Welcome to the new age of fitness, where fun and flexibility reign supreme and consumers are no longer locked into a fitness club or studio.
As the traditional approach to exercise has started to change, the industry has seen an unparalleled rise in digital fitness options and none has been more popular than on-demand video workouts and classes that clients can follow along.
This is great news!
First, because on-demand video is an amazing way to engage your clients and shake up their fitness routines, but second because it’s also a powerful way to open up new revenue streams for you and your fitness business.
To help you make the most of this rising trend and engagement tool, we’re going to take a look at some of the fastest and most effective ways you can make on-demand video part of your fitness business and how you can monetize that offering to the max.
Make on-demand video part of your client programming
The first and most obvious option is to make on-demand video workouts a standard element in all your training programs.
By adding on-demand video workouts (including guided exercises, classes, mediation sessions, stretch sessions, and more) to the training programs or packages you already offer, you’ll be enhancing the training experience for your clients across the board and adding a new way to engage and motivate your clients.
You’ll also be setting yourself up for long-term success. Because on-demand video options are so flexible, they act as a bit of an insurance policy against client cancellations and churn. Even if a client is traveling, gets super busy, can’t make it to their fitness club, or a global pandemic shuts down their gym... your on-demand video workouts will be there as a convenient alternative, queued up and ready for them to use in an instant.
Create a premium on-demand video offering
Of course, another option is to only use on-demand video to create a premium range or tier of services.
Instead of adding video workouts to all your training programs, you’d create only a handful of programs that include access to your on-demand videos.
Once created, you can market and sell these premium programs (at a higher price than your standard program options, of course) to clients looking for a program that includes a wider range of workout styles or who enjoy the follow-along/guided workout experience video provides.
Offer on-demand video as an add-on
Of course, you might not want to make on-demand video a default element of any of your core services, and that’s ok too. If that’s the case, we recommend you consider going the add-on route.
With this approach, instead of automatically bundling video classes and workouts into your training programs, you would build separate add-on products that clients can purchase to gain access to your on-demand videos.
By offering on-demand video as an add-on you’ll be giving your clients a more customizable training experience and more control over what type of workouts their programming includes. You’ll also be creating an upsell opportunity for yourself since clients can purchase the add-on at any point in their fitness journey to help kick workout boredom or tide them over when they can’t access their usual equipment or fitness facilities.
One thing to consider: if you’re going to sell video workouts as an add-on you’ll need to decide whether or not your clients need to have a core training product first before they can purchase the video add-on. If you’re using Trainerize Pay to market and sell your services, you can manage that through our membership control settings.
1-2-3 combo approach
If you’re really interested in maximizing your on-demand videos, there’s no rule saying you can’t combine all three of the approaches above.
With a 1-2-3 combo approach, you’ll pull bits and pieces of different monetization strategies together to build a system that encourages clients to buy and engage with your video workouts no matter what training program they’re on.
Here’s what it might look like:
- Add a few video workouts to all of your training programs.
Putting just a handful of video workouts into your programs is an easy and clever way to give your clients a taste of your video workouts and entice them to either upgrade to a premium program or purchase a video add-on. - Offer members-only unlimited access to your full library of on-demand videos as part of your “premium” offerings.
By making your entire video library available exclusively with specific programs, you’ll be telling the world that your on-demand videos are coveted content. This “exclusive” access can make the premium packages seem more valuable and help incentivize clients to buy up and purchase more expensive programs.
For those clients who love the idea of video workouts but don’t want to pay the premium price tag, they can access it through your add-ons (step 3). - Create two add-ons: one that offers limited access to a curated collection of on-demand videos and the other that offers unlimited access to your entire library.
Offering add-ons in addition to the first two options is like putting the cherry on top of your video workout content strategy. It makes video workouts accessible to all your clients, gives you opportunities to upsell additional products, and makes the buying experience extremely customizable.
If you make these add-ons available without the client first needing a core subscription, you also open up your business to a more passive form of income and can attract a wider network of customers.
Pricing strategy
When you add on-demand video workouts to your business, whether it’s as an add-on or as a core element of your clients’ training programs you’re ramping up the value of your services and giving them more paths to success. And that added value can and should translate into a higher price.
Look at what you’re currently charging for your services and then adjust that to reflect the time and effort it takes for you to create and update a library of video workouts and classes. Be cautious not to make the increase too aggressive so you don’t scare off potential clients, but be fair to yourself and how much your time is worth.
Pro tip: Getting set up to offer on-demand video workouts to your clients can require a large initial investment of time, energy, and resources, so it can be tempting to try and recoup those costs as quickly as possible through your monthly costs. Consider though that an investment in on-demand video is an investment in client retention. While you may not see your money overnight, the time you spent getting set up and ready to offer on-demand video will likely come back to you gradually over a steady period of time as will the profits as your clients’ lifetime value is extended.
