Marketing is really nothing more than a system.

But here’s the catch: It is the MOST important system in your fitness club because without creating a system or process that brings you consistent quality leads on a steady and dependable basis, you’ll forever ride the revenue roller coaster suffering peaks and valleys, slumps and droughts, and living with bouts of anxiety and stress for as long as your fitness club is in business.

The sad reality is this is how most fitness clubs and PT studios operate across the planet, and this is why most of them either close down within five years, struggle or experience mediocre growth.

Well, even though that’s the reality for far too many fitness club owners and managers out there…it doesn’t have to be yours. Let me explain further.

Here’s the secret…

“The more media integration a fitness club owner or manger can use effectively, the more future members they will attract, and the less fragile their business will be.”

7 Key Benefits of Integrated Marketing

1) Far greater results with a unified message compared to a disjointed myriad of messages and offers.

2) Integrated marketing presents club owners and managers with a greater sense of order and organisation aligned with every marketing campaign.

3) In a highly competitive industry, a consistent, consolidated and crystal clear message across multiple media outlets has a greater chance of cutting through the noise of over 3000 messages per day that the average consumer is exposed to.

4) A highly integrated marketing campaign will always increase memberships over a fragmented one because the message across several media platforms will create more verticals for future members to become aware, aroused and ultimately make a buying decision.

5) Consumers don’t buy in a single advertising method. A strong integrated marketing approach engages the consumer on different platforms of media, i.e. social, print, direct mail, video and email. If your club is proactively integrating these strategies, the opportunity to engage with prospects is significantly increased.

6) Through integration, repeated impressions develop a branded thread within the consumer’s subconscious. This means top of mind awareness for your club.

7) According to the American Heritage Dictionary, the definition of synergy is, “The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.” This is exactly how marketing integration works. It’s a layering effect, whereby the more media you stack on top of one another with your clear message, the greater your return.

For more information to help grow your specific fitness business or to register for a FREE BUSINESS ACCELERATOR CALL, simply enter your details below and I will be in touch shortly.

Frank Smarrelli Co-Founder of Marketing For Gyms and Personal Trainers

Are you “addicted” to your mobile phone or other mobile devices, such as an iPad or Android tablet? Most people feel as though they can’t live without their smartphone. Increasingly, people are feeling this way about their tablet computers as well. The ubiquitous nature and effectiveness of such gadgets and digital tools make for an unprecedented marketing opportunity. This is something that you can exploit to generate more traffic for your fitness club.

SMS Marketing Offers Great Opportunity

So exactly what is SMS marketing? SMS stands for “Short Message Service.” This type of marketing consists of sending short marketing messages directly to consumers. Most often, SMS messages are short and to the point. Millions of SMS messages are sent every day, and their numbers are growing rapidly. Let’s take a look at a few reasons why you should use SMS marketing as a direct integration tool to maximize your marketing ROI.

#1 SMS Messages Grab Attention

You probably know by now that email messages often don’t receive much attention as they used to. The simple fact is that unknown email messages are viewed as “spam” and are rarely opened or given much attention. However, the situation with SMS marketing is very different. The fact of the matter is that a whopping 97% of all SMS or phone text messages get opened. This rate is in stark contrast to email and print marketing, which have a far lower rate of being opened and thus a much lower conversion rate as well. If you want to get your message noticed and you want to turn potential members into paying members, then you will want to explore all that SMS marketing has to offer your fitness club.

#2 Messages Are Quickly Opened

The news on SMS marketing gets even better. When a prospective member receives an SMS message, it is common for those messages to get opened in just 4 minutes! Of course, email, direct mailing and other forms of advertising have little chance of competing with that kind of number.

Impressively, 83% of all SMS messages are opened within 60 minutes. This is great news if you decide to run a special or limited time offer of some type. Potential members will not just receive your marketing messages, but there is also
 a good chance that they will act upon them if the offer is really strong. The immediacy of the SMS marketing process is such that your odds of receiving a fast response to your marketing campaign increase. This process allows you to quickly understand what marketing approaches and strategies are working and, in the process, modify your marketing campaigns when necessary.

