January is here!

It’s the time when your gym fills up with people eager to start or resume their sporting activity. A month of hard work, long class hours and high membership numbers, but a key month for every sports centre.

As we know it is difficult to prepare everything, we bring you this checklist so that you don’t miss anything at this crucial time. 

Check your busiest times and plan your offer accordingly.

Knowing your centre’s busiest times is vital in order to be able to respond to all the demand. Therefore, check the hours when you had the highest number of users during January 2020 and reinforce your offer of classes in those time slots.

Make it easy for those who want to come to your sports centre.

It is becoming increasingly difficult for us to call or go to the gym and we prefer to do everything online. For us as owners this takes a lot of work off our hands, so we also appreciate it. So make it easy for anyone who wants to start training with you. Online registrations, purchases and bookings are a must for this season.

Plan activities for children and teenagers.

The return to school after Christmas brings with it a return to gyms and extracurricular activities. Design an exclusive offer for them based on their most frequent time.

Create emal marketing campaigns

Create email marketing campaigns to let your customers and potential customers know about the reopening. Email marketing is a great tool to achieve better customer acquisition and loyalty, and the best thing is that you can automate it and make it work on its own.

Professionalise your image in networks and improve your positioning in searches.

Who hasn’t searched where to eat in Google? The same happens when you decide to join a gym. That’s why local SEO, the one where you appear on Google Maps, is crucial for your box. In the same way, your image on social networks can be decisive when deciding on one sports centre or another. For this reason, we recommend that you include photos of the spaces, classes and testimonials in your Google My Business profile.

Expand services.

What if this year you offer something else? Nutritional plans, physiotherapist service… We give you hints in our article with the latest 10 trends in the world of fitness. You don’t have to do it in your own box gym, you can also offer it as an external service. To do this, talk to centres near you and set up a partnership.

Freshen up your image.

Sometimes a simple coat of paint, a new floor, or a deep cleaning is enough to give your gym a renewed image that captures the attention of new clients.

Covid free centre

Make your box gym a covid free centre by fulfilling all the requirements imposed by your country. Once you meet all of them, communicate it as such. Undoubtedly, in these post-pandemic times it will be indispensable. Think about the regulations in terms of masks, covid passport, etc. But also, about disinfection, cleanliness of facilities, and internal rules.

Prepare and motivate your staff

January brings a lot of joy, but also a lot of work, stress and laziness. Don’t forget to prepare your staff for this month when stress is frequent. Calls, registrations, bookings… and a lot of people. Training your employees and reinforcing their attention in certain times can be important to avoid the dreaded burn out.

Spy on your direct competition.

Surely there is at least one other sports centre in your area. We are not telling you to base your actions on them but keep an eye on what they are doing in order not to be left behind.

How can I evaluate the results obtained? How can I know if I have done well in January or not? Well, here is a formula, which is not magic, but it will help you to know if you have made good use of this period. Check the number of registrations in January last year and subtract those who did not continue with you in January. Once you have the result, add a minimum of 10%*. The result will be the number continued registrations you should have in January.

January registrations – February cancellations = total clients + 10%*

*The percentage to be applied should take into account the health restrictions that were in place in your country or region at this time last year, and unlike this year.

Do you need a hand to prepare for this return to routine? Do you wonder if you have the ideal software to face the new season? We love January! In our call, Irantzu will share with you the best tricks to optimise the return to the box with our software.