Your agency can help struggling gym owners get back on track by engaging members differently depending on how they feel about the current health crisis.
Gym members have had a range of reactions to the COVID-19 problem. Some have not returned to the gym since the pandemic started while others came back the day their gym reopened with new health safety measures in place.
WiFi marketing is the key to engaging those polar opposite groups, and the people in between those extremes, with messages that speak to their comfort level. In email and social media marketing campaigns, you can leverage intel gained from the business’ WiFi network to create messaging that addresses the COVID-19-related concerns of your client’s customers.
In this article, we’ll explore how gym members are currently feeling about their gyms and define three groups you can target with specialized marketing outreach that accounts for their reaction to the pandemic.
A Range of Responses from Gym Members
The pandemic has changed many but not all gym members’ attitudes toward your client’s gym, and among those with a new outlook, the change is not universal.
The reason for this variance in the attitude of gym members can be broken down into two factors:
- How much do they miss going to the gym? People assigned a different value to gym visitation after factoring in new health safety concerns. Hardcore exercisers felt the loss of gym access more deeply than those who work out on a more casual basis, and that difference will be reflected in the attendance of both those member types.
- What has your client done to make the gym safe? Members that have returned already might have done so because of the gym’s well-announced health safety changes. If the gym has implemented new safety procedures but has not let customers know about them, that could be why some members have not returned.
Your messaging must be tailored to the members’ attitudes, and WiFi marketing reveals what those attitudes are. In the next section, we’ll define three segments of your gym-member target audience and give you some advice on the kind of messaging those groups should see.
Understanding Gym Members During the Pandemic—Three Important Segments
You can use WiFi analytics to identify three kinds of gym members based on their feelings about COVID-19 safety. The gym’s WiFi network is the source of valuable customer intel, specifically, the dates of each member’s recent visits and how long they stayed each time. We’ll discuss those metrics in more detail later, but now, let’s look at three gym member types that you can reach out to.
Reassure Reluctant Members
Some people haven’t entered a grocery store since the pandemic started, much less a restaurant or gym. Members who have not visited the gym since March 2020 will require your most carefully worded email and social media messages. They’re freaked out and need to be reassured about the gym being a safe environment. They need to hear about your client’s social distancing measures, cleaning protocol, and mask policy.
A hard sell of any kind is not appropriate for people in this mindset. For example, to scared gym patrons, a simple discount offer may appear like a lure that’s meant to distract them from valid safety concerns. Make your initial outreach to this group all about the measures your client has taken to ensure the safety of their members.
Encourage Willing Members
Your client may have some members who’ve visited the gym recently, but they’re doing it much less often than they did before the pandemic. Those are members who are willing to use the gym during the health crisis, but they need some encouragement. Also, in this group, you may have members who have visited the gym once or twice since the pandemic began, each time staying just a few minutes.
This group is a prime target for a two-pronged approach—send them a message that highlights your client’s commitment to coronavirus safety, and include a compelling discount offer.
Reward Eager Members
Some of your client’s members were devastated by even a short gym closure. Eager to resume their workout regimen, they returned at the first opportunity. These people probably appreciate the safety measures that have been implemented, but it’s reasonable to assume COVID-19 health concerns won’t get in the way of their workouts.
Members who have been visiting the gym regularly and stayed for a while each time will be your most promising conversion targets for all your client’s marketing initiatives. You can expect this audience to be a fraction of its pre-pandemic size, so you must make the most of it. Reach out to this segment with your full array of promotional messaging, general engagement communications, discount offers, and loyalty messages.
Two Powerful WiFi Analytics Do the Trick
WiFi marketing makes tailoring your outreach based on gym members’ COVID comfort level a piece of cake.
- When was a member’s last gym visit?
- How many times did the member visit since March 2020?
- How long did the member stay each time?
In the world of WiFi analytics, that’s basic stuff!
It comes down to two metrics: Visit Date and Dwell Time. That info is all you need to adjust your marketing campaigns as described in this article.
Bring up your customer data, sort and filter as needed, and, voila, you have three email lists. If you craft your copy with care, you’ll see nervous gym members become more open to coming back, and those who were already partially on board will transform back into the regular customers they once were.
Loyal members who haven’t missed a beat since the pandemic began will respond well to a statement that stresses how much your client appreciates them. They’re also prime targets for outreach designed to increase their engagement with the gym.
WiFi Marketing Supplies the Customer Intel You Need
Your gym client’s WiFi network is the key to getting that gym back on its feet.
As you probably know from before the pandemic, there’s no customer engagement goal that WiFi marketing can’t help you achieve. Reaching out to gym members based on how they feel about COVID-19 is just the latest use for this cutting-edge practice.
We hope this article has given you some ideas about how to use WiFi analytics to engage gym customers based on their level of concern about COVID-19.