Marketing/Website ideas sought

Hello to all the experts here and kudos for extending your expertise
to those in need,

My fiance has recently started a Pilates studio in Central NJ, USA.
The area has been good to us - she turned a profit the first month and
after only 4 months in business, the studio is running at about 80%
capacity. I attribute the success partly to the right location (we are
in the middle of a Serenity Center, in an affluent area of NJ), partly
to our guerilla marketing efforts ( we distributed our brochures and
flyers in an area we deemed likely to be visited by our target clients
[spas, hair salons, etc]) and mostly to the fact that my fiance is an
amazing people-person who connects well with people and makes a sale
by tailoring her message to each potential client and always taking
the time with each potential client. A lot of our new clients are
arriving because of the great "word-of-mouth effect" and because we
offer 10% Referral Discount to all the current clients.

Although we are relatively successful by conventional wisdom, we are
both looking forward and anticipate that we are going to lose some
clients (Pilates may not be their thing after all, their schedule
changes, their priorities changes, fitness goals change, etc). As such
we want to ensure we have a steady flow of new customers to replace
those that leave and build on the ones we have.

We have aimed some of our efforts to keep the ones we have by offering
an occasional gift certificate, sending a jar of jam & other small
tokens of appreciation.

In order to bring in new ones and to increase the likelihood of sale
from an initial contact I designed her a website
www.PremierPilates.net and I would welcome your suggestions on
improving the site design. One of the comments I've gotten (mostly
from men) was that there is too much information on the site. That was
intentional as most of the "marketing to women" books say that women
like to "do their homework" (have the access to lots of information
before making a purchasing decision). I've also tried to make the site
visitor friendly by my font selection and amount of studio pictures.

Also I seek suggestions on other types of action we can undertake to
bring in the targeted clientele (affluent women, age 25-55, located
within 10 minute driving time) into her studio.

To summarize I would welcome any help with:

1. Website analysis (www.PremierPilates.net)
2. Ideas on website promotion - it still doen't register on google,
yahoo, etc
3. Ideas on inexpensive marketing efforts we can undertake

Again thank you for all of your help and suggestions,

David Boguslavsky
VP
www.PremierPilates.net

"David Boguslavsky" <boguslda@premierpilates.net> wrote in message
news:c1b3ka0q0h@enews4.newsguy.com...
>
>
> To summarize I would welcome any help with:
>
> 1. Website analysis (www.PremierPilates.net)

Lose the frames
Research HTML compliance, alt tags, H1 tags, etc.
There are plenty of Usenet groups for HTML and web design discussions.

> 2. Ideas on website promotion - it still doen't register on google,
> yahoo, etc

Lose the frames
Exchange links with relevant local non-competing sites that are already in
Google and Yahoo.
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/
http://www.searchengineworld.com/


--
McWebber
"Richter points to the lack of legal action against his company as proof
that he's operating appropriately."
Information Week, November 10, 2003

*Looking for ways to keep your marketing strong and growing for an
excercise club*

(Response with input from Ms. Judith Michaels)

Temple University eh? Tell your wife every time I see that I think of
the classic "Acres of Diamonds" .

Sounds like ur doing a lot of things right. You're smart for preparing
for changing market dynamics within your product life cycle ahead of
time. You May want to:

Short term:

1) Check out 'Vertical Portals' in which you can use directory style
promotions to aid your online efforts.
(I should be able to look up your service in your town online and locate
you through several directories and associations)

2) Brainstorm various 'Viral Marketing' methods to apply to your
efforts.
(Systematically fuel your word of mouth promotion)

3) Begin Building stronger brand identity while building value
perception at the same time by enhancing your company image. You want to
think in terms of a) person-as-hero approaches (person being your
wife... she should continue learning, writing, lecturing, touring etc)
Improved Corporate Identity (Better targeted USP, Logo, Corporate
Culture) and Take on a womens cause while you're at it .

