In today’s market, clubs face a harder than ever struggle to survive and expand. Despite rising concerns about population health and fitness, only an estimated 10% of fitness club members purchase personal training services, and the typical club member still suffers from a serious lack of exercise know-how, guidance and motivation.
Already competing with fellow brick-and-mortar businesses and hustling to crack that 10% mark and help more members see the value of personal training services, fitness clubs are now confronted by a rise in digital platforms and apps promising a new and extremely engaging fitness experience (no gym membership required). This technology is making fitness not only trendy but more convenient than ever before, and it’s gaining momentum with an estimated 33% of consumers actively using a health or fitness app.
With the modern mindset changing fast, this might seem like a tough battle to win, and it can feel natural to fitness clubs to rebel against this new wave of fitness technology and grip tightly to their more traditional approach. But what fitness clubs will discover is that this new digital fitness wave isn’t really an enemy. In fact, by combining their human-driven approach with the accessibility of digital platforms and mobile apps, fitness clubs have the opportunity to drive member engagement and business growth to new heights.
The easiest first step to entering the digital fitness space is for clubs to adopt online personal training into their services. Don’t let the word “online” throw you off — this isn’t a self-serve catalog of generic workouts, and it isn’t a robot here to replace skilled personal trainers. This is real personal training with a digital advantage.
Through a branded app, fitness clubs can build and automatically deliver training programs straight to their members’ phones, connect members with a trainer (a real, certified human) and encourage members to track their workout and body stats in real time. They can even use chat features to schedule in-person sessions or assessments or to build an online community for their members.
With online personal training, fitness clubs can enhance their current fitness services and cater to a wider audience of members by offering new, more flexible and affordable options like 100% online training, hybrid training and enhanced in-person training. Fitness businesses that take the leap and start using personal training platforms can broaden their pool of personal training clients to up to 70% of their members, resulting in increased revenues and member retention rates.
Engaging with the majority of club members that don’t buy into personal training is now, more than ever, within reach, and it doesn’t involve re-shifting consumers’ attention “back to the gym” in the conventional way. It’s about embracing the new tools that fitness technology presents and using them to get members hooked on the personal training experience in a way that works for them.
If done right, not only will more members get the support they need to achieve their fitness goals, but fitness clubs will see their personal training service revenues rise. Now that’s a win-win.
To learn more, visit trainerize.com. To connect with us call 1-800-998-6439 or email press@trainerize.com.
