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July 2008
They've tripped up even the most astute wellness business leaders.
Avoid these five mistakes and you'll safeguard your time, energy and budget.
1) Copy someone else's website
We've talked with so many clients who are very insightful about what's wrong
with other wellness businesses. They'll point out, for example, that traditional
wellness businesses intimidate the out-of-shape, overwhelm potential customers
with too much information, use baffling jargon, promote dubious advice, and so
on.
Yet when they develop a website, they spend most of their time looking at
other sites - for businesses that are guilty of the very sins they're determined
to avoid in their own companies! For example, they'll point to a typical
health club site that emphasizes low, low, low! prices when their wellness
center uses a completely different sales strategy.
Stick to your own knitting. Set clear goals for your site and create both a
site design and site content specifically tied to those goals. Ignore what
others are doing. Most of the time it's probably not working very well, anyway.
Your site should speak in your team's voice. It's fine to review other sites
to gain an understanding of what makes them effective (and what drives away
potential business). But you'll never rise above if you just emulate what others
are doing.
2) Copy someone else's newsletter
Do we, as an industry, really need another health club newsletter that sends
out generic fitness tips and the occasional healthy (but flavorless)recipe? We don't think so.
The newsletters that actually interest potential or current customers are
written by real people who are extremely familiar with what YOUR specific
customers care about. They include stories and pictures of your business and
your customers and your community, not stock graphics and canned
articles or advice. And they sound
like normal people wrote them - not professional marketers.
3) Spend wildly on printed marketing materials
Have you ever spent thousands on an elaborate marketing piece? Maybe a
multi-page brochure with fancy die-cut treatments, on high-end paper with
special binding?
What evidence
do you have that it actually enhanced your business results? Probably very
little. If you show it to people and ask them what they think, they'll tell you
it's gorgeous. And it probably is.
Here's the rub, though. Folks are likelier to buy wellness services and
programs based on word of mouth, low-key testimonial advertising, free public
seminars, and other highly-trusted forms of relationship marketing.
Flashy and/or text-intensive brochures with minimal branding and an understated
or altogether missing call-to-action
are usually less effective. Many people just aren't readers - and even those who
do read are too short on time to invest much effort in a long brochure.
And glitzy graphics don't translate to a buying decision.
If you do use elaborate sales materials, make sure you're using them only on
qualified prospects - not on cold calls or initial contacts with unqualified
prospects. You're unlikely to convert enough of those initial contacts into paying
customers to justify the investment that early in the selling process.
4) Use business planning software
We hate these products. That's a big change - three years ago, we recommended
them. But what we've seen over and over is that they do a great job of
generating financials, and a lousy job of helping you think through a practical
business strategy.
You spend lots of time answering the same questions over and over again...and
they're often questions that you know, in your heart, you don't really
understand. You feel super-productive when you finally print out your plan...yet
you still have doubts about what you've created.
Instead, start with our list of ten business planning questions.
If you can answer these
in detail, without resorting to vague statements like "Obesity is a national
problem, therefore employers will buy our program", you'll be 90% done on your
business plan. After you've answered them, go back to your planning
software and create your staffing plan and financial statements.
5) Forget why they're special
Most of our clients are extremely articulate about why their business is
special - what makes it different and sets them apart, why customers choose them
over competitors.
Yet those wonderful insights vanish when they start thinking about sales and
marketing. Suddenly they can only speak marketing gobbledygook, and the points
they make are irrelevant to customers.
For example, we've seen hundreds of marketing pieces that list fitness and
personal training certifications of fitness center employees. Yet they fail to
mention that the trainers are physical therapists, nurses, or dietitians -
credentials that are much more meaningful to most potential customers.
And instead of mentioning, for example, that all of their professionals have
overcome weight challenges themselves, they fall back on meaningless marketing
fluff: "We have an elite world-class team of highly qualified, experienced, and
caring professionals."
Related
articles
on
managing
your
health &
wellness
business:
Seven
Big
Ideas
For
Wellness
Business
Leaders
Mistakes
of The
Well-Intentioned
Boss
How To
Choose
The
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Growth
Strategy
For Your
Health &
Wellness
Business
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