Tag: E-mail Marketing

HubSpot’s Marketing Event

3 Vital Lessons We Learned From Attending HubSpot’s Marketing Event

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Nothing beats a good stretch of fresh perspective. Our blog team took a trip for some fresh perspective on the marketing industry and we’re happy to share what we learned with all of you. Take a dive into the marketing world today, join us in our recap—and let’s get a new perspective on social media together!

Build Your Client Profiles With Social Media

colorful icon of two people
Facebook is still the most popular social media platform and per its own quarterly report, an average of 50 minutes or more a day is spent on their site per person. So if the average person reads around 200 words in a minute, then an estimate of 10,000 words are read in that 50 minutes a day from Facebook users. That’s more than two chapters of the first Harry Potter or Game of Thrones book!
So, what does this mean? One takeaway is the importance of personalization. If people are taking around an hour a day at minimum to engage in content relevant to their personal lives, then the messages they will want to continue reading should ideally be in line with their established preferences. These preferences can of course always be recorded in a Client Profile for future occasions such as birthdays or client anniversaries, etc.
How can a business tailor their content for personalization? I would say a variety of options never fails to accomplish a personalized experience. For example, if you develop a poll post on social media you can utilize the comments section for that post as an “other” option answer. Not only does this prompt engagement among clients—it also gives them an opportunity to type their message directly to you in their own words rather than selecting an answer.
I also reached out to my boss for her thoughts too!

The average amount of time that people spend per day on Facebook alone is incredibly eye opening to the opportunity it creates to engage with not only clients but attract potential clients as well. The stats learned while participating in Hubspot’s marketing event, further drove home the importance and value of crafting the right message for your audience. One tip I would give anyone looking to utilize this platform for their business would be too often check the built-in analytics to gauge how your content is performing. From there you can easily make informed decisions to tailor your message accordingly.

Great advice! Another insight from social media we learned comes from an out-of-the-box perspective. Because Facebook is so popular, what is the preference for platform access? Do clients prefer a computer, laptop or going mobile? These preferences can very well determine the presentation of your content. For example, video news content on mobile devices is commonly featured with large captions and an option for no audio. For the mobile user who may be quite literally on the go, the video then connects to them in the same way that it would for a user who is stationary. With the captions, there is no need for raising the volume or finding a quieter environment to concentrate because the content is tailored to their situation and therefore instantly digestible.

Communication Makes the Experience

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In a recent article, we mentioned the value of overlooked communications that, while may feel technically dated, can still carry an impact. Examples of these communications include ‘Thank you’ notes and—it may seem a bit contrary to recommend handwritten communication, however, to assume all our clients who use social media and technology don’t enjoy a letter can be a mistake. Not to mention we’re honoring grandpa and grandma each time we sit down and handwrite a letter. Remember that you can always double check your clients profile page under the Customer Relationship Management feature for their contact info as well as any information you have recorded for them. We also encourage watching our online webinar: How to Become A Data-Driven Powerhouse, to ensure the best is being made of your EZFacility account.
You can also start an experience with members by communicating a follow-up. Follow up conversations have become somewhat prominent due to how fast communication has become so email is where to start. Our Email Marketing Tools has hundreds of templates to choose from. If you need a quick brush up on how to make use of email templates, please check our support guide here.
And if you are interested in keeping in touch more than often, the EZFacility Branded App could be your best step of all! A branded app permits clients the ability to have access to your business within their smartphone. With the help of our design team, we will help you visualize the brand identity of your business into an easily accessible app from the symbol to the layout colors. Bigger buttons? You got it! No social media or carousel images? Done and Done! We’re happy to help you sculpt the app to your liking.
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Self-Service is awesome

Ah, self-service. It can be seen from car rentals, hotel check-ins, gas stations, grocery stores… The list goes on and it won’t stop anytime soon due to the popularity it serves for a pleasant consumer experience. As the saying goes, convenience is king, and with the time saved throughout our day-to-day lives it would benefit more to add Member Self-Service to your time-saving helpers tools. Member Self-Service grants client access that puts them first. They can book sessions, lessons, update their contact info, pay bills, view schedules and cancel appointments online. In addition, you have the power to define requirements for bookings and package classes as well as set restrictions for members with unremitting balances. You may even open self-service to the public—enabling a bigger market audience towards your business. It wouldn’t be self-serve if it didn’t serve both your client and yourself! We welcome you to take a tour of our newly improved feature in our support center.

