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USED GYM EQUIPMENT.COM FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Steve
Paterson Used Gym
Equipment.com (800)
884-1446 or 310-323-2984 Used Gym Equipment.com Explains The Future Of
Fitness Center Marketing And Sales To Give Their Customers An Advantage.
The Dot Coms Are Changing The World.
And Very Soon The Fitness Industry Will Be Flipped Upside Down.
So You Better Have Your Seat Belt Tight! ORANGE, CA -
July 2000 – Steve Paterson, VP of Marketing at UsedGymEquipment.com
has been in the refurbished fitness equipment business for more
than 12 years.
“ The most important
thing we do is help our customers lower there operating expenses, so they can
spend more on advertising and sales, says Paterson.” To stay
competitive in today’s market you have to stay aware of the best
marketing plans. Then
implement them into your own business strategy.
Generating profits is all about “innovation” and “sales”.
Everything else is just a business expense. This is why
we have released this valuable insight into the future of the fitness
industry. *** Do What The Dot.Coms Do ! Give away free Gym memberships, create a gigantic customer base, and
make Millions
of dollars in profits.
The
Dot.coms have changed the rules and are changing the way business is
done. Why is
Yahoo’s Real Corporate Net worth ten times greater than Robert
Murdochs FOX NETWORKS?
Because Yahoo gives its service away FREE. And what a valuable service it is. It’s FREE, no charge or obligation to buy anything ever. So how does
Yahoo make their money? By getting permission from their happy FREE customers, to advertise other businesses products and services to them. After Yahoo established good will with their clients they earned the right to make money on advertising revenue and commissions for sales to other businesses. If you haven’t heard of affiliate programs, you will. This business model has ‘EXPLODED” growth for all industries who use it’s power! It is not just another successful marketing campaign. It has changed marketing and sales forever. The face of business will never be the same. Very
soon, the Fitness industry will be flipped upside down, and you better have your seat belt tight. (*Get
the book Permission marketing by Seth Godin seth@permission.com
) This
is a frightening thought for Gym owners when they first hear about it.
“This won’t work in the
Gym industry,” they say. For most, this will be the first time (and not the
last) this concept has been explained.
It needs time to sink in and be digested, but study it please. Because the time will come where you must partner with it or
forever rest in peace. This is how a business model looks usingãFREE
Gym Membership’ Affiliate Strategy. (This
example is a hypothetical Fitness Business) FreeGyms.com
incorporates on November 20th Year 2000.
They open with 5 facilities within an 80-mile radius in beautiful
Southern California. After
they sign the building leases they start the process. The
first deal they put together is with 22 different businesses that agree
to buy all the fitness machines needed in each location. The agreement with these businesses is they pay for the
exercise machines and FreeGyms.com mounts a nice gold plated plaque that is 3” x
3” on each exercise machine. This
plaque promotes the donating business and gives their phone number and
website address. The
agreement states that these plaques will stay on each machine for at
least 3 years. The
benefits to each donating business is the 3 years of exposure to the
local members who will use each machine over 100 hours every month.
These participating businesses write off the fitness equipment
cost as a marketing expense in year one.
And get 3 years of exposure at no additional costs. The
next strategy to implement was member acquisition. Of course FreeGyms.com does not have a sales staff. So they used 2 very effective and cost free methods to harvest members by the thousands. The first strategy is Public Relations or Free Press. They followed the Paul Hartunians steps to free press ( call 973-509-5244 to get your free report on PR ). Instantly every local magazine, newspaper, radio show, and local cable channel wants to do a story about the gym chain who gives away free memberships to anyone over 21. The local news and CNN local edition race frantically to be the first to cover the story. In fact 3 news helicopters were circling over the 5 locations on opening day. The
other method to harvest members was also very effective.
Over a 30 day period FreeGyms.com contacted 500
local businesses and gave each business gift certificates for a FREE
year gym membership at any of the 5 locations.
These businesses were instructed to give these certificates away
to all of “their” own customers.
These 500 businesses gave away an average of 50 free year
memberships every week. Which
brought in about 25,000
FreeGyms.com application
requests every week leading up to the grand opening. **There
are restrictions to this free membership. Members have to be over 21.
And everyone must fill out the membership application correctly
and completely before their membership card is issued. This application demands the member agree to be
marketed to by FreeGyms.com
business associates. And
this application has 33 questions about lifestyle, buying habits, and
income level. If any part
of the form is not completed or if the marketing waiver is not signed
the application for the FreeGyms.com
membership is declined. At opening day FreeGyms.com had 25,000 applications completed correctly and after 2 weeks 100,000 membership cards were issued between the 5 locations. Needless
to say FreeGyms.com was the talk of Southern California.
Which was the plan because this publicity leads FreeGyms.com into their next (most important) strategy. The
next step was most important because it’s how FreeGyms.com makes money.