#3 Time To Up-Sell And Offer Discounts

Reaching your existing members and prospects with a discount or up-sell offer is a time honored way of achieving results, and SMS marketing takes this to a whole new level. The immediacy with which you can reach your audience with SMS marketing means that discount offers and up-sells have a major chance of receiving a positive response.

SMS marketing can also be used very effectively for up-selling an existing member. When you are dealing with an existing member, you already have an on-going relationship with that person. If the relationship is strong, this increases the chances of an immediate response.

SMS marketing allows each individual the opportunity to take advantage of up-sell features that you may be offering. Best of all, because SMS marketing gives you quick results in terms of your marketing campaign’s effectiveness, you can try out different up-sell strategies until you find the one that works just right (test and measure all your results.) Does this mean more revenue for you? The short answer is, of course! That is why so many marketers are so excited about how well SMS marketing works.

#4 Competitive Pricing

The most effective marketing idea in the world isn’t really worth much if it isn’t cost effective, is it? This is another reason why SMS marketing shines. SMS marketing is relatively inexpensive. When one factors in its success rate and the high number of opened messages, then SMS marketing becomes an even better lead generation strategy or marketing integration tool for your fitness club.

There are many companies worldwide that provide SMS marketing services. This serves to drive prices down. Of course, this is all good news for you. The fact that SMS marketing is this effective and prices are highly competitive all add up to make this form of media a true winner.

Here are 7 reasons why you should be using SMS media as your key marketing integration tool to maximize your ROI.

1) A whopping 97% of ALL SMS or phone text messages get opened.

2) 83% of all SMS messages are opened within 60 minutes.

3) The immediacy of the SMS marketing process means quick responses.

4) Since you gain quick responses thanks to SMS marketing, you can adapt your marketing strategies and campaigns with greater speed.

5) You can reach your existing club members in a highly effective manner.

6) People actually pay more attention to their SMS messages unlike email and direct mailings.

7) SMS pricing has dramatically decreased over the last several years, and costing is very reasonable now.

The key to optimizing and maximizing your marketing offer is to integrate it across different media. SMS media should be at the top of that list for all the reasons I just mentioned. If you want a highly effective integrated marketing campaign for your fitness club, then you need to opt for SMS marketing.
For more information to help grow your specific fitness business or to register for a FREE BUSNIESS ACCELERATOR CALL, simply enter your details below and I will be in touch shortly.

Frank Smarrelli Co-Founder of Marketing For Gyms and Personal Trainers

The pain and pleasure principle is universal. It steers us
 in everything we do whether we are consciously aware of 
it or not. The principle states that people are motivated to seek pleasure and avoid pain. Pleasure and pain are the
 two controlling forces in all human behavior. Thus for salespeople understanding this principle is like cracking the code to the psychology of consumer buying.

From my academic research, reading over 4200 books 
on topics such as the psychology of winning, axiology, epistemology, success principles of high achievers, universal laws of success, business growth, marketing and sales. Coupled with my 24 years of practical experience in small business, I believe that the majority of prospects avoid pain more often than they desire to gain pleasure. One of the main reasons for this is because it is a biological survival mechanism built into our nervous system. For example, physical pain will cause people to quickly withdraw from what they interpret to be the source of their pain.

Logically, we understand the difference between physical and emotional pain but the human mind at times is challenged when distinguishing real pain from the perceived pain. The majority of people actually respond to pain in precisely the same way.

Another reason why people feel the need to avoid pain compared to their desire to gain pleasure is fear. Fear stops you from gaining more pleasure and achieving all the things you desire in Life? This is really no surprise; we now live in a fearful society.

Another way at looking at this principle is to look at what people move towards or away from. For example, some people are motivated towards goals, while others are motivated away from non-goals. towards or away from reveals how people respond to their world. Understanding this concept dramatically changes how people behave.

