Many health and fitness facilities are turning to direct mail as a viable source for increasing their revenues. More than 99% of American homes turn to direct mail coupons as part of their everyday shopping pattern, so it is increasingly important to make sure that your business is in on the action. Steve Zuckerman, president of Clipper Magazine, suggests the following strategies to help your future direct mail marketing campaigns be more successful.
Boost Your Clientele: Direct mail can illustrate what your club has to offer in terms of membership programs, exercise classes and more. Regardless of the size of your business, direct mail can be the most efficient way to promote your business and attract new customers.
The Right Image Is Key To Seeing The Results: Today’s consumers are visually oriented, so avoid black and white because people tend to gravitate more toward advertisements with colorful photographs and logos. You must be able to stop consumers in their tracks with strong visual presentations. Just as exercising may be a task that requires a professional trainer, it may be beneficial for you to hire a professional graphic designer or marketing agency to effectively design your direct mail campaigns.
Consistency Is Key: For added effectiveness, maintain a consistent image for your business throughout all of your advertising campaigns. The consumers will read all of the small details after your consistently beautiful photographs, logos, colors and headlines draw them in.
Warm Up With A Good Message: It can be extremely competitive in the health and fitness industry with all of the different discounts, special offers and promotions. Don’t be afraid to sell up with membership specials and promotions.
“FREE” Always Works Great: Nothing beats ‘FREE’ and it can help to close the sale and urge consumers to buy. For example, try offering a free session with a personal trainer with the purchase of an annual membership.
Dollars Off, Not Percentages: Health club enthusiasts will react better to strong dollars off discounts and incentives, because percentage discounts are typically not perceived to be as strong. Offers are seen as weak unless you use 50% off or higher for discounts.
Use Care With Disclaimers: Try to avoid excessive disclaimers and rules for what is not included in your offers. Keep your special offers simple with words like, “No Double Discounts. Expires 00/00/09.” Use expiration dates of no more than 60 to 90 days to keep offers timely.
Trim Down Your Options – Find A Resource That Does It All: As you investigate the price of a solo direct mail campaign, you may discover the financial and creative benefits of nationally respected direct mail resources like Clipper Magazine, Savvy Shopper, Mint Magazine, Val Pak and others that are available in your local community.
Consider choosing a respected, premier quality, full color glossy direct mail magazine to have the greatest impact on consumers. With resources like this, you can specifically target homes surrounding your business. The cost of magazine format direct mail is usually only three to four cents per home, as opposed to solo direct mail campaigns which can cost up to fifty cents to one dollar per home. When you add up the costs of artwork, printing, mailing labels and postage, it can be to your advantage to use colorful and upscale direct mail magazines.
Direct mail program resources should offer you complimentary consultations, artwork, the use of professional photographs, mailing lists, printing and postage all in one simple package. In addition, their consultants can share examples of other successful health and fitness advertisers from around the country. They can also supply testimonials and telephone numbers from others in similar businesses to yours.
Finally, it’s important to begin with realistic expectations. Direct mail works, especially with repetition of very strong offers, but like any form of advertising and marketing, it usually takes a long term investment. However, coupons are trackable! If you want to determine your effectiveness, plan to ask every potential new member how they heard about you. You will also need to measure your total sales volume each month and quarter. With persistence and lots of planning a successful direct mail campaign is easy to achieve.
KRISTLE JOHNSON IS A MARKETING ASSISTANT AT MARKETING SOLUTIONS, A PR AGENCY SPECIALIZING IN THE PROFESSIONAL HEATLH, BEAUTY AND MEDICAL INDUSTRIES. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON DIRECT MAIL SERVICES IN YOUR AREA, PLEASE VISIT WWW.CLIPPERMAGAZINE.COM OR CALL 866.802.1429.