Social Media and Self Promotion

Social Media and Self Promotion

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Congratulations! Your business has been recognized in an extraordinary manner. Whether it be an honorary title, a rave review or newly awarded achievement—it’s a wonderful accomplishment worth sharing. You can certainly make a quick capture of a moment to post for social media or you can apply more strategy to make the content last longer. And why not? It’s a special moment worth remembering! Below is a list of thoughtful approaches in expanding both the reach and length of self-promoting content.

Capterra's Top 20 award

Show Rather Than Tell

Recently, EZFacility received recognition as achieving the number 9 spot in Capterra’s Top 20 Most Popular Membership Management Software. If you’ve been to our company page, you already know that EZFacility started at a modest size and then grew to fantastic proportions thanks to hard work and a dedicated team which helped us earn this spot. To exemplify our appreciation, we shared content focusing one what best represents the success of our software: our client’s successes. On both Twitter and Facebook we shared precisely that and as seen, the act of showing rather than telling expresses a more visual representation of that success. When celebrating positive news, it’s great to make sure the presentation of the message is bright as the content itself!

Think Before You Use Hashtags

Hashtags are a great way to be seen by both new people and potential clients. For newcomers to social media, a hashtag is a short phrase following the # symbol that identifies a social media post as a topic. For example, if someone were to post about how they met a goal of performing 100 push-ups a day, they may write a hashtag #PracticeMakesPerfect or #LifeGoals at the end to encapsulate the message of their post as a lesson of dedication. If a popular hashtag is used by a mass amount of users in the same time period, then the hashtag will trend and become visible for all users to see what’s trending on social media. It’s important to make sure a hashtag has some relevancy to the post and there’s no space between the text. If not, then the post will neither reach their targeted audience nor the maximum range of its audience. #HashtagsDoneRight

Build Up Anticipation

Content featuring surprises can gain quite a lot of attention. Think of the news headlines that read “You Won’t Believe This.” and “What You Hear Will Shock You”. These are sentences meant to grab your attention and while successful they are dramatic and we don’t want to turn authentic social media posts into that! Ideally, we would like to introduce intrigue to the presentation but not too much at the risk of oversaturating the content. One method is by making an announcement for your announcement. For example, we did a short tease post on social media about an upcoming blog post to be released in the afternoon. Note how we included a timestamp on when the reveal would be to keep audiences engaged. Using time effectively within a modest range gives the audience less of a burden to check back and less time to wait!

Make it Accessible Across Social Media Accounts

Spreading self-promotional material across your different social media account platforms is ideal but what’s better is to alter the content to fit the best practices of the social media account. One of the best references to find the style of each social media post is to look at examples from other accounts you follow (and that means competition as well!). Most pictures on Instagram have dynamic angles whereas photos on Facebook have a traditional ‘photo album’ appearance. Catering the presentation to your social media accounts will create for a significant impact for varying platform audiences.

Addition of View Details Option on E-mail Campaign History Page and More!

Addition of View Details Option on E-mail Campaign History Page and More!

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In a world full of numbers it is easy to get lost in them. From what’s in your bank account to the number of clients that pass through your facility each day. Our last release featured the introduction of the Email Campaign History page, which, not only gives you the ability to see previously sent emails, but also allows you to report on their success or failures using numbers. With that in mind EZFacility’s Development Team has taken that concept one step further with the release of a “View Details” section of the Email Campaign History Page and more!

View Details- Email Campaign History

In the Email Campaign History section of your EZFacility account you will notice our newest feature – View Details. Our goal for adding the View Details section was to associate a name and purpose with email campaign results. This allows you to better understand and analyze the reach and depth of your campaign efforts.

Clicking into View Details will automatically display campaign result totals for a variety of industry standard email event types. These results can be broken down to include the email address of the recipient and an event time stamp that allows you to view statistics as they happen. You can also filter through campaign information using criteria such as email address and event type.

Email Results Recorded:

  • Delivered: Message has been successfully delivered to the receiving server.
  • Open: Recipient has opened the HTML message.
  • Click: Recipient clicked on a link within the message.
  • Bounce: Receiving server could not or would not accept message.
  • Dropped: Recipients IP address has been added to the blacklist.
  • Spam Report: Recipient marked message as spam.

