The Purpose Of This Circuit Training Blog

When we decided to write this circuit training blog as an addition to our regular site www.cuecd.com, our goal was to give you even more information you can use to be successful. So if you haven't already, please take the time to browse through this blog. Here you'll find free gym marketing advice, free health club advertising ideas, and so much more.

The purpose of our circuit training blog post today is to remind you that January begins TOMORROW. As any health club owner in the United States will tell you, January is the "golden month" for fitness sales. Many gym owners earn more in the single month of January than they do all summer long.

If you don't have a solid gym marketing plan in place, then you're already late. Need some help? Then read our original and FREE article titled How To Sell Gym Memberships In January by clicking here.

As a gym owner, you can also hit a home run in January by helping your members write achievable and realistic New Year Resolutions. Here's a FREE and original series of articles on New Year fitness resolutions, and we strongly encourage you to print these and have them available in your gym for members to take:
New Year Fitness Resolution (Part 1)
New Year Fitness Resolution (Part 2)
New Year Fitness Resolution (Part 3)
New Year Fitness Resolution (Part 4)
New Year Fitness Resolution (Part 5)

January is also the time of year when your existing health club members are looking for some help with motivation.They're trying to live up to their New Year Resolution, and they're counting on YOU to help them do just that. Read Motivation To Lose Weight Fast for some ideas on how you can help gym members stay motivated. You may also want to read Weight Loss Motivation, Motivation To Lose Weight And Get Fit and Motivation To Lose Weight And Exercise.

Where else are you going to find such a treasure-trove of FREE marketing advice just for gym owners? Only at www.cuecd.com and on our blog, that's where! How can we afford to provide all this for free? This free health club marketing advice is possible only when you order some of our awesome circuit training timer CDs, which you will find in our store. So if you like the information you're getting from us, then please take a few moments to browse through our store. You'll be glad you did!

Marketing Ideas For Health Clubs In December

Well, it's December already and for gym owners that brings a great opportunity for SALES. If you need some marketing ideas for health clubs then search no more because you've found www.cuecd.com!

Click here to read our 100% original (and FREE) article titled How To Sell Gym Memberships In December. In this article you'll learn six specific sales ideas you may not have considered before.

You'll also want to check out two more FREE articles that are literally chock-full of marketing ideas for health clubs:
1) Health Club Marketing For The Holidays (Part 1)
2) Health Club Marketing For The Holidays (Part 2)

Don't forget that we also sell a wide variety of change stations CD's for circuit training health clubs. After all, that's how we can afford to research and post so much free content for gym owners! Anyway, one of our most popular circuit training timer CD's is titled Holiday Voice Cues and you can order it here.

Here's the description for Holiday Voice Cues: "This cue CD is a specialty item created by circuit training veterans in Canada. Features the voices of Santa, the St. Patrick's Day Leprechaun, and the Easter Bunny. All voiceover cues are in both 30 and 45-second format, and it's all on one single CD for your convenience! This is really just like getting six (6) cue CD's in one, because you get three different tracks of the three different voices, and you also get those different voices in both 30 and 45-second formats! Includes a 10-second heart rate check."

Hopefully those resources will give you enough marketing ideas for health clubs in December. Just for something fun, we'd also like to give you this link to a Funny Christmas Poem About Dieting titled I Saw Mommy Punching Santa Claus. Feel free to print it out and hang it up in the gym. It's hilarious!

Black Friday Marketing Strategy for Health Clubs

It's no secret that Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year. Most businesses are opening up early, distributing advertisements in the local newspaper, and staffing for huge sales. Consumers continue to line up for early-morning Black Friday shopping because this day usually offers the best discounts of the season.

But how can a circuit training health club, or any gym for that matter, take advantage of the Black Friday phenomenon? How can you, as a gym owner, ride the "Black Friday train" to huge sales and profits?

First of all, you must realize what you are NOT. Even though YOU know that your gym is awesome, you're still not a huge destination for Black Friday morning. If you're offering gym memberships at 90% off, for example, and MegaMart is offering IPODS for 90% off, you're going to lose. In other words, the vast majority of consumers are going to be out shopping for Black Friday "toys" like electronics and other giftables. They're really not looking for a health club membership, which everyone already knows they SHOULD buy but they just haven't gotten around to it yet.

So, keeping in mind that a gym membership is probably NOT at the top of the list for most Black Friday shoppers, you should avoid going toe-to-toe with the big boys. If MegaMart and other popular retailers are offering their discounts from 5:00 am to 9:00 am, then you should offer your best discounts from 7:00 am to 11:00 am. Acknowledge that customers, if given the choice, are going to choose MegaMart first. That's okay. You just want to position your sale so that they can ALSO visit you when they're done buying gadgets.

