5 Tips to Generate a Little Valentine’s Day Love for Your Membership-Based Business - Kristen Campbell
Posted by Member Solutions on Thu, Jan 12, 2012 @ 07:00 AM
Walk into any grocery store and you’ll see shelves filled with heart-shaped candies, cookies and cards. Yes, Valentine’s Day is on its way. Just like Halloween, Christmas, Mother’s and Father’s Day, February 14th – and the days leading up to it – are days of opportunity for your business.
Hosting special activities and events during this time can create excitement and help strengthen retention with your existing member base. Valentine’s Day also gives you the chance to generate brand-new member enrollments and revenue.
Here are 5 ideas to help you create buzz in your business and boost enrollments, retention and revenue.
1) Parent Date Night – Parents are always looking for affordable, fun activities for their children. This is especially true around Valentine’s Day when both Mom and Dad would like to have a kids-free date night. Pick a Friday or Saturday evening prior to February 14th, determine the event times and activities, then create a flyer to promote the Parent Date Night event. Post the flyer throughout your facility and ask instructors to pass them out before or after class. The key is to ask your students to bring a friend to the event so that you introduce prospective members to your classes and curriculum.
Should you charge an admittance fee? That’s entirely up to you. Most of our clients charge around $25-$30 per student for a 3-hour Parent Night Out event. Others opt to keep the event free to maximize participation. The choice is yours.
Keep in mind that you can simplify your registration process with our online event registration system, Event Manager. Event Manager includes a Parent Date Night online registration form template. Just change the dates and times, then post your online registration link on Facebook, on your website and in e-mails. The Event Manager online system gives you the ability to easily spread the word about your event, process payments securely through our Level One PCI compliant payment processing platform, and manage all attendee registration data.
2) Valentines Cards – Pre-printed Valentine’s Day cards are perfect to give to students to hand out to their friends, family and classmates. Include a special offer on the card to drive prospective members to your door. Our direct print partner, ColorWorks, provides 2.75 x 4 cards at specially-discounted rates for Member Solutions clients. Visit the ColorWorks print marketing store today to order Valentines Cards.
3) Gift Cards – Gift cards are always in high demand during holidays. Make gift cards available to your members, advertise that they’re available for purchase, and promote the fact that they make a great gift for anyone.
4) Valentine’s Day Special – Create a Valentine’s Day promotional offer for your students’ parents as a way to introduce them to your class offerings . Host free self-defense, yoga, kickboxing or other fitness-related classes. Tie the offer to Valentine’s Day by promoting the free classes as a “Happy, Healthy Heart” fitness special.
5) Valentine’s Day Class Activities – Incorporate a fun Valentine’s Day-themed activity into a Martial Arts lesson. For example, ask younger students to create a special Valentine’s Day card for those less fortunate in your community. The activity will allow students to express their creativity, and at the same time, learn a valuable lesson about caring and giving to others.
Have a Valentine’s-related business idea? Add it to the list by commenting below.