There is enough research to suggest that all human behavior can be traced back to “two distinct forces.” The desire to gain pleasure and the need to avoid pain. In order to use this principle to your advantage as a Super Star salesperson, you will need to link or associate not buying your product or service more long-term pain, than actually buying it. For example, if a prospect has just been taken through your price presentation, and then mentions that he/she needs to “think about it,” even though it seemed through verbal and non verbal signs that he/she was going to move forward with the purchase; it is your job to get him/her to face the consequence of not buying and motivate him/her towards being proactive and doing something about it now!

Whilst maintaining rapport, educate him/her on the enormous benefits of your product or service (pleasure component) and the long-term implications of not purchasing your product or service (pain component.)

The pain and pleasure principle is the commanding motivator in human behavior. Understanding this principle will allow you to recognize why prospects are actually buying your products and services. The best marketing companies in the world know how this principle works. They associate massive pleasure to buying their products and pain to not buying them or to using their competitor’s products. It’s
 an incredibly powerful tool and it works every time. As a Super Star salesperson you must understand at all times that people don’t buy needs; they buy “wants.”

Ti any & Co one of the world’s premier Jewelers since the mid 1800s don’t get people to spend tens of thousands of dollars everyday because it is logical or rational. No one needs to be wearing a bracelet or necklace worth $50,000. The people that do spent this type of money on Tiffany Jewelry want to be able to “feel” a certain way. Their decision is emotionally based. The advertising industry has mastered the process of linking products and services with emotions, because that is what sells and keeps their clients paying them ridiculous amounts of money year after year. Remember, wants are emotional, not logical or rational. Clients buy emotional wants, not just the tangible product or service.

When a prospect is being taken through your sales process and is contemplating purchasing your product or service, remember he or she is not really buying the actual product or service. They are buying the benefits and the emotions they will experience as a result of using your products and services.

A Super Star Closer is constantly uncovering the prospect’s emotional wants. They know that humans do much more to avoid pain than gain pleasure. As a key person in increasing sales for your small business, you must be able to sell both types of consequences; the pleasure if a prospect buys and the pain if they don’t. Therefore it is important to have some elements of pain in your entire sales presentation.

For more information to help grow your specific fitness business or to register for a FREE BUSNIESS ACCELERATOR CALL, simply enter your details below and I will be in touch shortly.

Frank Smarrelli Co-Founder of Marketing For Gyms and Personal Trainers

Within this blog post, I am going to be sharing with you the 3 deadly sins of fitness marketing. These deadly sins or cardinal sins are not lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy or pride. I’m sure there are some lessons there for all of us, but that’s not what I’m covering here.

Fitness professionals from all parts of the world occasionally ask me the following question, “What is the number one marketing mistake that you see?” at question has been the catalyst for this blog.

Deadly Sin # 1: Inconsistent Marketing

The first of the deadly sins is inconsistent marketing. I would say that 95% of all the fitness professionals that I have spoken to, coached and consulted with for over two decades have not got a marketing plan that they follow from week to week and month to month.

Marketing is not an event; marketing is not a tactic. Marketing is in fact a system. But, here’s the thing, it’s the most important system within your fitness business. Marketing is a continual implementation of lead generation strategies that drive new traffic to your business.

It’s important to understand that you don’t need amazing results from one strategy, but good results from multiple strategies. The key point is you must always be marketing your club and its services. I did a free consultation with a club owner in early 2012. It was the start of spring, which is traditionally a busier time in our industry. Two days after the session, the owner calls me and says that he really enjoyed the session, but he thought that he wouldn’t need to focus on marketing because it was spring and soon it would be summer. He felt that the club would market itself based on the weather and time of the year.

I bumped into the same guy about a year later and quickly found out that his club had grow by only 2% in the last 12 months. I asked him if he knew why this was the case. He replied by saying, verbatim, “All the local gyms are stealing my members.” I just stood there in astonishment and replied, “Do you think it might be because of a lack of effective marketing!”

