Using News to Generate Club Sales

By Casey Conrad

The targeted direct mail piece you recently did generated a palsy 4 new members in the community you have been serving for the last 15 years and cost you upwards of $3,000.  The ¼ page newspaper ad you ran with the $20.08 enrollment fee generated some phone calls but certainly nothing to brag about.  Meanwhile, a no-name kid from a high school in VA gets on the national Today show by posting a voice mail on U-Tube.  The boy had called his principals’ house wondering why there wasn’t a snow day and received a nasty, return message from the principals’ wife chastising him for calling.

How, you ask, are these examples related to the other and what do they have to do with generating more membership sales at your club?  Simple, in today’s fast paced world and over-crowded, over-saturated marketing landscape it is the timely, newsworthy and often the entertaining or downright bizarre news pieces that get picked up by the media and seen by the consumer.  The question operators should be asking is, “How can clubs tap into this modern phenomenon of media exposure?  Simple: by following a three-step strategy.

Step 1: Identify the News that can be Used to Your Advantage

This means watching the national news, reading magazines like Newsweek and Time, having your Internet browser page be a national newswire like CNN and, most importantly subscribing to every industry news e-zine newsletter you can, like Club Industry’s Fitness Industry Pro.  Be on the lookout for recent health and fitness studies or interesting news related stories.

Step 2: Identify the Angle that You Want to Leverage

Once you identify the news you must decide how you can “re-package” that information to be pertinent to your club.  If it is new information about the benefits of exercise that you received from an industry e-news piece you may be the first to bring this information to your community.  If it is a story about a new weight loss drug on the market perhaps you commentate on the dangers of miracle weight loss products.  Conversely, you may find a human-interest story that can be used to advocate the benefits of regular exercise.  Whatever the angle, know this; strong opinions are typically what generates news interest.  Therefore, your management and your club need to decide what “voice” they would like to be known for and ensure all media submissions are consistent.

Step 3: Choose the Medium You Wish to Utilize

In years past press releases to local media were the extent of tools available to reach the marketplace; not so in today’s fast paced world of technology.  Sure, press releases still work but they may not be the best.  Blogs that contain written content, audio or video are great ways to reach not only your community but the entire Internet.  And, even though you may not want to reach the entire Internet, it won’t hurt you to do it.  Of course, if you don’t want to create your own company Blog you can use services like U-Tube and Facebook.  Some of these services actually have areas designed specifically for people to promote their consumer products.  Although such sites may seem irrelevant to baby boomers and beyond, they provide an incredible platform for communication with millions of eyeballs.

These three steps on using news to generate more sales are simple enough but let’s take one or two examples.  In November of 2007 the American Medical Association and the American College of Sports Medicine announced a joint venture program to encourage doctors to prescribe exercise to their patients (www.exerciseismedicine.org).  Club Industry’s Fitness Business Pro quickly provided all the info in their December 1st, 2007 issue.  This joint venture information made for a great press release to the local news media in your town and the organization actually provided sample press releases to use as templates!  Your club could have announced that it was reaching out to local doctors to promote the national campaign.  Such information was ideally suited for a traditional press release to local media.

A potentially more explosive news story could have been the rise and fall of Kirstie Alley’s recent and very public use of the Jenny Craig diet.  The Hollywood star went from fat to trim advocating pre-packaged food and is now seen re-tipping the scales in the wrong direction.  A club that utilizes Blogs could easily post a strong opinion on the use of pre-packaged food, stating that no diet alone will keep the weight off without regular exercise and use her as a perfect example.

The bottom line is that using news stories can help a club generate exposure that it would not and cannot get from traditional advertising.  By combining news topics that raise controversy with the proper medium, a club may have the good fortune of generating free press or even finding itself featured on the Today show!