More and more, marketing activities for health clubs need to center around one over-riding question: will it make my business for “findable” by Google and the other search engines. Sound simple? It is. Think about your own behavior. If you all of a sudden decide you are in the market for a service in your area, what are you going to do? Right after “ask a friend”, comes “start an online search”. Sure, there are a few people who will still pick up the yellow pages, or look in the local paper —- but do you think the number of those people is growing? Or dwindling?
When thinking about opening your cycling studio, or other fitness business…..a key concept is the idea of an “online footprint”. That is the aggregate amount of content that gives your business a presence on the web. It includes not just your website (or websites), but any blogging or commenting you are doing, your Facebook page, Tweeting, Videos and all social media marketing you are doing to enhance your presence. All of this adds up — and increases the odds of a prospective customer stumbling upon you during their online and searching activities.
For an example of what happened at one Indoor Cycling Studio – Spynergy Wellesley, take a look at this article.
Categories: health club marketing · opening a spin studio · social media
Tagged: indoor cycling studio, opening a spin studio, social media marketing for fitness, blogging
Over the past 6 months….since posting this blog and setting up to help “studio starters” around the country (and around the world) — there are certain questions that come up again and again. When I answer these questions, I do not speculate —- I base my answers on the actual operating history of the several studios I have been directly involved with. Surprisingly, very few people ask “how much money can I make on one of these studios” — thought that is probably the most important question when determining how much time, effort and capital to expend. More often, folks are passionate about moving ahead and really want to know about details that can help.
- Do I need showers? (surprisingly the answer here in more cases than not……is ‘not really’, for several reasons)
- How do I find teachers ? (this is easier than you might think……but is an ongoing process and probably the most important thing you can get good at)
- What kind of bikes should I get? (3 words to be concerned with here: durability, durability, durability)
- What are the key factors in selecting a location? (access to the right demographic market, parking issues, noise issues)
- What are the best pricing models to consider (this depends, but a key is looking at other niche fitness studios in your area)
There are dozens more, and each of these have nuances that need to be considered, happy to discuss at your convenience: 781-254-3677 billpryor@comcast.net
Categories: opening a spin studio
Tagged: indoor cycling studio, spin studio, fitness studio, spin studio consulting, opening a spin studio, spynergy consulting
There are dozens of examples around the country of successful dedicated fitness studios. While there are differences in approach, pricing and style………these studios have survived, and thrived in the face of direct (usually lower-priced) competition from large “box gyms” and health clubs that offer spin as well as multiple other products. These studios are classic “niche” businesses. They are successful for their focus on some combination of the following factors.
1) Focussed Mission. A dedicated studio pays attention to the details and focuses on one thing: the best classes possible. Equipment, sound system, decor, amenities, teachers………are the best available.
2) Convenience. A studio is single purpose, “in and out”, simple, easy to reserve and participate.
3) Flexible payment. In a studio, you can pay “per-class” and when you don’t attend….you don’t pay, or you can often buy monthly unlimited passes if that seems economic.
4) Easy reserve. No waiting in lines, no getting “shut out”, no calling the night before to reserve. You can easily reserve online, show up 2 minutes before the class, and enjoy!
5) Community. A small intimate studio encourages sharing and interaction amongst students if they so desire. Instructors and students interact to optimize fitness, growth and enjoyment.
6) The little things matter. Quality sound, outstanding teachers, attention to detail, lighting, mirrors, equipment, announcing schedule changes and subs, personal touches, amenitites
If you are interested in learning more….in launching your own studio….or streamlining and marketing an existing fitness studio — click here to find out about our consulting services.
Categories: Studio Operations
Tagged: indoor cycling studio, spin studio, fitness studio, spin studio consulting, opening a spin studio
Once your business is established — or even as you establish your business, you should be thinking about using social media to market. There is quite a bit written about social media (Facebook, Blogging, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) as a social phenomena, but businesses are increasingly finding ways to use it successfully for marketing. One thing that may surprise you is the age of social media participants!
What’s the demographic sweet spot for users of social networks? Not what you think. According to a study released by Pingdom, a web monitoring provider, 25% of users of social networking sites are between 35 and 44, and 57% of the users are older than 35!…….”
To read more check this post from Dan McCarthy, a leading thinker on social media as a marketing too.
Categories: health club marketing · social media
Tagged: fitness studio marketing, social media marketing for fitness
Late last year, the websites for our studios underwant a radical transformation…….By switching over from a traditional static website — to a Blog, we dramatically energized our “google juice” (our search engine rank) and upgraded our online footprint. While this was a radical change “behind the scenes”, we retained the established look and feel of our brand and for many customers, the change was invisible.
Today’s blog platforms like wordpress, blogspot, and squarespace are amazing tools for small businesses like our cycling studios. In my opinion they are amazing for 2 primary reasons. First, they are very easy to set up and manage — which alleviates the need to call an outside web expert once they get going….and second, they allow you to build a large archive of searchable content (blog posts). This cranks up your google juice! This biggest challenge is finding the time to keep cool content flowing into your blog (though I recently discovered an amazing service called HealthFit-Sherpa which allows you to outsource your fitness content creation for a monthly fee).
