With as many health clubs as there are today and with health consciousness on the rise, you have to make your club unique to attract new members and add value for your existing members. In order to do this, you have to offer services and products that many other clubs do not. One great service to offer, if you do not already, is body composition testing. If you currently do offer body composition testing, then you must come up with successful ways to implement it to your members and effective tools to market it so that you can realize the profit building potential.
A great tool to market and use for body fat analysis is a body composition device that does not require your members to disrobe. Body composition offers members a baseline starting point to track results without requiring much effort from your staff. This makes body composition, not only effective but appealing for your members due to the ease of use. With new technology, previous body composition testing methods are truly outdated and do not provide the immediate information that can now be obtained with the newer body composition models available on the market. Fast and accurate results will mean more members will participate and profits increased.
Certain body composition devices offer a variety of printout options which provide valuable and quick information for your members. Certain body composition devices also can be accompanied with a printer that connects to the device to offer either a plain or illustrated paper print out. Reports offer summary information to your members, while the illustrated print-outs offer detailed information highlighting total body water, lean muscle mass, fat mass, total body weight, resting energy expenditure, percentage over ideal weight, cancer propensities and life expectancy based on body fat percentage. All of this information is very informative and will help to set a workout and nutrition plan for your members. Think of the value you can provide to your members by offering body composition analysis. After all this is the reason you are in business, to bring value to your customers and help them reach their health and fitness goals.
The information obtained in a report is very helpful to you and your customers in education and motivation; they help to put your members in an “act now” mode. They instill urgency by presenting their health risks on assessment forms that can be presented to them in real time. Using these forms has been proven to increase closing ratios for health clubs. These printouts are an excellent way to create a perceived value that helps to put you ahead of your competition.
Another great benefit of new technology body composition devices is that they can be easily transported. Taking a body composition scale to a local health fair or company and offering body composition analysis to the public is a great way to market your club and capture new memberships. The printouts provided can be done in less than one minute also making it fast and convenient for those who want to try it out.
There are other advantages to using body composition analysis in your club. Certain devices measure bioimpedance hand to hand. Again, members do not have to disrobe nor remove their shoes, which makes it very easy for them to participate. They offer athletic modifiers for increased accuracy. There are no pretest requirements. The weight capacity goes up to 500 pounds, and there are also weight only functions.
Using a body composition device at your club will tremendously help your members in their expedition to become a healthier, more physically fit and more attractive person. It allows them to look into their own individual health statistics and helps them set goals and be able to track results accurately.
A benefit to your club is that body composition is a great introduction to personal training services that you offer to your members. Once the information from the test is gathered, the information can be presented to the potential new member or existing member with personal training as a solution to their health and fitness goals. If a person decides to purchase personal training this increases your club’s revenue along with providing your trainers appropriate information to set up a work out program and nutritional regimen that will get them the results that they need. You will be able to track results of your members through periodic retesting using a body composition device.
Your members, as with most people in all parts of society, are looking for immediate results. By having the ability to perform body composition analysis at your club, you can show them exactly what needs to be done and with further testing, show them positive, nearly immediate results, even if it is not directly related to weight loss. However, let them know that the weight loss is definitely in their near future and what really matters is their body fat percentage. This is what determines whether a person is healthy or not.
As with any new service or product, you have to properly promote it to your members to get the results that you desire. To incorporate a new, or market existing body composition testing, you must first consider the following steps:
1. Write out the goals you want to accomplish (increase membership, cash flow, public awareness of your facility, etc.,).
2. Determine what your budget will be to accomplish these goals.
3. Decide what strategies to use and how much money to allocate to an individual strategy.
4. Set dates to begin and complete the new strategy and make a list of what will have to be done for each (artwork, printing, phone calls, create or update mailing lists, etc.,).
For instance, if you are trying to promote body composition in your club to members, write out the reasons for implementing this type of testing. Estimate how much cash flow you believe it will bring in from your existing customers. Also, decide how you will promote it to potential members. A good way to do this would be taking your scale to sporting goods trade shows, fitness and aerobic competitions, golf competitions, weight lifting competitions, tennis tournaments, health product trade shows, local events, etc.
Next, you will need to determine how many events that you can afford to display your scale and whether you can offer it for free or offer the testing for a discounted price.
Then decide what type of strategy to use. You could offer the testing for free for signing up for a membership or you could offer it half price for coming in and taking a tour. There are countless different ways to promote and offer body composition testing at your club. And, it should help to increase your perceived value and ultimately your membership.
Finally, you need to set dates to offer your testing, possibly send out flyers and continue the promotion long after the initial introduction of the service.
Whether you already have body composition in your club, have recently purchased a body composition scale or are looking into purchasing one, in house promotion is a must. Plan a campaign that will notify every member that you’re offering body composition testing and what it can do for them. Post signs and distribute flyers. Plan a promotional day, weekend or week when all body composition analyses will be free to your existing members.
How you can use this strategy:
1. Bring a friend day: Try a two for one body composition analyses for a member and guest.
2. Make the first Saturday of each month a two-for-one day.
3. Offer a renewal special: Renew your membership this month and get a free year’s worth of monthly body composition analyses worth (estimated value).
4. Offer a motivational special: Set a weight-loss goal. Achieve it and win a free membership for three months. Have the members pay for their body composition analyses to monitor their weight loss progress.
5. Have a weekly business card drawing. Provide a large container into which people would drop their business cards. Once a week there is a drawing for a free body composition analysis.
There are various different ways to promote body composition testing in your health club. There are also many different types of body composition testing. However, using a body composition scale with more advanced technology and easier use for your customers will only increase their perceived value and your membership. Correctly marketing and promoting your body composition scale should provide you with proven results and noticeably increase your revenue.
Kenyon Clark is the Owner of American Weights & Measures. He can be contacted at 800.395.4565, or by email atkc@tntglfr.com.