Display Available Openings Remaining on an Online Registration Form

In an effort to make Online Registrations as efficient as possible, our latest release includes the ability to display the remaining openings available on an Online Registration Form. When your clients first view this page they will be met with the available openings remaining totals for creating new subgroups and individual registrations. For those clients who will be looking to register for a sub group, the sub-group openings will be displayed when viewing the list of subgroups.

Note: The number of available openings remaining is based on the “Max. Individuals” and “Max. Subgroups” set in the group details.

Update to Our SPAM and Security Settings

With our latest release we have made an update to our SPAM and security settings. Now, when sending an email blast, the ‘From’ field will be changed from your facility or personal email address to services@mail.ezfacility.com, while still displaying the name of your facility at the top. Be assured however, that when a client replies to a sent email, it will be received by the user that sent the email blast and not EZFacility. This change is for security reasons, and is being implemented across the industry for SPAM prevention. Email providers such as Yahoo and AOL already require this change and are beginning to block emails that are sent ‘on behalf of’ another email address.

And More!

In addition to these changes, there were many additional updates included in this release. For more details, please visit out Release Notes page.

Brand Identity

Brand Identity

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We all know how confusing a mixed message can be. Somebody tells you one thing and then does another, and you’re left wondering what exactly happened. Did you misunderstand something? Have you misinterpreted? Most of all, can you still trust the person in question?
While it can be bewildering when it happens between individuals, it can be downright damaging when it happens between an individual and a business, especially when the business thrives on retaining members. So, it might be time to review the messages you’re sending your clientele and make sure you’re not putting conflicting signals out there. To that end, a few pieces of advice:
1) Consider your free offers carefully. Some gyms have been known to offer pizza days, bagel days, even doughnut or candy days. While such food giveaways might make members happy, they can undermine your primary messaging. You want your members to believe that you care about their health — sure, a slice of pizza or a bagel once a month never hurt anyone, but let the strip mall down the street supply those. If you do it, how believable are you going to sound when you tell your members they need to exercise and eat properly to lose weight? And if you don’t sound believable and they don’t lose the weight, are they going to renew their membership when the time comes?
Of course, you could give away candy or bagels—even bagels slathered in cream cheese or butter—if you hand out with them, say, a chart that shows how many push-ups a person would need to do to burn off those calories, or how many miles they’d need to run on the treadmill. Again, it’s about consistent messaging.
2) Check how inclusive you’re being. Unless your facility is an elite training center or something similar, chances are you don’t want to turn away any potential clients. Are your flyers, advertisements, social media postings, and other promotional materials inclusive, with people of all colors, genders, sizes, cultures, and ethnic backgrounds represented? Will an overweight person or a Spanish-speaker or a transgender individual feel alienated? Try to consider your messaging from as many different points of view as possible, asking yourself whether you might be unintentionally shutting anyone out.
3) Pay attention to your grammar. I know this one makes me sound like your ninth-grade English teacher, but it’s important. In this day and age, when so much of a company’s identity depends on the words it strings together on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, in emails, and on websites, proper grammar—along with careful spelling and punctuation—is crucial. This is especially the case if your messaging is about achieving excellence, pushing yourself, going over and above, and the like. If you want to keep your credibility, you have to show your own willingness to achieve excellence, to push yourself. Even if your clientele cares more about a good workout than a well-crafted sentence, on some level evidence of carelessness will have an effect.
In the end, it’s about having a solid brand identity and continually working to strengthen that identity. Tweaking small details and taking the time to reflect on the messages you’re conveying can make a big difference.

The Personal Approach To Collecting Feedback

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I have a confession to make. I never, ever fill out surveys. I feel irritated when any business interrupts my day with an email seeking my feedback. The impersonal nature of the questions, the idea that I’m just a source of data to be collected, the time it takes to respond — all of these things push my buttons. It’s not that I don’t understand why businesses do it and how the information they gather is useful; I know it’s so that services can be better tailored to consumers. But I can’t help feeling that the cost of filling out a survey, no matter how short and sweet the survey might be, isn’t worth the benefits I reap.

