Rick Mayo, Alloy Founder/CEO, and Matt Helland discuss personal training marketing strategies to increase brand ascension and the lifetime value of a customer by increasing revenue and customer retention.
One of the big reasons Alloy Personal Training is so successful is our customer brand loyalty and long term client retention. We’re really proud that our clients enjoy the brand and what the goals Alloy is helping them achieve. There is a lot of research that supports the customer ascension model, which is if people can go deeper into a brand then they will stay longer. In this model, they are on a customer journey which leads to increased revenue and higher retention.
In the Alloy franchise documents, we reference our high retention levels. We have clients who have been with us for 20 or 30 years. A lot of the reason for our high retention levels is that we created ways for customers to ascend within the brand with revenue and retention programs.
Brand Ascension Strategies To Increase Revenue and Retention
- ✅ Customer Ascension Model
- ✅ Growing Memberships
- ✅ Solution-Based Sales
- ✅ Drive Sales With Customer Reward Programs
- ✅ Increasing Customer Personal Touch Points
One way to create ascension with your brand is to provide additional selling opportunities to help customers with their fitness journey and engage with the brand longer. You can also provide additional fitness levels and goals for them to reach.
In this customer journey, the deeper you get involved with the brand there is a deeper financial commitment to that brand. By providing these vehicles for ascension, not only do you drive more revenue, but that revenue will also then drive a higher retention rate.
We also have a customer reward program called the Alloy Milestone Program, where people are rewarded on the number of visits they have achieved. Imagine getting to 25 visits, 50 visits, and by 250 visits, you’re really invested in that place.
Another way to create ascension is to drive workout frequency. At first you may come only one day a week, then we encourage use of the Alloy app to drive extra workouts where they can do additional workouts on their own. About 90% of our customers do either two or three days a week. By ascending them to more sessions per week, not only are they bringing in more revenue, but they are getting more value because their price per session decreases. Not only do they get a better value, but they’re getting more exposure to you, while becoming more accountable and building self-efficacy because they are showing up to the gym more days a week.
Another way to ascend them is to upgrade to other memberships or sell them ancillary products that also speak to their goals. Make sure these products are solution based on things that the customer needs to reach their goals. Supplements are an example. We have a philosophy around nutrition, like make sure you get adequate protein based on what fitness goals you have. Our app can use the My Fitness Pal app to track your protein intake for a week. Most people are under shooting, especially in the age category that we’re targeting. With age, you don’t process food as efficiently as younger folks do. So that means you sort of have to overshoot your protein goals to actually help your fitness level. There are a myriad of reasons for increasing protein, from satiety to processing it for muscle, which is something as you age you want to maintain lean tissue by increased muscle mass and reduced fat tissue.
Supplements should be a solution that will help people achieve their goals sooner. Our clientele are very smart, experienced and savvy consumers. They will see right through anything that is not part of their ascension process to reach their goals. So make sure anything you add to this ascension list of ancillary services or products will benefit the client and their journey.
Convenience is a big part of our success as our customers are very successful and don’t have a lot of time. We help people get where they need faster and save them time. So time is very important and is precious to them. If you can save them time and achieve their goals, then they will keep coming back and ascend with your brand.
In addition, with brand loyalty, we have customers that want clothing and fitness gear. We have Alloy logo wear franchisees can buy at a steep discount, and then sell it at retail to their clientele. Then we will do some additional customer rewards if they wear the Alloy logo wear in to work out. They get their name in the hat and we do a drawing at the end of the month. The drawing will be for an additional personal training session or a protein shake. This drives revenue, but also retention while rewarding your customers.
We also have additional rewards program that tracks customer points for referring somebody the gym for points or certain behaviors like checking in online. Clients can use those points to buy Alloy swag or gift cards. All the rewards and tracking is automated through our CRM.
We also have a structure built around things that help retention, like client follow-up and messaging systems. For example, if you are new, you’re going to get a personal touch with a pat on the back for showing up. If you didn’t show up, you’re going to get a message that “We missed you today and hope you’re okay. Looking forward to seeing you for the next session.” Just some accountability to know that someone out there missed you and is counting on you and waiting for you to be there. The way Alloy we build small group sessions, the client feels that accountability from the other people in the group and the coach for each session.
With our small group personal training of up to six people, there’s something about a small group of people that gets to know each other really well that adds a lot more accountability. So it’s not only the coach typically reaching out that is part of our business process, but inevitably, the other people in the session will also reach out. People in the group pick their time slots and build their life around it. That’s how you build a habit. You always work out at this time and you plan around that. That also means that the other five people in your group are counting on you to show up. So you’re going to hear from the other people in the group when you don’t show up for the workout.
Besides increasing client revenue, retention strategies such as reward programs, milestone programs, and increased personal touch points make clients stick longer, which increases their lifetime value.
Tune in to this episode as Rick and Matt explore the different ways you can increase revenue and retention in your personal training business and increase the lifetime value of your customer.
Podcast with: Rick Mayo and Matt Helland
- New Alloy Franchises opening up (01:24)
- How to ascend customers through your model (04:42)
- Getting clients from lower to higher-priced memberships (07:06)
- Solution-based sales (09:24)
- How rewards program helps drive more sales (15:03)
- Increasing personal touchpoints to drive more sales (18:30)
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