MiGym ‘two sided marketplace’ enjoys two years of growth

Just two years after its launch, MiGym, an online platform that allows fitness facilities to list and showcase their business to maximise membership sales without spending extra marketing dollars, has grown from being a MVP (minimal viable product) to a full scale commercial model.

Co-founder Ryan Elliott explains “most of the people that use our website are highly qualified and are actively looking for a gym to join. A free listing on our site always leads to more memberships sales, whether they join through MiGym.com.au or they walk-in and join in-club, they still join.”

MiGym.com.au converts around 3% of the traffic that lands on the website, leaving 97% of visitors contacting their preferred club to join directly.

Since launching, MiGym.com.au has built its membership base to the size of most 24/7 gyms, with Elliott adding “we have always operated MiGym.com.au as lean as possible, our initial goal was to just test the market and prove it viable.”

Since listing on the platform some clubs have noticed an increase of 5-10% in monthly membership sales.

Caitlin Macumber, Director of Plus Fitness 24/7 in Nerang, explains “it offers an extra source of income for no additional effort or time (which) really helps our business stay healthy.”

Having just completed their latest software update, MiGym.com.au is now a full scale commercial model that can be easily integrated into any gym with minimal training to staff. With only a month to month commitment to be listed on the platform and it being completely free - MiGym.com.au is a riskless opportunity to increase memberships sales without facilities increasing marketing budgets.

Elliott suggests that this could be the reason MiGym.com.au has retained almost 100% of facilities that have joined the platform.

Listing gyms have complete control of their profile page, uploading new images of the club, showcase testimonials and reviews. Clubs have access to all their members personal details; a dashboard that provides all live membership data, revenue projections, membership growth; and status updates for all members converted through the website. All debits, overdues and cancellations are handled by the MiGym support team.

Elliot advises “the last thing we wanted to do was create more work for providers - bringing in more members at the cost of creating more frustrating work for providers seemed counterproductive. We handle all the boring stuff so providers can focus on what they do best: run amazing gyms.”

Providers also have the ability to set membership prices and special offers with expiry dates through their dashboard.

The MVP version of the website only advertised and sold month-to-month memberships, but after countless requests from members and suggestions from providers the website can now convert and manage long term memberships for their listing providers.

Elliott concludes “we work on a cost-per-acquisition model. We only make a percentage off the members we convert through the website. With clubs having to spend more and more money on marketing as the fitness industry grows more competitive

“Our members kept asking us for longer term memberships on the website. The average lifetime of a member on our platform is nine months and around half of our members stick around for longer than 12-months paying a premium month-to-month price. These were the members that gave us the confidence to evolve the model. With the new software update and selling long-term memberships we are predicting the average life of a member to drift out to 15-18 months.”

Click here to contact MiGym through their entry in the Australasian Leisure Management Supplier Directory.