More and more athletes are discovering that sport is not reserved for practising outdoors or in a dedicated room. A number of disciplines can also be practised at home. That’s why we’re detailing how to organise online classes in this article. Optimise your sports classes by following these 7 ideas, from communication and loyalty building to registration and choice of tools.
Summary
- Find your students
- Manage your online registrations
- Set up daily and weekly sessions
- Choose a videoconference tool
- Get to know your students before starting the classes
- Communicate before each training session
- Retain your students
1. Find your students
Friends, colleagues, former gym partners, family members… There are no real rules for how to find the first students for your online sports classes. You can even ‘infiltrate’ Facebook, Instagram or YouTube communities to offer your services and see what attracts your potential students the most, be it fitness training, HIIT, strength training, crossfit, cardio, etc. Be aware that you won’t get a large number of registrations quickly if you’re starting from scratch. Your progress in student numbers will advance according to your experience and your network.
2. Manage your online registrations
Using an online registration solution will give you many advantages. First of all, you’ll present a professional image to your potential students and you’ll be offering them secure payment methods. You will also have precise information about each of those registered, allowing you to carry out targeted marketing campaigns via email and on social networks — see point 7, ‘Retain your students’. Finally, you will be able to easily schedule sessions and set prices according to the value of your various classes.
To benefit from all these features, create your first event on Weezevent and structure the prices of your different online sports classes. If you have a website, integrate your registration module into it with just a few clicks. You can also share the link to your Weezevent minisite via all your communication channels, including Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, and so on.
3. Set up daily and weekly sessions
Giving online sports classes requires careful planning, since not all your students will be available on the same days of the week or at the same times. With Weezevent, you can schedule sessions in the blink of an eye and according to your needs. Divide your daily sessions by level — beginner, intermediate, advanced — or by discipline — workout, yoga, Pilates, gym, stretching, etc.
4. Choose a videoconference tool
Among the various tools at your disposal when organising online sports training sessions, a videoconference application is essential. Zoom, Google Meets or Hangouts, YouTube… the options are endless. Choose the one that best suits your needs for giving online sports classes, especially according to the disciplines offered, such as fitness training, bodybuilding, HIIT, strength training, etc.
5. Get to know your students before starting the classes
Do you have all the tools needed to manage registrations for your videoconference sports classes and are you keen to get started? Don’t forget to ask your attendees essential questions. Why do they want to take online sports classes? What are their goals? How old are they? Have they ever been injured while practising this discipline or another? How long have they been practising it? What other physical activities do they do on a daily basis? These are just some of the areas to explore, but they’re essential if you want to adapt your sessions and limit the risk of injury. Even from a distance, you are responsible for the health of your students.
Tip: Ask for this information when your attendees register by providing your students with a customised form. Adapt it according to the discipline. This will ensure you have material to discuss and will help you get to know your students better before the first sessions.
6. Communicate before each training session
When your students register for one of your online coaching classes, they will automatically receive a confirmation email. We advise you to take this opportunity to remind them of the procedure to follow to take part in the class on D-day. We also recommend that you send a final reminder in the last 24 hours before the start of the online coaching class. With WeezTarget, our emailing and marketing tool which is directly linked to your registration system, all you have to do is schedule an email to be sent automatically, which takes no more than a few clicks. You can plan this in advance by selecting the relevant session and the desired sending schedule. All attendees registered for this session will receive the email.
7. Retain your students
WeezTarget allows you not only to send reminder emails, but also to schedule targeted retention campaigns. Creating quality online sports classes is a minimum; you’ll need to communicate frequently with your students and other contacts if you want to keep your activity going. To do this, design emails aimed at each type of target audience: loyal attendees, ‘dropouts’, prospects, etc. Analyse your open rates and especially the sales made following each email campaign. In just two clicks, you can even monitor the turnover linked to a specific Facebook post.
Are your shoelaces tied, your sports shorts on and your webcam ready? It’s time to launch registrations for your online sports classes. Discover all our solutions and their different features by clicking on the button below:
