7 ways to increase push notification click-through rate 

Did you know that using push notifications can increase App engagement by a huge 88%? If you’re not sending push notifications, you’re missing out on a key benefit of your mobile App. Frequent messages can increase App retention by up to 10 times!

With our Marketing Automation module you can use your Branded Member App as your main communication tool to your customers. Keep your members informed with the latest news, club updates and centre promotions – all planned, customisable, measurable and secure.

BUT, just sending good notifications isn’t enough to engage your users. Here’s some tips on how to increase your push notification click-through rate (CTR).

1. Generate curiosity

By piquing your App users’ interest, you can generate enough curiosity for them to click-through to find out more. Simply give a sneak peek of the message and your user won’t be able to help themselves!

2. Personalisation

A little personalisation can go a long way for your open and click-through rates. Use their name or tailor the content to things you know they’re into. For example you could send them a reminder to book into their favourite class. If the context is right, your audience will be more engaged and more inclined to follow through from your notification.

3. Create a sense of urgency

An easy way to boost your push notification CTR is by giving the recipient a reason to act fast! Encourage them to click-through by emphasising an offer, or limited availability. For example “Hurry, only two spaces remaining on tomorrow’s spin class”. 

4. Less is more!

Ensure your messages aren’t too long, you don’t want to waste the user’s time. Whilst there is no ‘perfect’ length for a push notification, keep these things in mind when writing copy:

– Frontload the most important content.

– Use bite-sized snippets of information and encourage users to find out more by clicking-through.

– Preview your notification on the devices that you know your audiences use.

 5. Put your App users first

Ensure you aren’t bombarding your users with notifications – after-all, they don’t want to hear from you all day, every day. You need to instill trust to your App users, so they know that every notification they receive from you is going to be important and relevant. Remember, no matter how good your notifications are, if they’re not providing value, you won’t get the conversions you want. 

 6. Use emojis😉

Studies show that with an emoji, the average CTR increases. Select your emojis wisely and make sure you test them – you don’t want to send them to your audience if they aren’t receptive to them. An example of how you can use emojis: “Don’t miss out on your free PT session – book now💪“.

 7. Test and learn

Testing is crucial. With our Marketing Automation module you can measure the success of each push notification. See what works and what doesn’t for your audiences. You should always be optimising your notifications – make small changes to each message and record the results. 

Want to use your App to send push notifcations to your members?

Festive marketing ideas for your fitness business

With December fast approaching, now is the perfect time to start planning your festive marketing to spread some Christmas cheer to your customers. Why not give some of our ideas a go this season…

1. Run a holiday giveaway on social media

A great way to utilise your social platforms this Christmas, is by running a giveaway.

Whether it’s a big monthly membership discount or a free fitness gadget, get your followers into the holiday spirit of giving. Typically, asking followers to comment, share or like are great tactics to get a lot of engagement on your giveaway.

With our Marketing Automation module, you can even send a push notification via your App, linking to the giveaway. 

2. Send seasonal emails

If you’re not incorporating some Christmas spirit into your email marketing campaigns, you’re making a big mistake! Holidays instill powerful memories into your members’ minds, so enticing them with fun seasonal emails is a great way to stand out in their inboxes.

Mark the occasion with a Christmas e-card to members and prospects – something fun and personalised will not only reinforce your brand and let your members know you are thinking of them, it’s also good for the environment! Why not entice them into your centre during the festive period with an incentive, it could be a free pass for them or a guest, or a discount in the club restaurant. 

3. Run festive events

Have you considered hosting a customer appreciation event to show your members how much their support means to you. Why not host an afternoon with refreshments to enjoy each other’s company? Or put on some Christmas themed fitness classes? Encourage members to train during the festive period with fun classes. They could feature fancy dress and working out to Christmas songs etc.

These could even be done at home, on demand. With our @home solution, your members don’t even have to come into the club to celebrate Christmas with you. Members can even chat with trainers and other members, live, during the class.

Embrace the holiday spirit of giving and receiving to really engage with your members, show that you appreciate their support (especially after the pandemic) and distinguish yourself from your competition.

With our App, you can even advertise these events as a tile on your home screen!

4. 12 days of Christmas – fitness style

Why not run a 12 days of Christmas related campaign. This could be across your social channels, email or even on-site. Get creative! Here’s some things we’ve thought of:

• 12 healthy recipes
• 12 exercise challenges
• 12 discount codes or give aways 
• 12 on-demand fitness classes to try. You can use our @home platform for this!
• 12 of your staff members’ favourite workout classes

 5. Christmas-ify your App home screen

Keep your App current with a new Christmas themed home screen. With our easy to use App builder you can quickly change your App design yourself!   

