You understand the importance of targeting a specific subset of your market. Delivering a message meant for everyone is a bad idea and will waste a lot of money. Instead you want your message as targeted as possible toward the recipient of your marketing.
Here are a few reasons why marketing to those with money will be good for your business.
They Have Money!
What a novel idea right? People with money will allow you to worry less about delinquent accounts and allow you to focus on providing more valuable upsells. You may remember the stories of the bank robber Jesse James. He was once asked why he robs banks. His response was “because that’s where the money is.” He didn’t waste his time robbing people who may or may not have money; he focused on building his own wealth by focusing on the targets that would help him get there faster. Obviously we’re not robbing banks or advocating those who do, but the idea is the same.
They Focus on Value Rather than Price
Affluent clients worry less about price and more about what they get for the price. They would buy a $100 per month membership as quickly as they would buy a $20 per month membership as long as they get at least five times more value from the more expensive membership. They look less at the numbers and more at the result they expect to receive. When you cater to an affluent market, remember that they love terms like exclusivity, VIP, or anything to make them feel they are paying for and getting more value.
Affluent Members Stay Longer and Pay Longer
Affluent buyers are often the most loyal buyers. Not only that, but they are often much easier to deal with, they have other friends with money they can refer and the programs they buy from you are often higher profit programs. Remember, most of your money shouldn’t be made from memberships . . . that business model is dead and gone. The lion’s share of your revenue should be made from profit centers and program upsells.
You’ve heard me talk about Customer Lifetime Value before, basically how much money a member is worth during their membership. Due to all of the above reasons, affluent members have a substantially higher customer lifetime value. In other words, they’ll spend more with you during the time that they do business with you, than will someone at a lower socioeconomic level. So if you’re in the right market and have the business model to support this group, it is in your best interest to allocate a good portion of your marketing budget to the affluent.
Curtis Mock is the host of www.FitnessBusinessTelevision.com the TV show for fitness entrepreneurs. He is also the executive director of gymsuccess.com. Curtis can be reached at curtis@clubsolutionsmagazine.com.
