Things are better now than in the last few years. After the pandemic, the drop in indicators compared to 2019 reached 25%. 2020 was difficult, but in 2021 we managed to return to pre-pandemic values.
The internal analytics we do showed a market jump of about 20% in October–November.
How do you do it?
The fitness industry is a traditional business, but we, like many companies in the industry, are betting on IT development and digitalization of marketing.
In March 2020, we launched a well-known online training project in the industry on the YouTube channel and other platforms, which is still ongoing. Live training is held every day. The success of the project served as an additional incentive to focus on the digitalization of the company, and the 2 key products in this direction for us are the website and the mobile application.
In 2022, a mobile application with updated personal instagram data account functionality was released. We added the ability to set goals and, depending on this, we began to offer relevant content to each user. For example, if he indicated that he wanted to lose weight, we recommended programs that were aimed at solving this problem.
In January 2024, we updated the website . It became more convenient for users who have not yet chosen a fitness club and compare offers. Based on the website, we are launching online sales for new clients. This is our online sales hub, where you can already buy a club card for 16 clubs in the chain. In our business, this is not a very common practice. Traditional methods of purchase are also available, since we understand that it will be easier for someone to fill out an application, come to the club and buy a membership there.
Can digital fitness completely replace traditional fitness over time?
Offline will definitely remain, because online has its pros and cons. Online training will never give the same sense of community as a club. Online classes are easier to give up, and going to a club disciplines, and there is a personal trainer who not only motivates you to achieve results, but also adjusts the training program.
Functional training is very popular online. It does not require additional equipment, it gives the opportunity to train in a diverse and effective way. For me, it was a revelation that for users, even the direction of training is more important than the personality of the trainer. According to reviews and statistics, we see that there are star trainers. They collect a lot of views, likes and comments.
In the fitness industry, it is important to constantly look for new clients, because all the time someone stops working out, moves or chooses another center. How do you attract an audience?
We use different attraction tools: advertising in Yandex, Telegram, SEO optimization, email newsletters, Flocktory tools, geoservices, social networks. We regularly conduct experiments and A/B tests. We test up to 10 new tools and formats every month.
Previously, we did page tests — for example, we looked at where it was better to lead a new client: to the main page or straight to the application form. We also did dynamic content substitution — we replaced some texts on landing pages and measured which ones worked better.
Currently, we mainly use A/B tests in the area of traffic attraction — in the advertising accounts of Yandex and VK. As for product experiments, we plan to do them closely on the new site. For these purposes, we are connecting Flocktory onsite personalization.
In the nearest future, we have a big A/B test — new site vs. old one. Visually, the new one is, of course, cooler, but we want to get confirmation. After all, it happens that our hypotheses are not confirmed. For example, in advertising creatives, we tested the full spelling of the World Class brand and the abbreviated one — W in a circle. It seemed to us that the short version should work much better, because such a banner can contain more useful information, but it turned out that banners with the full name were clicked much more actively, their results were several times better in terms of conversion to leads.