Not marketing or inconsistent marketing is deadly sin number one. Dan Kennedy, who I believe is one of the greatest marketers that ever lived, taught me to never stop marketing. His belief is that there is always something to do, and if you can’t think of anything, then pick up the phone and start calling people to generate interest in your product or service.

Deadly Sin # 2: Not Optimizing Your Marketing

The fourth of the deadly marketing sins is not optimizing your marketing. Marketing optimization simply involves any activity that is designed to maximize the return on you marketing investment. Marketing optimization comes in many different forms and can be achieved in a variety of ways. In this blog, I will focus on media integration as a way of optimizing your marketing campaigns.

Firstly, I would like to cover two basic definitions – media and marketing integration. Media is the means by which you deliver your message or offering. Email is media, SMS is media, and direct mail is media. Media is the way; it’s a tool with which you do the marketing.

Marketing Integration is actually a strategy aimed at unifying a particular message or offering. Its objective is to complement and strengthen the marketing impact of each media used, so that a greater result is achieved.

So often I hear about fitness professionals sending out a direct mail piece without integrating that media with SMS or a direct phone call. Other times, an SMS blasts goes out without integrating with email or social media, namely Facebook.

The more media integration a fitness business owner or manger can use effectively, the more future members they will attract and the less fragile their business will be. I’m constantly sharing this idea with my clients, so they can get a greater return on their marketing investment.

Integrated marketing is actually a simple concept. It is the coordination and integration of all marketing communication tools, avenues, functions and sources within a business into a seamless system that optimizes and maximizes the impact on existing members as well as prospects.

Deadly Sin # 3: Not Focusing Your Marketing on Current Members

When you first start a fitness business, you have little choice but to focus on gaining new members with outreach campaigns. The cost of finding those new members can be quite expensive. The problem is that most fitness professionals continue to spend money on acquiring new leads and forget about marketing to current members or clients.

Did you know that is costs 7 – 8 times more to attract new members than it does to simply keep an existing member happy? There needs to be a balance between spending time, energy and ultimately marketing dollars on acquiring new members, and also marketing to current members. From my perspective, marketing to current members can be broken down in three distinct areas.

1. Marketing to current members to either up-sell or cross-sell them into another product or service.

2. Marketing to current members to gain referrals.

3. Marketing to current members as an overall retention strategy.

The fastest way to grow any fitness business initially is through leveraging off your current members and clients. Long-term growth sees a continuation along this path as well marketing consistency and looking at optimizing your marketing at every opportunity.

For more information or to register for a FREE BUSNIESS ACCELERATOR CALL, simply enter your details below and I will be in touch shortly.

Frank Smarrelli
Co-Founder of Marketing For Gyms and Personal Trainers

When someone lands on your website you have 6 – 8 seconds to create a great first impression before you lose your visitor to another site. During this 6 – 8 seconds the visitor will make a judgement about the quality of your business and make a decision as to whether they want to connect with you.

Here are the Top 5 Must Have Website Features to ensure you create a great first impression and maximize the amount of leads generated from your website.

1. Clean & Modern Design With Quality Images

The majority of fitness professionals have old, outdated websites that are rarely updated. Your website must be clean and modern with consistent branding and slideshow images in the header section showcasing the facilities and services that you offer. Quality images give people an opportunity to connect with your business and you can achieve this by including high energy images of people having fun and training with a wide range of different exercises and equipment.

2. Welcome Video

A welcome video on the home page is highly recommended to give you a chance to connect with visitors. The video should be no longer than 90 seconds. Introduce your business, touch on some pain points that your visitors may be experiencing and then provide solutions for these pain points. At the end of the video give a call to action to register their details and this brings me to point number 3!

