Health Clubs “Push the Button” of Email Communication, Part 2
Health Clubs “Push the Button” of Email Communication, Part 2
Written by Jon Nasta UK MD, Retention Management
Last time, we talked about why email is so important to running a successful health club. With a recent independent study showing that email communication has a significant positive effect on a person’s health and fitness and the cost benefits of an email programme over other communication methods, email is now taking centre stage for health clubs.
In Part 2 of our article, we look at how clubs can take advantage of email and what issues to look out for that could hinder your success.
How Can Health Centres Take Advantage of Email?
Collecting Email Addresses:
A vital part of a successful email campaign starts with collecting email addresses! While people are not keen to give their email address to everyone, it’s not usually too difficult to gather a reasonable list in a fairly short space of time.
Collecting the addresses of customers is likely to be far easier than prospects, particularly as you already have a relationship with them. Evidence shows that in most clubs, over 70% of members will attend at least once in a four week period, giving a club ample opportunity for collecting a healthy number of email addresses.
When starting a campaign to collect email addresses it is a good idea to create some posters and place them around the club explaining what you are doing, why and what your members can expect from giving their details. In our experience, clubs running an email collection campaign that offer a weekly prize draw, offering for example a PT session or day passes, return a much better result. Combine this technique with some of the methods we will discuss and it is not unusual to collect over 50% of your member addresses in a six week period, often over 70% in a twelve week period.
The most common way is to ask customers to leave their email address when they make a visit; you will need to give them some idea of how their address will be used. For example, “we will occasionally contact you with programme options, special offers, schedule changes or tips designed
to assist you in leading a healthy lifestyle”.
The information you give regarding the content and (approximate) frequency of your emails must be accurate, otherwise you could be putting you and your club at legal risk. Further information is in the Legal Issues section of this article.
One of the most effective ways to collect emails is to create a pop-up window on your website. This can be a pop-up on entry or exit. Incorporating an email subscriber box on each of your site’s web pages will significantly increase your sign-ups. Contests are a great way to capture opt-in email address.
Any time a customer or prospect phones you, walks in or does business with you, is an opportunity to capture their email address.
There are three main ways of signing up for an email list, they are as follows:
• You manually add an email address that has been written down for you.
• The person adds their email address by sending you an email request to join. (this can be automatic, or you take the address and add it to the list manually)
• The person adds their email address by filling in a form online.
People are much more likely to join your email list if they can do it quickly and easily, if you add their address manually then they can sign up quickly. If they can fill in a brief form online they can sign up quickly whilst they are already on your site. Many clubs utilise simple tear off strips placed in changing rooms or in the lounge that a member can quickly fill in and hand over to reception.
If someone has to email you, it is less quick, and therefore less likely to get the email added to your list. Although opening an email programme, entering your email address and typing “Please add me to this list” is not a huge task; it is still reliant on the person making some effort, when you should be making it as simple as possible for them.
You can add questions to online forms; this allows you to gather basic data on your customers such as age and gender. This data can help you to target your emails and other promotions, and can teach you more about your customer profiles. However, the more questions, and the more intrusive the questions, the less likely it is that your customers will want to answer them.
What issues should you look out for that could hinder your success?
Legal Issues
Is Email Marketing Spamming?
Spamming is a huge problem with email marketing; a ‘spam’ email is an unsolicited commercial email that is sent without the person giving permission. So is email marketing to your membership address list spamming? The simple answer is no; if someone has agreed to receive emails from you then, providing you follow legal guidelines, it is not spamming and you have the legal right to email them.
Unsolicited Messages
If someone has not given you their email address directly, and you have not received it from a verified list; it is against the law to send them commercial messages. Un-requested (Unsolicited) messages are spam, and you must not send them; even if you think the person would be interested in the contents.
The only possible exception is if you have a long standing business relationship; if for example, the customer purchases from you every month for a year, Health clubs fall into this category, however this does not mean you can disregard other rules about spam mail.
Opting-out
Even though someone has given you their email address, they still have the right to opt-out and prevent any further emails. You must make it easy for people to remove their name from your list, and you need to include easy instructions on how to do so. If they choose to remove themselves you must remove their address and not send any further mails.
Frequency
If you sign people to your email list, you must give them an accurate idea of how many emails they will get. You don’t have to say “one email every 18 days”, but you should differentiate between regular (Approx daily to weekly), occasional (Approx fortnightly to monthly), and rare (Approx less than once a month) communication to prevent irritating recipients.
If you say ‘occasional emails’ and then send 3 a day, people will get fed up and remove their addresses very quickly, but if you say one a day then send one a month people may forget about you; so be realistic with what you plan to send.
Sending
When you send your emails you MUST make sure that each person only sees their email address. This may mean sending each email separately, or using the ‘BCC’ function in your email programme/facility. BCC hides the email addresses that each email is being sent to, this way people cannot steal other peoples addresses by reading it.
Do not use the CC function, otherwise everyone will see all the email addresses.
Privacy
You must protect and keep private each and every email address. Do not sell or give away anybody’s email addresses to other companies or people. You can ask for permission to pass on their details to other reputable companies (I.e.: Companies that you believe are trustworthy and of interest to the customer only), but most people will not want to do this. You should make sure that your customers are aware that you respect their privacy; you should state “We do not give your details to anybody else.” As long as you actually do this, it will help to build trust in your business by showing you are honest and respect their privacy.
Details
Every email that you send must clearly identify who you are and give a valid email address for the recipient to reply if they want. Make sure to monitor your email address regularly. New rules that came into effect from January 2009 mean company information must be included on all electronic communications. You must now include the full registered name and office address of your company, your company registration number as well as country of registration.
If you include details of a special offer, you must include details of any terms or conditions that apply. E.g.: If the offer is only valid on weekdays you must state this.
WHAT FOR?
Whilst a number of clubs have already unlocked the door to the ease of email communication with their members many clubs still believe collecting email addresses is just far too much work for too little reward. However more and more research evidence continues to endorse the impact of staying in regular contact with our members in a consistent and constructive manner, particularly when it comes to retaining members and improving revenue.
With a growing list of certified, accredited and reputable companies that can be contracted to deliver proven methods of effective communication services on behalf of clubs with greater efficiency and delivery rates than doing so in house, the only question we should be asking is “when do we start collecting our members emails?” and no longer “how?” or “why?”
Jon Nasta, UK Managing Director of Retention Management, can be reached at +44 1527 870875 or Jon.Nasta@retentionmanagement.com. Comments and questions are welcome and appreciated. Retention Management is a privately held company that manages the complexities and time demands of running a comprehensive retention improvement service for health clubs. It focuses on new member orientation, member attendance, health/fitness education and the automation of attrition defence systems. Retention Management’s mission is to create a positive impact on a club’s bottom line through improved member retention.