As those contacts accumulate, they cement an image of your health club or wellness business in the mind of the potential customer: “fun and high-energy” or “trusted health advisor”, for example.
You can accelerate this process in two ways:
First, increase the frequency of exposure.
- Sending a postcard four times annually is better than just sending it once.
- A monthly email newsletter usually works better than a twice-yearly newsletter.
- And fifteen promotional emails sent throughout the year work far better than a one-time-only holiday promotion.
Second, mix up your marketing methods.
Why? Because using a variety of marketing tactics makes your marketing messages much more memorable. You keep your marketing messages consistent – and you keep your customer’s interest by varying the ways (also called channels) in which you deliver those messages.
The email marketing channel is so cheap that it’s tempting to rely on it exclusively.
Yet diverse marketing that blends online and offline tactics is much “stickier.” These integrated marketing tactics mean that your potential customer retains a clearer and much stronger memory of your business.
Online channels include website marketing, email marketing and pay-per-click advertising as well as blogging and other social media activities. Offline tactics include networking, event marketing like open houses, free seminars and charitable events, plus posters, flyers, phone calls and advertising of all kinds.
For example, you might send a marketing email linked to a themed page on your website where people sign up for a free public seminar. After they attend the seminar, you follow up with a marketing postcard. Your business card and email signature include related marketing messages and offer.
Ping-ponging back and forth between different channels – email, direct mail, website, events, social media, etc. – makes it easy to increase frequency and variety.
The payoff: a clearer and stronger memory of your business in the mind of your potential customer or member.
Which of these integrated marketing examples can your health or wellness business capitalize on?
1) Promote special holiday offers at your wellness center
Create a special webpage that features your holiday promotions. Send a marketing email that recaps these offers. Hand out flyers at the front desk and in classes. Print static-cling posters for your front windows and mirrors in your facility and restrooms. Include a banner ad in your monthly email newsletter. As the last day to purchase approaches, Tweet reminders.
Techniques: landing page, email advertisement, printed flyer, printed static-cling posters, email newsletter, Twitter
Total “touches”: 6
2) Attract new clients and members to your personal training business
Convert your business card into the world’s smallest billboard. Partner with a complementary business to provide “try us out free” coupons that echo the call to action from the business card. Set up your email marketing service so that the coupon is automatically sent to new subscribers, and include it in your monthly email newsletter.
Techniques: business card, printed coupon, email advertisement, email newsletter
Total “touches”: 4
3) Encourage referrals to your yoga studio
Schedule an open house. Market it through printed flyers and posters. Market it via email through networking partners like the Chamber of Commerce. Give clients and members individual invitations encouraging them to bring a friend or coworker. Promote it through your Facebook page.
Techniques: event, printed posters and flyers, email advertisement, printed invitations, Facebook
Total “touches”: 6
4) Generate corporate wellness leads
Schedule a free webinar. Attend employer conferences and display banners and other trade show advertising in your booth. Hand out invitation cards pointing people to a registration link on a specially-themed page on your website. Place a display ad in the conference program promoting the webinar. Write a directory listing for the conference program that reinforces your marketing themes. Collect email addresses at your conference booth and send follow-up emails inviting people to the webinar.
Techniques: event, landing page, printed conference booth advertising, printed invites, paid display ad, paid directory listing, email invitations
Total “touches”: 7
5) Reinforce member loyalty to your health club
Host local experts at a special briefing on a topic that matters to the members who are your most enthusiastic champions. Call each client individually to invite them and encourage them to invite a guest. After the event, send personal thank you notes.
Techniques: networking, telephone calls, handwritten notes, event
Total “touches”: 4