 6. Engage new members with lead generation

Why not run a festive ‘training buddy’ campaign with lead generation. With our module, your members can recommend their friends they’d like to train with, to your gym.

 6. Give the gift of education

Keeping your members happy and healthy is an important part of growing your community and could be a great addition to your holiday marketing strategy. Here’s some ideas on how to educate your members this Christmas:

• A blog piece featuring fitness tips to stay on track during the season or top gifts for the fitness fanatic in your life
• Free webinar or seminar. This could be on nutrition or a Q&A session with one of your trainers
• PT session taster – this could be for individuals or groups and will help your trainers be at the front of people’s minds before the New Year’s Resolutions commence!

Putting things like these in place will indirectly grow your fitness business through brand awareness and trust amongst your community, translating to the inevitable increase of people through your doors.

Looking for more information or a demo?

How to encourage your customers to download and use your App

Unfortunately, just having an App is not enough to get people to download and use it. You will need to work on increasing downloads and ensuring your members are consistently using it.

We’ve put together some top tips on how to increase customer App usage…

1. Promote your App on your website

Members that are visiting your website, should be visiting the App instead. It’s important to educate customers that your App is a more convenient and easy way to access all information and services that are relevant for members and prospects. Here are a few ideas on how you can utilise your website to successfully promote your App:

• Create a page with a call-to-action to download the App – this can then be shared across multiple channels.
• Don’t make the page too long or complicated, your goal is to send the user to the App Store.
• Make the App a prominent feature on your website homepage. You could do this by creating a banner on your home page that links through to the App page. 
• Remind your customers that anything they do on your website e.g. class booking, finding the latest news and information or looking for opening times, can be done on your App. The more they’re pointed to your App, the more likely they are to use it as their first point of call in future.

You can use our Promote App feature to make it easy for members to get your App from an online channel. Simply click the ‘Promote App’ button in the cockpit and select the link option.

2. Create email marketing campaigns

If you already have a base of customers that subscribe to receive emails from you, email marketing can help influence App downloads.

Consider sending an email to your existing customer base notifying them about your App and all its benefits!

Don’t just stop at one email though – why not include a banner with a link to your App download in all further email communications with your customers. Make it easy to spot, with a clear call-to-action.

You can also encourage App usage by linking to sections of your App in your emails. For example, when sharing news and information – give them the option to check it out in-App.

3. Use social media

In 2020, over 3.6 billion people were using social media worldwide! This means that the chances your customers are on social media, are very high! Most of them access social media using a mobile device, which means it will be easier for them to download an App that catches their attention in their newsfeed. You can find a social link within the Promote App feature in our cockpit, making it quick and easy to share across your channels.

Using social media channels is always effective for brand promotion, including mobile App promotion.

The social media platform(s) you choose to be present on will depend on your target audience and marketing strategy, but the main concept for App promotion, however, is the same for all platforms. You need to create engaging content to spread the word about your App. Try varying the content – blogs, App screenshots and short screen-recording videos – you’ll soon learn what works and what doesn’t!

In order for social promotion to be effective, it needs to be ongoing. Promoting your App sporadically on your social channels may lead to a spike in downloads for a short amount of time, but the impact will taper off. Having an ongoing social promotion strategy for your App is the best way to steadily increase awareness and downloads. Plan regular posts and updates so that your customers understand that the mobile App is an essential part of your business. 

4. Create offline campaigns

With QR codes, it’s easy to create a smooth journey for a user from printed material to a website or directly to the App Store.

Again, you can use our Promote App feature to generate a QR code, quickly and easily from the cockpit.

There are lots of different printed materials you can use to promote your App:

• Leaflets
• Posters
• Banners
• Stickers
• Magazines or newspapers

Place these materials around your gym, leisure centre or health centre where you know members are likely to see them – for example, at reception, in the changing rooms or even a sticker in each locker.

Make sure the printed collateral informs your members not only about the App, by more importantly, why they need it. Remind them of the benefits of using your App:

• News and information at their fingertips, just a few clicks away
• Smooth user experience
• Quick and easy to book classes
• Watch livestreams or re-streams 
• Ask questions
• Access membership information

5. Convert current App users into brand ambassadors

One of the most effective App promotions is word-of-mouth from current users. Getting your members talking to other members about how good your App is and why they need it is invaluable.

You could even give them the extra motivation they need to spread the word through incentives. Encourage current App users to promote your App to their peers by offering a reward for their efforts. This could be a months free membership, or a free item from the in-club cafe. This is the perfect way to gain new users while at the same time rewarding loyal ones.

