How do commercial partnerships work?
Every business is looking to either acquire new customers or reward the loyalty of existing ones. An effective commercial partnership is where two or more companies collaborate to help each other with one, or both, of these goals through the exchange of customer value.
A successful partnership typically requires to be a fair degree of balance so the brand value, geographic reach, customer volumes, and product value are comparable.
Why should gym operators be seeking commercial marketing partners?
It’s one of the best ways to grow a business – that’s why we see so many partnerships in nearly every other business sector.
Commercial marketing partnerships are a cost-effective way for two companies to expose their products or services to a new audience or add value for existing customers in the form of rewards. This has the double benefit of reducing your new customer acquisition cost (CAC) while increasing the lifetime value (LTV) of existing customers through rewards.
Why don’t we see more commercial partnerships in fitness?
The fitness sector is a fragmented market; no individual operator is able to provide more than c.300 physical locations.
A lack of physical locations will make any collaboration less efficient as a customer that discovers a fitness operator through a commercial partnership needs a venue nearby to act on the reward they have received. If the fitness operator doesn’t have a location nearby, the outreach is wasted.
This issue limits the number of commercial partners willing to work with a single gym operator, especially if they themselves are a national or global brand.
Should fitness operators focus on brands with similar audiences?
If, as a sector, we keep promoting the same services to the same audience in the same way, how will we ever reach new people and increase overall participation in fitness?
How can Hussle help operators with commercial partnerships?
Hussle can help fitness operators benefit from commercial partnerships in three ways.
- By collaborating with thousands of gyms and health clubs across the UK, Hussle can bring scale, variety, and geographic reach to the negotiating table – factors that immediately get the attention of huge brands. This leverage is something that no single operator can provide.
- Hussle can standardise the user journey of the reward, making it easy for the commercial partner to communicate with customers rather than having to explain lots of different scenarios.
- Investment in terms of both cash and resource. Hussle has a team dedicated to seeking out these deals – so fitness operators don’t need to commit their own resource – and the deals are funded by Hussle and the commercial partner which means operators are paid in full for the customers they receive even if the partnership involves an incentive for the customer