Medium Term:

Since we know that spas attract a very targeted demographic, (according
to a 2001 ISPA study, the majority of spa users are female, age 41 to
45, married, college graduates or higher, and employed full-time with an
average income of $96,000 to $125,000.) Focus on several sub-niches and
consider the use of Highly targeted mailing lists to the above in your
area...

Develop Several series of slightly discounted programs to extend your
grip on clients throughout a expanded time frame...basically give them
reasons to commit for longer times

Make (keep) radical focus on the clients a part of your business style.


Long Term:
Be prepared to change before you have to by building research (or report
cards if you will) into your systems where ever you can, keep watch on
the trends and competitors, and be ready to introduce to market new
programs as needed to counteract a stemming off of the growing
popularity (or critical mass) of your core product.

Continue the jar of jam...brilliant.

Continued success in your venture...

~zion~

David,

I admit that I didn't look at the website. I agree with McWebber's
comments even without looking.

Wondering: why do you even want to advertise something as local as an
exercise studio on the web? I'd (try to) find out what the intended
clientele read in way of newspapers or magazines, and what they are
likely to watch on TV (if local advertising can be had, I know we can
here, especially on cable - network TV is Honolulu dominated)


Maren
http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/~maren/palms_etc/


McWebber wrote:
> "David Boguslavsky" <boguslda@premierpilates.net> wrote in message
> news:c1b3ka0q0h@enews4.newsguy.com...
>
>>To summarize I would welcome any help with:
>>
>>1. Website analysis (www.PremierPilates.net)
>
> Lose the frames
> Research HTML compliance, alt tags, H1 tags, etc.
> There are plenty of Usenet groups for HTML and web design discussions.
>
>>2. Ideas on website promotion - it still doen't register on google,
>>yahoo, etc
>
> Lose the frames
> Exchange links with relevant local non-competing sites that are already in
> Google and Yahoo.
> http://www.searchenginewatch.com/
> http://www.searchengineworld.com/
>
>

"Maren Purves" <m.purves@jach.hawaii.edu> wrote in message
news:c1drug022jm@enews3.newsguy.com...
>
> David,
>
> I admit that I didn't look at the website. I agree with McWebber's
> comments even without looking.
>
> Wondering: why do you even want to advertise something as local as an
> exercise studio on the web?

If you're in an area visited by tourists, or a growing area I would be on
the web. Also, it saves on a lot of phone time and printing. Your sales
people can't misquote your information if it's read online. It's also good
for viral marketing when Aunt Polly sends her niece a link to your exercise
studio site because she thinks her niece needs to lose weight. People do a
lot of online research before moving to or visiting an area. Link exchanges
with the top realtors would be a way to generate traffic.

--
McWebber
"Richter points to the lack of legal action against his company as proof
that he's operating appropriately."
Information Week, November 10, 2003

Maren Purves <m.purves@jach.hawaii.edu>

> Wondering: why do you even want to advertise something as local as an
> exercise studio on the web? I'd (try to) find out what the intended
> clientele read in way of newspapers or magazines, and what they are
> likely to watch on TV (if local advertising can be had, I know we can
> here, especially on cable - network TV is Honolulu dominated)

Maren, that's a great question:

Our though process was as follows:

Our clientele is women and before makign apurchasing decision they
have a need to trust us and anything we can do to help them get over
the "decision to buy hump" is a good idea. To that end we designed an
attractive brochure that was informative and catchy. We make sure that
all our phone contacts are tailored to fit each potential client's
area of interest (exception are the folks who call for a Pilot school
instead of a Pilates studio, there have been a few). Finally we offer
our (hopefully) professional-looking website as a sign that we are a
respectable company, but more so to help women research Pilates and us
in the process. As such, the main purpose of the site is not to attact
new clientele but to increase the likelihood of a sale once the
initial contact has been made.