That’s why a recent Q&A on IHRSA’s blog caught my interest. The association asked two club presidents and a chief executive officer what methods they use for eliciting feedback from members. Each of the respondents said they use email-based surveys to gather information about customers’ experiences.
I know not everyone feels the same way I do about responding to questionnaires; some people are more generous with their time and opinions. But I also know that I’m not alone. We’re all overwhelmed with emails all the time; how many of the people who receive a request to complete a survey actually go ahead and do it? How many hit the delete button and move on?

I was pleased to see that email surveys aren’t the only methods clubs are using. The respondents to IHRSA’s question also reported using suggestion boxes throughout their facilities, including “give us feedback” links on their websites, and training employees to make note of customer opinions and share those opinions with management. It’s this last method that speaks to me the most. If I’m at the gym and a smiling employee approaches me and asks how I’m doing, how my workout is going, and whether she can talk to me for a few minutes about my experiences, I’m going to be all ears. And mouth. That is, I’m going to happily talk about it. This is the personal approach to collecting feedback.  A human being genuinely interested in how I feel and having an actual exchange with me rather than half answering cookie-cutter questions — that feels worthwhile to me.

If your club has the resources to invest in in-person information gathering, go for it. It’s by far the best method. If not, or if more details than can be gathered that way are needed, try a mix of methods: email surveys, web-based links, old-fashioned suggestion boxes, and opportunities to interact with staff. Whatever you do, don’t just rely on email surveys alone. You’ll be missing out on the thoughts and opinions of a significant portion of your membership if you do.

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Staying Engaged With Customers Wherever They Are

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Building good relationships with your customers is less complicated when they’re right in front of you.  Sharing helpful tips and providing encouragement with a friendly smile are easy ways to build a personal connection with your clients.  What is more challenging is maintaining this connection when they are not in your presence.  Keeping your customers engaged and eager to come back requires a good plan, solid effort and commitment to your relationship.

Be Prolific

The more information you have about your customers, the more opportunities you have to engage them.  Everyone has an email address these days, so make sure that your registration form includes this critical detail.  Email announcements and newsletters are inexpensive to produce, and are a non-intrusive way to let your customers know what’s going on at your facility.  They’re also a great way to build interest from prospective clients – the more you can highlight programs that they want to attend, the more likely they are to become customers.

Be Social

Today, maintaining your facility’s presence on Social Networks (such as Facebook and Twitter) is just as important as having a website.  The key to an ambitious social media strategy is to provide a good incentive for your customers to like and follow you on a regular basis.  A good start is to make a strong Call To Action that gets your customers engaged if they haven’t already done so on their own; for example, running online-only promotions or rewarding social media mentions with Perks.  Not everything has to be as serious as a solicitation – posting regular “casual but relevant” messages of inspiration or humor will keep your customers interested in what you have to say without burning them out.  Finding your voice and the right mix of content for your audience is as much an art as a science, so experiment and find out what your customers want to hear.

Be Mobile

Many of your customers probably have a smartphone in their pocket right now.  If they have an App like MemberMe installed on their phone, you can send them instant Push Notifications about news, offers, and updates about your facility wherever they are.  With MemberMe, you can schedule announcements ahead of time, or send out a quick alert immediately after an opening becomes available.  That simple engagement can be the push they need to register for a session and keep your roster filled.  You should plan for regular updates with tips and advice, star performer recognition, and special offers to keep your customers interested and checking your app regularly.

Be Engaged

Thanks to Email, Social Networking, and Smartphone Apps like MemberMe, maintaining that important relationship with your customers is made easier than ever.  As with any relationship, commitment and dedication is the key.  If you are diligent and work hard to stay engaged with your customers, they will return the favor.

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Realizing Your Website’s Fullest Potential

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A website for your business isn’t just recommended, it’s essential! It’s also important to ensure that you maximize this resource that you’ve put so much time, money and effort into. Below are a few steps you can take toward setting up an opt-in form on your website in order to begin using your website to its fullest potential.

Keep up with people who have visited your website

There is a reason why they were on your site and following up can only lead to good things; half the battle is already won once you have their contact information! This is also a great opportunity to keep them updated on any new developments including class time changes, new offerings, and deals – all of which may have been factors they took into consideration before signing up.