3. Opt In Form

Next to the welcome video it is essential to have an opt in form with a free offer to capture your prospects details and generate a lead. Once again, the majority of fitness professionals do not use opt in forms and it is virtually impossible to generate an online lead without one. An opt in form is simply a form that has name, email and phone fields along with an offer and a button to register. An example of an offer may be a Free 14 Day Trial to use the gym or try group personal training. The form needs to be linked to an autoresponder email system so your prospect receives an automated thank you email and you receive a lead notification email after they register.

4. Success Stories & Testimonials

Adding Success Stories and Testimonials is essential to add social proof to your website. When someone visits your website for the first time they want to see that you have achieved proven results for your clients. Testimonials should include an image of the client along with a story of how they have achieved their goals or benefited from your services. Short video testimonials are also a great idea.

5. Blog

Adding a blog to your website is a great strategy to add value to your visitors, brand yourself as a leader in your industry and also build quality relationships. People rarely sign up on the first visit and prefer to start following you first. A blog can be used to add value on topics such as nutrition, mindset, training, exercise technique and motivation. You can also link the blog to your social

Before I answer the question, “What is the fastest way to grow your fitness business?” I would like to share some points on where the fitness industry is heading in the future.

The fitness industry has changed so much over the last 10 years, with the popularity and global expansion of the 24-hour model; niche training facilities and even online coaching and training.

I believe the most significant growth areas for the fitness industry in 2016 and beyond will be the franchised 24-hour clubs and also clubs offering cheaper membership as well as personal trainers offering small group fitness.

High intensity, “go hard, go home” type training facilities will still be very much in vogue in 2016. F45, the Australia fitness brand is the perfect example with dozens of new studios opening across the country.

Technology is also going to another level and will continue to be a huge point of difference over the next few years. Many health club operators will be left behind refusing to change with the times.

Health clubs both big and small will explore more options for their members and clients like bio-tracking software solutions, allowing people to track their activities both in and outside of the facility. This provides another level of accountability and paints a true picture of their members’ and clients’ fitness levels.

There has never been more choice for the consumer than there is in 2016 to get more active. Being an average fitness business with no real points of difference means it will be extremely challenging to not only survive within the next three years but also thrive.

2016 will be a big test for the fitness industry with what we refer to as the Geographic Wake-Up Call. Long gone are the days where health clubs would combat monthly attrition with a more sales mindset! Any bricks-and-mortar fitness business will only ever have a certain geographical radius in which it pulls it leads from.

After a certain amount of time these leads tend to dry up because the pool in which they market to is shrinking. The more competition that comes into your geographic area, be it the same brand as yours (this is called brand cannibalization), other brands, independent clubs and even personal training studios, the more your pool empties out.

Unless more people move into you geographical area in the form of corporations and housing (which includes apartments), the pool of potential members and clients will only continue to drop like water in a pool when you start to empty it out.

Competition within the global fitness industry is increasing at an alarming rate. With increased competition, the cost of acquiring new members and replacing lost members is rising.

Only clubs that take a structured approach to their monthly marketing with a huge emphases on “marketing integration” (same message, multiple media), along with a targeted approach to Social Media and Digital marketing execution will be able to secure enough monthly leads to grow.

Retention initiatives also need to be executed in a systemized fashion. Some deep and lateral thinking around the member journey, customer service, and programming to make it easier for members to achieve their health and fitness goals, is necessary to ensure more members keep their monthly membership going.

Now, back to the question, “What is the fastest way to grow your fitness business?” If you look at the most successful health clubs in the world, both big and small or even the most successful personal trainers they have coaches, mentors and a support system around them.

They fish out experts in Social Media marketing, sales training for their staff and individuals that can help take their business to a more profitable level.

Football teams, soccer teams even professional tennis players have coaches and a support team, all-working together to get to the next level….it simply works!!

If you would like to get to the next level in your specific fitness business then I am offering a short 20-minute business accelerator call to see where your business needs the most help to get it moving forward faster. Simply register your details below and I will be in touch within 48 hours.

