ThinkDigital Event in Barnsley #DigitalRetention

A big thank you to eGym and Club Manager Central for inviting me to talk at their Think Digital event earlier this week in Barnsley.

A good turnout of delegates included health clubs and gyms in the private and public sectors, as well as a handful of industry consultants and press. Most were looking to learn more about digital retention, mixed in with some fun and competition around the Tyke Karting track in the afternoon. The mix of educational streams and demos, and the linkage between sessions received great feedback from delegates.

I presented an educational session on data driven member retention.

Uniting members and making teams with Pokémon Go – Part 4

Now that you are all set and and your members are raring to go, its time for your club to join a team to take over your local PokéGym.

Using Pokémon GO to get active is not a new concept, but integrating it into your health club or gym can help you to retain members, inspire fitness through a fun new concept and maybe even catch a few new members along the way.

In this article we will explain to you a bit more about PokéGyms and battles, as well as giving you a few ideas on how to integrate these aspects of the game into your club’s Pokémon program.

Catching, Hatching and getting your members moving with Pokémon GO

Improving health club retention with Pokémon Go – Part 3

In the last article we gave you a few hints on how to integrate Pokémon GO with your health club marketing plans.  Not only will this help with member retention, but it also gives your club a steady social media content stream that is highly engaging.  If you would like to know more about this secondary benefit, get in touch with our team or download the full Pokémon GO guide. If you need to go back to basics, check out our 1 minute getting started guide for health clubs.

So in this article we’re giving you ideas and methods on catching, hatching and exercising for your new Pokémon GO programs.

Is your club a PokéStop or PokéGym?

If your club is already a PokéStop or PokéGym, then you should find more Pokémon nearby, and can also attach lure modules to attract more (read on to find out how). Let members and non-members know with posters and social media posts, and have your staff (create master Pokémon trainers) educate members about the game.

Getting your club ready to play Pokémon GO and improve your health club retention – Part 2

By now, you must have heard of Pokémon GO – the latest app craze to hit our mobiles this summer! But if you haven’t read this quick guide first.

Over the next few articles GG Fit will tell you exactly how you can get your club on board with Pokémon GO and use the game to help your member retention.  First, you will need to get your club ready.  Here’s how…

Locating your nearest PokéStop or PokéGym

First up on your to-do list is locating your local PokéStops or PokéGyms.  It could be that you are one!

What is Pokémon GO – a quick guide for Health Clubs

Here’s your one-minute guide to Pokémon GO…

Pokémon GO uses a mobile phone’s GPS to locate the trainer’s position on a local area map, showing Pokémon activity, PokéStops, and PokéGyms. When you find a Pokémon, you can view it in augmented reality, so the creature appears against the real-world background, whereby you can take a screen shot to share with friends.

How to use Pokémon GO to improve your health club retention – Part 1

Are any of your members playing Pokémon GO?
{hint: the answer is Yes!}

Whether you think it’s a fad, a bandwagon, or the solution to the obesity epidemic, there’s no doubt that Pokémon GO is here. It’s grabbing headlines, and people are signing up much faster than for anything else.

We don’t like jumping on bandwagons at GGFit, but we do believe there are ways that Pokémon GO can help improve member retention at your health club...

In short, the game is another reason to interact with more members, to drive more people into your club, and to get them more active.

Education

For starters, you have an opportunity to educate people (members, prospects, staff) about Pokémon GO. If you’ve not played it yet, click here toread our 1 minute guide to the game.

Do your members enjoy being single?

This is a guest post from Joshua Uwadiae of WeGym...

When your members buddy up they will stick around longer, see more results and you will make more money.

Members who make a friend at the gym are 40 per cent less likely to cancel their membership, according to the TRP 10,000 report. 

Team sports naturally engender a social atmosphere and make friend-making easy, it's less natural to strike up a friendship with a stranger on the treadmill next to you. This is why operators up until this point have never been able to scalably influence this process. 

How can you help more of your members buddy up and make friends?

Point of Sale Referrals (increase retention with sales!) - Guest Post

This is a guest post from David Reeves of Promote Leisure, who presented at the inaugural Sales & Retention Convention earlier this year.

I want to share with you one of the key focus points that was discussed on the day; how to present and get lots of “Point of Sale Referral”, which will translate into sales, if prospected correctly. 

Point of Sale (POS) referral is to ask a new member for the names of friends, family or work colleagues who may be interested in joining the club. This is done at the moment when the excited new member joins, hence why it is called “Point of Sale” referral.

Olympic and Paralympic Challenges

The Rio Olympics run from Friday 5th to Sunday 21st August, and the Paralympics from Wednesday 7th to Sunday 18th September. Both are great opportunities to run challenges at your club, but with a month to go, you'll need to move fast to be ready...

Member messages: SMS or Email?

Leisure Management System providers and partners continue to push email as the best member communication channel. But who is it best for, the system, the club, or the member?

Email is low cost, easy to implement, and can contain lots of content. But open rates are often low, unsubscribes higher, and there can be a tendency to include too much content for certain messages.

For your monthly newsletters, email is great. But for short, critical messages that you want all targeted members to open and read, SMS is a much better option.