In addition to word-of-mouth promotion, one feature unique to myFitApp is the ability to use your members as brand ambassadors online. When your members share articles, from your App, via messenger or social channels, a link to download your App is automatically added to each share – brand awareness and lead generation all in once place!

6. Internal competition

Why not incentivise your staff members to get as many members downloading the App as they can – those with the most downloads can win a prize!

QR codes are really handy for staff, like trainers and class instructors, to keep on them at all times – when they speak to customers they can tell them to scan the code and download the App.

7. Ask new members to download the App when they join

It is inevitable that your App is a part of your sales chat with new prospects, so what better time to get someone to download the App, than when a new joiner is signing their contract! An induction is also  a great time for the team member talking the new member through the benefits and explain how to use the App.

Want to know more?

Five tips to keep your members motivated during the winter months

As we approach the colder, winter months, weather conditions like rain, wind and snow may mean your members lose motivation or struggle to make it into your gym or leisure centre.

We’ve put together some top tips to help you encourage your members to keep on top of their exercise routines and motivate them to stay fit and healthy during this time of the year…

1. Keep on top of, or create a digital offering

When your member looks out the window at the grey, windy or wet weather, their first thought will be “I just want to stay indoors!”. What better way to encourage them to keep exercising than by offering at home workouts? This way, they can have the best of both worlds – staying indoors without feeling guilty about skipping a workout. 

Check out our @home platform features for some more inspiration here.

2. Create some healthy winter recipes

Winter warming recipes don’t have to be unhealthy. And we know good food and exercise go hand in hand, so why not share some healthy winter recipes with your members? They will get the feel good factor from cosy winter food, without any guilt. It’s important that your members stay on top of their health during this time of year – especially with Christmas fast approaching!

3. Shout about holiday season in your club

Christmas is the time of year for families to spend quality time together. This doesn’t have to be at home – why not encourage families to come into your centre and enjoy each other’s company during a swim, sauna or an indoor tennis match.

You may even want to set up some Christmas events for your members so they can socialise with friends or family whilst celebrating the holiday season. 

4. Share motivational, automated messages

Use marketing automation to keep communicating with your customers during the darker mornings and evenings. Motivational messages of support, or encouraging members to sign up to a class to let of some steam are great ways to keep in touch with members that might be less likely to use your facilities during this time of year.

Find out more about our Marketing Automation module here.

5. Utilise re-streams

With bad weather months fast approaching, it’s not just your members that might not be able to make it into the club. Your trainers that travel to work, may not be able to get in if, like most years, we have a few snowy weeks. You can keep your workout classes going, for members at home, by sharing re-streams as on-demand classes. Your members wont know any different and will be pleased that they can still workout whilst not being able to get into the club.

We can help with all of the above!

From our @home platform, to marketing automation, if you want to know more about how myFitApp can transform your gym and its digital offering, we are here to help.

GLL Better UK App passes 1 million downloads

Can you tell us a little bit about GLL?

GLL is the largest public-sector fitness provider in the UK, managing 280 leisure centres in partnership with more than 50 local councils and sporting bodies.

We host a huge range of facilities and activities and with more than 13,000 staff and 58 million visitors a year, GLL really makes a difference to fitness in the UK. We exist to make community services and spaces better for everyone and to improve the health and wellbeing of local communities.

What lead you to bring myFitApp onboard as your App partner?

Before working with myFitApp, we developed an app from scratch using a low-code/no-code platform. We wanted a unique solution specific to our requirements, but this solution did not provide us with the quality and maturity that was required for our brand. We wanted a solution that could keep up with the accelerating pace of innovation and changing technology trends, but this wasn’t possible with this platform.

We scanned the market for a partner that would be able to provide us with fast and continuous innovation with a solution that focusses on a great user experience for our members. We also needed a ‘toolbox approach’ allowing us to change anything in the app ourselves.

So, how did the switch to the new App go?

We had only four weeks left on the contract with our prior solution, so asked the Innovatise team if they could achieve the rollout in this time. They committed to it and dedicated key resources to getting our 280 sites onto a new Better UK App.

Our management board were sceptical it could be done, but Innovatise proved us wrong and successfully launched the new Better UK within the deadline. Thanks to their efforts and the flexibility & architecture of the myFitApp platform, our new App went live within three weeks, fully integrated with our Leisure Management System.

Your new App launched just before the pandemic hit, how did this affect GLL?

When the pandemic struck, we realised our new App could play a critical part in keeping members engaged and healthy when they couldn’t attend our centres in person.

With myFitApp we were able to add new functionality and content including nutrition and @home fitness workouts. The flexibility of the App meant we could do this ourselves, under our control and on our schedule.

How did the App perform during lockdown?

