One thing is for sure, regardless of how beautiful your website is, it will not produce new memberships without the six steps that follow. Commit yourself to the six-step formula below, and watch the Internet bring you more new membership sales, and generate more hot prospects than a top salesperson ever could (at a fraction of the cost!).
The following is an overview of the six-step formula that I’ve personally used to get 23-35 additional new members each week from the Internet (in a small- to mid-size health club). Spend time on each step, as they all work together to help make your Internet marketing a success.
THE SIX-STEP FORMULA
The six-step formula for getting more new members is simple:
1. Attract
2. Capture
3. Be relentless
4. Go automatic
5. Follow-up
6. Sell
1. Attract: You need to attract two types of visitors to your fitness center’s website: your current members, and prospects from your demographic area. One of the many ways to attract prospects is to include your website address in all of your advertising and promotions, along with an incentive for visitors to go to your site. For example, “Go to ‘www.ourclub.com’ and get an instant free pass (Value $100).” List your site and the benefit for visiting it on everything that you put out, including brochures, ads, fliers, lead boxes, etc.
You also need to exhaustively promote your site to your current members. This can be easily done by promoting your site around your facility and by giving your members a reason to go there. Don’t just tell them to visit your new site, give them specific benefits for visiting. You could offer free gifts for referrals, or offer a chance to sign-up for a free newsletter. For example, “Go to ‘www.ourclub.com’ and get free dues!” Then, at the site, explain how members can refer new members via email and get free dues if their referrals ever join. Write periodic special reports, news pieces and articles, and provide other valuable information to keep members returning to your site. But, don’t just offer these things without getting information in return…
2. Capture: Once prospects visit your site seeking the special promotion or free gift, get their email addresses in return for the gift, promotion, etc, and start to generate new sales and leads. Again, the best way to capture email addresses is by giving visitors something in return. For example, give a free report, a discount, a special offer, free information or anything that will motivate your prospects to fillout a short form.
You should also acquire your members’ email addresses, either from your website or your facility. Offer your members a free email newsletter, or use emails to notify them of specials, etc. Again, to collect those email addresses, have members go to your website and fill-out a short form in exchange for an incentive. Or, have your front desk attendant list member emails on a sign-in sheet where the member can receive the special offer in exchange for their email.
3. Follow-up: Once you have the email addresses, you need to follow-up. Send prospects and members regular emails that are relevant to their membership or a previous contact with them. Each email should include an offer or call to action. Send your members: offers, renewal specials, thank-you notes and appreciation messages, referral incentives and opportunities to upgrade memberships and purchase products and services.
4. Be relentless: It’s important to be persistent in your follow-up procedures with both members and prospects, especially since customer contact and customer service are the two most essential ingredients for retaining your members. Your follow-up email can help keep members engaged with your club; loyal to you; paying their monthly dues, and renewing their memberships more often. Prospects should be sent a minimum of 10 to 15 emails over a 90-day period, and members should be sent messages at least twice a month. Your email can contain offers for products and services, and special “members only” offers.
5. Go automatic: The previous steps of capturing, following-up and being relentless should all happen automatically. You won’t have time to: manually capture visitors’ email addresses; follow-up 10 to 15 times monthly; write letters; keep track of contacts, etc. The time and money required to do all of this on your own would not be worth it. You need a system on your website that can automatically store email addresses and follow-up without your lifting a finger.
6. Sell: The main goal of these six steps is to help you sell! And, to sell memberships and services, you need to get people to your facility, whether they’re members or prospects. You will have a much better chance of selling and renewing memberships when you deal with people one-on-one. This means that every message you send your prospects must be designed to get them to your facility ASAP. Therefore, each message should get the recipient to act in some way – trigger a phone call, email or visit you – so you can show-off your facility and services, and sell memberships!
Pat Necerato is a Sales and Marketing Expert with over 15 years experience in the fitness industry. He can be contacted at 866.468.2832, or go to www.MoreNewMembers.com and get his FREE Marketing Video & Report.
