Sandi Calio described herself as a middle-aged, overweight Italian woman. “Where I come from, Italians live to eat instead of eating to live,” she said. “I have struggled with my weight for most of my adult life. As a former athlete, I don’t know where that athletic body disappeared.”
Calio’s description of her struggles with fitness are documented on a blog hosted by Fitness Together, a health club in the Cleveland area, as part of Fitness Together’s monthly Facebook promotions. This October, Calio was picked as the winner of a promotion that awarded her unlimited personal training sessions for the entirety of this month, in addition to receiving nutrition advice. She will track her progress via a blog on Fitness Together’s site.
According to Jonathan Slain, the owner of Fitness Together, this has been his most successful Facebook promotion to date, garnering the most social media interaction and community support. “We were looking for ways to break through the [social media] noise and get people to respond,” said Slain. “With this promotion, we are getting more interaction than ever before.”
Slain attributes part of the success of this particular Facebook promotion to partnering with Calio. According to Slain, Calio’s story was inspirational, and one that would resonate with the local community. “Sandi had a great personal story and great motivation — her story has garnered a lot of interest,” he explained. “[Promotions] are always more successful when clients buy into them. I wanted to pick someone who was excited and motivated. If you choose the right person to be your partner in a promotion, it will really benefit you.”
In the process of offering the current promotion, Slain discovered that the club had more success with Facebook promotions that offered free services or rewards, versus discounts. In the past, the club had also offered winners one free week of personal training sessions, versus one month. “When we changed the promotion to a month of free personal training sessions, we had a much better response,” said Slain.
According to Slain, a number of new prospects have expressed interest in joining as a result of the promotion and Calio’s story. “We wanted to do something that would excite the community and get them involved,” he said. “Sandi’s been a great zealot for fitness in the community.”
Although the current promotion so far has been successful, according to Slain, clubs need to keep their promotions inventive and exciting. “Promotions are something we need to weave into the fabric of who we are,” said Slain. “We’re always looking for new ideas. Variety is really what’s going to keep people coming back and forwarding a link along to their friends and family.”
By Rachel Zabonick