The suggestions about advertising in the media you suggest are great
but alas a bit out of our price range. Furthermore, studio capacity is
25-30 clients max, and something that would bring waves of people
would simply result in us turning away a bunch of folks who would then
spread the message about how we were not unable to fulfill their needs
- somethign we desperately try to avoid.

I am still very open to suggestions so please share if you have any
more ideas.

David

P.S. I shall try to convert out of frames this weekend, albeit I hope
to keep the structure of the site intact.

P.P.S. Any feedback on the content? We tried to make it
visitor-centered with a definite spotlight on what studio could give
them.

> 1) Check out 'Vertical Portals' in which you can use directory style
> promotions to aid your online efforts.


"Vertical Portals?" Do you mean something along the lines of somethign
like Warren Township Business directory, Local health organization
websites, health food sites/stores?

> 2) Brainstorm various 'Viral Marketing' methods to apply to your
> efforts. (Systematically fuel your word of mouth promotion)

I am relatively new to this realm (MD in training, though starting to
get familiar with the marketing techniques and lingo - on a sidenote a
book "Linked" might be of real interest to you). Any specific
suggestions for a viral technique we might employ? We considered
monthly newsletters with Pilates exercises and recipes our clients
could forward to their friends, but with a client base of 20 people I
wonder if there is enough critical mass there to make this particular
idea worthlwhile. I am open to others but haven't been able to come up
with anything less banal.

> 3) Begin Building stronger brand identity while building value
> perception at the same time by enhancing your company image. You want to
> think in terms of a) person-as-hero approaches (person being your
> wife... she should continue learning, writing, lecturing, touring etc)

We are definitely talking about it. We are trying to get our foot in
the door of the local hospitals and get in to work with "focused on
wellness" population of patients and employees, as well, as "women
with cancer". We consider community/personal benefit ratio to be
excellent in work with both populations, though so far we haven't been
able to penetrate the heavy walls of beaurocracy.

> Improved Corporate Identity (Better targeted USP, Logo, Corporate
> Culture) and Take on a womens cause while you're at it .

Sorry for the ignorance but what is USP?

> Medium Term:

> Focus on several sub-niches and
> consider the use of Highly targeted mailing lists to the above in your
> area...

How receptive might local spas be sharing their clientele list with us
if we apprached them with either
1. An offer to contact their clients for a co-promotion along the
lines of: "Because you are a frequent visitor to Super-Spa we at
Premier Pialtes wanted to extend you a
value-add/special/free/discounted, etc offer".
2. A $100-200 dollars

> Make (keep) radical focus on the clients a part of your business style.

Amen!! I met the right woman for she knows not how to do it any other
way

> Long Term:
> Be prepared to change before you have to by building research (or report
> cards if you will) into your systems where ever you can, keep watch on
> the trends and competitors, and be ready to introduce to market new
> programs as needed to counteract a stemming off of the growing
> popularity (or critical mass) of your core product.

We are already thinking about movng to a larger space within two years
and expanding our offerings to include Yoga/Dance/Reiki etc.

> Continue the jar of jam...brilliant.

Best $100 we ever spent - Good-will galore and made all the clients
feel special!

> Continued success in your venture...

Thank you,
David & Debbie

P.S. Debbie has been digging in the backyard for those crazy diamonds
for as long as I've known her.

P.P.S. Thank you for such wonderful ideas and feedback

"David Boguslavsky" <boguslda@premierpilates.net> wrote in message
news:c1emrh01jq@enews2.newsguy.com...
>
>
> P.S. I shall try to convert out of frames this weekend, albeit I hope
> to keep the structure of the site intact.
>

You should learn about include files, but web design is pretty OT for this
newsgroup.


--
McWebber
No email replies read
If someone tells you to forward an email to all your friends
please forget that I'm your friend.

LOL @ hunting diamonds in the back yard forever... Tenacity to boot!
Yes, you've got hooked up right entreprenuer...lol



"Needing clarity on the terms Viral marketing and Vertical Portals"...

