As your health club starts to create a large content library and social media presence, online marketing must start to focus on boosting your visitor-to-customer conversion rate. All that web traffic looks great, but if your readers and followers are not buying memberships, classes, training sessions, or products, then it is all a bit worthless. Don’t you agree? The way this is done is by nurturing your leads, which is essentially building relationships at every stage of the decision-making process.
Your health club website and social channels are not advertisements. They are two-way communication tools. These platforms are a way for your target and members to learn about you, and vice versa. If all that communication is going one way, it is very difficult to attract people in and guide them deeper into your sales funnel. Below are several tips to help nurture leads and convert website visitors into club members.
1. Engage on Social Media – Potential members are not only evaluating you based on your content and marketing, but also how well you respond to questions, comments, and concerns. In fact, if you are not going to spend time engaging with your audience, it is almost better not to have a social media account. Bad customer service is unforgivable.
2. Respond to Blog Comments – Much like social media engagement, it is important to respond to comments left on your blog, even if it is just to thank them for taking the time to express an opinion. People want to know that there are real people behind the website, and that everything is not just about trying to sell them something.
3. Calls-to-Action & Landing Pages – Every content page on your website must be written with a desired end result in mind. However, you should not presume that your readers will instinctively know what that natural next step should be. A strong call-to-action will help guide visitors to an optimized landing page for capturing lead content information. This personal information is freely given in exchange for a newsletter subscription, a free fitness e-book, or a free day at your health club.
4. Email Marketing – People despise spam. However, opt-in email is one of the most effective forms of marketing, especially when it is personalized or linked to an action. When a person signs up for your newsletter, you can collect a lot of information about what is important to them. As a result, you can send that person exactly the kinds of articles and messaging they want.
Ultimately, nurturing leads comes down to effective frequency and creating a touch system. Consumers don’t move in straight lines and can take weeks or months before being ready to take action. Nurturing leads is about effectively using the time between a person’s initial contact with your health club’s website, or social media channel, and the time they are ready to buy a health club membership. You are building a relationship, creating goodwill, and becoming their obvious choice.
Do you have questions? What haven’t we covered yet that is important to you? If you would like to talk about how to convert website visitors into health club members, or a related topic, please contact us.
