I do a lot of reading (makes me feel smarter than I really am) and I stumbled upon an interesting article those of us who sell memberships, manage staff or do any people-centric work should be aware of but experience tells me most are not.
In the past I've been turned on to all kinds of tips , tricks, and tactics by the guru's to get the deal, some are great and used frequently some are crap and should be left down in the dungeon from wince they came. But none are effective without the presence of one key factor......
Conversation Control!
A sale, by definition is transfer of emotion. So therefore, we must put ourselves in the best position for the exchange.
In all advisory work many words are exchanged (especially getting someone to prioritize a healthy lifestyle). It is therefore vital to have skills in managing conversations. Such skills can be called conversation control.
This does not mean manipulating other people’s natural conversation although it does imply giving it gentle pushes in particular directions from time to time.
The best way to be effective is to understand what you say and how you say it so you can influence others through your own example.
The essence of conversation control is your ability to manage your own conversation. This is not about overcoming objections or asking qualifying questions and uncovering hot buttons. What we are talking about is the ability to guide the conversation so you can do all of those things effectively.
Here is what you are trying to control.
when to be problem centered or solution centered
when to converge or diverge
when to emphasize facts or feelings
when to speed up or slow down conversations
how to identify cues and clues
how to summarize and move conversation forward
how to recognize, understand and appreciate, but assert your views
how to move from the past to the present to the future
how to manage win/lose aspects of conversations
In all of the various conversation dynamics the most important thing is to remember what the client says about him or herself. That is the key to raising energy levels; openness to your ideas and that is the key to action.
In giving advice, seek to help, not please your friend. ~Solon
Some excerpts from Source : Conversation Control Margerison C J (1988)
Because they are better than ours.....
I bet you've seen the stratagies 80% the clubs out there use to draw prospects in. You know the outdated stock photos and a lowball price. I was about tired of this junk when Jane rocked some sweet legwarmers back in the day.
So what's a smart club owner to do?
Why not borrow from other industries like I do especcially the super effective direct response pros. All direct response folks use these various techniques and get results. Some we have borrowed with success while other we have all but ignored. Here's some ideas!
I) All Marketing:
Irresistible Offer
No marketing campaign to acquire new customers will perform well without a great offer.
Classic Examples:
Free Bonus Gift (i.e. McDonald's toy with Happy Meal, Cracker Jack prize, smoothie)
Money-Back-Plus Guarantee (more than money-back)
Pay Later, Pay Over Time
Get entered to win valuable prize just for stopping by ( iPod, vacation, etc)
Bring a friend, and your Enrollment is free.
Benefits-Make a list of all the key benefits of your club to the user
Highlight the biggest benefit and make a big promise (not a preposterous promise)
But mention all benefits somewhere in the ad.
Emphasize an important "hidden benefit" (i.e a “hidden benefit” of weight loss can cut down on health care costs.)
Proof
Include testimonials from ecstatic members.
Testimonials should be about the difference your club made in the lives of real people – your members.
Headlines and Sub-Heads:
Create intrigue to catch attention of "skimmers."
Photos
People want to see what they are getting.
Stunts, Events and "Happenings":
Example: GoDaddy.com Super Bowl ads are stunts.
Free food, (Free food packs a club).
Free seminar (Nutrition Info is always welcomed)
Call-to-Action:
Every marketing message should have a “call-to-action.” In other words, tell your reader/listener exactly what to do with clear instructions. “Call 1-800-XYZX” is a “call-to-action”
Make your “call-to-action” stand out. Set it a apart in a box. Make it easy to find. People want to know exactly what to do. Once they decide they want something, they want to know how to get it.
II) Direct Mail:
Unusual Packaging
Black plastic carrier
$1 bill showing through window
FedEx, USPS Priority
Big envelopes usually pull better than standard #10 -- often 100% better
Small envelopes (Monarch size) look more personal that #10s
Personalized Package to look like wedding or party invitation
Closed-face carrier to look like personal letter from friend
Hand-address in blue ink (computers can imitated hand-addressing)
First Class postage (real stamps, not meter)
Scannability:
Make your letters and ads scannable, easy on the eye.
Your headline, subheads and photos help
Keep paragraphs short – one sentence, even one word sometimes.
Underline key phrases (not entire sentences, just fragments)
Use bullets when listing items.
No one wants to be greeted with a big block of dense text
Handwritten notes in margins can be a nice touch.
III) Internet Marketing:
Add audio and video to your site.
Incorporate many of the above strategies.
IV) Traditional Advertising:
Make print ads look like articles, this alone can boost response to your ads 500%
Use mass-market advertising primarily for lead generation (not selling).
Offer something of value free to get people to respond.
Make sure your free gift is valuable and exactly in line with what we sell ......Health & Fitness
Add those who request your free offer to your list of hot leads so you can follow up with your "prospect and customer cultivation program."
If you have a ton of prospects you can sell a lot of members.
Happy Marketing!
As part of our National Membership Initiative…
Vitality Marketing Group has selected several health clubs across the country as ideal candidates to participate in our “Recession Busting” ZERO COST New Membership Program
What exactly does that mean? The Recession has affected us all. However, it's the clubs who are aggressively marketing right now that are getting amazing results. But how do you market your club if sales are down and money is tight?
That’s where we come in…We can help you generate more members at your health club. For years Vitality Marketing Group has helped clubs across North America boost membership, increase supplemental revenue and develop more systematized business models. Our campaign and consulting services are some of the most sought after programs in the industry. Here are just a few examples of our results in 2009 alone.
Over 400 new memberships in 6 weeks in Massachusetts!
$17,000 in membership sales in 1 DAY in Alabama!
