CWA Blog Archive-Member Engagement Series Educational Content

Member Engagement Series Educational Content

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Written by Hilary Harris in April 2020, five weeks into gym closures, this Member Engagement Series installment focuses on creating educational content to engage members virtually. It opens with an apt climbing metaphor: gyms worldwide had, in classic climber style, dived into the problem-solving that's core to climbing, facing a giant route that has never been climbed and not even knowing where it goes. This is a true adventure requiring gyms to dig deep into their toolkits to optimize their chances of reaching the top, and as with all challenges, opportunities arise for the resourceful and innovative. The article reframes the closure as a chance to strengthen customer relationships by engaging members in new, meaningful ways, building on the prior week's piece about keeping the community engaged during COVID-19. The featured strategy is content curation for educational content. The article observes that most climbing gyms offer a variety of programs and classes, ranging from kids' programs and teams to yoga and fitness classes to technical clinics. In thinking about creating online content, it prompts operators to consider the enormous amount of (the text trails off, but points toward leveraging the existing instructional expertise and program content the gym already possesses). The throughline is that gym closures presented an opportunity to deepen member relationships through educational content that draws on the instructional knowledge gyms already have from their diverse programs and classes. Because gyms already offer varied educational programming, kids' programs, yoga, fitness, technical clinics, they possess a wealth of expertise that can be curated and adapted into online educational content to keep members engaged during closure. Framing the pandemic as an unclimbed route requiring resourceful problem-solving, the article encourages operators to view virtual educational content not as a burden but as an opportunity to engage members meaningfully and strengthen relationships. By curating content from their existing program offerings and instructional strengths, gyms can deliver value to members stuck at home while reinforcing the connections that sustain membership. For operators, the article offers both an inspiring reframe, treating closure as an adventure demanding creativity, and a practical starting point, curating educational content from the programs and expertise the gym already has, to maintain engagement and relationships through the closure period.

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Written by Hilary Harris in April 2020, this Member Engagement Series piece frames closures as an unclimbed route demanding resourceful problem-solving, and an opportunity to deepen member relationships through educational content. Its strategy: curate online content from the instructional expertise gyms already have across kids' programs, yoga, fitness, and technical clinics.