Regards,

Frank Smarrelli

Co-Founder of Marketing for Gyms & Personal Trainers

Last month we launched a brand new Facebook competition app and the results have been completing amazing. In fact, the strategy that I am about to share is the best lead generation strategy that I have seen in more than 18 years of marketing in the health & fitness industry!

We launched the new Facebook competition app at an Anytime Fitness club near Melbourne and they generated 275 brand new leads in just 28 days! The total spend was $60 per week for 4 consecutive weeks. Total investment was $240 to receive 275 leads. That is less than $1 per lead which is unheard of in this industry.

If you are serious about increasing the amount of leads in your gym or PT business then I highly recommend watching the 5 minute video at http://www.fbcompetition.com to find out how the app works.

Cheers,

Brad

Marketing for Gyms

We have been working in the health and fitness industry for over 17 years and during this time we have seen Personal Training absolutely explode in growth. It is now bigger than it has ever been before! Literally thousands of new Personal Trainers are getting qualified every single month but the sad fact is that more than 90% of these trainers will fail within 3 years.

The number one reason why Personal Trainers fail is because they simply don’t focus any time or energy on setting up the correct business systems. They also fail to implement effective marketing strategies and don’t have the ability to convert leads into long term clients.

The majority of Personal Trainers seem to think that they will build a thriving business by simply talking to a few friends and family members and hoping for referrals. They spend no time or money on marketing their business and then wonder why they are struggling to make ends meet!

We have been working hard over the past 12 months to create a brand new PT Business Coaching program to educate Personal Trainers on how to build a six and even seven figure business if they own or operate a PT Studio. The 12 month coaching program covers business systems, online marketing, social media, sales, retention, passive income strategies, referrals and much more. We also run LIVE training webinars every 2 weeks and have a private Facebook Group for networking and ongoing support.

We are currently offering a 30 day trial of the PT Business Coaching program for just $7! You will also receive over $2,000 of free bonuses when you join.

Click here to watch the short video for more information on this program. We look forward to working with you to create a successful PT business!

Cheers,

Brad

Welcome to the third and final part of the 3 part series on Apps for Personal Trainers and Gyms – How to grow your business. To recap, in part 1 we covered the important topic of Lead generation and the benefits of having your own mobile app for your business. In part 2 we covered referral marketing as well as retention. In part 3 we bring it all together as we cover how you can marketing your App and business in this new age of marketing. We will also cover some of the awesome additional benefits that an App for personal trainers and Gyms can have, so let’s get into it!

1. New Age Marketing

Effective marketing of your gym or PT business is extremely important. Many businesses use old, outdated methods such as letterbox drops and newspaper ads which are both expensive and hard to track. A mobile app gives your Gym or PT a new age way to market your business effectively and get your business in the pockets of your perfect prospect.

You can market the new app using Facebook posts, YouTube videos, banners in your gym, emails to current members, letter box drops as well as referral marketing which we covered in part 2. Another great strategy and one that is booming at the moment is to market your app is using Facebook ads.

You can create Facebook ads to download your app directly from Facebook. This is a huge benefit for your business because when people click on the ad, the link to download your Gym or PT app will be on their phone, ready to download. What’s the first thing they do when they download your app? They sign up for a free trial. This method of marketing is not only extremely cheap, but also very effective.

With your Facebook Ads you can target your marketing so your Ad only appears for the exact people you want to reach. You can target people by their location, age, gender, likes, interests and a range of other criteria. So rather than wasting a ton of money on things that produce little to no results such as a letterbox drop, you can advertise directly to your target market for cents on the dollar.

Another great strategy is to do some offline marketing in shopping centres or other locations where you speak to the public directly. Rather than hand them a flyer you can get them to quickly and easily download the app and apply for the free pass straight away. You will then have their contact details and can also keep in contact with them with push notifications in the future.

2. Additional Features

A custom mobile app offers many additional features to benefit your members and keep them using the app over and over again. The key is to keep them coming back so they remain connected and also continue referring all of their friends!

