Blog 19: Health Club Marketing for the New Year

As I traveled to thousands of health clubs throughout the world I met a lot of great industry people. I love talking to them and listening to some of their stories about their lives literally growing up in the health club industry. I heard a story about a father who bought an abandoned building and turned them into a beautiful health club and how they still run things the way they did ten, fifteen, and even, twenty years ago. I’ve heard success stories of how kids started out as trainers and worked hard all of their lives and eventually were able to buy their own health clubs. Stories of health club membership directors who worked in health clubs in college and said they too would own their own health club and saw their dreams come true. Soon, I started putting two and two together and came up with a revelation of sorts.

All of these people were very knowledgeable about the operations of a health club. They were proud to tell me that they know their industry and how it should be run because they worked for so and so health club or for such and such management company. I applaud these people for learning so much from their experience and mentors; but when it comes to health club marketing you must have fresh new ideas because whether you like it or not, the prospective members’ psychographics change every few years and drastically change every decade and completely change every generation.

The challenge with this antiquated system is how long, and for how many decades, can you continue to run your health club the same way without getting the desired result before you realize you must make some changes and adjustments to the way you do (and perceive) things? I love tradition and I love most things old school too, but when it comes to health club marketing you can’t do the same things you have always done and continue to get the same results. Times have changed; health club members have way too many health clubs to choose from and it is the prospective member who is in control now. We have to face this fact. A health club member can find a health club in his/her community for just about any price point they desire. And with technology the way it is today it doesn’t take them long to jump on their computer to find a “deal”. If you are not working on this reality right now and preparing your health club’s marketing strategy, you will be history.

Give your health club marketing a fighting chance by bringing it up-to-date and you won’t have to give your health club memberships away to increase your health club membership base in 2014.

Be innovative with your health club marketing campaigns and you will grow your health club and your health and fitness career.

For more free tips on increasing your health club membership base through health club marketing, health club promotions, professional health club membership sales, and advancing your health and fitness career visit us today @ www.healthclubmarketingmmc.com or call 904-448-5727.