Sweat Equity: Identifying Your Target Market

So far, 2020 has kept us on the edge of our seats – epidemics, man-made disasters, stock market woes, and polarizing elections. And, if running a business isn’t demanding enough, as fitness professionals, we often bear the concerns of our clients, staff, and communities. While keeping one eye on local and national happenings, laser-focus your other eye on your business. Allow uncertainty to give way to the creativity of an entrepreneurial spirit. It’s often in the face of unknowns that we imagine with more profundity and execute with more precision.

New This Week: Identifying your target market… Tackling the Coronavirus… Branded app benefits… Member retention metrics… Interview with the director of The Florida Institute of Performance, David Donatucci

Still with us? Great. Let’s get started.

If you’re ready to grow and manage your business better, book a demo with our team today.

Identifying Your Target Market

Attract your target audience with these simple steps

How Do I Identify My Client Population?

In our previous two issues, we discussed business strategy and social media for business growth; this week we’ll break down how to identify your fitness business’s target market and competition. Identifying your target market helps you understand who is most likely to purchase your fitness service or product.

In order to better understand who your industry competitors are, you must begin by honing in on your business’s market; what types of clients are you targeting and in which niche of the fitness industry do your services fall?

We looked to Origym’s personal trainer business plan to help answer these questions:

The fitness industry is deep and wide, with new trends and technology emerging daily. So where does your business fit? And where are your potential clients situated? The best way to begin unpacking an answer is to imagine your ideal client. What are this person’s demographics, needs, and goals? The examples above can help you jump-start defining your ideal client.

“When isolating a niche, that does not mean that you have to exclusively work within that parameter. It just shows that you are identifying a possible opportunity within the market that you are going to try and exploit and resonate with.”

How Do I Identify My Competition?

This question can feel equally as incalculable as the former. Performing a SWOT analysis for both your business and your closest competitors can help you gain meaningful insight into your market’s situation. What are the strengths of services and providers within your niche and what are their weaknesses (or deficiencies)? Check-out your competitors’ website and social media pages. What are they promoting? And don’t forget customer reviews–easy access to insight about what your competitors are getting right, and, what they’re not.

Related: HBRS’s Are Your Company’s Strengths Really Weaknesses?

“When writing your personal trainer business plan you need to consider the alternatives to your service and how those alternatives influence your target market’s buying decisions.”

The Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business Statistics is an interesting read of on-the-rise entrepreneurs.

The Personal Trainer’s Guide to the Coronavirus

Stay diligent, wash your hands, and utilize online coaching

Don’t Panic, but Be Punctual

Gyms and fitness centers are known for battling infectious diseases such as MRSA, Norovirus, Hepatitis A, and Athlete’s Foot, but have you considered preemptive measures against new types of infections? The Coronavirus (COVID-19) is successfully making its way around the globe and is now making news across the US. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), here’s what you need to know to reduce the chance of infection for yourself and your clients.

Chances are you’re feeling a little anxious about the possible threat the Coronavirus poses for your fitness business. Might you experience a noticeable decrease in revenue if clients and prospects stay home?

Fret not! Instead, take advantage of this opportunity to establish (or beef-up) your business’s online personal training services. Then, if you encounter a period when your clients chose to work out at home, you’ll be ready to transition their training programs. Who knows? You might even find yourself tapping into a new market.

For more information on how you can prepare your gym for COVID-19, check out our article, Gyms and Coronavirus (Safety, Tips, & Risks).

Then, demo Exercise.com’s fitness business management software to see how we can help you train your clients from the comfort of their own homes. Click here to learn more!

Online Training Programs

What are the critical elements of an online training program?

Training Types

In February we took a look at the surge in people participating in online personal training, with the two top factors being convenience and cost. So what are the elements of a stellar online training program? First, it’s important to determine what types of clients you want to train—what is your niche? 

Here are four training types to consider when creating your online training program:

• Private Personalized Online Training
• Hybrid Online and In-Person Personal Training
• Live Video Chat Workouts Online
• Online Group Personal Training

Generate income by offering online group training subscriptions. Put recurring revenue on autopilot! Set up a member’s workout journey, and let our software take it from there by automatically releasing training plans, files, videos, and more. #exercisecom pic.twitter.com/36mVC8njgZ

— Exercise.com (@exercise) February 28, 2020

Program Styling

• Templates: workout templates per client type with 3-4 phases (5 workouts/wk; repeat each phase for one month)
• Instruction: include written and video instructions (sets, reps, weight, rest)
• Delivery: online service (Zapier) to automate delivery

Once again, automation is the key to efficiency and dependability. In our last newsletter, we shared some tips regarding business automation. If you’re using a custom branded app to run your fitness business, then you’re probably already experiencing the advantage of automated solutions.

The PTDC also offers some great tips for building an online training program in their article How to Get Started as an Online Personal Trainer. And, don’t forget, Exercise.com’s software provides trainers with the ability to create their own workout programs that can be sent to anyone in the world. Request a demo now by filling out the form below!

Member Retention

Corporate vs. single memberships

Do Employer-Sponsored Gym Memberships Work?

Medium conducted a study assessing corporate memberships in the gym/health slub sector, and the findings were rather interesting. Although corporate memberships only make up about 2% of total memberships, employees participating in a corporate membership had a 15%-higher monthly usage than their non-corporate counterparts.

With that said, how many employees are actually receiving (and utilizing) employer-sponsored gym membership benefits? The number is shockingly low. Medium’s study determined that 8% of the workforce has taken advantage of corporate memberships, with a little less than half of that population actually using their membership:

4 Key Takeaways

1. Go ahead! Build corporate memberships with businesses in your community
2. Follow-up with inactive corporate membership participants; offer incentives for corporate membership participants to bring fellow co-workers
3. Showcase (market!) your club and services to your corporate partner businesses; make sure potential corporate members are in-the-know with an open house or PR event just for them
4. Welcome new hires as a part of the corporate partner’s new employee onboarding

13 CORPORATE FITNESS PROGRAMS THAT LEAD THE PACK gives great insight into which fitness and wellness businesses are leading the way in corporate membership engagement.

And this article details what factors companies are considering before choosing a corporate fitness partner.