Access FIT

New iPOS Advertising System Release Date

We have had to revise the release date of our iPOS Advertising System due to some scheduling difficulties. The revised date will be late April, with confirmation of a firm date a couple of weeks prior.

We plan to have a substantial preview available for free within the next two weeks. Keep checking back it will be worth the wait… thanks for your patience.

Advertising/Marketing e-book

I recently read a pretty good e-book, How to Market Your Health Club: the essential owner’s guide, by Sherry Robb from Market My Club. The book normally retail for $39 but you can get it for free from The Fitness Industry Group website if you complete a short survey… well worth the time in my opinion.

The book is pretty heavy on tactics and a bit light on strategy, as is much of what our industry does, but it is still one of the most comprehensive industry specific advertising/marketing publications I have come across… enjoy, and many thanks to Sherry Robb for generously making the book available.

Advertising and marketing are treated separately from other business functions (e.g. sales, customer service, member retention).

In The Evolution of a Health Club Member: Survival of the Fittest Is NOT a Retention Strategy I make the point that beginner, intermediate, and advanced health club members are so different that they require their own stage-specific acquisition and retention strategies.

Unfortunately, while some businesses do target their advertising and marketing to specific customer segments (e.g. Baby Boomers, families, women) very few follow through once that lead presents at the club.

Typically, once the advertising/marketing generates the lead they are all treated exactly the same once they walk into the club. The prevailing mindset of owners and managers is that the advertising/marketing gets them “through the door” and then their sales system converts those lead into members… or at least attempts to.

Of course, the lead has specific expectations (based on the specific advertising/marketing piece that they have responded to) that must be met, or exceeded, before a sale will occur. However, most health clubs will treat all leads the same and simply plug them into their “one-size-fits-all” sales process.

The problem is that once you have set high expectations with your advertising/marketing piece you fail to deliver by treating all leads the same once they present at your club… the lead quickly realizes that you are just “another” health club.

You have over-promised and under-delivered.

Beginner, intermediate, and advanced health club members will respond to different advertising/marketing, they will require different offers, they will present at the club with very different needs, expectations, and values, and they will purchase based on very different criteria.

You need beginner, intermediate, and advanced advertising/marketing that plugs in to beginner, intermediate, and advanced sales processes, that leads in to beginner, intermediate, and advanced customer service, retention, long-term loyalty…

When it comes to beginner, intermediate, and advanced health club members every process has to be stage-specific from beginning (lead generation) to end (long-term loyalty)… one size no longer fits all.

Lead Boxes are becoming less effective and less utilized (Part 3)

One final quick post on lead boxes to wrap up…

While a few people are still endorsing lead boxes, most aren’t. In fact those who are, generally, are consultants who are either selling lead box “secrets” and/or lead box hardware. I am not saying that they don’t genuinely believe in them… I am just saying consider the source.

I do know that most of the top-tier consultants (the Thomas Plummer’s and Michael Scott Scudder’s) aren’t recommending them to their clients. And many other consultants are cautioning their clients about the declining effectiveness of lead boxes.

During my research most people, owners and managers and consultants, either didn’t have a lot of data on the performance of their lead boxes or they didn’t want to share it with me (which is usually an indication that they are underperforming).

For example, no one knew if lead box leads ultimately became long-term members or only stayed a short time, or what kind of leads they attracted (the quality of the leads is just as important as the quantity… often more important). In fact, most were a bit sketchy on their presentation rates and conversion rates.

There is no doubt that, for a variety of reasons, lead boxes are in serious decline in both popularity and effectiveness. In fact, many have already abandoned them completely.

However, lead boxes aren’t an entirely bad proposition… they are low cost, they get you brand out into the local community, and you can target your prospects more effectively than with mass media.

iPOS reinvents the lead box concept to leverage the upside of lead boxes and, all but, eliminates the downside… stay tuned.

Lead Boxes are becoming less effective and less utilized (Part 2)

I’ve received a few e-mails from owners and managers who have recently invested in lead boxes and have expressed their concern that they may have wasted their money based on my last post.

So if you already have lead boxes what should you do? What is the secret to getting the most out of them?

Well, the secret to lead boxes is a bit like the secret to weight loss… most people already know what has to be done but they just don’t want to do it. There are no secrets you just have to do the right things… all day, every day.

