The Marketing Beat Goes On
This month, we’re in the 4th of 6 Marketing Matters articles for the year that will focus on “off beat” marketing ideas for you to try. An “Off-beat” marketing idea refers to non-traditional approaches. An idea that you hear and might say, “That’s different, I’d like to give that a try.” Of course, “off-beat” marketing efforts never replace proven items on your annual marketing plan, but rather they are used as a supplement to drive more traffic through the clubs’ doors and in the process, perhaps find a new, successful strategy to add to your annual marketing plan.
Remember, as it relates to creating a successful marketing plan, there are 5 “Pillars,” together which make your Marketing Parthenon. As a quick review, these 5 Pillars are; external marketing (T.V., radio, direct mail), internal marketing (referrals, missed guest mailers, alumni mailers), guerrilla marketing (lead boxes, flyers, joint marketing), corporate marketing and community outreach. Having a balance mix of all five pillars is key to creating a powerful marketing mix.
Hopefully you were able to try some of the lower cost, summer-oriented marketing ideas that were outlined in the last column and identified some new efforts that can become an integral part of your annual marketing plan. This month, as we move into a busier time of the year, we’ll look at some new guerrilla marketing ideas as well as some more sophisticated internal marketing concepts.
The first offbeat guerrilla marketing idea is another new twist on an old approach. I’m talking about door hangars, which have been around since door-to-door sales were common and acceptable (long before direct mail). Of course, the original concept was to have someone walk through neighborhoods, placing the paper advertisements on doorknobs or in some cases on the flags of street mailboxes (less walking and less likely to get bitten by an unfriendly dog). In its’ day, this was an inexpensive and effective way to gain exposure. Today, although our company still uses door hangers and finds them very effective, many companies don’t use them because they either can’t get their employees to do such work or have difficulty finding a company to do it for them.
Because of these challenges, we began to look for new and creative ways to use door hangers and have found two, very successful new concepts. The first is having local clothing stores place the door hangers on the clothes hangers. This idea seems to be particularly effective at women’s clothing stores and even plus size specialty stores. Not only is this idea very inexpensive, but it also opens the door to future marketing opportunities with the business. For example, our using this concept led to us partnering with a women’s store to do a local fashion show, which not only led to a lot of community exposure but also resulted in joint marketing opportunities with other businesses in the community.
A second successful place for distribution of door hangers is dry cleaners—again by placing the piece right on the coat hanger. What is particularly nice about this venue, compared to a clothing store, is the fact that the clientele, although mixed, is typically from the immediate geographic area and is often professional, with a higher discretionary income. And, of course, there is the benefit of having a high volume of customers year round, with the potential of a lot of the hangers reaching potential prospects.
One key point to remember when putting together any door hanger marketing effort is to have the printer make one change to the final product; tell them NOT to make the cut into the top of the hanger, which allows the paper to be bent when placing on an actual door knob. The reason for this is that the slit often results in the hanger falling off a coat hanger. Instead, have only the hold drilled or die-cut out of the piece. (If you already have the door hangers and they do fall off, hire your kid to place a very small piece of clear tape across the seam.)
Finally, with any guerrilla marketing effort that involves another business, be mindful of ensuring there are mutual benefits from the relationship. Offering a free membership doesn’t always turn out to be the best. Very often these are small, owner operated businesses where the owner puts in a lot of hours and won’t have time to use the club. Instead, find ways to help them grow their business in exchange for helping you grow yours. For example, we arranged it so that during the months that the local dry cleaners was putting hangers on the customers’ clothes, our Center set up a dry cleaning “drop-off” spot where members could drop off their items and we would bring them to the cleaners and have them back at the Center for their pick up. A discount was offered for the first month, allowing the dry cleaner to try and gain new customers directly from our members. This type of win-win situation is imperative for long-term success of any joint marketing promotion.
The next guerrilla marketing promotion, which can also be categorized as a community outreach effort, is the brainchild of industry veteran, Tony DeLeede. The program is called “5 for 5”, which is really an abbreviation that stands for “5 days for 5 dollars,” and is designed to accomplish two things; one, drive prospects through the doors and two, help local organizations raise money. How the program works is “5 for 5” guest cards are printed with the appropriate organizations name on them. (We had our printed in full color and left a place for the organization to use an Avery label to customize.) If possible, the passes should also be numbered for quality control. The organization then sells the guest passes for $5 and has the purchaser fill out the information card, which is perforated for detachment. The organization then returns the information on the purchaser to the club and gets to keep the all the money.
