Most health club owners think of marketing as just another expense of running their business, no different than payroll, accounting or other overhead items. What they fail to realize is that marketing actually offers their business great financial leverage opportunities.
An advertisement costs a club owner the same amount to run whether it produces one membership, 10 memberships or 100 memberships. If a certain ad will pull in 21 times the response of all others, that’s 2,100 percent leverage. So why don’t more clubs spend more effort (not money) developing and executing their marketing strategies using the marketing equation (see July issue)?
One reason, that we mentioned last month, is that while owners are very proficient at providing great facilities and services, they don’t really understand their role as a marketer. A health club owner, who thinks they are a health club owner, is only half right; they are really marketers of health, fitness and recreation. A personal trainer is a marketer of exercise. A massage therapist is a marketer of massage, and so forth.
Because marketing is the engine that fuels every business, you must maximize your marketing to optimize your club business. The good news is that marketing can be simple, cost-effective and offer tremendous competitive advantage when executed properly. All it takes is an open mind and a willingness to add new twists to familiar techniques, usually a tune up, not an overhaul. Many clubs are doing the right kinds of things but just aren’t doing things the right way.
Execution is all important: What you say is only fractionally as important as how you say it. Marketing principals dictate that this is true for all sizes and types of health clubs anywhere, anytime. Different clubs may require different tactics; but whether you use direct mail, display advertising, radio, television, seminars or print ads, in order to produce you must:
1. Articulate and implement a case for your club into every facet of your marketing.
2. Test all marketing and advertising ideas before rolling out a huge expensive campaign.
3. Use the marketing equation to interrupt, engage, educate and offer with every single marketing tactic (no exceptions).
4. Work the back-end using an efficient data base hopper system.
Take club XYZ, a 20,000 sq. ft club, in an upscale area, in a medium sized city, in the north east. In consulting with the owner, I was convinced that direct mail could be a profitable advertising medium. The owner, however, was opposed. “We mailed over 30,000 pieces last spring, but only got six memberships from it. I lost about $5,500 on the deal.”
After further investigation, I discovered that the owner had failed to implement even one of the four parts of the marketing equation, never did any discovery or research to build a case for her club, did not test market the advertising piece on a small number of prospects, and did not gather any prospect data to build a powerful hopper system.
Their first problem was that they didn’t send out their own mailer. Their ad was a four-color, 81/2 x 11 sheet with a roofing company ad on the back. The ad was sent out with about 30 other ad pages in the same format. The ad itself, contained no headline, made no compelling case for their club, and made no specific risk free offer. There was nothing telling why their club was great (inside reality), what advantages it held over the competition and the alternative, or what benefits would come from using their club. It just said, “Here we are, come buy a membership from us for no justifiable, rational reason.”
Your approach should be different if you want powerful and predictable results. Your ads should contain headlines to interrupt your prospects. Headlines need to hit hot buttons that you have identified from member surveys and competitor surveys.
Next your ad should promise the reader that if they keep reading, you will show them a way to solve their health and fitness problems. Then you educate them, in quantifiable terms, exactly how your club can help them to look good, feel great and have fun. Basically, you facilitate their decision making. Finally, your risk free offer makes it easy for them to take the next step to joining a health club. Give them a free exercise report and a water bottle to help them get started.
Lastly always, always test market your ads on a small number of prospects, 200 to 300, before you launch into mailing to 30,000, or whatever your number is. This will keep your marketing cost effective, not expensive and assure you of profitable results. Continue to follow these four deceivingly simple marketing concepts, and you can profit immediately without spending any extra money. Remember, execution and articulation is everything.
Gail Connaughton is the President of Powerhouse Marketing. She can be contacted at 410.562.8769, or by email atgcc43@aol.com
