The world is never going back to the way it was before Covid-19, it can only go forward, and you can either go with it or struggle to try and keep up.
You already have a lot to think about when re-opening your location(s) or trying to ramp back up to meet the "new normal", whatever that is. While there are still a lot of unknowns out there, here's what you can be sure of.
Most consumers are looking to:
- spend more on fitness and wellness products and services in 2021 and
- spend across more products and services than ever
Here's the reality: Consumers will be doing more.
At the end of the day this boils down to consumers having more products and services in their plan and spending more overall, but potentially spending less time and money on any one individual service.
This could be really great or really bad for your business depending on how you adapt to it.
What does the consumer market look like now?
- Consumers are switching to hybrid models including brick and mortar + virtual solutions
- Some consumers are switching purely to virtual and online membership, as well as to at-home wellness plans, abandoning the physical gym and studio altogether
- More and more, people are including other wellness products in their strategy. Think fitness trackers, mindfulness apps, wearables, at home products, weight loss solutions, biobanking/biometrics, breathing & sleep apps, and all kinds of other health and wellness tech that helps them track, measure, and predict any number of health data
- Overall: Gyms and studios will not be the only solution that people go to for their health and wellness needs anymore
Gyms and Studios can't do it all
Pre-covid, Gyms were starting to incorporate "studio-esque" concepts into their locations by adding more personal training, pilates, yoga, cycling classes, etc. That probably will not change.
Unless you plan on building your own wearables, selling products for use at home, having live streaming, online live group sessions, and online live 1 on 1 training, plus offer services in mindfulness, breathing & sleep coaching, weight loss/nutrition tracking…and so much more, you just can't do it all on your own.
You don't need me to tell you, but, you have to be careful with where you put your dollars. It will be extremely difficult to do a lot of this in-house and almost impossible to keep pace with the digital revolution happening outside of your doors.
If you want to swim in the Post-covid current, learn to swim with the tide, not against it.
Your pricing strategy
Here's how this all factors into your pricing strategy.
We know that consumers will be spending more money on more services and that it will be nearly impossible to compete across the overwhelming supply of new innovations.
So, some of the options you have are:
- Join a bundle: This can be valuable when looking to access customers looking for a specific set of items bundled together, but it still limits your consumer reach to those that can and do participate in a bundle. Plus, you're reducing your price right out of the gate to anyone that signs up and you're sharing proceeds with everyone else in that bundle regardless of which service gets the most use. This can work, but may not be ideal for your brand or your bottom line.
- Discounts and free trials: We all know people jump at free trials and huge discounts, but just how good is this for your business? How do your current consumers feel when you do that? If you are lowering your value for everyone consistently, is your true price ever attractive? These methods are and probably will be a key factor in your strategy, but use them with care and caution. You want to make sure that those that see the value in your services and are willing to pay for it do and that these folks are retained first and foremost.
- Partial or reduced-cost memberships sold only to pre-qualified audiences: With more and more services and products being offered in the market and new entrants expected at pace over the next few years, this can achieve the following:
- Always sell your highest-priced memberships to those that see the value in it and are willing to pay it. These folks are putting you first on their list of health and wellness options.
- Create new memberships that are still monthly recurring use it or lose it memberships that reduce the number of visits to, let's say 5 or 10 times a month. Those charges will be a fraction of the cost of a normal/unlimited access memberships
- Market these new memberships to people that are a) not currently a member of your club and b) are already spending health and wellness money somewhere else. These are the consumers that may still be interested in your services, but not as their primary solution.
Wait. How can you possibly offer partial memberships only as an additional service to members of other wellness services?
A new way to do business
What if I were to not only tell you there was a new way to face all of these new challenges to creating a winning pricing strategy but could lay it all out for you right now? You'd be more than a little interested, right? Well, that's exactly what I'm about to do.
GymWisely has developed a patent-pending model that works to achieve the following:
- It allows you to always sell your highest-priced memberships to customers that see the value in it and are willing to pay it. These folks are putting you first on their list of health and wellness options.
- THEN, create new, completely separate memberships exclusive to GymWisely. Reduce the number of visits to somewhere around 5 or 10 times a month, drop the cost, and let GymWisely use its patent-pending technology to sell those memberships to the targeted group of consumers spending money elsewhere, but not with you. The GymWisely approach will incentivize them to use your services as often as possible while protecting your brand value.
- These are monthly recurring "use it or lose it" memberships, so they won't drag on for months waiting to be cashed in. These memberships are for customers who are committed to your service as an add-on to something they are already doing.
- We target customers who are focused and driven on their health. These are potential members just waiting to discover what you can uniquely offer and provide them. And we have the business model, technology, and data to make that happen.
Why do all the heavy lifting when there's a platform that can do it for you?
Stay true to you
Yes, you will have to improve your sanitizing practices, your distancing, your look and feel to be post-covid accessible. But. you don't have to build tons of new packages, reduce your pricing across the board to everyone or become a tech wizard and build out every digital aspect yourself.
Stay true to what you do best. Remember why people love your team, your classes, your equipment, your location and expand on that. Just create a flexible environment for your users to incorporate all the rest into your core mission and purpose.
The solution you're looking for is collaboration, cooperation, working together to get more done, and to create a win-win-win. Your members win, you win, and the industry wins. And you can do that on GymWisely.com
It's all about the win-win-win, and we can help you accomplish it.