Club Solutions spoke with Jonathan Slain, the owner of Fitness Together, in the Cleveland, Ohio area. Fitness Together recently launched a Facebook promotion that awarded one member a month of personal training for free.
Q: Could you explain how you come up with ideas for Facebook promotions?
A: First off, thank you Rachel for hosting this interview. I am a big Club Solutions fan, so this is a lot of fun. For our FB promotions in the past, we had used a lot of the same old boring promos that everyone else seemed to be using. Discounts, special offers, coupons, and after a while, nobody responded anymore. Now, we come up with ideas by trying to think outside the box and determine what we would want if we were customers of Fitness Together!
Q: Recently, you thought outside the box by awarding one person, Sandi Calio, a month of free personal training at your facility. Why did you decide to have Sandi track her progress on a blog?
A: The best way to ensure the success of a promotion is to design it to be a win-win, so that’s what I set out to do. Sandi is getting a month of free, unlimited personal training, which is already changing her life. She has so much more energy and enthusiasm and we are only 10 days into it. And, I am getting a zealot for Fitness Together who is sharing the experience with all her friends and family and blogging about it. Plus, I’ll be able to use her story for years to come even after the promotion ends. Neither of us could be happier with the deal, which is a win-win!
Q: Why did you pick Sandi over other entrants?
A: Sandi was the first to respond and she was so over the top, enthusiastic about the idea that I didn’t need to look further. She also had a great story to tell. She has been trying different things and none of them seem to be working, which is always a common theme in my business. Plus, she’s a very busy, successful accountant, so I liked the idea of showing that if Sandi can commit to working out five times per week, that anyone can. Busy professionals no longer have an excuse, as far as I am concerned. If getting in shape and being healthy is a priority, anybody can make the time, so it’s refreshing to have Sandi remind me of that!
Q: What kind of response have you gotten from this particular Facebook promotion?
A: We have clients, friends and family of Sandi all following along with Sandi’s blog on Facebook and making comments. Also, some of Sandi’s friends and family have been coming in to her workouts to cheer her on or workout with her.
Q: What types of Facebook promotions do you think are the most successful, in terms of member/prospect participation?
A:The best promotions are the ones where we think like clients. When we stop and say, “If I were a client at Fitness Together, what would I want?” instead of thinking about it like a business owner who just wants to sell something using Facebook. It’s a social network — coupons and discounts don’t work here, so we’ll save our special offers for direct mail and television and we’ll use Facebook to interact with our community and clients!
Interview by Rachel Zabonick
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Rachel Zabonick-Chonko is the editor-in-chief of Club Solutions Magazine. She can be reached at rachel@peakemedia.com.
