Keeping up to speed with what is going on in the ever-changing fitness industry is not quite as easy you think, especially when you are faced with the task of running your own gym operation on a day to day basis.
Nonetheless, according to Rene Moos, CEO of BasicFit, the European Market Leader in value for fitness, it’s vital that Health Club Operators recognise the dynamic nature of the Health and Fitness landscape. Moos believes that if a Health Club Chain wants to become the Market Leader within its area of specialism, then they must stay ‘on trend’ and have the capacity to move with the times.
If conquering the market is all about staying ‘on trend’, then it is fair to say that an assessment of the latest innovations within fitness must be carried out as often as possible within your organisation? While the term ‘market trend analysis’ may strike fear into some, the reality is it is just the evaluation of industry data over an allocated moment in time, with the intention to identify any established trends or results that could be utilised to implement your business strategy. Does it still sound complicated? Fear not! In this post, I will highlight ways that you can keep tabs on what is trending within the fitness industry.
1. Connect with the industry influencers.
As a Health Club owner or senior member of staff, you may not feel you have the time and headspace to sift through every article out there on thought leadership. Oh, and picking up the latest edition of Health Club Management and actually reading it might seem like an almighty task when there’s a lot going on, and as for attending the latest IHRSA EU conference which may lead to your team needing to take time off work? Forget it!
If you’re in that mindset, you already need to change your thought process. I’ve recently posted articles about two concepts, (which likewise have come off the back of Rene Moos’ wise words) – the first refers to the importance of adopting a ‘need to achieve success (NaCh)’ mindset and the second refers to finding time and space to think creatively.
By NOT reading industry publications and NOT attending relevant events, you are depriving yourself of that thinking time, and you are entering a more ‘Need to Avoid Failure’ mindset. It’s time you stopped feeling guilty by being off your emails for 30 minutes or out of the office for a couple of days and started acknowledging the importance of connecting with the industry.
To make the time even more worthwhile, reach out to the people writing the articles if you want to learn more about what they have to say on their future fitness predictions, or hold a 15-minute conversation with one of the keynote speakers at the evening party.
Don’t just stop there, use social media to your advantage and take the time to follow the right people on LinkedIn. If you become part of their conversations you are more likely to continue to see their posts and keep up to date with the latest developments. So go on, start by reading 3 fitness publications per month and connect with at least 10 writers either via email or LinkedIn, keep following them and join in their conversations – encourage every Head of Department within your organisation to do the same and watch your organisational knowledge skyrocket.
2. Absorb industry research and trend reports
While Magazine and Trade Publications are good, to truly understand and get a real flavour of the fitness industries latest developments, you should consider buying and reading the industry reports that are readily available.
What’s the excuse this time? ‘They cost too much money’? Really, do they? If your Health Club is passionate about driving innovation you should understand the value an in-depth on the fitness industry report gives.
Once again, you should ensure every Department Manager is bought into this and encourage them to take ownership of accessing the reports they think they will benefit most from. Turn it into a competition whereby each department has to present back their most important findings and at the end has to pitch the latest idea. Pick a winner and offer the 3 best teams some form of prize or bonus. Just make sure you pick the right ‘Dragon’s’ to judge.
3. Use digital analytics
So now you’ve thought about the prospect of reading some major industry reports and considered engaging with some industry influencers, is that it? Well, not exactly, you can also use digital marketing tools to your advantage.
Use systems such as Google Trends, Google Keyword Planner, SemRush, HubSpot, whatever there is out there, to see what terms your customers are searching on the internet. Take advantage of Social Media listening tools to see what type of conversations your customers are having, such platforms may not only be advantageous for your future advertising campaigns but also may help you identify what areas your Health Club should conquer next.
If you have anyone within your organisation that loves numbers and likes to analyse data, typically someone who works in Finance or IT, make them accountable for looking at the wide array of analytical tools out there which can help you identify all the key trends – get them working with your Marketing Team so there are more people within your organisation bought into the wonderful, insightful world of digital analytics.
4. Listen to your members
So now you’ve listened to the industry influencers and studied all the statistics on the latest trends, just make sure you don’t forget about the ones who put the food on the table – your members! Don’t be afraid to have a chat with them and learn more about their pressure points to discover what your club can do better to help them.
I’ve already mentioned digital marketing tools to listen to customer conversation online, but make sure you have the correct tools in place to listen to your actual members offline. Ensure your Front Desk teams and Personal Trainers are open to talking to them about their ideas, get them running surveys to get an idea of what your members would like to see – these can be great ice breakers.
On that note, why not make your NPS system propose a question upon completion such as ‘Got a new idea or know about some technology that could make your experience better? If so, tell us more? This way your actual members could provide much-needed insight into exactly what your Health Club needs. Alongside that, use poll’s on your main social media pages to spark reaction among members, too.
5. Watch your competitors
Successful Health Clubs are not sheep, they are lions – they constantly strive to do things differently and have an appetite to break the mould. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep an eye on your competitors, after all, a lion each its prey every day. Take a look at your rivals website, inspect their reviews and get a gauge of their social media chatter to see what their members are saying. You never know, your bright new idea may also make you more attractive to their customers.
Remember though, don’t JUST focus on competitors who are based across the road or down the street, but look way further afield, think globally. If you know who the best Health Clubs are in the world, follow what they are doing. As the UK is generally quite advanced in capitalising on global trends you know that whatever is hot in one part of the world may well be the UK’s next biggest phenomenon.
Summary
Once you’ve started adopting all the right tactics in this post, you’ll no doubt see your whole team becoming more entrepreneurial and innovative. With that, there may be some ideas which you like and can easily fit into your existing operations as they are low risk. However, on the other hand, there may be some that you initially reject and show resistance towards because they simply don’t sit well with the systems you’ve got in place currently. Well, before you dismiss the ideas which involve the biggest change, just bear in mind that these ones may be the best for improving the success of your organisation long term. Never be afraid to ask the question, if we started this business from scratch, what would we do differently? Sometimes, change is not only good, but it’s also needed.
I’ll conclude with a very powerful quote by the one and only Steve Jobs – ‘Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity, not a threat.’