Once you've picked the time frame for your Black Friday sale, you'll need to plan the offer. Make it BIG and keep it LIMITED. That's the reason why Black Friday sales are so successful!

If a customer can come into the fitness center Saturday and get the same gym membership deal that was offered on Black Friday, then something's wrong. You'll never pull people in unless the Black Friday offer is not only good, but GREAT. So, if the best offer you've ever run is 60% off registration, then offer 65% or 70% off registration this Black Friday only from 7:00 am to 11:00 am. Make it a big deal.


Now that you've identified the time you're going to run your Black Friday sale, and you've also created the offer, now it's time to let the public know about it. Although your facility, and your budget, is probably too small to run a full newspaper advertising insert you can still get the word out. Try the old-fashioned but effective yard sign out in front of the health club. Send out an email to all current gym members. Send a postcard to every single person on your lead list (folks who have previously expressed an interest in joining the fitness center but haven't yet done so). Send a postcard to every expired member (ex-member) inviting them to come back. Think outside the box and let people know about this sale!

Finally, the key to Black Friday success is being appropriately staffed to handle the influx of business. If you've done a good job of letting the public know about a great offer, then you're going to be busy. Plan to have everyone working during Black Friday morning. You may even want to enlist the help of some friends and family as temporary workers. The fact is that most people coming in on Black Friday will be brand-spanking new prospects, and you'll never get a second chance to make a good first impression! If you leave a customer waiting for 25 minutes because you're not staffed correctly, the odds are good that they're going to bolt out the door before you can sign them up.

Planning a Black Friday promotion is not only easier than most gym owners think, but also has the potential to generate much higher sales that most people anticipate. Get planning today, and good luck on Black Friday!

Gym Member Retention Strategies That Work

Continuing our series of FREE articles on how you can boost member retention in your own health club, we've posted three entirely new and original articles that you can read right now!

Gym Member Retention Ideas That Work

Gym Member Retention Programs That Work

How To Increase Your Gym Member Retention Rate

By the way, some more essential reading for circuit training gym owners is our original article titled "How To Sell Gym Memberships In November". Just click here to read the article.

Where else but www.cuecd.com can health club owners get FREE marketing ideas? If you haven't browsed through our store yet, please take the time to do so now by clicking here.

How To Get Free Gift Cards Online

Most circuit training gym owners have some down time during the day. While the early morning is very busy, and the after-work rush is busy too, somewhere in between there's an hour or so where you still have to be in the health club but you're not actively helping anyone.

So what do you do during that down time?

Instead of reading the latest copy of People magazine (again), why not earn some free gift cards online? By spending just a few minutes each day, you really can get free gift cards online.

One of the best sites for this is Rewards1.com where you can earn points gift cards just by taking short surveys and clicking on some links.

The best part is that you can use these free gift cards as prizes for member contests! Next month, how about sponsoring an attendance contest? Every time a gym member comes in to work out, they get one entry into the contest. At the end of the month a winner is drawn from all entries. The winner gets the gift card that you received FREE from Rewards1. It's a win-win for you, because you're keeping the gym FUN and thus increasing member retention. At the same time, it didn't cost you a dime!

Think outside the box. Use your downtime productively. Visit Rewards1 and get started earning free gift cards online. It's free and it works!

FREE Health Club Marketing Ideas You Can Use RIGHT NOW

Just a couple quick ideas for all you health club owners out there. The Biggest Loser Season 12 has already started, and two episodes have already aired. The same people who are watching The Biggest Loser contestants on television should be joining your gym, but how do you get them through the door?

The health club marketing team at www.cuecd.com has written a FREE article on how you can use The Biggest Loser television show to sell more health club memberships. Just click here to read the article.

Oh, and if you haven't yet read our original article titled How To Sell Gym Memberships In October you should do so ASAP. Just click here for that article.

More Free Health Club Marketing Strategies

Good news, everyone! We've posted two entirely new, original and (best of all) FREE articles to help circuit training health club owners earn more cash. To check them out just click on the links below:

Gym Member Retention Strategies That Work

How To Sell A Health Club Membership To A Previous Gym Member

Since it's almost October, this would also be a good time to think about ordering our Creepy Halloween Sounds circuit training cue CD. Here's the description: "Ready for a NEW and EXCITING circuit training program for your health club members? Try our CREEPY HALLOWEEN cue cd! Instead of the usual 'change stations' commands, this cue cd features three different sounds: spooky owl, man screaming and evil laugh. Your members will LOVE the change!" Click here to order.

FREE Low Cal Recipes! Click here to redeem.

