One pet peeve I have in the boutique gym industry is how many gym owners have an email address like "yourgym@gmail.com".
I understand many of you don't want to spend a few bucks a month to have an email address, but what you might not be aware of is how much this is actually costing you.
I've posted about this before, but I continue to see so many gyms come through our system without professional emails, so I feel this topic needs more direct addressing.
Reasons To Get A "Real Email" Solution
There are a few reasons why your boutique gym should get a company email solution. Some are kind of obvious and some those things that you wish you realized before you got into a jam.
Professionalism
This is the obvious one.
In everything you do, you need to look at your business from the lens of your customer.
A certain percentage of them see your "@gmail.com" email address and automatically assume you're not professional, and mentally decide not to work with you.
These are potential clients you don't even realize you're missing.
While you might not worry about doing business with a service professional who does not have a professional email address, someone out there does. (I do for one).
If you lose even ONE lead who would have been a client, you will likely lose more money over the lifetime of that client than you would ever pay for email. Check it out:
$100/month member * 12 month membership = $1,200
$1200 / $6 (cost of Google Email) = 200 months or 16.6 years.
Losing one customer = 16.6 years of email payments.
Let's Fix This Situation. Today.
As you can see, the math is heavily skewed against you. If you think there are indeed people out there who might judge your gym adversely if you have a "yahoo.com" email address - and you can follow the numbers above, you might agree it's time to take action.
I've decided to do the homework for you, let you know what email providers are out there, and how much they cost per month. I realize most of you with @gmail.com email accounts are doing this to save money, so we will sort them by cost.
Every one of these will allow you to choose a business email for your gym that will contain your domain name (yourname@yourgym.com).
Prices and features below are as of 1/21/2020
1. Zoho Email ($0/month up to 5 email addresses)
If you don't have a professional email due to cost considerations, here's a free one.
I'm assuming that you have less than 5 coaches if the cost of email is the barrier, so Zoho might fit the bill perfectly for you.
I've never personally used Zoho Email, so I'm going off of research here, not personal experience. Here's a pretty decent review of the Zoho Email service here.
Features:
- Custom Domain Registration/Mapping
- 5GB of storage per email account
- Web-based email / control panel
- Mobile app
- POP and IMAP access.
- Labeling and Tagging Emails
- Comprehensive search
- Groups and aliasing (sales@yourgym.com)
2. Google GSuite For Business ($6/month per user)
The "granddaddy" of email providers.
All of the business level features you would need, and some you probably don't.
Google GSuite is ideally where you want to land. These package includes calendaring, tasks, contacts, and all the other perks you would expect from an enterprise level provider like Google.
And since they're Google, they have native tie into to things like your Android or iPhone and pretty much every other system out there worth a damn.
The cost can get pricey, if you have > 5 coaches and you give them each an email, but I would again argue if you lose a single client just once with a @gmail.com email address, the cost is moot.
If you can swing it, just do Google GSuite. The functionality is worth it (Docs/Drive/Calendar/etc)... and you won't have to deal with migrating later if you grow to a point where you need it.
If money is tight, just operate with one email address and use a shared inbox OR use aliases and groups to make yourself look bigger.
Features:
- Custom Domain Registration/Mapping
- 30GB of storage per account
- Web-based email / control panel
- Mobile app
- POP and IMAP access.
- Labeling and Tagging Emails
- Comprehensive search
- Groups and aliasing (sales@yourgym.com)
- Access to other GSuite Products
- Google Calendar
- Google Drive
- Google Docs
- Google Sheets
- Google Hangouts
- Google Slides
That Is It.
I just spend an hour checking out other providers, and there's none else I feel I could recommend in good faith. They either are too limiting, seem like they could be a problem, or they cost almost as much as GSuite, so why not use GSuite?
DO THIS TODAY
Seriously. Stop being unprofessional and get a custom domain email today. The clients you are losing, you don't even know you're losing because they are never contacting you.
