As a fitness club, your customer profile is diverse with only one thing in common – the desire to stay fit! Most of your customers have hectic schedules and long working hours. Your fitness club offers them a way to unwind at the end of the day while doing something healthy for their bodies.

Individual monthly memberships help spread the word about your fitness club and increase

daily footfalls. However, it is the annual corporate memberships that hold the key to lucrative profits. Not only does this give you access to lump sum funds, it also ensures a steady flow of clientele through the year. Your ancillary fitness merchandise and sports goods business is also beginning to find a few takers amongst your patrons and affords handsome retailer margins for you.

Who is your customer?

While flyers or adverts will help create awareness for your fitness club, it is the corporate deal that you should be busy negotiating. Target corporate offices in the immediate vicinity of your club and speak directly to the office HR personnel, pitching your business as the key to health in today’s fast paced life.

What is the best thing you can do for that customer?

Make fitness a fun and affordable activity that they can look forward to at the end of each work day. Provide a special rate that makes it easy for them to convert from monthly to annual memberships and take advantage of the many value added services offered to long term customers.

How are you going to do it?

You want to convert monthly memberships to annual memberships, so as to multiply your turnover, while providing an enhanced user experience for your long term customers. Create a database (The Fitness Circle) of existing monthly clients. Send them an email inviting them to upgrade to annual membership. Contact corporate offices nearby your fitness club by doing email marketing to the HR department of offices in the area inviting them to join the Fitness Circle.

As a privileged Fitness Circle member they qualify for a special discount on the annual membership and membership renewals. Offer an early bird prize for the first 50 people who register, which can be low-value fitness merchandise item. Fitness Circle members also benefit from an added value experience which could include interactive events like quarterly inter-company fitness competitions, where each member’s participation accrues points towards the corporate tally. You could also create special Fitness Circle workout programs that allow for interaction between the single men and women who work out at your fitness club. Consider

introducing a coffee dispensing machine to increase the time spent by members within the fitness club. For an even more enhanced user experience, tie-up with a local catering company to create the Fitness & Foodies Circle where the lunch time workout comes hand in hand with a special diet power-packed lunch!

Don't forget to say Thank You

Every member that registers gets a thank you email and an automatic entry into the monthly Fitness Circle draw. New members are also encouraged to fill in a ten question survey that

will help you customize your service to their needs. Draw winners will receive a gift voucher redeemable at the time of membership renewal.

Questions could include:

Special services they would be willing to pay a premium for when they visit the club. Top considerations while purchasing fitness gear (price, durability, quality, comfort, style, etc. Reference requests for friends who might be interested in a fitness program. Anything else you can think of when to communicate with your members.

Becoming the "expert"

Newsletters are also used to establish you as the "expert" in fitness related matters. This could include tips on nutrition, the benefits of yoga etc. Special offers can be sent out at specific intervals during the year – the content aims to cross sell your products and services – e.g.: you might start an after workout massage service or set up a sauna facility within your club premises. Offers can also help you pick up business during slow months. Create Set and forget emails for dates that are specific to a customer E.g. they could be a birthday or the date the members of the Fitness Circle from a specific office signed up. Consider creating reminders 5 days and 1 day before key dates e.g.: employee day, world health day, etc.

How do you measure success?

6 monthly surveys of the Fitness Circle members are conducted to measure key criteria – price, quality of service, variety of offerings, etc. Every completed survey gets a reward – discount voucher redeemable against items purchased at the club’s fitness shop. Build the mail out – invitation to join the Fitness Circle should be sent out to your target market at regular intervals.