Get FREE healthy samples of products like Robitussin - Alavert - Purel, more. Click here for your samples from Qualityhealth.com

Using A Sign Spinner As A Health Club Marketing Plan

You've seen them before - that guy (or gal) standing on the street corner holding a sign that's advertising a local business. Typically, the sign has a message that is very short and easy to read. For example, signs we've seen recently simply include the name of the business and an arrow pointing towards that business.

While the traditional 'sign stuck in the grass' is a mainstay of American marketing, this new technique takes it up a notch. The sign-holder usually spins the sign, waves it around, jumps up and down, dances, or does just about anything to get attention. After all, that's the name of the game: to get attention.

A local tax prep company is well-known by their sign spinner. Each year, starting in February, they dress somebody up in a Statue of Liberty costume and have them walk up and down in front of the store holding a sign for their business.

More than one local pizza company, during 5 pm rush hour, has a sign spinner that stands out of front of the store holding a sign.

We've even seen a local personal trainer take it up a notch. When he doesn't have any clients or appointments, he jumps rope out in front of his shop. Does it look corny? Kind of, but it sure gets your attention and practically forces you to notice his business!

Probably the best sign spinner we've ever seen is from the local bread company. This guy was dressed in (we're not kidding) a slice of bread costume. He was holding a sign that said the name of the company and had a yellow arrow pointing the way to the building.

What makes the bread-guy sign spinner so awesome, though, is his attitude. Sure, he could be self-conscious about this slice of bread costume. He could just stand there and be bored. But he was dancing, doing some karate moves, doing the 'robot' and just basically having a ball. Cars were honking, people were smiling, and cell phones were being pulled out for pictures. The slice of bread sign spinner was having fun but more importantly IT WAS A HUGE WIN FOR THE BUSINESS THAT HIRED HIM.

Think that using a sign spinner as a health club marketing plan is too 'small time' for you? Think it doesn't portray your business in a flattering light?

Think again.

Sign spinning as a marketing plan is well established. Entrepreneur magazine recently did a huge article on this topic. Aarow Advertising will earn $4 million this year doing sign spinning ads for their clients. Huge companies like Pepsi, McDonald's and Staples all use sign spinners, as do countless mom-and-pop stores nationwide.

As a gym owner, part of your health club marketing plan should include a sign spinner. Even if you don't hire a person just for that task, you can still have your existing staff go outside during slow times and spin the sign. You certainly don't need a costume, but at the very least the sign spinner should be wearing a gym t-shirt.

To be a successful sign spinner, the key is to HAVE FUN. Watching a self-conscious sign spinner is just painful, but watching an outgoing and impulsive sign spinner is fun! Check out this YouTube video for some helpful hints on how to be a sign spinner. Here's another good video example.

This health club marketing plan doesn't have to break the bank, either. The best deal we found is from Vistaprint, where you can Get a small vinyl banner sign FREE. Plus save 50% off other sizes.

Get 20% off your first order of brochures at PrintingForLess.com. Use Coupon Code NC20PB

Continuing.....The How To Sell More Gym Memberships Series of Articles

As our regular readers know, lately we've been posting some of our 100% new and original articles on another site. Here are the links you need to check it out.....

How To Sell A Gym Membership With Website Marketing

How To Sell More Gym Memberships When Answering The Phone

How To Sell More Gym Memberships At Trade Shows

How To Lower Small Business Attorney Fees

As the owner of a health club, you are in a unique legal position.

Just by owning a gym, you're in a fairly 'dangerous' business where you're taking out-of-shape people and physically challenging them on a regular basis. You're raising their heart rate, having them lift weights or engage in other resistance exercise, and basically taking them out of their comfort zone.

At the same time, as a small business owner you probably can't afford to have an attorney on staff, just in case something happens.

But wouldn't it be nice if you could?

Wouldn't it be great to have an attorney 'waiting in the wings' so to speak, just in case you need advice in a hurry?

Of course, this type of attorney-on-call arrangement would have to be affordable. After all, you're a small business owner, not Donald Trump!

If you're looking for a legal solution that will help you lower small business attorney fees, if you want the peace of mind that an 'attorney on call' can offer, then maybe Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. is right for you.

This company, founded in 1972, primarily offers family legal plans but depending on the state they also offer some business plans.

Although their plans vary from state to state, some common benefits offered by Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. include: Preventive Legal Services, Motor Vehicle Legal Expense Services, Trial Defense Services, IRS Audit Legal Services, Other Legal Services and Legal Shield.

Maybe Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. is right for your family. Maybe they're right for your business. You won't know until you check them out.

