Attract – Reaching New Member Demographics

The way that the fitness industry has adapted and evolved over the last few years is remarkable. Developments, particularly in technology, have been fast-tracked to keep members active and to support people’s health and fitness. Collaborations, sharing of knowledge, best practice, and even clubs sharing members has been noteworthy.

Clubs jumped into the digital space, particularly with group exercise offerings. Some offered exercise tracking or loaned/rented equipment to members while the club was closed due to lockdown. Remote programming, coaching, and personal training helped with motivation, whether alongside kit loans or with bodyweight training.

When lockdowns ended and clubs re-opened, most of these initiatives faded as keen members returned to your club. But there are a lot of great lessons and examples that clubs are taking forward to help grow and improve their business.

Your Club App

Your member app needs to do a lot more than enable your members to book classes and provide access control. An online store is good (if you have products in stock), and push notifications are more a feature for your club than a benefit for your members.

To boost engagement, logging workouts and rewarding activity and referrals should be key features of your app. Challenges and content will encourage more members to use the app, and if they can record and track their health as well as their fitness, you’ll see increased retention from members who use the app.

Selling Equipment

Demand for kettlebells during lockdown was unprecedented, with some retailers coming in for a lot of criticism for profiteering. Clubs lent out equipment, from weights to spin bikes, to ensure members remained loyal. A few fitness businesses posted resistance bands to members along with workout plans and exercises to help those people hunched over laptops working from home.

While your loyal members have returned to the club, not everyone can visit as often as before. So, rather than send them to a sports retailer (who hikes prices in a pandemic), why not provide them with excellent quality home workout equipment yourself? It’s a great way to supplement membership income, and you can position it alongside remote programming, classes, and PT.

Remote Training

Remote training has not died out since clubs reopened. Your keen-bean members who were on remote classes every day are mostly back in the club now. But there are still some members, ex-members, and future members out there who you can reach with remote classes, programming, and PT.

Whether members want to attend a remote class regularly, or as a one-off because they couldn’t make it to the club (holiday, work, other commitments), live and/or catch-up classes provide a good backup or alternative to in-person classes. They also showcase your club, instructors, and class timetable to prospective members.

Health Seekers

In addition to the above lockdown lessons, there is a swell in the health seekers movement. People want to be healthier post-pandemic; to understand and improve their health. Clubs are providing the measurement and motivation to be healthier, even though most health seekers don’t want to work out or attend a fitness class.

These people’s goals are simpler; walk more, eat better, drink more water, or sleep better, for example. They don’t want to bother their doctor, but will happily visit a health club for a health check. This can start with a body composition measurement on your bioimpedance scales. Add in support in the form of coaching, behaviour change, and motivational interviewing, and you have a valuable service that will keep subscribers coming back for more measurement and coaching.

The less you sell your regular ‘gym’ membership to these people, the better. Most won’t want to join the gym, but if they do, they will ask, when they’re ready!

Growth and Retention

Whether you use these ideas or other strategies that you explored or discovered recently, you may want to review your core business offering. You need to build a platform that can support your purpose, and that of your staff and members as well, assuming they are in alignment.

Your products and services should help bring in and support more members, as well as increase retention. If they can also help to build communities around your club, you’ll be on the path to success.

To learn more about how ClubWise can help you with acquisition, engagement, and retention, book a free demo today!