If you would like to hear more about how Spynergy uses a blog platform to communicate the brand and find new customers—-cheap….contact me at billpryor@comcast.net
Categories: Studio Operations · health club marketing · opening a spin studio · social media
Tagged: indoor cycling studio, fitness studio, spin studio consulting, opening a spin studio, social media marketing for fitness, fitness studio marketing, spynergy consulting, blogging
Here is a question we hear all the time from studio starters looking to get their business going:
1) Should I be an official “SPIN” studio, or an indoor cycling studio
The words “spin” and “spinning” are closely held trademarks of a California company called Maddog Athletics. You may NOT use those words in the name of your business, on your website, on your schedule or in any promotional activity unless you are a licensee of Maddog Athletics. If you do — you will be contacted by a lawyer and that is never a good thing….trust me.
The good news (if you want to use the “spin” word), is that there is no fee to become a licensed studio, but you are legally bound to a) purchase the StarTrac bikes sold by Maddog, and b) agree to have your teachers certified in the Maddog system. The StarTrack bikes are popular and established, and their certification program is fine. But these are restrictions that do impact you freedom to operate.
I believe there are other great bikes out there, but I also believe a major consideration in this discussion is tied to GOOGLE searching. People are more and more finding businesses by doing web searches. If you cannot use the word spin in your web activities, you are restricted and it could impact your “findability”. This is a strong reason to go with “SPIN” and Maddog. On the other hand, indoor cycling is a term that many people are familiar with and a number of successful studios have managed without the license. If you have further questions or thoughts on this topic, please let me know, or you can comment here on the Spynergy Consulting Blog.
Thanks for your time — Happy Riding!!
Bill
Categories: Studio Operations · opening a spin studio
Tagged: spin class, indoor cycling studio, spin studio, opening a spin studio
1) People become passionate about your place and in many, many cases you are making a real difference in their mental and physical health.
2) You’re always around music! Creating and presenting the musical mixes is awesome!
3) As a studio, your hours are limited to the times there are classes, it is not a business where you need to be physically present for long consecutive stretches.
4) The financial model is a good one…..IF you can reach a certain attendance level. Extra revenue after that has no costs associated with it.
5) Your clientele becomes a close community. Because of your business, they interact with you and with eachother in a wide variety of ways.
6) Decisions you make every day directly impact the success of your studio
Categories: Studio Operations
Tagged: indoor cycling studio, spin studio, fitness studio, spin studio consulting, opening a spin studio
Part of creating a special studio environment is your understanding of the indoor cycling experience….and your ability to recognize and create it! Yup. But if you want to own a studio, it’s more. It’s running a business. You’re part accountant, part disc jockey, part sound technician, part web developer, part baby sitter, and ALL customer service. Do you absolutely love people…….even the ones that are, well, annoying? Good. There is something awesome about knowing every decision you make is having a direct affect on your business, and that the more succesful you are — the healthier people get. Wow. It can also of course at times — be a bit overwhelming. Wanna give it a try? Check us out. Call Bill at 781-254-3677.
Categories: Studio Operations
Tagged: indoor cycling studio, spin studio, spin studio consulting, opening a spin studio, launching a spin studio, entrepreneurship, spynergy consulting
5 Questions to ask yourself
- Who is your primary target audience? Stay at home moms? Outdoor cyclists? Singles? Baby boomers? Probably some combination, but the mix will have a major impact on your scheduling, marketing and other factors.
- Are you opening a Spin® studio or an indoor cycling studio. There is a difference, and you need to know the specifics to avoid legal hassles.
- What is your strategy for connecting with the community? Especially early on. There are number of tactics, you need to implement them early on so you don’t see empty classes.
- When you open a Spin® or indoor cycling studio you will need to think carefully about your location. What are the factors with noise? parking? access? How many square feet are needed to accomodate the number of bikes you will have to have to make your financial model work?
- Marketing?????? Ads, eNewsletters, Direct mail, Web 2.0, what’s the right mix? How do you build the all important word-of-mouth once you open a Spin® studio or indoor cycling studio.
Categories: Studio Operations
Tagged: spin studio consulting, opening a spin studio, social media marketing for fitness, open a spin studio
January 12, 2010 · 1 Comment
Are you using social media to help build your business? Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other social media are growing in usage every day by your customers. Using these media for marketing is a relatively new concept, but the potential is enormous. Social media is the “next layer” of Internet marketing. First you get a website, then you “optimize” it with words so people can find it, then maybe you buy Google search words. The next step is to ENGAGE people. To get your customers and prospects to interact with you and with eachother! This does several important things:
1) Gets you into a fun and interesting dialog online with your community
2) Increases your “Google – rank” in relevant searches in your area
3) Increases traffic to your website
4) Increases word-of-mouth and referrals
At Spynergy, we have experimented with a variety of social media marketing programs and found some things that really work. With a minimal amount of time (and money) you can get this kind of thing going. If you have an anecdote you would like to share, please let us know. If you would like to brainstorm around these ideas, feel free to call Bill at 781-254-3677.
Categories: Studio Operations · health club marketing · social media
Tagged: fitness studio, fitness studio marketing, increasing google rank, social media, social media marketing for fitness
More and more, marketing activities for health clubs need to center around one over-riding question: will it make my business for “findable” by Google and the other search engines. Sound simple? It is. Think about your own behavior. If you all of a sudden decide you are in the market for a service in your area, what are you going to do? Right after “ask a friend”, comes “start an online search”. Sure, there are a few people who will still pick up the yellow pages, or look in the local paper —- but do you think the number of those people is growing? Or dwindling?
