Sweat Equity: Black Friday Ideas for Gyms

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Black Friday Ideas for Gyms and Fitness Businesses

Use your 2020 holiday sales to boost your revenue opportunities in the coming year

Why Black Friday Matters to Small Businesses

Holiday shopping is likely to be a bit unconventional this year––due to COVID, more people will be shopping virtually than ever before. Not to mention, many shoppers will be looking for deals on COVID-friendly gifts that promote health and safety. But even with Black Friday just over two weeks away, there’s still time to take advantage of the pre-holiday shopping frenzy.

This year, Black Friday and Small Business Saturday take place on November 27 and November 28, with Cyber Monday falling on November 30. Originally, Black Friday deals were available in stores only, with Cyber Monday featuring deals accessible online only, but those lines have blurred and Friday through Monday has become a four-day in-store/online shopping extravaganza.

According to National Retail Federation’s Annual Thanksgiving Weekend Consumer Survey: “124 million people shopped in stores while 142.2 million shopped on retailers’ websites; demonstrating today’s seamless shopping world, 75.7 million did both. Consumers who shopped in both channels spent an average $366.79.”

How can fitness businesses capitalize on Black Friday?

Check out this list of gym-specific Black Friday deal ideas:

• Gift cards. Not everyone loves e-gift cards, so consider self-print gift cards and old fashioned snail mail.
• New Year’s offers. New Year’s offers make sure the gift recipient will use their gift sooner, rather than later.
• Deals with incentives. Think giveaways and bundles.
• Hourly flash sales.  Offer deals for membership types, classes, and personal training.
• Discounted merch. Offer discounts on your gym merchandise.
• Bundles.  Combine popular classes and training programs.
• Subscription services. Offer a percentage off of regular subscription prices.
• Friends and family.  Give your members access to discounted rates for their friends and family.
• Reward customer loyalty. Encourage your clients to treat themselves with a VIP deal available only to them.
• Unlimited access deals. Sell a package that gives the user unlimited classes for one month.
• Promotion codes. Create codes for first-month free and BOGO deals.

Black Friday Strategies for Fitness Retailers

• Create a landing page for your Black Friday deals and offers.
• Send an email on Black Friday with offers/promotions. Make sure to personalize the content, include a CTA, and come up with a catchy subject line.
• Create a gift-giving guide that explains your deals to help customers select the right gift.
• Create social media content that is exclusively Black Friday-related and use hashtags for more traction.
• Turn your Black Friday promotions into a Facebook event.
• Host a virtual Post-Thanksgiving workout on Friday and offer participants a deal on a class package.
• Don’t be afraid to start your online deals before the big day.
• Add a countdown clock to your website and landing pages for urgency.
• Have a game plan to engage the owners of all those abandoned carts.
• Keep going strong and extend promotion variations past Cyber Monday.

Need a little inspiration on where to market? Take a look at some pre-sale ads from some popular home gym equipment brands: 2020 Black Friday & Cyber Monday Garage Gym Equipment Deals

Sales Predictions for Black Friday 2020

The election is over and ad space is yours again. But consumer behavior has changed radically because of COVID distancing measures. So does anyone really know how Black Friday will unfold this year? Not exactly. You may have even heard that Black Friday is dead…well, not so fast.

According to blackfriday.com, “Online Black Friday sales (combined Black Friday and Thanksgiving spending) will decrease a bit from last year, to rest at $11 billion. On one hand, spending will likely be down from last year. On the other, many loyal in-store Black Friday shoppers will probably get pushed online this year.”

Google’s 5 Shifts in Shopping Behavior This Holiday Season also has some insight to offer, with the key point being: expect holiday shopping to be extended. Shoppers will be looking for deals both before and after the weekend. So, while spending may be down, shoppers’ online presence will be up. Despite all of the economic challenges of 2020, expect retailers and merchants to go heavy on their deals this year.

BTW, what is Small Business Saturday? Instituted by American Express in 2010, the purpose is to encourage support of local businesses that might get side-tracked by major retailers.

This is especially important in light of COVID: “According to a survey conducted by the National Federation of Independent Business, one in five small business owners say they’ll have to close their doors if economic conditions don’t improve through the early months of 2021. Another 19% say that an economic downturn lasting another seven to 12 months could result in them having to close up shop for good.” (Small Business Saturday, Investopedia.com).

American Express even provides marketing resources for small businesses participating in Small Business Saturday.

4 on-Camera Skills Every Fitness Trainer Needs To Master

Empowering your message with content that multi-tasks

COVID has officially ushered us into the age of video everything––meetings, classes, socializing––and, of course, fitness training. Whether you’re full-time online with your fitness programs or offering a hybrid training experience, understanding how to produce quality video content is essential to your business’s growth and revenue stability.

