff, outsource your printing, hire a local boy scout troop or youth group to distribute door hangers, hire a cleaning agency, get a third party billing system. Get other people to do these tasks and free up your time to work on your business, not in your business.
The point is that you have enough on your plate. Obviously there is a lot more to marketing than what can be covered in this article, but these are the foundational elements to successful marketing of your fitness business. Create a budget, develop a plan, and don't try to do everything yourself. Follow these three steps and you will set the stage for marketing success!
About Curtis Mock
Go to About Curtis Mock.
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