"We considered monthly newsletters with Pilates exercises and recipes
our clients could forward to their friends, but with a client base of 20
people I wonder if there is enough critical mass there to make this
particular idea worthlwhile."

"We have considered:
1. An offer to contact spas clients for a co-promotion along the lines
of: "Because you are a frequent visitor to Super-Spa we at Premier
Pialtes wanted to extend you a
value-add/special/free/discounted, etc offer".
2. A $100-200 dollars"

I assume you mean a $100-$200 value?
Not Bad but in adding your value always do it by delivering extra
benefit/ benefit perception, not just charging less. As for the last
concept consider creating a "day of" type event (day of heath... they
can take this day at their leisure...pun intended) and promote maybe a
combination of perhaps a light lunch at Natalies Vegetarian, stretching
class at your place, followed by super spa visit for a facial and ending
with a free cup of tea at the local bookstore cafe.
All 50% off or free so long as the previous place was initialed. Make
the passes good for two. Create a sample Ad and show them all. Get them
all (vendors) in on it and offer it to existing clientele as well as new
prospects in your market. This simpatico approach may open the door for
you to tap into their spa market (for whom you are actually a
competitor, albeit an indirect one...lol).


Recipes are good. Put them on one page of the website so they can be
easily seen/ forwarded. Cook the recipes and bring them in once a month
for tasting on guests night. Design your own Marketing Viruses (see
steps below) and concentrate on efforts which create incentives to
"bring a friend along to the studio" Create a 'No sales pressure, Ever'
to guests policy.


About Viral Marketing:

As unattractive as this term is, it is very accurate. Viral marketing is
a strategic approach which causes the news about your offerings to
spread "like the flu". People who "catch" your virus are those who are
"dying" to know more information (excuse the pun, but since you are in
the medical field I thought I wound personalize the example lol) and can
then go to your website for more details, your phone number, etc. If you
gave away free concert tickets you would find that the (true) rumor
would spread rapidly and exponentially between people with music loving
friends creating a dramatic word of mouth phenomenon causing your phone
to ring off the hook. Another example of viral Marketing is hotmail.com
free email accounts. That's how they spread. Word of mouth buzz fuelled
by the word "free".

An effective viral marketing strategy normally:

-Gives away products or services
-Provides for effortless transfer to others
-Scales easily from small to very large
-Exploits common motivations and behaviors
-Utilizes existing communication networks
-Takes advantage of others' resources

Additionally you may want to use cool and memorable names for your
offers and an easy to remember web addy even if it redirects.
If you are going to have a music star come play acoustic jazz guitar
live one evening while the ladies come and stretch to the music &
vocals, meditate, or whatever it is that you do, a name like "Startouch"
or Startouch.com with a redirect will create more buzz than touring
"musician night at...". The point is it should be easy to move the info
over the phone even if one person does not have an ink pen handy.


"Vertical Portals?" Do you mean something along the lines of something
like Warren Township Business directory, Local health organization
websites, health food sites/stores?"

No probably not...and unless they meet the below requirements and your
info is locatable no more than two or three pages deep into those sites,
forgetaboudit=99. Also, they need not be local as long as there is a
business locator form on the site.

About Vertical Portals:

A word about your website first though, lol.. I'm not sure what others
meant by "your offering too much information" and I agree with your
research approach to things. However if they meant "i was overwhelmed by
the amount of text per page" I can understand this response to your
site. The detailed information some will seek should be "available" but
not necessarily showing all it once. Consider "more information" buttons
off your pages. Your site must look pleasing not crowded, so don't
overlook the use of open space within your site. As alluded to before,
displaying your Logo prominently on the page will get you further if you
invest more into your image equity via a professionally designed
trademark.