After reviewing their site, if you have other questions about Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. please feel free to contact Independent Associate Ryan by emailing ryan70@prepaidlegal.com

This blog posting is designed to educate and provide general information regarding the subject matter covered. However, laws and practices often vary from state to state and are subject to change. Because each factual situation is different, specific advice should be tailored to the particular circumstances. For this reason, you are encouraged to consult with your own advisor(s) regarding your own specific situation.

The author (www.cuecd.com) does not assume any responsibility for any errors or omissions. The author (www.cuecd.com) specifically disclaims any liability resulting from the use or application of the information contained in this blog posting, and the information is not intended to serve as legal advice related to individual situations.

Learn About Marketing Your Business From Quiznos Coupons

This may come as a surprise to some, but you can definitely learn about marketing your business from Quiznos and the Quiznos coupons they so regularly hand out.

I work for a mid-size retailer in a strip mall. Like so many strip malls in the United States, there's a Quiznos in the parking lot. Yesterday the Quiznos manager had one of his hourly employees take a large handful of coupons and walk down the strip mall, entering each store and offering them a "special deal" as part of their "good neighbor" program. The store was offered some Quiznos coupons to place in their breakroom.

My employer took 30 Quiznos coupons and put them in the breakroom, where probably half of them disappeared during the day.

So what did Quiznos do right? First of all, they marketed their business without breaking the bank. You can have coupons printed for just pennies per coupon. They didn't pay postage, they didn't pay an expensive marketing company, they didn't pay a radio station and they sure didn't pay for a television commercial! Instead, Quiznos just took some inexpensive coupons and used their existing labor to distribute those coupons to local prospects.

NOTE: If you want a great deal on coupons we recommend the 250 free business cards from Vistaprint. Even after you pay the $5.67 shipping and handling charge, you're still paying just 0.023 cents per card. Instead of printing regular (boring) business cards, just design them as coupons. The site makes it easy. Anyway, this is the best price we've found so visit this link to order: New Customer Special. 250 Free Business Cards + 2 Free Upgrades. Get FREE Glossy Finish & FREE Backside upgrades with your order.

So what else did Quiznos do right with their coupon distribution? They marketed to a local customer base. Everyone that got a coupon works near that Quiznos location. Compare that to other methods of advertising, like radio, where many (most?) of the listeners live too far away from your business to be a good prospect.

The final thing Quiznos did right was when they made this a "special" offer. A customer is ALWAYS more likely to take advantage of a "special" offer, one that's designed just for them. In other words, if EVERYONE gets a coupon then it's not special. But wait, not everyone got this Quiznos coupon! It was distributed to neighbors only. That makes it special. Since only a select group received this coupon, and I'm in that select group, it now has perceived value.

A good tactic is to think of several unique groups that you can target with coupons specifically for them. Using the Free Business Cards Vistaprint offer that allows you to create professionally printed coupons in small batches of 250, make up a couple offers. Then use existing labor (even if that's you) to distribute these coupons by personally handing them out to the targeted group.

If you have a Target near you, have 250 coupons printed up that say "ABC Gym extends a special offer to Target associates!". Do the same thing for other local businesses. It's virtually risk free marketing, because if nobody at all joins the health club you're out what.....5 bucks and change? Big deal. Skip the Starbucks tomorrow and you're even. The risk/benefit ratio is the best you're ever going to find!

See, you really did learn about marketing your business from Quiznos coupons!

P.S. Remember that we have a great library of free health club marketing articles for you to read. Just visit this link: www.cuecd.com/articles.asp.

Back To School Gym Membership Sales

Health club owners, it's now officially back to school time and if you put in the effort this can be a GREAT time for gym membership sales! If fact, many circuit training health clubs report that back to school gym membership sales are second only to the annual New Year Resolution event.

Need some ideas on how to capture sales during August?

Check out our free articles titled How To Sell Gym Memberships In August and Back To School Health Club Marketing.

Besides just marketing to potential gym members, this is also a good time of year to earn some free publicity. For example, you could write a short article about local physical education (PE) classes and how childhood obesity rates are climbing locally. Submit this article to the media outlets in your town (newspaper, radio and television) and there's a very good chance one of them will run the story. The newspaper will include a tagline at the end of the story, telling people about you and your health club. Perhaps the television station will even come out to your gym to do an interview. Either way, you get free publicity and create the impression that you're the local expert in the health and fitness field.

For a good example of an article you could submit to the local media, check out Is Your Kid's Lunch A Nutritional Time Bomb?

There's no doubt that back to school gym membership sales have the potential to be fantastic. With some planning and effort, you can have a great sales month!

