BrightCite

We all like the latest shiny, sleek, cool fitness equipment & technology.  Cutting edge is fresh and attractive.  Promoting your health club’s latest equipment and renovations has sales appeal. But it becomes even more powerful when you connect the new with the old.

Fitness = Youth.  Youth Sells.
Inject nostalgia into selling your club.  Help the prospect get back in touch with the vibrancy of their youth.  Help them reconnect with the young, energetic feelings of being active, playing and the genuine excitement it created.

The fitness you sell can bring those youthful feelings back to the prospect…

Make The Connection
Enhance your sales presentation and website copy to bring your prospect’s positive past emotions back to the surface.  Remind them how it was and how it can be again.  Show prospect’s how your club’s “new” brings back their youth and close more membership sales.

Watch the video.   What’s your club’s version?

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Curt Conrad is President of BrightCite Inc., a strategic online marketing firm based in Cincinnati, Ohio.

What Is Twitter?

Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that limits posts to 140 characters.  Each time you post or “Tweet”, your message becomes visible to your “followers” (those who subscribe to be notified when you post).

Because Tweets are so short and integrated with SMS (texting), Twitter presents an ideal way to distribute and view social web content from a cell phone.

Tweets are also discoverable by search engines.   This means people searching for keywords that appear in your Twitter content can find you, visit your Twitter page (where they can visit your website if you promote it) and become your followers.

Twitter As A Marketing & Communications Tool For Health Clubs

As more people use Twitter and the applications around it expand – it’s becoming a strategic distribution tool.  It can be used to directly and indirectly promote your fitness business while encouraging online engagement with your brand.  Or in plain speak – you can use it to allow prospects and members to better connect with your club online.

Content Distribution Ripple Effect

Twitter has a very open API that allows it to be integrated into many other online services, blogs and social networks (like FaceBook).  This compounds its distribution potential.

Say your club has a Twitter account that has 200 followers and a Facebook page that has 300 friends. You can easily integrate Twitter with FaceBook, so each time you Tweet, the message is distributed to your followers and is visible to your FaceBook friends.

If your Twitter followers pass along your Tweet content to their Twitter followers (called “retweeting”)  it will then appear on whatever social networks they have Twitter connected to as well.  It doesn’t take long to see the potential reach your club can have…

Market Research & Reputation Management For Health Clubs

You can use Twitter’s search functionality strategically to gain insight on your local market.  It’s also a nice reputation management tool as it will allow you to view conversations people are having about your club and your competitors (good, bad and indifferent).  More on that in a moment…

Show & Tell

The best way for health club marketers to understand the impact Twitter can have on their business is via example.  The image below shows results from a Twitter search for “Anytime Fitness”.  (keep in mind these results are constantly changing as new Tweets continuously refresh).

I’ve annotated the screen shot with numbers (1-4) to show you four different examples of how Twitter is helping and hurting this health club and its brand:

1. Help Generate Leads – This person tweeted the club’s name and address.  Besides having the club’s name and address bradcasted to all the person’s followers, this tweet can enhance the club’s local search engine optimization, making the club more visible online when people are searching for fitness clubs in their area.

2. Creates Testimonials – This person’s tweet acts as a testimonial for the club.  And that testimonial has been automatically distributed to everyone following him on Twitter.  (Some people have thousands of followers and don’t forget the distribution ripple effect)

3. Communicate With Staff – This person’s tweet shows how Twitter can be used to communicate company info.  This example is indirectly connected to the club.  But illustrates how the club could use Twitter to post its staffing status and broadcast out to employee’s.

4. Damaging To The Club’s Brand – This tweet is from a dissatisfied prospect or member.  It provides a public and easy to pass along complaint about the club.  (Remember his complaint is being automatically distributed to his list of followers plus the potential distribution ripple effect)

Can Using Twitter Help Your Health Club?

Twitter has been around a couple years and is now starting to pick up user momentum.  As with any new web communications platform it will take time to understand all it’s applications.  It’s still early in the game and there is not yet any one clear strategy for using Twitter effectively.

But, Twitter has proven potential to be a successful marketing tool for small and large companies.

As with any online tool there are pro’s and con’s to using it.  The best way to learn is to jump in and start using it.  You may find it to be a valuable Digital Marketing Asset for your club.

Follow me on Twitter here.

Learn more about Twitter.

Why do you do what you do? Somewhere in your business is a story that connects to that reason. And somewhere within your story, perhaps dormant, is your emotion.

The emotion behind your business is powerful. It cuts through advertising hype. It bypasses people’s natural skepticism that you are trying to sell them something. It’s a story so pure that when people hear it – they get it and they want to experience it for themselves.

Your website let’s you tell your story. It’s a medium that can convey emotion, move people, connect them to the energy and benefit of your business. Each day, the web is evolving in ways that allow you to share the emotion behind your business, faster, better, cheaper. You just need to start using it. Here’s an example. It’s a very worthwhile 6 minutes:

Service companies like health clubs (who provide ongoing memberships) and interior plantscapers (who sell weekly maintenance) are faced with a sales situation that can make or break their businesses. How to structure contract

Long term contracts provide predictable cash flow, insulate clients from competition and reduce client churn. However, they can be harder to sell and renew because the client faces more risk from the transaction. The secret weapon for selling long term contracts – a strong money-back guarantee to reduce client risk.

Month-to-month contracts (or no contract) provides less initial sales resistance and better conversion rates. But, attrition has a greater impact on cash flow and clients can be lured away by cost cutting competitors.

Selling Less To Sell More
More and more businesses have been migrating their contract service models to month-to-month. Why? Because consumers are demanding that service companies share the dis-satisfaction risk. It provides the customer with extra value in the transaction without a written or formal guarantee. Companies are understanding that value and turning it to their advantage. Here’s an example from the health club industry via The Houston Chronicle:

“Why are Life Time and Town Sports succeeding when Bally has stumbled? One key difference is in membership structure.

In an interview, Simkins said Bally was highly leveraged to member financing under its original structure, which required that customers commit to long-term memberships at lower rates.

Analysts prefer the Town Sports and Life Time models, which are primarily month-to-month and target a higher income clientele with more expensive fees.

A Bally spokesman said the company began offering month-to-month memberships in 2004, to provide customers with more choice.

One downside to a month-to-month structure, however, is it gives customers an easy out if the fee becomes too burdensome. Analysts said the industry has been generally resistant to recession, but acknowledge that an economic downturn could cause customers to turn in their gym memberships for jogs in the park.

CIBC World Markets analyst Vivian Ma, who gave Life Time a “Sector Outperformer” rating noted, however, that the industry has experienced steady growth since 1987 and showed no significant slowing during two recessions. Life Time outperformed the industry during the most recent downturn in 2001 and 2002, she adds.

As for Town Sports, Simkins said the company is tied to New York City’s economic health, and noted that unemployment in the city is relatively low. About 70 percent of Town Sports’ store base is located in the New York City metro region.”

How is your business selling it’s services? How could your business be selling it’s services? That may be the most important question of all.