As indicated before, as the market slowly gluts with the product, any
product-as-hero approaches will be muted/ neutralized. A company-as-hero
approach does not really apply to you guys now. So your remaining Ace
strategy is to develop the person-as-hero momentum now (press releases,
tours, write a book, seminars, television) and it will be sustainable
for you through the coming phase where product supply meets/ exceeds the
market demand for it (Remember Jazzercise? lol). Your wife is easy on
the eyes and personable. She also knows her stuff. As part of the logo
the graphic artist could use a partial silhouette of her facial profile.
If you don't want to change the biz name you can add a subtag to the
company name as in a slogan--which includes your wifes name or such. The
idea is to make her at least locally famous to put it bluntly. This
gives you a Unique Selling Point (U.S.P.) that no competitor can easily
touch as they begin to drop off like flies and search for advantages.
You will know when this is coming phase is happening because the price
points will drop/ values will tend to increase throughout your
competitive roundup. Using this strategy successfully, though your
prices may also drop some, you can then define the top of the local
price point for your product and your profits should increase as you
expand and absorb the clientele from the failing businesses .

Vertical portals help those trying to find you without knowing your
name. The beauty of these babies is that they let you use an
intercontinental medium to vend a localized product/ service to a
geographically limited market. Most people who (understandably) don't
understand why the internet indeed belongs in a local marketers
marketing arsenal are thinking through the lens of the old model: cost
per exposure limitations of traditional advertising media=3Dlow Return On
Investment (ROI) for local business. But in this case old thinking
patterns can limit new possibilities. Think about it. Just because you
advertise on the Superbowl does not mean you will not gain local
customers... all being equal you would, however the cost to reach the
millions would be prohibitive due to a low ROI. If however your thirty
second superbowl commercial were free to run, you would be nuts not to
run it as long as you can handle the windfall of resulting inquiries.
(This next note not primarily for Dave and Deb because I see you have
your site up and running: In my above example there are added moderate
website costs... but with this type business and other local businesses
you do not have to have anything exhaustive published to begin using the
portals, so costs are not prohibitive there either... certainly not by
advertising standards..)

The vertical portals strategy rides your business "on the backs of"
other companies who enjoy great internet exposure. These listings are
normally free or only charge per "click through".

A Vertical Portal (sometimes called vortals) is any web site which
provides a list of links to other web sites which contain information,
products, etc that are related to the subject theme of the portal
site.=A0 For instance, a web site that lists links to the best web sites
with Electronic Books would be a Vertical Portal for E-books. Another
example would be one which lists links to computer hardware web sites.
Again you can normally get listed into these types of directories at no
charge.

Homestore.com and Verticalportals.com provide examples of vertical
portals. What's important to know about these is that they serve as
"billboards" along the information highway directing more prospects to
your website.

Test to find the ones that have strong placement within google, yahoo
etc.. especially the first, second, or third slot, found by you under
the keywords (search terms) your customers are likely to use. Most
effective of this type also place city and state keywords into their
metatags. (Metatags: the word 'handles" webmasters create when the site
is published and that engines, spiders and directories use to locate and
"grab hold of" the portal so it can be shown on the searchers monitor).

This is a key strategy for multiplying your reach because the number
one, two, and three slots (ranking in the page) will be identical within
your top major search engines, due to the fact that the best keywords
are paid for to result in the hold of these slots via Overture bid for
words. Overture distributes the top three spots though contractual
relationships with Google, yahoo, MSN, Hotbot, etc. But If your
speculative Vortal doesn't appear showing on the first page of major
search engines results which is normally the top ten or twenty listings,
forgetaboudit=99. Why use a billboard blocked by a building? lol.

You also want those which are database driven, meaning that they can
narrow a search to be very specific, especially about locations. Go for
one that will provide a city search listing your town or zip code if you
can.

Hope this explains my first post a little better.

For more definitions you may want to check out Marketingterms.com.


~zion~

P.S. Your quite Welcome about the help, Dave. Small business and good
neighbors are blessings . Let me know how things turn our for you and
Debbie?

> You should learn about include files, but web design is pretty OT for this
> newsgroup.

Include files? what's OT? Again apologize for my ignorance.

DAvid