Fine-tune your strategy to acquire gym members in January

Optimising your business strategy to acquire gym members in January is simply common sense.

Here, we’ll look at why January is so important for gyms and how you can use location intelligence to improve both customer acquisition and retention.

What makes January the most important month for gyms?

The January gym-rush is typically inspired by Christmas indulgence and optimistic New Year’s resolutions.

To understand just how important January is for gyms, you need to look at the key statistics:

Competition in this area is up too, making the process you use to acquire gym members in January (and retain them long term) even more crucial.

In the year ending March 2016, the number of UK fitness facilities increased by 1.9%. In addition, approximately one in seven UK residents now already holds a gym membership (Leisure DB).

How to set your fitness brand up to acquire gym members in January

Here’s how you can use location intelligence to acquire gym members in January and increase overall retention rates:

Choosing ideal gym locations

Use location intelligence to place your gyms in ideal positions to acquire new members in January.

With Periscope® – an advanced location intelligence software system – you can:

  • Plot all your customer locations on your own corporate, secure version of Google Maps
  • Log all your gym locations, and your competitors’, on an intuitive interface
  • Identify target demographics based on current customer traits
  • Analyse social media sentiment to gain qualitative insight into demand
  • Accurately plot areas where demand for your gym is likely to be highest
  • Select accessible locations ideal for attracting new customers or increasing retention
  • Decide whether you’ll need to incentivise customers to choose your gym over a competitors’

You can also save time by automating as many location-planning processes as possible.

If you have a high-performing location you’d like to replicate, use the ‘Match-It’ feature to automatically find locations with the same attributes.

Then, use the ‘Revenue Predictor’ tool to calculate how profitable your gym is likely to be in this location.

Marketing your gyms

Improving customer acquisition and retention requires more than just a great location.

Use location intelligence software and in-built social media sentiment analysis to develop your understanding of the factors that motivate your potential and existing customers.

Hone your messaging using this insight, and create marketing resources relevant to a specific area, or even for an individual sales prospect.

Then, find the most advantageous advertising sites by defining an area with a high number of potential clients. Automatically visualise footfall and key transport interchanges in this area, to optimise the position of your advertising posters/billboards and sales reps.

January will come around quicker than you think. Use location intelligence to start preparing now and get ahead of the competition.

Gain the strategic insights you need to ensure your fitness brand makes the most of the post-Christmas rush with Periscope®. Request a 10-minute demo today.