By Daniel Waide
When we talk about virtual group exercise, we tend to focus on the benefits linked to the classes themselves – enhanced choice for members, boosted satisfaction and retention levels, maximised yields of otherwise quiet off-peak studios, an uplift in live class participation off the back of virtual ‘feeder’ classes.
If we branch into the broader area of digital fitness – apps and so on – again the focus tends to be on the more tangible benefits: the scope it offers health club operators to connect with members any time, anywhere, for example.
But there’s another significant – and often overlooked – benefit here, and that’s the new revenue generation opportunities these digital channels present.
Let’s start with the Wexer virtual fitness system in your studio, and two distinct ways in which you can use the big screen to drive revenue. Whether the screen stays down between classes, allowing for a permanent, dynamic advertising display, or whether it comes down in preparation for each class – allowing for ads to be run before and after each class, to a captive audience – there are clear opportunities to generate revenue from selling the ad space to local and even national advertisers.
Encourage those advertisers to create relevant ads for the target market – not just in your club, but in that specific class – and the audience is likely to become not just captive but attentive, generating a positive result for your advertisers and with it inspiring repeat custom for your fledgling adsales business.
The second option is similar but with an internal focus: the chance to advertise your club’s own products and services around relevant classes. It’s easy to imagine how sales of yoga apparel might see an uplift if advertised to members attending a yoga class, for example, or how post-workout protein shakes might fly off the café shelves if promoted at the end of a tough HIIT class.
And this is just the beginning. Harness the full data-capturing potential of apps and you’re tapped straight into a rich vein of personalised, targeting marketing.
Imagine a scenario when a member walks into your club and, thanks to all the data you’ve gathered through your white-labelled Wexer Mobile app, you know all about them: what they like doing, what associated needs they might have, what they’ve purchased in the past. This can then be mapped against the products you have for sale that might meet their needs today.
Throw in a few beacons and all this can translate into personalised recommendations popping up on their phone. These highly targeted ads both add value to the member by being helpful, not pushy – pointing them towards a special offer on their favourite juice, for example, a re-introductory package for personal training to get them ready for their forthcoming holiday (which you know about), or money off new boxing gloves for the combat class they’ve booked – and drive valuable secondary revenue for the club.
Put simply, digital fitness doesn’t only add value through its fitness content; there’s huge value to be found in the spaces between the fitness.
For more information about making the most of your virtual fitness studio please get in touch here