In a modern world filled with online entertainment and digital distractions, many of today’s parents are seeking ways to keep their kids engaged and healthy — all while teaching them valuable skills they can use throughout their lives. And as the fitness and martial arts industry is repositioning itself in the wake of the COVID pandemic’s peak, there is more opportunity than ever for gyms and other fitness facilities to establish a world-class health program for kids.
A winning proposition — from multiple perspectives
When structured properly, kids’ fitness programs can offer distinct advantages for both the health-conscious consumer and the fitness-focused business. For consumers, well-executed fitness programs geared toward children can provide:
- Ease for parents by meeting all of their fitness-related goals for their kids in one place, including keeping their children’s activity levels high, helping them establish healthy exercise habits that they’ll carry forward in life, and sparking an interest in a healthy habit/hobby
- A great experience for kids by keeping them interested and entertained, all while teaching them valuable lessons and skills that can be applied throughout their lives. Those include self-discipline, the value of working hard to achieve goals and, when team-geared activities are involved, the importance of working collectively to accomplish shared goals
- A healthy recreational option that supports both physical and mental fitness and well-being by promoting long-running participation in a fun activity, encourages a recurring workout routine, and promotes wholesome social interactions
And for businesses such as gyms, health clubs, and other fitness facilities, high-quality kids’ fitness programs can provide a range of business-boosting benefits, including:
- An opportunity to market to and attract the specific types of members and students that the business is looking to add to its clientele
- A better overall experience for parents and kids that meets all their needs — and improves client satisfaction and customer retention
- Increased memberships and revenues via new customers who join specifically for the kid-focused program
- More loyal customers when a program is particularly well-received — and ones who could potentially even develop into brand evangelists who actively spread the good word about the program and the business
The keys to success when planning a kids’ health program
As veterans of the fitness industry are well aware, though, there’s no guarantee that a newly launched program will find success. But with careful planning and by taking all the right steps on the front end, businesses can greatly improve the odds of a new program’s success.
If your gym, health club, or other fitness facility is contemplating the launch of a kids’ health program, consider these six crucial steps to success recommended by The Brandon Agency:
1. Consumer Research
To boost the potential for any business venture’s success, consumer and market research is an excellent place to start. This can help your fitness facility recognize any unmet needs in the marketplace and gauge how many potential customers may be seeking a certain type of program. At The Brandon Agency, we regularly utilize focus groups (consisting of adults and children) and online surveys to accomplish these goals.
2. Data Analysis
Once information is gathered via consumer and market research, a careful analysis of the data can help your brand develop powerful insights that can guide strategy and implementation, thereby increasing your new program’s chances of success. For example, using the data you’ve gathered via research, you may be able to identify characteristics that, if included, might make a program more desirable and in higher demand in your area. Further, analysis of the data gathered during consumer research can help determine the most effective strategies and platforms for marketing your program’s launch.
3. Action Plan Development and Creation
Once all the data is gathered and analyzed, it’s time to put together a plan of attack for the program launch — one that carefully considers all of the facility’s business goals and outlines a strategy for meeting them. As the launch is initiated, having this detailed plan on hand can help your team keep everything on track and help ensure that no crucial elements of the launch plan are overlooked. (This can be especially helpful when launching the new program will entail a number of implementation steps, and when the marketing strategy will require employing various platforms and ad types to get the word out.)
4. New Program Execution
Once the program launch date arrives, it’s time to put your plan into action (which is sure to be abundantly easier when you already have an actual plan in place). From a marketing perspective, the early stages of program startup also mark a great time to implement your lead-generation strategy. At The Brandon Agency, we’ve found it effective to employ lead-generation tactics such as paid media and referral programs during this time and beyond for our clients starting up new business initiatives, as each can deliver big gains in raising awareness of the new program among consumers.
5. Measurement of Success
Once the program is launched and has been up and running for a while, be sure to take a step back on occasion — perhaps as program milestones or anniversaries arrive — to evaluate where things stand and whether you’ve successfully accomplished your program goals. To do this, it’s important to establish your benchmarks for start-up success upfront before the program launch. And once you’ve hit your initial goals with the program, you can make plans for future growth and how to achieve it.
6. Optimization Based on Customer Feedback
To keep the new program growing and to ensure its ongoing success, it’s critical that your fitness-focused business continues to optimize the tactics it employs over time. And one of the best ways to drive program optimization is to ensure ongoing engagement with and collection of feedback from current and prospective customers. At The Brandon Agency, we like to ensure that the consumer conversation is kept going long after the program launch by utilizing tools such as surveys, email marketing, and rewards programs that consider both the participating kids and their parents. And of course, when customer feedback leads to useful insights for improvement, it’s important to heed your consumers’ advice.
Could your fitness-focused brand use help develop wellness programs for specific audiences, increase membership numbers and improve customer retention? With a wealth of experience in the fitness category, The Brandon Agency specializes in boosting the effectiveness of gym and health club marketing — and boasts high levels of expertise in a range of other mission-critical, marketing-related areas such as customer research, data analysis, program design, and implementation, and more. Contact us today to learn how our team of marketing professionals can help your fitness-focused business grow!
Ed Lammon
Managing Editor of Agency Content
Ed Lammon is the Editorial Director of Blog and Long-Form Content for Brandon. A native of Enterprise, AL (home of the world’s only monument to an insect), Ed is a 1998 Journalism graduate of Auburn University (War Eagle!). When not working, he enjoys travel, hiking, telling dad jokes, and hanging out with friends and family (particularly around campfires, at concerts and at tailgates).