The Physical Movement, Business: Why Fitness Marketing is Changing During COVID-19 and 11 Steps to Improve It.
While the world is slowly showing signs of coming back to life, some changes will remain permanent from the shutdown. One of the changes is how fitness organizations market to their audience.
We will see very different restaurant, concert and sporting events, conventions, air travel, shopping experiences for example.
Organizations that offer the use of their fitness facilities and services have always tapped into one of the most important components of human health, building up our physical selves.
They are and we are in the health promotion business.
There has never been a bigger need, but also never been more supply than we currently have.
If we observe the landscape of fitness marketing, we can see that leading organizations have attempted to connect their services to a better quality of life. This has been very smart, not only because it connects the services to the most important thing, but also gets away from only focusing only on price.
Regardless of the organizations positioning around price, it is a losing battle to only focus on that. Low budget gyms are becoming a competitive part of the market. This is the way it works. Low prices lead until someone else offers same low prices. Then it comes back to what is offered for those prices. The interesting aspect to this as that people are prepared to pay much more than the minimum monthly for good fitness and health instruction.
COVID-19 has left many fitness organizations to reconsider their positioning online and how they are leveraging technology.
As a vendor, we are re-evaluating everything we do in delivering our products and services to our current and potential customers. Not only evaluating our products and services but how they are delivered.
Equipment vendors have dabbled in growing the services and education around their equipment in the last few years, but this time is forcing us to re-consider the priority we put on offering educational services to go with our products.
For example, Matrix Fitness has offered the Home Workout App and youth training programs as part of their total solutions support package. Many other premium vendors are doing something similar. This is a good thing and part 1 of re-evaluating our marketing. Focusing on solutions for our customer needs.
The world “pivot” is being used a lot during this time, and accurately reflects the mindset of evolving businesses. We need to adapt. We need to evolve. Some degrees of pivot are required in order to accomplish same.
With gradual re-opening of facilities over the next few weeks and months, what changes need to be made to our marketing and adopted permanently to grow our businesses?
1. Define marketing within the organization.
If you asked 10 people what marketing meant to them, you will probably get multiple variations on the answer around promoting products and services. What does marketing mean to your organization and your mission? Once you agree on this with your senior management, this should be communicated to your team. This needs to be clear. I have always been preferential to the Dan Kennedy definition of using the right message to the right market via the right media.
2. Have a clear message.
What is at the core of your organization’s existence, what do you stand for?
Before we can deliver this message, we must be clear on what it is.
At Johnson Health Tech/Matrix Fitness, we want to be the best at contributing to human health.
Simple. Powerful. Governs all that we do.
3. Prioritize how marketing fits into offering your services.
Many smaller organizations rely on word of mouth or post on social media to promote their services. Social media traffic around fitness services is very busy. A reminder that social media is only 1 channel or method of communication. There are many others to explore. What COVID-19 and pivoting has forced us to do is not waste time in adopting best practices. Fortunately, there are many experts available to offer best practices. We do not have time to figure it out, we must adopt what works.
4. Do not devalue your services.
This comes back to the price game. The more we commoditize what we do, the less value our target market puts to our services. What does your organization do that is better than most and would be of high value to your target market(s)? That needs to be part of your marketing message.
5. Always build the trusting bridge to your audience.
Organizations that offer fitness services have the integrated business model of dealing with repeat customers. Repeat customers are your loyal audience. They come from your target market. Building that trusting bridge in your outreach is critical. Messaging around the precautions taken in facilities to ensure a safe environment is a big priority right now of course.
One of the simple and most neglected ways to do that is via email. More powerful than social media because of your connection with your audience. This is the perfect media channel to get your message out and build that trust. Email is not new. It is surprising how effective valuable content delivered via email to the right target audience can be. Delivering your message to thousands of subscribers at the click of a button is powerful. It is worth the investment.
I am fascinated by how many organizations to do not use this better.
6. Customer service is a form of marketing.
So many organizations focus only on new customer acquisition. But how your team reacts to customer service is also a big form of marketing. This feeds the word of mouth and your reputation. This feeds social proof that your organization cares about its clients.
We saw a lot of negative backlash with fitness organizations continuing to charge while facilities closed. This is customer service and impacts your trust within the marketplace.
7. Deliver valuable content.
This comes back to customer needs. Customer problems to solve. What are the major pain points that our customers and target audience have?
Hint: it is not the process of going to the gym. It goes beyond that. It could be that it is what going to the gym represents. Self-improvement, investing in self etc. There are underlying pain points that our customers have.
As a vendor, the pain point is not to buy a new piece of equipment, but the problem it solves. Our content needs to address that problem.
8. Differentiate your organization.
Much of the above works to differentiate your organization. In the community where I live in Southern Ontario, near Toronto, there are approx. 25 options for myself and family to work out.
That is not including the outdoor opportunities that are coming with the nice weather. What is it about your organization’s services that that are different from the other options available to your target market?
9. Be clear on your target market(s).
If you think your target market is everyone, then it is no one.
We can cater to more than one target market, but it is critical to identify them.
A person at 55 years old who has not exercised regularly in 25 years is a very different target customer than someone home from university for the summer.
Your message needs to top to those targets and their pain points.
10. Leverage & diversify services.
COVID-19 has pushed all organizations who rely exclusively on physical visits to generate revenue to think of diversification.
Many have scrambled to offer workouts online.
This brings up lots of challenges to handle.
Content creation. Who is creating the content, your onscreen talent and their skills.
Content delivery. Something that is clear and respectful to your delivery. Smaller organizations have a little easier time with scale here, but it is a challenge nonetheless.
Many have started to use the web to diversify for years. We have a great opportunity but this is something that requires some investment of time and resources on how this will amplify your core values.
11. Use a variety of media.
This comes back to social media vs email marketing or the integration of the other media channels. The media channels you select have to reflect where your target market is located. Many organizations have developed SMS texting as a channel of communication. The banks use SMS for fraud alerts. Recently I purchased some soil and fertilizer for our lawn at home. They used Email, phone and SMS to keep me posted on status of delivery. This is a form of marketing and customer service. Webinars and online learning modules could target local companies motivated at providing wellness for their employees. This is one of many options.
We work in the greatest industry there is. One that focuses on the promotion of human health. We work with people to improve their energy and their immune systems. COVID-19 is challenging us to adapt and adjust.
Re-evaluating how we connect to our audience is the marketing challenge in front of us. Fortunately, we have never had more tools and expertise form which to draw.
This is the essence of business. Evolving and adapting.