One Source of Truth - Consolidating Data in Fitness for Better Engagement

The ability to engage with your audience is entirely dependent on your ability to understand your audience.

Whether they are gym prospects or a long-term member of your fitness community, you need to know what makes them tick.

The only way to do this is to dig into the data. Of course, the amount of data available is proportionate to the amount of contact fitness operators have with each individual.

The more data, the clearer the picture becomes and the more targeted and personalized your engagement efforts are.

However, all members have to start life as a prospect, which presents a contradiction. The data you have on a prospect is both invaluable and extremely limited.

To put it another way, you need the data but you don’t have a lot to go on. 

But this is where creating a single source of truth for all your fitness center’s data will transform your business. 

Consolidating data gives fitness operators the ability to act on any change or insight about prospects or members, as soon as it enters the business. 

Applying it to your outreach and member engagement activity can deliver the kind of value that earns lifelong members.

Managing Gym Prospect Data

When a lead comes into your business there isn’t always a lot to go on. At least, that’s how it can look on the surface. Especially if data is scattered across your business.

Not to mention the task of manually extracting leads from across your channels is time-consuming and at risk of error. Copying and pasting data from Facebook or Mailchimp, or worse, trying to make sense of it in spreadsheets, can and does result in big gaps or missed leads.

Even once you’ve consolidated your data into a spreadsheet you then have to manually analyze and segment it - assuming you’re segmenting at all. Then create a campaign to invite them to sign up or attend a free trial.

It’s laborious, and tedious and ultimately, yields poor results. 

Unifying your data silos under a single member engagement platform pulls together every piece of data you have on each prospect or member. 

And every piece of data your prospects have shared with your fitness business is data that can be used.

The more questions you ask at the point of inquiry the more you have to act on. This zero-party data is proverbial gold dust as it gives you actionable data with which to market. 

But, even if all your prospects have given you is a name and an email address, you can contact them. And nothing is stopping you from sending a questionnaire to learn more about them to provide the most relevant services and membership plans.

Getting to grips with Gym Prospect Data

As soon as prospects start to supply you with zero-party data about their fitness journey you can start to segment them.

Additionally, using a member engagement platform or CRM to consolidate your data means you can create journeys unique to each prospect.

If the prospect has been a member in the past, they have used your services on an ad-hoc basis, or even entered a competition, your data consolidating platform will make you aware.

The objective is to get whatever data you have about each of your club’s prospects into one place where it can be put to work.

Once you have the data you need to make sure you have a robust process in place so those leads don’t just sit there. As soon as that lead comes in you need steps in place to take timely action, such as:

• Acknowledge the inquiry

• Assign the lead to the relevant team member based on the lead’s stated interests

• They are put into the right workflow based on their segmentation

• They are nurtured with value-adding content relevant to their stated interests

• They are invited for a free trial

Leveraging Automation

Once you’ve got a handle on your data it quickly becomes clear how you can use it. Using automation, you can drop gym leads and members into flows based on behavior (first-party data) and interests (zero-party data).

This automation can nurture your different audiences towards the desired outcomes. Whether that’s becoming a member or signing up for classes.

Using conditional logic, you can create campaign triggers to send different emails, SMS, and Whatsapp messages depending on how your audience behaves.

If a prospect doesn’t convert from a sign-up email, you can create a rule that sends them an offer. This could be for a free trial or some kind of incentivized joining offer.

But if they do respond then they drop into a new campaign going through the induction process. Including a survey capturing key information about what they’re hoping to get from their fitness journey.

The data, in turn, is deposited into your membership engagement tool where it’s segmented and can be used to engage with the new member in the future.

In practical terms, these flows would work on simple rules. If a member is less than a week old and has attended once they receive email A. If they haven’t attended yet they receive email B.

Internally, if a member is less than a week old and has expressed an interest in nutrition, they receive an email from your resident nutritionist. The email can invite them to a free consultation which, if they accept, triggers a follow-up email asking them to complete a short survey.

Going further, you can send members NPS surveys at key milestones in their fitness journey. Negative responses can be added to a follow-up flow, and positive responses receive referral offers for their friends and family.

Applying a simple ‘if this, then that’ approach to your communication can deliver a significant amount of value early on for new members.

Membership Engagement

Your membership engagement strategy can pull many of the same levers as your membership sales efforts. The emphasis should be on delivering value and sustaining relevance.

Just as automation can drive conversions for new members, it can play an important role in boosting engagement and increasing ancillary revenue from your existing club members.

The data you hold on your members can range from workout habits and attendance patterns to preferred brands and buying habits. By leveraging this data, fitness operators can tailor offerings, from personalized workout plans to recommending a personal trainer. 

This approach enhances member satisfaction and fosters a sense of community and loyalty.

Collecting zero-party data through regular surveys and questionnaires allows fitness centers to better understand individual member needs. It lays the foundation for hyper-personalized experiences, demonstrating that the fitness center genuinely cares about its members' well-being.

By linking your systems under a marketing automation hub, you can create campaigns built around adding that next level of value. 

On a basic level, campaigns that trigger reminders ahead of classes establish a baseline level of care for your members. Especially when followed up with an email thanking them for attending or an alternative if they were a no-show. 

On a deeper level, by adding zero-party data into the mix, you can create campaigns based on preferences that encourage sign-ups. If members don’t engage, a subsequent email can invite them to a taster session. If they attend but don’t sign up, the campaign could offer an additional incentive. Or, using the first-party data you’ve gathered, offer them a class based on their activity in the gym to date.

The more data at your disposal the more granular your membership engagement strategy can be. 

Winning Back Members

The data consolidated into a member engagement platform can also be used to identify when a member is on the way out. Using predictive analytics, a member engagement platform can spot when member activity is on a downward trend. It can even identify the specific shifts in behavior. 

This gives you a clear, actionable, idea as to why the member is disengaging and what you can do about it. When these members are flagged, they can be put into a re-engagement nurture sequence, again with triggers to incentivize the member to return to the fold.

AI-powered Engagement

Introducing AI into the mix only makes things better. This predictive technology allows fitness centers to anticipate when a member might be at risk of dropping their membership. This can then trigger targeted engagement strategies to reengage with them. 

Furthermore, AI can create the content for the various lead generation, engagement, and retention campaigns fitness operators need to execute. And it can do so at scale.

This is significant considering the demand placed on gyms for content creation to be found on search engines. AI can significantly lighten that load and act as a creative marketing team in a box. 

The ability to create the kind of relevant and optimized content required to attract leads and drive engagement is game-changing for the fitness industry. 

The role AI can play in the fitness industry can’t be understated.

Creating the One Source of Truth

Gym lead generation and membership engagement activity in the fitness industry thrive when fitness operators strategically leverage their data. 

Consolidating data from across the business, to create one source of truth gives you a complete picture for every lead or member. 

It provides operators with complete clarity that brings with it the ability to take action.

The ability to leverage first-party and zero-party data allows fitness operators an unprecedented opportunity to create the experience their members want.

This industry-leading intelligence results in industry-leading value. Through personalized recommendations, timely interventions, and engaging content generated by AI, fitness centers can create an environment where members feel valued and motivated, resulting in increased retention and sustainable business growth.

For more information about how you can create one source of truth in your fitness center, get in touch and book your demo, today!