It’s nice to see the world returning to normal in the wake of this bizarre pandemic! It’s only now in most parts of Canada all the Covid restrictions are falling away.
I finally see the trend developing that should see advanced recovery in a lot of industries in the coming months (namely the fitness industry)
So I just wanted to reach out today because well….it’s July.
July typically is the most poorly attended month of the year (followed by December) maybe it’s not that way everywhere but anywhere that has 4 seasons I’ve noticed this to be true.
It’s also a time of year that’s it’s more challenging typically to create a steady stream of new trials (not always but if you weren’t gearing up for this season that’s fairly typical.)
So what should you be doing in July?
1) Think ahead to September. We all know September post Labour Day is a key time for people to start thinking about their own routines. I’d argue it’s the true beginning to our 9 month peak season (not January.)
This is where the “Whole Summer Deal” came in.
We found there were still plenty of people throughout the summer that were looking to get started and take their health more seriously (in fact many of the “get in shape for summer” pundits still hope they can accomplish that even this late in the game.)
The commonality with these consumers is getting started needs to address one very specific fear, “I don’t want to waste money on time I am not going to use…maybe I should wait until September.”
We found most people typically holiday for about 2-3 weeks through the course of the summer, so on average we tried to offer up about 4 weeks of service free as part of the Whole Summer Deal. For most this made it attractive enough for them to commit now and get started because they really had nothing to lose. (This is for brand new clients only of course, and not applicable to exiting memberships.)
There’s a variety of ways you can package this, it can be the whole summer at a greatly reduced cost as your outward promotion.
Internally as time ticks away you may need to alter the deal to reflect. The goal was always to have an aggressive promotion to get people in our system now with the goal of having a renewal plan for just after Labour Day as this always fit people’s commitment cycle.
A pro-tip we often was to price the deal aggressively, but not as aggressive as we might have been willing, in addition to the price point as a selling feature to help close the deal when we met with prospects was to explain that we also offered them a reimbursement for any time missed on this particular program (which basically made it a no brainer) but the key is that reimbursement came by way of a renewal onto a long term program in the fall.
It’s never about the first sale, it’s always about the long-term value of the customer.
Here’s a copy & paste example of one of our old emails for this promotion:
Notes about promo:
- We always began offering this somewhere in mid June through to the middle of July, the price was typically about 1 month price X 1.3
- As a general rule the agreement stated this program would automatically renew in September at our ongoing month-to-month price (typically unlimited) and as a courtesy we would contact the customer right after Labour Day weekend prior to billing them (this is a key time for people to return to fitness, so often many would first hesitate then sometimes ask for the courtesy to delay the start one week until kids were firmly back to school, this always boded well for us to ensure they continued come September.)
Subject lines:
Subject 1 – Summer Already?! Special offer inside 😉
SUB 2 – Whole summer one low price (For A Limited Time)
SUB 3 – In case you missed this…(Big savings for you.)
Send the same email 3 times with the above subject lines.
Email:
Can you believe it’s summer already!?
Doesn’t the first half of the year just seem to fly by?
The weather is finally getting nicer. People are walking, biking, swimming and playing outside.
Have you ever said “I don’t need my gym membership in the summer because I’m going to be more active outside?”
I hear this all the time, and while people generally have really good intentions about this, it doesn’t usually work the way we want it to.
It’s not even necessarily that people are less active, it’s just that we eat and drink a lot of extra empty calories in the summer.
Ice cream, drinks on the patio and lots of bbq. You can relate right?
With all these extra empty calories it doesn’t take long before we’re consuming more calories than we can burn by just being active outside in the summer months.
That’s why I went to the boss and told him we have to help! We have to help people stay accountable in the summer to their goals.
After some tough convincing, and a lot of back and forth emails, we came to an amazing agreement 🙂
I have a special offer for new clients to find a workout program that will work for the summer!
If you act fast I can offer you the whole summer, that’s from the day you sign up until August 31st for just a 1 time fee of $199(Your price). After the summer you’ll continue at our best unlimited VIP rate 🙂
The best part of this deal is everything we do is backed by an unconditional 30 day money back guarantee. If you don’t absolutely love boot camp in the first 30 days we will refund your money.
That’s unlimited boot camp sessions + accountability and nutrition support for 2 whole months for just $199(Your price)
Do you know what you can accomplish with this type of workout/support in 2 months? If you workout as often as you can and follow our nutrition guidance (while still indulging in a few summer treats) you are going to see some big changes. You’ll see changes in your energy levels, you’ll sleep better and you’re going to see some changes on the scale or in your clothing as well!
Who doesn’t want to buy a new fall outfit?!
Don’t miss out on this great opportunity, it’s only going to be around for a couple of days!
Reply to this email or text me today at (your phone) before time runs out!
Be #Unstoppable
SIGN OFF
The Fine Print – Only new clients and first time participants are eligible for this offer, no purchase is necessary and it may not be combined with any other offer unless otherwise stated. May not be applied to, combined with or replace current active trials or memberships of any kind.
2) Spend a little more on marketing in the summer. Look I know, Facebook etc, not like it used to be, but regardless in the summer months there’s more noise. People have many distractions, your message needs to be delivered more times to move them to action, this means your lead cost will be higher so to continue to acquire an adequate number of leads you are going to need to be advertising more not less. (This is why we use the Quarterly Business Review with my clients to track our average lead and customer costs so we can anticipate these costs quarter to quarter and budget accordingly.
3) This is a great time to review your operational policies. Every summer, but I’d say this summer more than ever, if you are not yet brimming with activity it’s a really good time to review your ops manuals. Fix any small problems that have developed, update and replace redundant policies because if you ever hope to step away from or create an exit in your business it’s this one document that will make or break that opportunity!
I’ve certainly seen a number of my clients are having an unusually busy summer as a result of the “pandemic” seemingly subsiding once and for all, it’s really great news to see consumer demand return in this fashion, and the best part, mark my words this will be magnified once we return to the normal seasonal trend cycle for our business.
Of course there will be new problems (like massive amounts of new competition coming) but more on that later!
Hope you are well, remember I am always here to help!
Cabel
P.S. Now that I can see a trend developing I’m cautiously taking a few new coaching clients. Coaching with me is different, I work closely with each individual, I don’t force you to operate in the same box as everyone else, it’s inefficient so I only service a handful of dedicated individuals. Sound like you? Click if you’d like more details on a business coaching consultation: https://calendly.com/cabelmcelderry/freeconsult
YES! Contact me today to schedule a FREE no obligation consultation and trial workout.