Redbox Codes That Work For Free

Redbox is the best - you can rent DVDs for $1 a night with no membership fees! You should try it out. If you click on my link and it's your first time renting online, they'll give you a free one-night online rental credit.

How To Sell More Gym Memberships Series Of Articles

Lately we've been posting many of our new ideas for circuit training gym owners on a different site. We've been posting there because we're getting more hits there. But never fear! We'll still be posting great health club marketing secrets here on this blog, so check back often!

In the meantime, just follow these links to read more of our 100% original articles that will help you squeeze more profit out of your gym:

How To Sell More Gym Memberships With A Guest Register

How To Sell More Gym Memberships With Member Referrals

How To Sell More Gym Memberships With A Business Of The Week Program

How To Sell More Gym Memberships With Group Selling Opportunities

How To Sell More Gym Memberships With Seminars and Classes

How To Sell More Gym Memberships Using Guest Passes

How To Sell More Gym Memberships Using Fish Bowls

Grand Opening Ideas For Gyms

How The Curves Zumba CD Is Making Circuit Training Fun Again

How To Sell More Gym Memberships With The Lead Box Strategy

Why The Old Change Stations CD Is Killing Circuit Training Now (and what you can do about it)

As always, don't forget to visit our main site for a huge listing of gym marketing articles. Just click here to visit our articles page.

How The Curves Zumba CD Is Making Circuit Training Fun Again

In the typical circuit training health club, members alternate between resistance exercise machines and aerobic stations like jogging squares. Lively music plays at a rapid BPM (beats-per-minute) to help clients stay motivated and maintain their pace. At the same time, another stereo plays an audio cue CD that prompts gym members to “change stations” at set intervals.

In other words, in most circuit training health clubs members perform resistance exercises for thirty seconds (or sixty seconds), then “change stations” to jog in place for another thirty (or sixty) seconds.

The problem is that when you’re doing the same thing, day after day, it can get BORING!

To combat the boredom, and the inevitable member retention problems that accompany that boredom, some circuit training health clubs have mixed things up by adding new exercises and/or by changing the intervals between “change stations” cues.

Using specialty cue CDs designed just for the circuit training industry, such as those offered by www.cuecd.com, many gyms are having their members perform new and exciting exercises at regular intervals. For example, when using a "Bicep Curls" cue CD gym members will be prompted to step away from the regular circuit and perform various dumbbell lifts every ten minutes. Adding a new exercise to a familiar workout is a sure way to keep interest high and keep gym members coming back.

But while many independent circuit training health clubs are doing a great job of using cue CDs to keep the workout fresh and exciting, Curves for Women has hit an absolute HOME RUN with their new Zumba workout!

Curves is now offering "the only 30-minute class that mixes the moves of Zumba with the proven strength of training of Curves for a wildly effective workout" (source: www.curves.com/the-workout/zumba-fitness). The Curves Zumba workout involves their regular circuit, with the exception that the typical aerobic stations have been replaced with Zumba dance!

Using a 60-second audio cue CD such as the one offered by www.cuecd.com, in conjunction with a Zumba music CD, the Curves Zumba workout prompts gym members to "change stations" at 60-second intervals. Health club members thus spend sixty seconds on a resistance strength machine, followed by sixty seconds of vigorous Zumba dance.

The reason why this innovation has been so successful for Curves is that Zumba is one of the most popular workout routines in the world. Zumba is "..an exhilarating, effective, easy-to-follow, Latin-inspired, calorie-burning dance fitness-party that’s moving millions of people toward joy and health" (source: www.zumba.com/us/about).

To be more specific, the official Zumba website (www.zumba.com) offers the following explanation of the Curves Zumba phenomenon: "Zumba in the Circuit – Maximize your workout while still having a total blast. Zumba in the Circuit is 30 minutes of high-octane, Latin-inspired dance-fitness moves combined with circuit training, a series of strength exercises at timed intervals. Get the metabolism-boosting, strength-building benefits of circuit training while perfecting Zumba moves—all in the same class! Guaranteed to blast calories and thwart boredom, Zumba in the Circuit moves students from one exercise station to the next to the thumping beats of reggaeton, salsa, merengue, hip-hop and more. Be in and out in 30 minutes flat —this time-effective and efficient class can be adapted for all fitness levels."

By combining Zumba music, a 60-second audio cue CD, and the traditional Curves circuit training workout, Curves for Women has achieved what so many circuit training health clubs strive for: a circuit training workout that is not only effective but FUN.

The Curves Zumba CD has not only made circuit training fun again, but has also helped millions of women reach their weight loss goals. Curves has done it again, and if history is any indicator we’ll see countless independent circuit training health clubs follow their lead.