After 19 months of challenges, gym and health club operators are looking forward to new opportunities in 2022.
One fitness franchise that has been positioned for future growth is Workout Anytime.
“One of our growth strategies is encouraging potential franchisee candidates to speak with current franchisees,” said Terri Harof, the director of franchise development for Workout Anytime. “They are business owners who have proven our franchise model is successful and will talk to potential franchisees about the unwavering support Workout Anytime provides and the importance of sticking to the playbook.”
Additionally, Harof said they have put an aggressive referral program in place for franchisees, team members and personal trainers because they have solid relationships with members.
“A lot of our owners started out as members, so we provide a financial incentive to our team for anyone who sends us a lead that turns into a franchisee,” explained Harof. “Additionally, we’re tapping into our members through an extensive advertising campaign within our four walls. We want everyone who enters one of our locations to know that we’re an actively growing franchise.”
Workout Anytime isn’t just letting members know about franchise opportunities, they’re also making sure they’re engaged and forming connections.
“We’re doing much more when it comes to member engagement,” said Lori Asbury, the director of marketing. “We’re hosting fun events inside our gyms. We want our members to feel like they’re a part of something bigger and a part of our community, so we want to make it more fun and more entertaining.”
However, before people can form connections and have fun at Workout Anytime, they must first become members. This is why Workout Anytime is putting more work into their marketing strategies.
“We’re heavily pushing hyper-local digital strategies,” said Asbury. “Post-COVID, we’ve seen an explosion of ‘near me’ searches where people are trying to support the entrepreneurs in their local communities. Google has leveled the playing field as well so that if businesses respond to reviews and make sure their hours are accurate and updated, they land in the top three results when people search things like ‘gym near me’ or ‘24-hour fitness,’ which allows them to be part of the consideration set. Reputation also plays an important role – we watched a great video from MomentFeed about how an online review is of equal or greater importance than a recommendation from a friend.”
Another growth strategy Workout Anytime has in place is promoting overall well-being rather than just physical health.
“We have a new Workout Anytime app where we offer not only workouts, but all kinds of health and wellness information,” said Harof. “When new members join, we are guiding our franchisees and team members to immediately get them on the app because there’s so much information available and new content added regularly by Greg Maurer, our vice president of fitness and education. We believe education is power.”
With these growth strategies in place and an already promising 2021, Workout Anytime is ready for 2022. Recently the franchise signed a multi-unit development deal for several locations in Oregon and Washington and have several more franchise agreements that will be executed fourth quarter.
“We are very excited about the international and domestic growth our brand is experiencing,” said Harof. “The high value, low-cost segment is the fastest growing in the fitness industry, and our business model — which has proven successful over the past 22 years — is thriving. Not many business owners can say that they provide a service that the entire world needs, and luckily, almost everyone can afford.”