Some additional features and benefits include:

• Meet the Trainers – You can upload profiles of your staff members including image, qualifications, interests, training areas, etc. People can view all of the trainers to find one that suits their specific needs. They can then fill in a free consult form to speak to that trainer!
• Image Gallery – People love to get a feel for your gym or PT studio. The image gallery gives you the ability to showcase your services and facility and create a great first impression.
• Blog Feed – Imagine linking up your website blog with the app so people can read the latest news directly from the app! The key is providing consistent, ongoing value to remain connected with your members.
• YouTube Videos – You can also feed your latest YouTube videos directly to the app. Videos can be a great tool to provide tips on nutrition, recipe ideas, meal plans and the latest training programs.
• Contact Details – Members can view all of your contact details at the tap of a button including phone, address, google map, enquiry form as well as all of your social media sites.
• Advanced Features – The best thing with mobile apps is that they can be customised to suit your specific requirements. Private Facebook Groups, PDF Downloads for members, Instagram photo feeds, shopping carts, PayPal integration. The sky is not the limit, the only limit is your imagination!

Conclusion

The health & fitness industry is booming and there is so much opportunity to create an incredibly successful business. The market is also inundated with competitors and the fact is that 90% of business owners will fail within 2 years.

What are you going to do differently to ensure you achieve success?

Effective marketing is all about branding and creating an amazing first impression. Creating a professional presence and being at the forefront of innovation and technology is a key element in being able to attract new members to your business. When people see that you have a mobile app they will automatically assume that you have a quality business. It could be the difference between choosing you or choosing a competitor!

We estimate that 99% of Gyms and Personal Trainers don’t have a mobile app for their business. There is a huge opportunity to get ahead of the pack and start utilising a mobile app to attract leads, referrals and to add value to your current members.

If you want your business to stand out from the crowd and gain an edge on your competitors, submit an enquiry form for more information on the website and we’ll be in touch to help you get your own custom mobile app today.
To Your Success!

The Team at Marketing for Gyms & PT’s

In part 1 of this series we discussed how apps for personal trainers and apps for gyms can help your business generate leads through an offer directly from your app. In part 2 of the series I am going to cover the next 2 critical features your apps for personal trainers and gyms should have, The ability for referral marketing, and the huge benefit of retention.

1. Referral Marketing

As every fitness business knows, referral marketing is one of the best ways to generate new clients. They are usually already qualified, sent to you by someone they know and trust and can usually benefit your club or PT businesses through retention if the friends both train together. Having a ‘Refer a Friend’ tab on your mobile app is one of the best ways you can generate new leads for your business. The key is to create new and ongoing referral incentives each month or 2 so your clients don’t just refer friends once, but on an ongoing basis.

You can run a referral promotion for each friend that is referred to your business, which could be a smaller bonus, or you could do a major prize once a month where you have a vast number of your members referring their friends in order to win a big prize.

The benefit of a custom refer a friend page is the ability for members to share via SMS, social media and email. A link to download the app is then sent with a welcome message (which can be customised) directly to their friends phone or Facebook account or email. Once they download the app you then have your business on peoples’ phone. They can then go ahead and sign up for the free trial as per point 1 above so you can generate qualified leads to your business.

2. Retention

Retention is just as, if not more important than generating new leads. Being able to keep hold of your existing members is the lifeblood of your business and crucial to being successful.

There are a number of benefits that the app has in regards to retention. One of the best ways to help with retention is making it as easy as possible for members to book classes. Members can book classes directly from the app making it easier for them to plan their training.
 
The class booking page can include a counter which can be used if you have a limited number of people per class. As each person books the counter will count down showing how many positions are left. It will also send the member and the Gym or PT an email confirming the class.

Another great benefit of the app is to be able to send free push notifications out to your members to notify them about upcoming events, classes, news and promotions. This gives you the ability to easily notify all members (and people with your app who are sitting on the sidelines) with a push of a button helping keep front of mind to your members, increasing retention and creating a sense of community.