Keep the market interested in your promotions by mixing up the themes and categories of your offer
Here’s a laymen’s guide to the main 10 categories of membership offer
1. Term Memberships
Short term front end offers of varying degrees of duration. We have found best success with 21 day trial memberships. It’s enough time to get people into the groove of how the club works but not too long that you run the risk of losing the trialist if you are not supporting them sufficiently.
The 1 day pass we find least effective as it doesn’t give the chance to build any relationship either between Club and trialist or staff and trialist.
These offers are usually deployed with an upsell conversion incentive presented at the start point of the transaction, or during the term and also at the end to drive traditional membership options.
2. Extended Term memberships
The BONUS months are at the END of the 12-month period
15/12
18/12
24/12
The offer is dependent on the customer paying a minimum of 12 payments before receiving the bonus ‘free time’. The upside on this type of deal is that the Club receives a sum of money guaranteed BEFORE the bonus is given so the RV ( residual value of the membership ) is quantifiable.
Clubs can encourage existing members to continually resign to a new bonus contract in exchange for a restart of the qualifying 12 months of payment.
We recommend that Clubs work with their membership administrators to ensure that the restart process (once the FREE period is over) is efficient and seamless.
3. Bulk membership Discounts
2/1
Buy 1 Get 1 50 % off
The offer is based on a full settlement of the first membership triggering the discount on the subsidiary.
Popular all year round and ideal if utilised with a Facebook audience campaign where targeting can be precise to a market. Newly engaged, newlyweds, new residents for example
4. Discounted Joining Fees
Nil joining fee
50% off
Discounts only on the joining fee.
Classic stuff but fraught with dangers in our view. Customers hate paying what their friends didn’t have to.
There is always a sales hangover immediately after a close out on a discounted joining fee offer.
Clubs need the upfront money from joining fees to fund higher powered campaigns. Success goes to those that spend the most in this digital era!
5. Deferred start memberships
‘Join today pay nothing more until January’
Technically a discount off the joining fee but used predominantly where a joining fee is to be introduced for the first time or at traditionally quiet times of the year such as November or August.
The full joining fee is levied but the monthly subscription has a delayed trigger of one or two months
This is a favoured tactic of ours in October and we tend to follow it with an extended term offer in November and a FREE trial offer in December.
6. Added Value Offers
Join today – win a Car! No discounts. The offer is value added to sweeten the acquisition of the full joining fee or membership.
This tactic we predict will be utilised increasingly in the future as the need to protect the upfront cash becomes more important.
Typical types of value added services will be:
Training Packs
Programme aids such as heart rate monitors, activity trackers,
Affiliate bonuses – FREE meals, Hair & beauty Vouchers
FREE to enter competitions
7. Free trial Start ups
‘Try our club with a 7-day Complimentary membership’. No cash changes hands so it can be a risky and expensive policy if the club offers a full induction service to trial lists who subsequently don’t join.
The “FREE” tag undermines the authority and perceived quality of the Club
Attracts leads but not necessarily good prospects and conversion stats can be very low. Unless you are a very low-priced operator we are not a fan of this as a promotion.
We are huge fans of the “Complimentary Personal Consultation Session” which allows operators to get 1o1 with a prospect and to really canvass them. This session need to be carefully choreographing to include prospect assessment, lifestyle analysis, and a backend sales presentation.
8. Cash Back Schemes
A retrospective reward concept for the customer to subscribe for the full year or membership term or as a benefit of renewal or frequency of use. Usually the reward is a return of the joining fee paid.
Upsides are the cash back reduces the barriers at the front end towards joining fees. The other benefit for the club is that if the cash back is rewarded for usage or results, the likely testimonial value outweighs the cash back amount.
9. Money back Guaranteed memberships
The offer is a customer satisfaction driven one. Timeframes between 7 and 30 days can be used as a cooling off period.
Money Back Guarantees increase prospect confidence and build authority. We believe that every Club should utilise MBG s on all programmes
10. Corporate membership offers
Corporates can be used to legitimise price discounts bit there must be logic and it must be fair as members will inevitably talk and compare rates and rationale.
The key to good corporate marketing these days is being mindful that only 15% of the population are members of a Club at all so operators need to ensure that hey have a service for employees who for whatever reason are not ever going to join your club. Having said that, there are many good reasons for pursuing a wellness programme aimed at the Corporate sector.