Popular Australian fitness industry consultant Amanda Bracks is a big believer in lead boxes so if you have them and want to get the most out of them she basically sums up everything you need to know in the following two videos…

Just to follow up on a couple of points that Amanda makes…

First, she makes the point, very early on, that she doesn’t know one club running lead boxes well. Of course the reason for that is with lead boxes you have to work them hard to get results. They are definitely not a set and forget proposition.

Second, she stresses the critical importance of relationship building to successfully running lead boxes. Lead boxes work best when the store is invested in your success and they will only invest in your success if you are invested in theirs.

Finally, she acknowledges that leads are increasingly difficult to come by and so it is essential that you manage those you do get effectively through the sales process.

Let me say that, although I am not a big fan of lead boxes, in my view Amanda’s advice is 100% correct. If you are going to use them work them… and work them hard.

Now Amanda is an, obviously enthusiastic, advocate for lead boxes, however, she demonstrates in her videos the difficulty most owners and managers have to deal with when it comes to lead boxes… no one runs lead boxes well (i.e. no one has the time, patience, energy, commitment to work them hard enough to get a reasonable result)… relationships with stores need to be developed and maintained over time (i.e. it’s an asymmetrical relationship meaning that you need them more than they need you)… when you do get leads treat them like gold because they are getting harder and harder to get (i.e. have a process to integrate them into the club effectively).

The natural tendency is blame your staff for not being effective, or efficient, enough and so it becomes necessary to monitor and performance review them… it becomes a never-ending and, often, losing battle that takes up your time and de-motivates and demoralizes your staff.

The fact that so few owners and managers get lead boxes “right” suggests to me that the problem is not with staff but with the lead box concept itself… which is why we have reinvented it.

For those of you with lead boxes out there keep them in place because it will make it a lot easier for you to transition into the iPOS Advertising System when it become available in a few weeks… stay tuned.

Lead Boxes are becoming less effective and less utilized (Part 1)

In the 70’s and 80’s Lead boxes were the “go-to” strategy for many in the health, fitness, and wellness industry. Even in the 90’s many operators were still enjoying a reasonable level of success with lead boxes. However, today relatively few are using lead boxes and few of those are having a whole lot of success with them.

There are a number of reasons for the decline in lead boxes.

First, today people are increasingly reluctant to provide their personal details to some random person, or business, especially given the amount of spam, unsolicited phone calls, and junk mail they have to contend with. Not to mention the identity theft issues.

Second, people are increasingly suspicious of “FREE” offers. Don’t get me wrong everyone still loves free stuff but today they fully understand the value that they are exchanging by giving their details.

Third, “FREE” offers cast a wide net… meaning that a lot of people who will enter a competition for something free will never actually pay their hard earned money for it. Therefore, lead boxes are full of leads who will never become members.

Forth, lead boxes take a lot of work to be effective. And as lead boxes became less and less effective the incentive for owners and managers to maintain them diminished as well creating a vicious cycle that quickly becomes an all-or-nothing proposition… work them 100% right, 100% of the time, or forget about them all together.

Finally, lead box offers have, over time, failed to resonate with increasingly sophisticated potential new members. When they are informed that they didn’t win but are offered a “consolation” prize (e.g. a two week free membership) most people today recognize the “bait and switch”. And even if they do show up for their consolation prize it is usually insufficient to convert the majority of leads into paying members.

There is no doubt that lead boxes are nowhere near as effective as they once were… in fact many owners and managers have given up on them completely. Years of overuse and abuse combined with more sophisticated consumers has seen the decline of the lead box from a popular and effective lead generation tactic into virtual obscurity.

Social media and other online strategies are on the rise (Part 2)

A big part of the attraction of social media is the low cost. However, there is a hidden cost to social media. There is also a real cost that most owners and managers don’t consider… the time necessary to implement and maintain their social media strategy.

It’s not a set and forget proposition and it’s definitely not a panacea for all of your advertising and marketing problems.

If you want to find out a little more on what’s happening in this space, Ray Algar has authored a report, European Health Club Industry Web and Social Media Report, which provides an interesting insight into the existing state of play in the UK and Europe. It is available thought his Blog here.

Social media and other online strategies are on the rise (Part 1)

There is little doubt that online, and in particular, social media strategies are receiving increasing attention and investment within the health, fitness, and wellness industry.

What exactly is the attraction of social media?

To put it bluntly the primary attraction of social media for owners and managers is the potential for unlimited, virtually free, new leads.