The App assumed a critical role in our ability to deliver services to members during the pandemic and beyond. It transformed how we interact with our customers.

With the built-in @home video platform, members were able to work out from home, via both on-demand workouts and livestreams from their favourite trainers. They could also easily stay up to date with the latest COVID-related club news. The App helped us keep our members engaged and healthy whilst they couldn’t come into physical GLL centres.

And, with the new digital world we now live in, what position did the App take post lockdown?

The uptake of the App continued to grow after lockdown and when gyms re-opened, GLL made all activities including swimming and gym sessions bookable. We also used the App to keep members informed on the changing COVID guidelines and entry requirements. Reaching over 1 million downloads is a testament to the usability and strength of the platform.

Congratulations on passing 1 million App downloads! How does this make you, and the GLL team, feel?

To get to 1 million downloads in the last 18 months is a terrific achievement, showing how valuable the App is. A core part of GLL’s services, App downloads are running at over 100,000 downloads per month as our customers get back into fitness post lockdown.

It’s great to know that our members love the App as much as we do. Moreover, myFitApp allows us to serve our members both inside and outside our facilities, adapting to the hybrid fitness world.

What is the most important thing with your App now?

Our App has transformed how we interact with our customers, allowing us to react quickly to changing circumstances. Before, we couldn’t change anything on our App – with the myFitApp platform we are in full control, and we can change everything ourselves.

The platform is easy to use and adaptable, meaning we can update navigation and content in real-time, ensure our App design is consistent with our branding and open to integrate anything at any time. 

Looking back, did you get what you wanted?

We got exactly what we wanted – an off the shelf, innovative solution paired with the flexibility that you could normally only achieve with your own inhouse development. Innovatise is more than a vendor, they are always there and care about our success.

Transform your gym today

If you want to know more about how myFitApp can transform your gym and its digital offering, we are here to help!

How to perfect your pricing strategy

Are you looking to, or have recently digitised your gym? You might be wondering where to start when it comes to pricing your new or upcoming offering?

Digitisation isn’t just about the technology, it’s about how your fitness business makes money. With this being said, your pricing strategy is extremely important – if you get it right, you have the potential to generate sustainable profits.

You might be asking yourself “is my pricing competitive?” or “how many members do I need to make a profit?”. We’ve put together some top tips to help you perfect your digital offering pricing strategy.

1. Member demographics

Who are your customers? And where are they coming from? Your customer demographics are important – appealing to the right ones will help them utilise their own membership as well as recommending your offering to others, too.

You should consider:

• Income level – what level of income do your members earn? 
• Disposable income –  what are your members spending money on? What other health, entertainment or fitness products and services are they paying for?
• Age – can you offer packages that cater to both young and old? You may want to consider family deals etc.

2. What is your competition’s price point?

Have a look at the market and what other gyms are offering. You should consider what makes you different from your competitor and keep this in mind when pricing your offering.

Your customers are going to know what is being offered by other, nearby gyms and you need to understand this too. They will have a clear idea on what they expect to pay, and what they want in return for their membership fee.

You can either offer a similar style of pricing – one that is familiar and easy for customers to compare, or offer something a bit more different and stand out, highlighting the unique features and benefits of your gym compared to competitors. 

3. Position yourself in the market

Positioning looks at your brand in comparison to your competitors. Are you a high-end gym with the best digital offering or a low-end gym with a smaller digital offering? Where you position yourself will help determine your price point.

4. Consider incentives

There are a few things you might want to consider at the initial stage of your pricing, to maximise sign ups and increase retention:

• Free trial – Some customers will want to try before they commit. At this point you can make a good impression and prove the worth of your digital offering.
• Lower introductory rate – You might want to offer a percentage off for the first couple of months, this convinces members to come on board and gives you the chance to make a good impression and ensure they stay signed up. 
• Discounts – Make the most of lead generation or family and friend discounts. Because who can recommend your club as convincingly as your own members?

5. Bundle pricing vs optional pricing

Decide the pricing strategy that suits both your offering and your members.

Bundle pricing is where a member pays one rate, whether that is weekly, monthly or annually and it is all inclusive of everyday services a member may require from your facility. This is a more traditional membership pricing approach, and one that some will argue is no longer fit for the digital world we find ourselves in post-pandemic.

Optional pricing is where you can offer a lower rate for the customer to have flexibility to select what is included in their membership. This is a good place to start for a hybrid fitness offering as members can scale their membership up or down depending on what they want. For example, some members may want a digital only membership whereas some may want to use both in-centre facilities and have a digital membership. You can then offer different prices according to what they are using. 

Need more information?

Want to find out more about how you can price your digital offering? We’re here to help!