Is your corporate wellness program driving new business? In a struggling economy it is imperative that health clubs take a look at their existing marketable assets and expand on them to generate new leads and revenue.
Most fitness clubs fail to achieve long-lasting profits as a result of their inability to market their corporate membership agreements successfully. Contacting human resources representatives at organizations is a way to successfully generate relationships and establish employee discounts, but how can a health club promote its message and expand on leads to generate sustained profits in the future?
Establishing a relationship with an HR director is important, as it opens the door to the whole marketing process. Without this connection it is impossible to get the club’s specific message in front of every employee. The issue resulting from our current economic climate is that discounted memberships alone are not enough to attract clients. More aggressive marketing tactics must be used to bring employees into the location and introduce them to the valuable programs being offered.
As most health club owners will tell you, it is difficult to get potential clients into the club, because working out in public causes anxiety for many. In order to generate traffic, clubs must package some of their already existing value-added services to create specific marketing promotions. These campaigns will give employees other reasons to visit the club and allow them to become comfortable within its environment.
What club services could potentially be used in these corporate marketing campaigns? Based on club usage, a 7- to 14-day guest pass could be included in these promotional packages. Americans have the desire to get fit but become hesitant to commit to any type of contractual agreement. A trial membership will create a relationship between the potential client and the club with no strings attached.
Offering access to an online nutrition program incorporated on the club’s Web page is another beneficial tool. Activation codes to access this online nutrition program could be coupled with trial passes to ensure that all aspects of a healthy lifestyle are being covered by the club’s services. This is a valuable marketing tactic, considering that 60 percent of an individual’s fitness goals are based on nutrition. Online nutrition on the club’s Web site will create personalized meal plans catered toward specific individuals to help them supplement their fitness needs with a proper diet. Marketing this service will simultaneously attract a whole new segment of potential clients who are mainly concerned with nutrition and are unaware that this type of service is being offered at local health clubs. Bringing these potential clients into the club will allow sales associates to explain the importance of combining nutrition with a consistent exercise regimen to achieve their fitness goals. Incorporating these nutritional services creates a whole new outside profit center that can generate revenue from non-members and initiate membership sign-ups in the future.
Integrating access to some of the club’s other services, like personal training, yoga classes, massage therapy and tanning, could produce new leads and generate revenue from a corporate market. Many of these employees are going elsewhere to satisfy these needs. Failing to properly market all the services a club has to offer is allowing sizeable amounts of profit to slip away. An increasing amount of consumers are paying lofty prices for these services at separate specialty locations because they’re unaware that many clubs offer all this value under one roof. It is no wonder these marketable services within these clubs are not realizing as much profit as they could be.
The current economic climate has played a major role in the recent struggle for health clubs to generate new leads and sustain revenue. However, fitness centers fail to realize the potential profit that exists within marketing toward corporate wellness programs. Relationships with human resource representatives can generate access to directly market to the organization’s employees via e-mail. These e-mails can include personalized marketing campaigns sent directly to the HR coordinator that incorporate savvy and intriguing promotional information in a JPEG file, which is then forwarded to each and every employee within the corporation. Personalized e-mail blasts are surefire way to attract every employee’s attention to all the services your club has to offer.
For more information call 301.220.4250, or email jpeters@vitabot.com or visit www.vitabot.com
