Texting Turned into a Source of Revenue for These Health Clubs

The ubiquity of texting may be annoying to parents of teenagers and downright dangerous for anyone on the road with a texting driver. However, the fact that so many people are trained like Pavlov’s dogs to respond to the ding of their smart phone at the arrival of a text can be a source of revenue for businesses such as health clubs, according to Nick Miniello, vice president of sales and co-founder of Textmunication, a mobile marketing technology company. Last week, Miniello led a free webinar, sponsored by Jonas, sharing how club operators can cash in on missed revenue with texts. (The webinar is now available for free on-demand.)

Email marketing was the most used form of marketing for the participants in the webinar, but email marketing generates just a 15-18 percent open rate, according to Constant Contact. Texting generates a 97 percent open rate, Miniello said.

He shared how developing different SMS campaigns helped increase revenue for three health club brands.

One text by a nine-location Crunch Fitness franchisee helped him get 700 new memberships and more than $10,000 in revenue in 24 hours, Miniello said. The franchisee sent a text offer on membership to the phones of 21,000 people who were former members or were part of the club’s prospect database. That text got a 4 percent redemption compared to the typical 1 percent redemption of direct mail pieces, Miniello said.

WOW Workout World, an 11-club chain in New Jersey, increased its billing decline collectability by 12 percent by converting from a collections call center (who answers their phone anymore anyway?) to text messaging.

The operators of Big C Athletic Club, a high-end health club in Concord, California, wanted to increase the club’s membership base and acquire new leads, so they invested in a marketing campaign that used text messaging. They place an ad on a billboard at a BART subway stop near the club. The ad asked people waiting for the next train to text in a code to redeem or claim a free trial at the health club. The campaign generated 75 opt-in leads and converted 22 of those to memberships at dues of $75 per month.

To find out more about how texting can be a source of revenue, sign up for this free on-demand webinar, sponsored by Jonas.