Learning Center
We’ve consolidated our videos, guides, webinars and more into the AFS Business Learning Center. Browse the resources, and use the concierge service if you need help with any topic.
It’s the end of the year and things are wrapping up soon. Clients are getting ready for the holidays and perhaps you, too, are looking forward to some time with family and friends and relaxing a bit before the New Year hits.
Between servicing current clients, marketing for new clients, standard business administrative work, family, holiday shopping, and other obligations, there seems to be not a single minute of time left to do anything…let alone catch up on some sleep.
As holiday season rolls around, we’re all gearing up for a season of friends and family. In our fitness lives, member and client travel and vacation plans at times seem to relegate fitness to the last thing on everyone’s mind.
While it may seem like a last ditch effort, running a holiday sale might be one of the most beneficial tactics your fitness business can engage in before the end of year.
Insight into consumer attitudes and behaviors can help shape your brand’s value proposition and positioning. Plus insight into industry trends from finance to marketing to operations can help frame your journey.
One of the most frequent questions I get asked about marketing to older adult is “What works?” Trainers want to know where to go and what to do in order to build their loyal clientele of affluent older clients.
Sometimes their current methods and strategies just aren’t working very well or they just don’t have enough time and energy to figure it out on their own. There are certainly a lot of misconceptions that trainers have about how to find and engage with these potential clients so here are some tips to help you get moving in the right direction.
Increasing your customer acquisition or conversion rate is one thing - improving the lifetime value of your customers is quite another.
The 4th quarter of the year has arrived. Many fitness studios get scared there will be lack of revenue and attendance will decline. However, a small percentage see opportunity and abundance and a time to create greatness. Which group will you be in?
The purpose of this article is to empower you with an arsenal of marketing and client appreciation strategies to fuel an incredible Q4 and gain some serious momentum to come charging into the New Year. Let’s get to it!
The growing aging Boomer population is huge, affluent, well-educated and looking for trainers that can safely and effectively improve their health and fitness. In essence, they are the ideal client group.
However, many fitness marketing messages and strategies that work well with younger adults are ineffective with older adults and may even repel them. It takes more time and effort to move them through the sales process but once they make the decision to train with you they are loyal clients that stay with you for a long time.
During the past 12 months AFS has undergone a huge transformation. Within that time frame our growth has been extraordinary. We've added more benefits, more partners, and more value that make up a compelling case for membership, including our ROI calculator.
During these past several months, AFS has also traveled across the country, literally - from being headquartered in Chicago to now the Bay Area.
In the last five years, one in every three deaths in the USA was attributed to Cardiovascular Disease (CVD). The latest statistics have also revealed that 60% of Americans don’t take part in regular physical activity and 25% are not physically active at all.
On a positive note, research tells us that statistics like these could be significantly improved if more people simply started exercising on a regular basis.
Technology and fitness are joined at the hip - the best gyms are known for having the best gear. After a while, however, there is only so much gear that a gym can buy! There is another way that you can use technology to differentiate yourself from competition in the fitness world, and it is actually much less expensive than investing in new machines every quarter.
Savvy gym and studio owners are now investing in mobile apps that are geared towards fitness - a high ROI activity that provides a great deal of value to patrons who do not have the money for a personal trainer or the organizational skills to keep up with their own stats.
How do people typically find your fitness studio? Through word-of-mouth? Driving by? What about your website?
If you don’t have a website (no, a Facebook page won’t cut it) or if your site isn’t bringing visitors into your studio, there’s work to be done. There are over 1.17 billion monthly searches on Google. Here are the seven things your site must have to ensure you’re showing up for these searches.
I've been lucky enough at AFS to meet and speak with some of the best studio owners in the country (and some outside the U.S.). During these encounters I always come away learning more about our ever-changing, diverse, yet incredibly rewarding industry.
This couldn't be more true than my recent meeting with Brent Gallagher at the IDEA Show back in June. Brent's professionalism and drive have been evident in the success of his business venture Avenu Fitness & Lifestyle in Houston, Texas.
In their ground-breaking 2016 study, Marketing Best Practices Research Report, the Association of Fitness Studios (AFS) asked respondents which cycling certification(s) they held. As you can see from the chart below, Schwinn is #1 by a nice margin, Spinning is #2 and then there’s a big drop off to several others.
While this is great news for Schwinn and its certified instructors, it begs the question, “How can I leverage my Schwinn certification – and its #1-in-the-industry positioning - to enhance my career?” As a famous author once said, “Let me count the ways.”
Throughout my many years managing big-box health clubs and consulting with other fitness studios, the issue of how to effectively handle cancellations was always top of mind with my training teams.
How many times has this happen to you... You get up at 5am, throw on some clothes, and get to the studio or health club just in time for your 6am client. You might arrive a few minutes early and get the chance to check your email when, low and behold, at 5:40am there's an email from your 6am client stating they had to cancel. Great way to start of the day, huh?
The healthcare crisis is a complicated issue with many layers. The big takeaways? Today, fewer than 50% of companies offer medical insurance for their employees.
Many insurance premiums have escalated to difficult-to-afford levels. And to top it all off, insurance coverage sometimes barely functions and acts more like a subsidy than a comprehensive plan. So what the heck does this have to do with you as a studio owner in fitness?
Do you ever feel like there’s a competitor around every corner? Budding entrepreneurs often hesitate to follow their business dreams because they believe their target market is already so saturated that there simply is no more room to absorb any new entrants.
However, savvy small business owners can make it in a crowded field, even one filled with a couple of big players. The key to your business' success doesn’t hinge on finding a completely empty field, but how you define your company and its place in the market.
Fitness has never been bigger. In fact, it's the world's biggest sport with 61% of people who exercise regularly doing gym-type activities, according to the Global Consumer Fitness Survey 2013. But retention remains the industry's biggest problem.
And where previous acquisition of new members could fill the gap, new levels of competition and industry segmentation have made gaining and retaining members harder than ever.
If you’ve noticed the fitness trend toward indoor cycling, you’re not alone. According to fitness and sports experts and the organizations that track such data*, “Stationary Cycling” was the 10th-most popular activity in America in a 2015 survey of all activities in which Americans participated.
Of course, if you’re reading these words you already know the health and fitness benefits of indoor cycling, but it’s also nice to know that you’re among the millions who have selected this vigorous, fun, and uplifting fitness regiment.
We’re at the tail end of another summer. How did you do? Did revenue increase or at least stay stable? Cancellations up or down? If you’re like many of us in the fitness industry, June, July, and August can be brutal months.
The unfortunate part is that instead of planning and preparing for this slow down, many trainers and studio owners are too busy working “in” the business and suffer the consequences such as decreased revenue, less sessions serviced, and lack of profitability.
The list of personal trainers in Orlando is immense. How could I stand out from the crowd and create a fitness brand that is unique among a sea of others? When I started my business in 2014, I was determined to set it apart in every way possible way.
I have always had a passion for art and, in fact, my first job was as an assistant production manager at Walt Disney Animation where I contributed to films like Lilo and Stitch and Beauty and the Beast.
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