How Analytics and Reporting Can Help Your Fitness Business


In the age of the internet and social media, there is no escaping data. With every click, scroll, like, and purchase, consumers are offering up their data to companies on a silver platter. If your business isn’t taking that platter of consumer information — which has been aptly termed “big data” — and treating it like the treasure trove it is, then it won’t be long until you fall behind.

In the fitness industry, the value of data analytics is not always readily apparent to those who haven’t used it. But when you dive deeper, you’ll see that harnessing the power of big data offers invaluable insights into your business’s performance and membership trends. Armed with this knowledge, you can optimize your club based on member wants, needs, habits, and goals, creating the best experience possible for them.

Let’s take a closer look at the value of fitness analytics and reporting and how they’re set to impact your business.

Why a Data-Driven Approach Is Best for Your Business

Fitness professionals have embraced much of the technology that is molding the industry, but many have yet to capitalize on the power of data analytics. Surprisingly, they are not alone. A survey conducted by Deloitte Insights reported that 67% of business executives (senior managers or higher) are not comfortable accessing or using data from their tools and resources. However, 70% expect data analytics to be more important by 2022.

So, what benefits does collecting, analyzing, and reporting data yield that are making the practice become such an integral component to business growth and success?

Understanding Customers

Big data analytics pulls insights from, among other things, consumer behavior. In fitness, this would include patterns such as when people are booking classes, what type of workouts they like based on what they book, whether they buy supplements or a smoothie after class, and so forth.

With these insights, you’re able to better understand what your customers want and need, allowing you to adapt and refine your marketing campaigns, sales strategies, and club offerings to drive acquisition and retention.

Inform Decision Making

Hard data is essential for making the best decisions for your business, e.g., what to offer, how to price, where to market. Too many professionals make decisions based on their intuition or what they think they know, and then pay the price later when that “instinct” ends up being an inaccurate reflection of real-world data.

There are many ways you can analyze business data — identifying patterns, figuring out why something happened, predicting future outcomes, or determining which strategies yield the best results. Using one or more of these analysis methods will save you time and money by helping you come up with effective campaigns, strategies, and solutions the first time.

Enhance Customer Experience

As you get to know your customers better through their data and start making business decisions based off this deeper understanding, the result is an enriched customer experience. You can use data to personalize your customer’s services and anticipate their needs, fostering loyalty and boosting retention.

How Fitness Analytics Will Help You Grow Your Gym or Club

Now that you understand the value of analytics and reporting for business growth and success in general, let’s explore how you can apply that to your fitness business.

Expand your reach to increase member acquisition.

Tracking information such as who is engaging with your content, where they’re engaging with it the most, and who is then signing up for a membership will help you identify your buyer personas (i.e., your ideal customers). From there, you can tweak your messaging and delivery to reach a wider audience of people who are more likely to turn into leads.

Offer more targeted fitness services.

Thanks to the fitness wearables trend, gyms now actually have the capability to track key member fitness metrics when they connect them to your mobile app. Obviously, this is a huge benefit for your members, but it’s also valuable for your staff.

Knowing where members are in their fitness journeys and where they want to be, your staff can make more personalized suggestions for services and your trainers can create more effective custom workouts. You deliver a better experience to your members and, in turn, increase revenue and retention.

Optimize sales and marketing efforts to use resources more efficiently.

Fitness analytics allows you to discover how members find you, how they’re joining the club, where they’re signing up for classes, and so on. Are you getting most of your new leads from your Google Ad campaign? Are new members signing up more on mobile, in person, or on desktop? Reporting on metrics like these provides insights into which of your promotions and tools are paying off and are worth continued (and maybe increased) investment of your time and money.

Perform better than your competition.

With a refined, data-driven approach to business, your gym is going to make fewer mistakes. Whereas clubs who don’t rely on data will be guessing when they create strategies, you will have the information you need to answer key business questions, identify potential issues before they occur, and make better business decisions.

The fitness analytics trend is only starting to gain momentum within the last few years, so using analytics software now puts you ahead of the pack.

Increase member engagement and retention.

Through their data, you are able to get to know your members, what they like/dislike, and their habits, behaviors, and goals. You can use this information to make their membership at your club more valuable with personalized content, discounts, and offers. By looking for patterns in what members are liking and disliking about your club, you can also identify areas where your business can grow and ones on which you can continue to capitalize.

8 KPIs to Track Using Gym Analytics Software

With so much information available at your fingertips, you may wonder what data is actually worth collecting and analyzing for your fitness business. Here are the key performance indicator metrics you should prioritize:

1.     Number of leads

2.     Conversion rate

3.     Attendance

4.     Retention rate

5.     Attrition rate

6.     Member lifetime value

7.     Revenue per client and/or session

8.     Referrals

Use Fitness Analytics to Boost Sales, Retain Members, & Grow Your Business

Understanding the impact of data analytics and reporting on your gym or club is the key to using these tools unlock your business’s full potential. Learn more about the importance of data analytics at your club by downloading a free e-book from our partner, Club OS.

Once you’re convinced of the power of data in fitness, book a demo of ASF’s analytics and reporting software to use that power to make your club stronger.




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About ASF

ASF is a leading technology company that provides software, payment processing and customer support to the fitness industry including gyms, health clubs and martial arts studios. Since 1973, we’ve given gym and fitness club owners the ability to generate more revenue through member engagement and stronger communities.

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