Why marketers should be integrating health and wellbeing perks into customer engagement strategies

Endless ‘daily runs’; your mates asking if you want to do a ‘5k a day’ challenge (no thanks); kettlebells and resistance bands being harder to bag than Glastonbury tickets; Peloton bikes flying off the shelves

During the spring/summer of last year, one might have thought we were in a fitness-mad alternate universe. In reality? People needed something to keep them occupied, not to mention physically and mentally well, during the depths of the pandemic. And judging by the upward trajectory of OnDemand fitness products, not to mention the scenes of people rushing back to their beloved spin classes, I wouldn’t say there’s much chance of the health and wellbeing trend slowing down.

Fitness as a perk

Great for both physical and mental wellbeing, fitness related perks have long been offered by employers as a popular employee benefit – whether in the form of an all-expenses paid monthly gym membership, or something smaller scale, such as one-off fitness classes on a rotation each month.

This type of perk is a sensible idea when you consider the data. Stats from recent research we conducted told us 43% of people in the UK exercise more than four times per week. We also know that spending on health and fitness apps rocketed 70% in 2020 and more than half of UK consumers purchased home workout products during the pandemic.

This huge growth poses the question: why aren’t brands and marketers making more of fitness related perks when it comes to customer loyalty schemes? Times are hard for many people at the moment, and we all know that the first things to go when people are strapped for cash are the ‘nice to haves’ – such as fitness memberships. Indeed, our research told us that a quarter of people wouldn’t pay for a fitness app or website because they couldn’t afford it. So, what if customers needn’t have to worry about this, because their bank or utilities provider, just as a couple of examples, offered it to them as part of simply being a loyal customer?

We all know that the majority of customers no longer want to collect points so they can get a fiver off when they’ve finally spent a hundred quid. The loyalty programmes of the future will give customers something that will make an actual difference to their lives. Health and wellbeing perks clearly fit that criterion. So, how do marketers integrate this type of perk with their current loyalty offering?

Work out whether it's right for you

Any good marketer knows that a great loyalty and engagement strategy starts with proper research. It can be easy to want to hit the ground running when you have a potential new offering that you’re excited about, however, if you’re a brand selling predominantly to a 65+ audience, a fitness perk probably isn’t going to be the most suitable route to go down. However, it’s also important to mention here not to assume that fitness perks are just for uber-fit, 20 something year old athletes. It’s all about knowing your customer and adapting the fitness offering to them.

Once you’ve decided that this type of perk will suit your target customer groups, use data to make it bespoke. For example, in some of the preliminary research for our new fitness product, MyGym , we found that strength and conditioning, HIIT and yoga are the most popular exercise groups for our customers.

Then, use the data you’ve gathered from offering that perk to further tweak your customer engagement strategies. For example, you might now know that your customers are more likely to be exercising between the hours of 5-7pm, so this may not be the best time to get in touch. In the same vein, you may also find that your customers are enjoying high intensity workouts in the morning and chilled out yoga sessions in the evening – again, providing insight for you to switch up your messaging and how you communicate accordingly.

Set challenges to further increase engagement

Sticking with the theme of engaging customers, health and wellbeing perks also give brands the opportunity to show their human side and connect on a personal level. With around a third of UK adults using a wearable fitness tracker, why not set your customers challenges to motivate them to work out. Giving rewards for achievements such as ‘most miles / elevation / workouts covered this month’ work well and not only reward customers, but keep them engaged too. You can also tie this engagement into your CSR strategy, if appropriate, by raising funds for charity / worthy causes at the same time. You might even want to get some of your team to join in and ‘compete’ against customers. People want to see the human side of big brands, so this could be a great way of achieving that, while getting your team motivated and healthy at the same time.

Great integration is key

For loyalty programmes to be effective, they need to be strategic, measurable and able to tie in easily with other efforts. We find that a big challenge for many brands when adding an offering to a multi-product loyalty scheme is how to integrate it seamlessly. In this case, the digitalisation of fitness over the past few years - again, accelerated by the pandemic - has actually made this a lot easier. As many fitness offerings have moved online, brands can now easily integrate them into existing loyalty programmes. Actionable advice here would be to work with a provider who allows you to brand the offering as your own, through your customer app or website, for example.

If brands can get this integration right, they’ll likely be pleasantly surprised with the impact integrating health and wellbeing-focused perks into loyalty strategies has. Healthy customers tend to be happy customers, after all.

By Michael Kalli, managing director at customer engagement, acquisition and loyalty specialists, Ello.

About Ello

Ello creates everlasting connections between brands and consumers by providing brands with the tools to give consumers genuinely rewarding acquisition, engagement and loyalty schemes. And in return, brands watch those consumers stick around.

It believes the most impactful programmes are the ones that feel like an extension of a brand, not a partner offer. With its home-grown products, expert services, nimble tech and experienced people, it does just that to achieve real commercial results, increasing acquisition and engagement for brands.

Already providing some of the UK’s most recognisable brands with sophisticated propositions, Ello’s capabilities are ever-growing to help more brands deliver incremental commercial revenue and delight consumers.

For further information, please visit: www.ellomedia.com

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