7 min
The good news? You’re preparing to future-proof your business, setting up all you need for when fitness clubs and studios will open again. But if you’re feeling a little unsure of how to increase revenue to make up for recent losses you’ve incurred due to the recent coronavirus pandemic, this article is for you.
This won’t be the first blog post that has reminded you of the fact that right now, we’re in uncharted waters. That means seriously reconsidering your business model and focusing on how you can increase your revenue to stay afloat.
PRO membership is an effective way to do this.
But most fitness businesses utilizing PRO membership right now are unsure:
- How PRO can act as a revenue stream
- The best way to price their premium services
- How to monetize Virtuagym’s new feature - Pro +
In this article we’ll outline all of the above, explaining why promoting a premium membership to your clients and members is a sure-fire way to exponentially increase your income.
PRO as a revenue generator
Virtuagym PRO is basically a premium version of membership. Where your regular members would access basic app capabilities with their normal gym membership, PRO members would have access to extra resources, workouts, videos and features.
These features include things like a Food app for nutrition tracking, as well as things like workout tracking, video streaming, in-app coaching and challenges..
One of Virtuagym’s latest PRO releases is PRO+ - a new program, which provides a total fitness experience for members. From meditations and audio coaching, to community updates (all posted by Virtuagym), it’s a foolproof way to retain and engage members that are now used to working out at home, without having to lift a finger.
The high-value of PRO is the reason it makes such a great additional revenue stream. While you can choose to include it in all of your memberships for free (this could be a good option for high-end gyms wanting to deliver a little extra).
You can also sell it individually to members, one-by-one, to make extra revenue per person. Essentially, they pay for access to all of the additional features so they can workout at home AND in the studio and have a complete fitness regime and plan in their pocket.
How do I price my PRO memberships?
The best thing about working with PRO is that YOU get to decide the pricing. That means you can price it in line with your type of business.
Budget gyms may opt for a lower end pricing, whereas higher-end facilities might opt for a higher price. We suggest pricing the PRO + program (the ultimate in premium content), at around 10-.
Upselling is your best friend
We’re sure we don’t need to tell you, but as gyms readjust to life post-pandemic, an effective upselling plan is crucial to maintaining revenue flows and to get things moving again.
You can utilize PRO to this end by offering different content to PRO members. Do you have your own video content that you want to provide to members? This could be a live streaming video class or a video series.
Perhaps you’re a yoga studio and you want to provide members with a set of classes to help them build up to a headstand - make these videos PRO.
Making your unique content a PRO option is easy to do through the Virtuagym platform and app. Create special workout activities, add them to your online app and portal and then make additional revenue on them.
What other features can I upsell as PRO?
It’s not just your own workouts and unique content that you can upsell on PRO. You can also monetize workouts in the app, which has a library of over 5000 animated exercises completed by a virtual trainer .
Workout plans created by Virtuagym can also be utilized as a PRO add-on and charged for. These are created by Virtuagym trainers, which means all you do is charge customers and give them access to the app - less work, more income.
On top of that, Virtuagym works with Video On Demand. This is a video library of thousands of workouts, from HIIT to zumba to pilates - the app has it all. Access to these videos can be run as part of your PRO membership. It’s also a useful way to slow the stream of visitors back into your facility when lockdown measures are lifted - in line with most government regulations.
In-app challenges are also another great upsell opportunity. These can be both Virtuagym challenges and brand new challenges you are creating for your PRO clients.
In-app fitness challenges take place throughout the year and run on topics from push-up challenges, to squat goals. They take place within the community feature of your personalised branded app and are not only a great upsell point, but also keep members engaged and foster a real sense of community within your gym.
The Food App as an opportunity to upsell
One feature that shouldn’t be underestimated is the Food app. This can be supplied to your members or clients as part of their membership. But it is a valuable addition to training and is a great way to increase your income.
The Food app can be used to track nutrition and log daily intake. By providing this to your members they are able to work towards both their eating and nutritional goals AND their workout goals in one space - one small addition provides them with a complete fitness experience.
How can PRO+ increase my revenue?
PRO+ is a turnkey solution for fitness businesses. What that means, is that Virtuagym provides all of the digital fitness and health requirements for your members so that all you have to do is charge them and watch the revenue roll in.
PRO+ is a complete content package - it has live streaming videos, nutrition tracking, meditations, audio coaching, a virtual trainer - basically ALL of the capabilities of Virtuagym in one place, under one PRO price tag (determined by you).
As Virtuagym only charges per member, you simply pay for what you use, quickly making a return of interest and additional profits. Read more about the offering here .
So how do I add PRO membership to a member?
Now for the technical stuff. Below, we’re going to outline exactly how to set up your PRO membership for an individual member. If you have any more questions, just contact our support team.
How clubs can add PRO to a member:
- System Settings -> Module Settings -> Clients and Staff -> Automatically make all new members PRO: will be granting lifetime PRO for free for all clients when they join
- Manually toggle member details on Clients and Staff -> Client Overview -> Client detail page: can add PRO for free starting immediately or with future date and with lifetime access or with a set end date
- Memberships (more information on that, here )
- APIs (public documentation here )
- Imports
- (i) All staff members have lifetime PRO
Where and how to upsell for club members, your options:
- Standard CHS tile
- Has default text that can be customized
- Gives information about PRO and prompts members to reach out to a club for example, this can be used (to further sell with a membership), it does not make the purchase
- Customizable PRO upgrade mobile page (this needs to be enabled by support)
- Can be set up as the same CHS tile as above or other tile
- PRO Text, agreement, button and success message are customizable
- Client can request PRO (club will get a message) or enable lifetime PRO (club will get a message and will need to charge them their own way), this is configurable by VG support
- PRO membership (contract) (according to the helpdesk article, System Settings -> Module Settings -> Clients and Staff -> Automatically make all new members PRO needs to be disabled (otherwise all members are PRO anyway)
- Webshop can be set up to sell configured PRO memberships
- Food app: Users cannot upgrade from within the food app, but they get access to the food app when they are pro
Where do end users get PRO?
There are several ways your gym members can find out about the PRO membership:
- In the Fitness App
- on Sign in
- PRO progress trackers, activity, workout
- In the Food App
For more information on how to sell your PRO membership online AND how to create your own tiles within the Virtuagym app follow the links here .
