Fremont Health Club is the epitome of a neighborhood gym. From personal training, sales and marketing to group fitness, the gym is completely devoted to creating a strong community atmosphere.
The club, which is located in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, strives to make all members feel welcomed and appreciated. According to Teresa Seto, the fitness director at Fremont Health Club, this has been a key factor in the gym’s success since opening its doors three years ago.
“You do not find a lot of places anymore where you can experience being a part of something and feel at home,” said Seto. “There is a lot of hustle and bustle out there, but because we are such a neighborhood gym, people really get to know each other here. Then they realize their kids go to the same school or they live next door to each other.”
Fremont Health Club continues to keep that personalized approach in mind when marketing the club. Instead of mass marketing campaigns sent out by mail or email, the team markets directly to the families and businesses in the neighborhood, face to face.
“We do a lot of door-to-door marketing,” explained Seto. “We like to get out and meet our neighbors face to face. We make all of our flyers and posters in house, and then we go out as a team, go door to door, meet people and offer a seven-day free trial. We give everyone a chance to come in and check us out.”
The gym also prefers to steer clear from aggressive, high-pressure sales tactics. According to Seto, this makes for a slower growth rate, but a better referral and retention rate.
“When I meet a prospective member, I like to show them what we offer and as I do that I get to know them, ask questions and tailor my information based on what I feel is a good fit for them,” she said. “I feel it is important for them to feel ownership over their decision, rather than try to force them to buy now.”
Fremont Health Club seeks to engage with local businesses through its corporate wellness program. The program encourages wellness by offering special discounts.
“We will give them discounts off enrollment rates and sometimes we don’t charge anything if it is a big enough group,” explained Seto. “This way they get a break on pricing. Then we also offer free personal training once a month, free health check-ins, body fat analysis and services like that with their membership.”
Once they join the club, members have access to the facilities 24 hours a day. During staffed hours they can participate in a variety of activities including a diverse selection of group exercise classes such as Hatha Flow Yoga, Vinyasa Yoga and Fremont Warrior, which is a boot camp style class.
“We constantly keep mixing up our group exercise programming to keep it fun,” said Seto. “We try to launch new classes every month. We just launched barre, which has become very popular — we can’t get classes on the schedule enough.”
By Emily Harbourne
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Emily Harbourne is the former assistant editor of Club Solutions Magazine.
