5 Benefits of Launching A Profitable Online Fitness Membership Website
You want to start an online fitness business but you have absolutely no idea where you start. You didn’t come from a business background and your tech skills? Well, those leave something to be desired…
Maybe you should do LIVE coaching, or maybe you create and sell a product. Or maybe you become an affiliate. Heck, what about just taking your brick-and-mortar gym clients and bringing them to an online platform.
I have something better.
It’s more sustainable, generates recurring revenue, and allows you to become a true expert in your niche.
It’s called an online membership site—and it will change your life.
If you aren’t familiar with membership sites, they’re simply a platform you create to offer information or exclusive content online through a paid subscription or “members only” website in which your members will pay you monthly.
Not only is the Internet the most cost-effective way of providing valuable content to a selected audience, but it also expands your reach on a global scale to people with the same interests or values, who may find your content beneficial.
That means your paid subscription business doesn’t just have to concentrate on local markets…you can target anyone, anywhere.
For me, creating an online membership site has taken the Funk Roberts brand to a level I never dreamed of. It’s allowed me to generate multiple 7 figure businesses and today I am going to share my top 5 reasons why you should launch an online fitness membership site.
Ready to get started?
- Generate Recurring Revenue (Passive Income)
Everyone loves the idea of working less and making more, and that’s exactly what a membership website does. Naturally, when it comes to starting a business online, your priority should be on creating a product or service that will generate a recurring revenue and a reliable stream of income.
When launching a membership website, you are offering premium content or a service that your customers are paying for each month to access. So, you spend time creating the content initially, and then that content exists and continues to bring in revenue. Look at it this way, it’s kind of like working once and getting paid for a whole lot more.
One of the major advantages of membership websites or a subscription fee-based model is that you generate a steady income stream. Typically, a subscription term would last a month, or a quarter or, in some cases, a year. If you successfully retain a customer for a longer subscription term, you continue to generate income from the same customer without having to put in any extra work.
My membership website currently has over 10,000 paying members who pay between $29 and $49 per month. And because my cancel rate for existing members are low, my monthly revenue continues to grow without having to worry about losing a chunk of my members.
2. Low Start Up and Ongoing Costs
The key to any business decision is cost. For a lot of people, that means starting up a brick-and-mortar business is off the table because the start-up and rents costs are through the roof. And while setting up and running a website can be costly depending on how you do it, it’s generally a much more cost-effective option than starting a physical business.
With a website, you can split the costs into three areas: Set-up, maintenance, and running costs. The set-up costs depend on what you want to accomplish with your membership website and who you get to help you build it. And when we get to the start-up and maintenance costs of subscription websites, they’re quite low in comparison to starting a gym or renting space in a niche fitness centre, where your overhead and monthly rent fees can leave you broke.
The bottom line is that you still have to create a free website to promote your business. Low start-up costs for your membership site means lower risks, but at the same time it also means that entry barriers are low. And once you have your website up and running, it’s time to fill it with content and start marketing to your niche.
3. High Profit Margins
With low startup and ongoing costs, and a steady income stream, the profit margins sustained with membership website are definitely high. But with a successful website, you can expect to reach break-even in no time.
Typically for a content website, a one-month subscription would cost anywhere from $9 to $49 per month, and even if you had a small customer base, you can still early high profits. With each increasing member the incremental cost is truly negligible, and your profits can grow exponentially.
Remember, success breeds more success. If you focus on achieving success for your members, they will stick around and grow with you. And if that’s not enough, a large member base also opens up avenues for additional income streams. When your members trust you and are achieving life changing results based on your information, they will listen to your advice, which ultimately gives you the opportunity to explore new avenues to continue to achieve results and expand your income, whether it’s social media marketing, conferences, webinars, or the like.
4. Build Loyally With Your Members to Establish Multiple Streams of Revenue or Cross-Selling For Your Business – supplement image
Any sales professional will tell you that it’s much easier to increase sales from an existing customer than it is to find a new customer. A subscription website is an excellent way of cross-selling your services (or products) to current customers.
Because of the rise of sites like Amazon, and you’ll even notice this on other sites, you can access other customer favorites or products they recommend. This is what I mean. If you search for a book on Amazon, you’ll see a bar listed at the bottom of the page saying ‘Customers who bought this book also bought…’ along with a list of half a dozen other books for you to consider. It’s an easy and effective way to cross-sell additional services or content to your members based on others’ purchasing habits.
One of the best examples of cross-selling as a fitness professional would be selling your own supplements or products that fit seamlessly into your membership business. You talk about all the benefits of taking X supplement, and then boom, you have it right there for your customers to purchase. Successful cross-selling is the result of recognizing a customer need and meeting that need with a useful product or service.
Cross-selling is also a great way to help your business realize its objectives: Providing useful services, retaining customers, attracting new customers, and staying competitive in your industry.
My membership business has allowed me to create and launch my own supplement line—Funk Supplements—and cross-sell multiple products to my members based on my niche.
5. High Quality Member Base
People pay to become a member only if they are interested in your service or content. It’s that simple. Apart from generating revenue for your website, this has another advantage. Paid subscription ensures that your customer base consists only of targeted customers and/or those interested in your service. In other words, you are more likely to retain your customers if they actually want and care about your product or service. A high-quality subscriber base works wonders for your business. They are demanding and expect value, but that’s what you’re going to deliver to them.
However, your members stand out as a special group of individuals that have a particular need and value quality and time, which means that when you are focused on driving results from your members, the quality will continue to grow.
Conclusion
The membership/subscription website or paid content business model obviously has many advantages over brick-and-mortar or even a free content model. From steady recurring revenue and cross-selling other products to creating high quality members, the self-gratification you get from helping people achieve life changing results is only the beginning. You’re doing that while also sharing something that you are passionate about and making money… YOU CAN’T GO WRONG!
With more and more people looking towards online fitness programs to help them lose weight, build muscle, or get into shape, it’s a niche you need to cash in on now if you want to see the cash flooding in. And with the uncertainty of the future of gyms, this is the perfect time to create an online fitness membership website.
Join me November 12 at the CanFitPro 2021 Online: Business & Leadership to learn the blueprint to creating a profitable fitness membership website.
In this workshop you will learn the step-by-step process and method of creating a RESULTS DRIVEN, recurring fitness membership business and TRIBE that will pay you month after month and become lifelong members, while you create a BRAND/BUSINESS that stands the test of time.
