That’s a pretty big question with many facets to consider, but having the right tools to market your classes, automate operations, manage staff, and retain students session after session is crucial.
In this article, we’ll explore the essential tools that every gymnastics, tumbling and cheerleading club owner should have to grow and keep their club running smoothly.
We’ll discuss different tools and highlight the best options available on the market.
DISCLAIMER: Activity Messenger is our product. We created it because we struggled for years with the shortcomings of existing online registration software and how we need to complement them with external tools. So we built a platform to be able to replace the following tools in an all-in-one platform.
Author’s note: I’m Olivier and I share insights and strategies I’ve collected over the past decade as the owner of a children’s sports program. I’ve personally tested and utilized the tools mentioned here before transitioning to Activity Messenger for my organization. Today, as the co-founder of Activity Messenger, I help hundreds of gymnastics, cheerleading and tumbling clubs across North America streamline their operations and increase their revenue.
Communication is key and not just on the floor, but in marketing as well.
An email marketing tool like Mailchimp, ConstantContact or Activity Messenger, helps you send branded newsletters to keep your community informed about upcoming classes, events and local competitions
With intuitive design tools and automation features, an email marketing tool can help you maintain a consistent connection with your athletes and parents, ensuring your club stays top of mind.
Key Features:
📌 Pro tip: Activity Messenger is the only email marketing platform that allows for non-marketing emails such as start-of-session reminders, end-of-session outreach and rescheduling or cancellation emails. This way, people who opt out of your marketing emails still get the important and non-promotional messages.
Streamlining your club’s employee management is crucial, and using tools like BambooHR or Activity Messenger can improve your workplace efficiency. These tools make staff management easier by organizing employee information, from optimizing recruitment processes, staff evaluation forms to tracking the completion of important documents.
With mobile-friendly staff management tools, staying connected with your team is simple.
📌 Pro tip: Bamboo HR can be very expensive, especially for organizations with a large number of part-time employees. Activity Messenger is designed (and priced) for gymnastics, cheerleading and tumbling clubs, that employ part-time and seasonal staff.
Celebrating success and participation can help your gymnastics community motivated.
Mass certificate tools like CertifySimple, Certifier, or Activity Messenger help you create customized bulk certificates to celebrate your athletes milestones.
These can be awarded for various achievements, such as completing a level, completing an outstanding task, or simply participating in their first gymnastics session. These tools allow clubs to automate the process of creating and emailing these certificates.
📌 Pro tip: Selecting a bulk certificate tool that integrates with (or is included with) your Gymnastics Club Management Software is critical to streamline your workflows and eliminate the need to upload files from one tool to another.
An online registration tool like JackRabbit, IClassPro, or Activity Messenger can help simplify the registration experience for your athletes and parents. Make sure your registration form is user-friendly and simple to fill out from a smartphone.
Learn more: How to improve your online registration process on mobile)
📌 Pro tip: Most gymnastics and cheer club software is outdated and doesn’t perform well, especially on mobile devices. With the majority of parents now registering their children for activities on their smartphones, it’s important to select a registration platform that prioritizes a mobile-first experience. Read more about the Best Modern Gymnastics Software on the market.
For urgent or last-minute communications, a bulk SMS tool is invaluable for gymnastics club owners.
Cancellations and rescheduling are common occurrences for health clubs. In situations out of your control, quick SMS notifications can help minimize the frustration athletes and parents feel when last-minute changes occur.
SimpleTexting and Activity Messenger are options that help you communicate quickly via SMS with parents.
📌 Pro tip: You want to avoid overwhelming parents with too many SMS messages. However, SMS can be a vital part of your communication strategy, depending on the type of message.
Form-building tools like GoogleForms, Jotform, or Activity Messenger are invaluable for collecting information outside of your registration platform. They can be used to create job application forms, workshop registration forms, or even to collect information for custom training requests.
– Customizable with a simple drag-and-drop tool.
– Don’t require respondents to create an account, making it easier to complete.
– Include conditional logic to direct users to relevant questions based on their responses.
A tool like SurveyMonkey can provide valuable insights into your gymnastics community needs and wants. Use it to regularly collect feedback on satisfaction, coach evaluations, and potential new class offerings. Offering small incentives, like a chance to win a free session, can help increase survey participation.
Key Features:
📌 Pro tip: As a club operator, I’ve streamlined feedback collection by automating surveys with Activity Messenger. Now I can focus on analyzing the data and making the necessary adjustments with my team instead of remembering and manually sending out surveys.
An online ticketing tool like Eventbrite, or Activity Messenger helps you sell tickets online for your gymnastics events and local competitions.
With just a few clicks, attendees can select their tickets, agree to terms and conditions, and digitally sign a liability waiver.
With a party booking tool like Activity Messenger, Bookeo, PartyPro Manager, booking kids’ birthday parties at your gymnastics club is streamlined using an automated workflow. Clearly display packages and pricing on your website, and and let the tool automate the rest
📌 Pro tip: Activity Messenger can boost your party bookings using a marketing automation. You can schedule a marketing email to be sent to parents 6 to 8 weeks before their child’s birthday, precisely when they’re starting to plan the celebration.
A skill tracking tool such as My SkillChart or Activity Messenger allows gymnastics coaches to efficiently monitor and share the progress of each test. This helps keep track of progress and areas that need improvement. A regular evaluation system helps to monitor progress and open communication with students and parents.
A liability waiver tool like Activity Messenger, SmartWaiver or WaiverForever is essential for streamlining the informed consent process and ensuring that gymnasts and their parents understand the risks associated with the sport.
While most gymnastics and cheer class management platforms offer waivers during registration, they often often lack an easy way to sign waivers for free trials, drop-ins, and birthday parties without the need to create an account.
Activity Messenger is an all-in-one platform tailored to the unique needs of health clubs.
It brings together essential tools such as email marketing, staff management, online store for merchandise, registration and digital waivers into one unified platform.
Activity Messenger streamlines operations, improves communication and enhances the overall experience for everyone involved. By simplifying administrative tasks, we help hundreds of club owners focus more on their passion for gymnastics instead of administrative tasks that no one has time for.
