Gyms and fitness centers everywhere are packed to the brim with people ready to turn over a new leaf and get healthy – for a few more weeks.
Studies show that 80% of resolutions fail by February.
Your fitness business needs a resolution too: to grow your business with this influx of customers. Only you have to keep your resolution, and keep these customers coming in the door after the rest of the world gives up. You can do this through email marketing automation.
Help your new customers succeed to keep them coming back to your business. That way these resolution customers, and your business, both grow stronger together.
Learn about email marketing trends to help your business succeed. Check out our webinar: 3 Email Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2019.
Start small and build up your stamina
Just like training for a marathon, you have to start with the first mile. Start creating an automation series with a welcome email. Set your welcome email to automatically send each time a customer joins your list. The email can congratulate customers for getting healthy, and thank them for choosing your fitness business. Then, help them come back with a small set of goals for themselves.
Often times the biggest hurdle to keeping on track is just showing up. After the welcome email, the second email should get customers back in the door. Offer a discounted class, or free protein shake bottle, to be redeemed in person the next time they show up. If they get the free gift when they sign up, there’s no incentive for coming back.
Track progress with short and long term goals
Are customers opening your emails? Are they coming back to workout and redeem their incentive for staying on track? Those are your first goals. Your long term goal is to educate customers and give them the tools they need to succeed with their own goals. Educational or inspirational content in your email series can keep them opening, and keep them coming back to your business.
In the next email of the series, showcase a customer that’s succeeding with their goals, and ask others about their progress. Starting a conversation with your customers is the best way to keep them engaged. It shows that you’re not only paying attention to them, but that you genuinely care about their health and their happiness. You could even create a poll about customer progress, and share it in another email, so customers can see how they stack up.
Reward all of that hard work (but not with junk)
“I worked out today, I deserve this second helping of ice cream.” We all do it, even though we know it’s wrong. After you send your customers valuable emails, don’t end the series with a hard sell to renew their subscription for the next month. This might turn them off and cause them to look elsewhere. Instead, stay focused on helping customers reach their goals.
At the end of the email automation series, remind customers why they started in the first place. Remind them that all it takes is to keep showing up, and be better than the average. Offer them the chance to be part of something bigger, like a community fitness race, or special club for people succeeding in their goals. The extra accountability of telling another person their goals can help push them past that first month.
Why use a series of automated emails?
You’re busy running your business, just like customers are busy with their everyday lives. This is often the reason New Year’s resolutions are dropped, because of lack of time. If your resolution is to keep emailing customers to help them stick to their own goals, you need to make it easy for yourself. An automation series lets you set up a few emails, and then set it to run by itself while you focus on other things.
Like having a personal trainer, Constant Contact’s automation tool can be set up once, and then can run automatically until you tell it otherwise. You can even use click segmentation based on customer actions, so that more engaged customers can be rewarded with surprise discounts on classes, or fitness apparel, to keep them coming through the door. This helps your marketing run by itself, instead of waiting for you to create a new email each time you want to connect with your customers.
Help customers stick to their goals and to your business
Customers trying to get healthy in the New Year need a partner that can help them stay motivated. Your fitness business can become that partner. Once your new customers break through the barrier of a single month, they’ll be better than the average and their confidence will soar. If you can keep your customers confident and healthy, they’re more likely to stay your customer for the rest of the year.
Learn about email marketing trends to help you set your New Year’s resolutions. Check out our webinar: 3 Email Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2019.