And because outsourcing video production isn’t cost-effective for everyone, learning a few tricks of the trade will make sure your video content looks professional and is worth the watch.

1. Technology. Two main factors that influence a video’s quality, whether live or recorded, are light and sound. Your clients need to be able to hear your instructions and see your movement without the distraction of poor sound or lighting. Understanding how to operate webcams, light cubes, and USB mics is important. And if you’re filming from your smartphone, a tripod offers stability and angle variety.
2. Get scripted. That means delivering your content during video recording without using notes. If you reply on notes while you’re filming, you may appear distracted, which leaves your viewers feeling distracted as well. Memorizing your script and instructions communicates confidence and professionalism. Although, placing cue cards at strategic locations isn’t a bad idea if you need a little help with focusing on key points and training transitions.
3. Confidence. On-camera confidence looks a little different from in-person training. Your voice should be more commanding and your personality a little bolder. As well, body positioning and eye contact can be harder to master when looking into a camera. Consider shooting some practice videos to work through any awkwardness and solicit feedback from fellow fit pros before taking your content live.
4. Video editing. A basic understanding of video editing can help you navigate the distance between just an ok video and a great one. If you’re producing your own videos, exploring the editing capabilities of your smartphone is a great place to start. But there are also tons of video editing software options, tutorials, and classes to make your video content a premium choice for online subscribers.

Creating Inclusivity for New Members

Help your new members feel more at home so they’ll stick around

With new members turning up at your gym for some post-COVID activity – and with New Year’s revolutionists lurking in the shadows – now is the perfect time to evaluate and tweak your new member engagement practices.

According to the study, How do the activities members usually take part in and how often they attend affect loyalty (conducted by Customer Engagement Academy), here are the percentages representing why members attend:

[Source: Customer Engagement Academy]

When new members feel welcomed and included during and after your gym’s onboarding process, their participation rate and likeliness to remain committed to a fitness program increase. Here’s what increasing client commitment means for you:

• You get to see your clients progress and achieve success in their fitness goals
• You increase your gym’s member retention rate, reducing member turn-over

Here are a few ways to make sure your new members get and stay connected:

1. Offer introductory classes and training sessions to facilitate new members getting to know your gym and staff. Follow up after their first visit to field any questions and concerns. Make sure to offer classes that are geared towards beginner fitness levels.
2. Update your onboarding process to include welcome emails, complementary paid sessions and classes, facility tours, and monthly or quarterly new member community events. Make sure your gym’s policies, procedures, and expectations are clearly communicated.
3. Make sure your staff and trainers are modeling inclusivity by introducing themselves to members and connecting new members with other members that have been around a little longer.

And the same strategies hold true for online personal training. Keeping your onboarding process up-to-date is even more critical in the virtual fitness realm and making sure inclusivity is a priority for your fitness business’s community groups and social media pages will address your clients’ community and inclusivity needs.

Balancing Progress and Injury Prevention with Kevin Hollabaugh of Proforce Sports Dynamic

Our resident interviewer, Schimri Yoyo, sits down with Kevin Hollabaugh, owner of Proforce Sports Dynamic, to discuss the importance of staff dynamic.

Notable Quotes:

• “I think each of our team members, their personality’s a fit with the company. It’s not, “Do they know the X’s and O’s?” I can teach you the X and O’s of how I want you to train somebody. I need a personality.”
• “…creating a brand and identity for the brand versus just the workouts identify who it is. I think that’s what makes us unique. Like the last two years, we’ve won Best of Cincinnati and I don’t think—I mean you don’t just get votes for that just because your workouts are good.”
• “A big thing for me is I should pay myself more. I don’t because I want the people who work for me to be able to buy a house, raise a family. Why they work here instead of having to feel like they have to job hop to get to where they want to go. So that’s just—I think that all creates the brand and the identity and the family feel.”

Read the full interview here.

Interesting Internet Finds

Share these links on your social media platforms for increased reach and engagement

Watch: Whether you’re choosing to distance during this year’s Thanksgiving season, or, just need some fresh ideas for your turkey day menu, you may want to check out 41 Non-Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner Ideas (Because Not Everyone Loves Turkey) for some extra inspiration.

Buy: With daylight disappearing and those outdoor runs getting cooler, the goal is to remain warm (and visible) without overheating from too much clothing. Check out Brooks’s Carbonite Gloves.

Read: How professional sports teams are keeping their fans engaged during COVID: Atlanta Hawks CEO Steve Koonin on how COVID-19 is changing basketball.

And that’s a wrap! We hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s digital issue of Sweat Equity: Insider Fitness Business Insights. We’ll see you in two weeks! Stay safe. Stay kind. And wash your hands.

If you’re ready to grow and manage your business better, book a demo with our team today.

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