I love this promotion for a number of reasons. First, having a 5 for 5 program (or anything else like it), allows you to nicely avoid buying ineffective ads or sponsorships with the dozens of local organizations that come and ask for money. Instead, you are able to say to them, “We don’t do that but we do give you the opportunity to earn an unlimited amount of money at no cost to your organization!” Second, while helping community organizations you are able to get free marketing that has the potential to drive new prospects through the club doors. Finally, by collecting the information about the purchaser, you have the ability to be pro-actively building a database. Certainly many of these individuals will have bought the pass simply to support the organization, but having the contact information (especially the e-mail) allows you to send out one or more inexpensive letters or e-mails to qualify hot prospects and weed out the dead leads.
Although I prefer the 5 for 5 concept because it pro-actively obtains prospect names and contact information, some organizations just don’t want to be responsible for the passes, nor do they want to sell on behalf of one for profit organization. In an effort to make it as easy as possible for any organization, big, small, young or old, to tap into this type of fund raising effort, our Australian Distributor, Jamie Hayes, created a second option. Instead of selling the passes, the organization simply distributes the passes all over town and receives $5 for every pass that is returned to the club for a tour.
Some club operator’s balk at the thought of paying someone $5 for a tour, but the reality of the situation is that a club’s average lead acquisition cost is much higher than that, making this a low cost lead. Remember, the $5 is only given for a complete tour and presentation. You can also spice up this promotion by having an inter-scholastic competition, giving the school that has the most guest passes returned a prize of $500. Certainly this type of twist takes more organizational skills to keep the competition interesting and growing, and you need to set a minimum number of returns in order to receive the prize, but taking the time and effort should pay off in the increased number of guest passes hitting your community and the possible PR that could come out of the competition.
The final “off-beat” promotion to discuss is an internal marketing idea. In fact, like many of the ideas we’ve discussed in this column, it is actually another twist on a very successful promotion that was covered in a previous year’s Marketing Matters. Some of you readers may remember the Birthday Card promotion. (Please see the Month, Year issue of Club Industry.) This is where the names and addresses of people whose birthday it is that month are obtained and a card is sent to them. Inside the card is inserted a trial membership to the club, usually for 30 days (this has gotten the greatest level of response). To increase response rate our Centers have also given the recipient a free mini-facial. Of course, a club that does not offer aesthetic treatments could add something else, like a mini personal training session.
The twist came from a women’s only facility that actually offered to each birthday card recipient a gift box, that was filled with a variety of goodies; a t-shirt, water bottle, sweat towel and diet booklet. The direct mail piece that was sent actually had a picture of the gift-wrapped box and the side panel had a photo that showed all the enclosed goodies. This addition of the photograph of goodies dramatically increased the response rate to the mailing probably because women love to get free stuff. (Although that may sound sexist, it is not meant to be but merely an observation.) When they arrived at the facility, a gift box was nicely wrapped for the birthday guest and was handed to them at check in, which increased rapport and comfort level because the guest stopped being suspicious about a potential “bait and switch” promotion. Although the cost of each tour increased by almost $7, the added number of responses and ultimate sales was worth the investment. Further, the potential for future sales of missed guests was higher because since the gifts were fitness oriented, almost all the people who responded had some level of interest in fitness. Therefore, with a good missed guest sales strategy, this promotion can create two waves of sales; the immediate sales from the tours and the future sales from follow up.
Whether it is using door hangers at clothing stores or Laundromats, creating some sort of 5 for 5 guest pass program or taking the time to run a more elaborate birthday card promotion these are three “off-beat” marketing ideas that you don’t see being used very often in the club business. Breaking out of the same-ole, same-ole and finding new and creative ways to attract prospects at low costs is the only way many smaller, owner-operated fitness centers will survive in today’s ever-increasing competitive market. Sure, it may take some time and energy to plan and execute some of the many ideas we have discussed over the past 8 months, but doing so will only lead to more prospects and a greater level of success.