Reward them for signing up 

Offer them an incentive for giving their contact information. Be sure that the offer is relevant to your industry, otherwise it may not make the connection you’re hoping for. Perhaps if they sign up, they get to try out a free class or get evaluated by a personal trainer. Creating the right offer will kill two birds with one stone; you’ll have their contact information and they’ll want to come in to your facility or gym to try out what you’re offering.

Draft follow-up emails 

Now that you have their information, what do you do with it? For starters, you may want to create a “welcome” email that you can send on the fly as soon as someone signs up. After that initial email, keep them posted by sending them your newsletter and informing them of any new offers to new members. Having some emails pre-drafted will be a huge time saver in the end and can all easily be done with your club/facility management software. Utilizing the email marketing function, you can create separate lists for non-members or people who have specifically requested information on your website. You’ll find that this is the easiest way to set up and keep track of emails.

We hope these suggestions have been useful when it comes to making the most of both your website and club/facility management software. Come back soon for more tips!

Use Your Computer Software to Increase Revenue

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Being a successful business owner means using all available tools and resources at hand. If utilized to its fullest potential, your software can be one of the most valuable tools at your disposal. We encourage you to get to know your software and all its capabilities as this is vital to increasing your revenue.

Here are a few key features that should be utilized to maximize profit:

  • Reports / Data Management
    • Estimate what cash flow will be by utilizing your software to predict what next month’s billing will come in at. Pulling reports will help you identify where problems may lie, making it easier and quicker to adjust for the following month
    • Utilize components of reporting to sort out member profiles including which members are billed monthly, prepaid, short term, promotional, cancelled, or expired. Ultimately this will help you decipher where revenue can be increased and which members to target as monthly members are more likely to stay longer and are a greater source of revenue.
  • Email Marketing
    • Know which of your members are frequent users and which are sporadic users. Use your software to appropriately target them with emails and promotions encouraging them to come more often or remind them that you appreciate their business.
    • Utilize the email function to send out communication regarding your facility. Keep members posted on the latest promotions and news and they’ll appreciate you connecting with them.
  • POS
    • With the point-of-sale feature, track all services sold. This makes it simpler to account for trainer commissions, available sessions, and outstanding balances and will allow you to view reports according to the type of sale.
    • Take advantage of the employee time clock included in your software. This will eliminate time wasted on adding up timecards and allow you to have all the information in one place reducing the risk of an error.

Finally, using one company to provide all software and billing services in addition to the follow-up work on delinquent accounts will allow you to focus on customers; knowing that should a problem arise, it’s necessary to contact only one company to fix the issue. The less time spent dealing with software, the more time staff and owners have to spend with current and potential customers, ultimately leading to a revenue increase.
If you’re paying for your software… make the most of your investment and use it to its greatest capacity.

Check back often for tips on how to maximize profits for your business.

Targeted Marketing Campaigns with EZFacility

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Make the most out of our software features by going beyond the scheduling, management and billing functions. Because EZFacility software keeps track of your client demographics, clubs can easily identify their largest opportunities for customer-base growth. Our software features top commercial email marketing software that allows you to send emails that are targeted to the right group.


A few examples of how this function can be used to target the right members:

  • Membership or Package About to Expire – Remind members to renew their membership or training package before they expire. This gives them the opportunity to continue with uninterrupted gym or training time and keeps cash flowing for your facility.
  • Birthdays – A member’s birthday is coming up; email them notifying them of a free personal training session in celebration of their birthday. This is a great way to have them try out something new at your facility that could convert to additional business from an existing member.
  • Past members – Notify past members of a great sign up offer. By keeping past members posted on new offers via email, chances are if they see a great one, you’ll lure them back in.
  • New Program/Class Alerts – Send a targeted email to members that have participated in similar classes/programs in the past. They’ll appreciate a suggestion tailored to their interests and will assure members that their facility is keeping things fresh and interesting.

Use the demographic reporting in EZFacility to find out where the holes are in your demographics. This makes it simple to find out what age group or gender needs additional targeting and focus. Perhaps, your club needs more Senior- level classes or extra babysitter services during the day for those stay-at-home moms looking to stay fit. With EZFacility’s Marketing tools, these gaps can be easily found and marketing strategies and campaigns can then be implemented.

Hope this helps in generating new ideas on how EZFacility’s software can be used for marketing to all your clients utilizing unique and innovative approaches.


We will, of course, continue to keep you posted on new developments and information.