Open a Facebook account, a Twitter account, and a YouTube account… put up a video of your club, some photos and descriptions on Facebook, and send out some interesting quips on Twitter and watch those new leads beat a path to your door.

Of course, this isn’t the reality.

In fact, we have already witnessed the “unlimited potential” of websites, e-zines, and e-mail as lead generation tactics. And yet today there are very few decent health, fitness, and wellness websites, e-zines are a dime a dozen, and your best e-mail blasts are likely to be ignored or, even worse, considered spam by many of your recipients.

Unfortunately, in our never-ending quest for the next “big thing” we have already forgotten the lessons learned from the last “big thing”.

Social media works by providing the means to connect people who want to connect with each other… it’s all about them. However, when we approach it as a lead generation tactic or an additional sales channel social media all but loses its power… it’s all about you.

Social media is not a quick fix for your problems. For social media to be successful you have to find a way to make it a solution for your members, and prospective members, problems.

I am sure that the interest in social media will continue to increase but the results are likely to be disappointing as long as owners and managers focus on the “media” component and ignore the “social” aspect of social media.

Competition, especially from the low-pricers, is creating additional pressure on advertising and marketing

Increasing competition not only means more advertising and marketing “noise” to contend with but, especially given the emergence of the low-pricers, it also means we need to rethink our entire approach.

The problem is that the “go-to” strategy for health, fitness, and wellness marketing has been (and continues to be) the price promotion… more specifically the deep discount.

However, increasing competition means downward pressure on pricing. And the emergence of the low-pricers means not only dealing with competitor’s intermittent price promotions but dealing with the low-pricers “everyday” low prices.

The effect has been that our once compelling “Join Now and We’ll Waive our usual $99 Joining Fee” is met with indifference in the face of $19.95/month, no joining fee, and no monthly contract.

Of course, this means lower response rates to our usual advertising messages. Therefore, today we need two things to remain competitive.

The first is a more cost effective way of getting our message in front of our prospective members. As traditional marketing effectiveness declines the cost quickly becomes prohibitive. For example, a $1000 newspaper ad that attracts 50 new members results in an acquisition cost of $20 per new member. However, when the same ad attracts only 10 new members the acquisition cost rises to $100 (and that doesn’t include the inducement in the ad itself).

The second is a compelling marketing offer that doesn’t rely exclusively on pricing. There is no doubt that consumer love price discounts. However, unless you are willing to adopt the low-pricers business model in its entirety you will never be able to compete on price alone.

The challenge is to combine a cost effective way to get your message in front of your best prospective members with a compelling offer that doesn’t rely exclusively on price…

…this is precisely what we’ve done with the iPOS Advertising System.

We have accepted the challenge on your behalf and we believe that we have created what will be the number one advertising system for health clubs, personal trainers, and training clubs.

Traditional marketing spend continues to produce diminishing returns.

John Wanamaker, widely considered the father of the department store, famously said, “I know that half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half.” And, in the 19th century, Mr Wanamaker didn’t have to contend with the plethora of advertising tactics available to today’s intrepid marketers.

It is almost universally agreed that traditional marketing (lead boxes, flyers, postcards, radio, newspaper, magazines, TV) is producing diminishing returns… less enquiries… less walk-ins… less sales. One prominent industry consultant advises that direct marketing response rates today are as low as one quarter of one percent (0.0025%). That means that for every thousand direct mail pieces that you send out you should expect 2-3 new member signings. That’s a lot of dead trees for so few members. Incidentally, the Direct Marketing Association puts the average direct mail response rate at a little over two percent.

Newspaper ads can cost hundreds, even thousands, of dollars for a single run so unless you get a home run your member acquisition costs are prohibitively high.

Lead boxes are more cost effective to implement but they are labour intensive and their returns continue to spiral downwards (more on lead boxes in an upcoming post).

There are a number of reasons for the declining performance of traditional marketing.

First, the market is saturated with advertising… not just from our industry but from every industry (less attention to go around).

Second, there is increased competition within our industry (less leads to go around).

Third, everyone is doing more or less the same thing so it all tends to blend in together.

Finally, the decline of traditional marketing means more interest in alternative marketing methods… most notably online marketing (more on that in an upcoming post). This shift means less investment in traditional marketing and that obviously means less returns.

For those of you struggling with traditional marketing ROI you have to check out iPOS when it is released, it’s unique, easy to implement, and more cost effective than Lead Boxes.

Look for the preview chapter to be released soon.