By building partnerships with businesses who sell products and
services to customers like FreeGyms.com
customers. With 5% of
the new member’s local business owners, it made this task that much
easier. FreeGyms.com explained
the marketing philosophy behind giving away a free gym membership. They explained they gave this very valuable gift away
with the members understanding of what FreeGyms.com
wanted in return. The
new members understood they must accept all the advertising efforts by FreeGyms.com
business associates. They
explained how these participating businesses have sponsored their free
membership. And to
guarantee this free gym strategy continues the members are asked to buy
the products they need, from these affiliate businesses. They
explained to the potential business associates this free gift strategy.
And how it links to basic human emotions that creates good will
from the free members. After
the affiliates understood the benefits to their business, they signed up to be partners as fast as they
could. Now
the most creative and interesting part of this ÓFree
Gym Membership
marketing strategy is the partnerships.
And all the methods for producing income for FreeGyms.com
and generating sales for the business associates involved in the
program. Following
is a brief description of some of the great techniques used to generate
profits for FreeGyms.com
and for the associate partners. 1)
Every month a Promo Pak was mailed to each member at home. This Pak is mailed in a box with over 100 coupons, free
samples, brochures, 2 for 1 specials and an assortment of offers.
All geared towards FreeGyms.com members.
Different businesses participated with one of the 5
locations or all 5 depending on the business involved.
The charge for each business was $325 per location each month.
The members were excited to receive the Pak every
month because of all the coupons and special offers. This Pak generated approximately $130,000.oo in PROFITS every month between the 5 locations. 2)
Another profit generator was the indoor billboard advertisements.
FreeGyms.com hired an
interior design expert who created large
colorful frames that hang on just about every available wall space in
each gym. Inside each frame was a colorful (poster size)
billboard ad promoting each participating business. It was done with creative design and congruent colors.
And very appealing to the eyes and worked with the gyms interior
design. Each billboard ad generated $600 per month and there
were 340 billboard ads between the 5 locations. Which generated $204,000
in profits every month for FreeGyms.com. 3)
The next affiliate strategy was compared to running a mini
trade-show in the lobbies of all
5 locations at FreeGyms.com.
What they did was rent table/booth space to 4 different
businesses at a time (in each location). The tables were placed just off to the side of the front
desk/lobby area. The
members could easily walk past these promotions or simply take advantage
of the special offers for the week. The table/booths generated $500 each per week. 4 booths in each location contributed $10,000 every week in revenues or $40,000 every month. The booth vendors would have one representative
seated to answer questions and hand out brochures and coupons to
interested members. A very
low key but effective presentation considering all the traffic flow
going past the front desk. 4)
Another very profitable affiliate strategy was accomplished with
a, back end, profit generating company called GymBusiness.com
Group. GymBusiness.com Group
( deborah@gymbusiness.com )
brought in profit generating products and trained FreeGyms.com
staff to sell these products and health related seminar courses.
They came in with the motive to “make
FreeGyms.com make more money
from the members they already have”. The areas of products ranged from I.N.T. Nutritionalysis and vitamin supplement sales. And 4-week health related courses conducted classroom style at night and on the weekends to paying members of FreeGyms.com. The GymBusiness.com
Group profit generating programs generated an average of $25,000
every month per location. This
resulted in $125,000.oo in gross profits every 4 weeks between the 5
locations. 5)
The
ãGift
Shop Affiliate Strategy
was a big hit and huge time saver for the FreeGyms.com members who used the service.
When the gyms were designed a one thousand square foot Gift shop
was built just off the main entrance. All the products and services available at the gift
shop were on-line at the FreeGyms.com
Website. The members
could order on-line gifts for all occasions that would be packed and
shipped and mailed to the recipient.
The members received a 15% discount off retail for the items they
ordered and free gift-wrapping. There was also a catalogue that allowed members to
buy products from affiliate partners on the FreeGyms.com Website.
Or they could order when they came into the gym.
The gift shop served as a pro shop too and sales and special
offers were emailed to all the members.
So sales were made to the 70% of the members who rarely (or
never) came into the gym. The FreeGyms.com
gift shop became a big hit and sales were $100,000 every month at each
location. This
brought in gross profits of nearly $200,000 every month on sales of half
a million. *** FreeGyms.com had 200,000 members 90 days after they
opened. When
you have this many local residents and business’s that feel obligated
to buy from you because you gave them a FREE gym membership.
You have a very attentive audience.
This is the magic formula that weaves all these strategies
together and brings in profits faster than you can hire accountants to
count it. The playing field will change and you better have your affiliate partners in place or you will have a tough time keeping your doors open. To wrap it up, I have shown you 5 affiliate program
strategies that generate profits.
There are over 100 methods known today. FreeGyms.com generated 12
million dollars in gross PROFITS
at the end of the first year without ever selling a gym membership ! I think you can agree that this business model shows
potential to say the least. Now
the next question is what fitness chain is going to make the first move
and lay the cable? Will
it be called FreeGyms.com,
FreeFitnessCenters.com, or maybe
FreeHealthClubs.com. Or
will the winner be the club chain who doesn’t change their name but
change there whole business model and implement the ãFree
Gym Membership Affiliate Strategy. Nobody
knows at this stage of the game. But for sure you will hear about gyms using this
marketing strategy before January 2002. To Smart Business Steve Paterson Used Fitness Equipment Professionals
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