$48,000 in new membership sales in 1 WEEK!
All of these results were achieved at ABSOLUTELY ZERO COST to our clients. We are so confident in our membership campaign services that WE PAY for your marketing, train your staff, and bring HUNDREDS of new members to your facility at NO COST and NO RISK to you!
Hurry, As of the Printing of This Letter, We have only 4 spaces available.
Many are skeptical at first, we understand. Please visit http://www.gymmarketing.com/ to learn more about us and to download our Free Gift to you. Our 130 page book “Guerrilla Marketing for Health Clubs”. Do your research on us, and when you are confident we are the REAL deal…
Fill out your Club Profile at http://www.gymmarketing.com/ or call us at
1-800-583-1594 to learn more about this amazing program
and find out if it’s right for you and Your Health Club!
WHO CARES!!! When it comes to marketing.
Color plays a pivotal role in a website's impact, and as such must becarefully considered. This is especially crucial when the site inquestion is used for business/professional purposes. Before delving into the specifics of color selection for your gym's websites, here are a few general rules for color usage in websites:- Don't use yellow for web page backgrounds - it causes eyestrain- Avoid black backgrounds - these essentially limit text color choice to white and yellow, which can look garish and hard on the eyes against black- If in doubt, use black text on white background - while not very original, this color combination ensures optimal readability. In any case, choose a text color that constrasts with your background; this is usually best achieved with dark text on a light background.- Choose from the 216 "browser-safe" colors, codes for which can be found at <>. If you stray outside these standard colors, your website colors may be distorted on some users'systems.With that quick primer behind us, let's talk business websites.To lend a professional, organic appearance to your website, your best bet is to choose a simple palette of a few matching colors. AdvancedMedia Productions suggests limiting yourself to three colors, andusing these colors strategically to group related objects or indicaterelationships between objects or segments of the page(http://www.boston-website-design.com/web-design-strategy.html). TheBuildStar Business Builder's Network(http://www.ibuildstar.com/colors.htm) has a similar philosophy,urging the business website designer to "create an identity through all your marketing and products with one or two colors you use over and over. This is a very basic and effective way to tie all your stuff together in the minds of customers."If you're not good at color coordinating, it's a good idea to consult a color wheel such as that found at http://www.visibone.com/colorlab. Complementary colors (that is, those found directly across fromeach other on the color wheel - e.g. red and green) are safe choices,as are neighboring shades. Which of these you choose, however, depends on what mood you choose to evoke - the contrast of complementary colors like orange and blue suggests excitement, while neighboring colors like green and blue suggest unity and harmony.According to one website, using different shades of the same color,called the monolithic approach, is the superior choice for professional website color schemes. The writer asserts that "single colors or Monoliths work best for business sites because of their more subtle suggestion," but cautions that this approach can be boring if overdone and may require "adding a contrasting black [to make] thecolor combo monochromatic and more interesting."(http://createafreewebsite.net/website_workshop/choosing_colors.html). But how do you choose the best starting color to work from? An important consideration in choosing the foundation color for your website is the emotional association it typically carries. While these associations can vary somewhat from culture to culture, they generally hold true for the majority of people. Here's a quick snapshot:Red: Daring, persuasive. Also hard on the eyes. Red is especiallyeffective in highlighting key text on black and white sites, and also works to liven up browns and tans.Blue: Suggests quality, trustworthiness, success, seriousness,calmness. A common choice for sales pages. In "What is the color ofyour website?", Andrew Lapointe suggests highlighting phrases like"Our history" or "Our mission statement" in blue(http://www.dotfactor.com/artman/publish/marketing_31.shtml). Lapointealso suggests avoiding purple, which connotes uncertainty andambiguity, and only using yellow to highlight key words and phrases.Pam Renovato, in "The Psychology of Color and Internet Marketing"(http://www.webmasterstop.com/articles/choose-website-colors.shtml),has some interesting comments on the use of grays and browns:"They suggest weight, or something heavy. This would provide yourvisitors with a feeling of stableness and strength. Emotions like thiswill help your visitors to associate your site with solidity andconfidence. Other colors such as burgundy, oyster, beige, blues willalso provide a feeling of solidity."Another important factor is the age of the target audience. Neutraltones work best with sites designed for an older audience, the targetdemographic for many business websites. You'll obviously also want toselect shades appropriate to your business, if any - as Ralph Hilliard points out in "How to choose your web site colors"(http://www.prowebsitemanagement.com/articles/websitecolors.html), a web designer who creates a black and green website for the Red Crosswill be out of business quickly. Hillard further stresses theimportance of color selection in marketing:"The BEST color for selling is the color that captures your primary audience emotionally," he posits. "If my audience is new mothers andI'm selling baby clothes, I guarantee you I can sell more clothes withsoft pinks, blues and purples than I could using bright reds, greensor black."When it comes down to it, choosing a professional website color schemeis as simple as the common sense guideline provided at the 1stsitefreeDesign tutorial (http://www.1stsitefree.com/design_colors.htm): "Use colors that compliment your subject matter and are relatively pleasing to the eye."It seems, then, that classic, rich, conservative, "serious" colors like blues, browns, burgundies and grays are your best bets for business websites.On a final note, however, there's always an exception that breaks allthe rules; according to "Website Colors That Sell" at the BuildStarBusiness Builder's Network (http://www.ibuildstar.com/colors.htm),"one study showed that the color combination with the most powerfulpsychological effect was yellow title, white text, on a dark blue background."Here's a final link for you:Cobalt Multimedia - Choosing colors for your website<>
Labels: Advertising, Gym Marketing, Health Club, Marketing
