Involving gym marketing ideas in your fitness business plan will help you gain more customers to join your gym studio. Eventually, this will take you one step closer to achieving success goals. Here in this blog, you will get to know effective strategies to market your gym business.
From tips to get more clients as a personal trainer to tricks for selling more gym memberships, it covers all in this post. But, before jumping to effective gym business ideas, let us first understand the need for digital marketing in your fitness business.
Impact of Digital Marketing in the Fitness Industry
In today’s digital world, the journey of being fit starts with researching the best gym or fitness studio. If you are in the fitness business, then this is a matter of sustaining top position on Google. More customers will click your business site if it is on the first page of Google SERPs.
The outer competition will not bother you until and unless you have an old and renowned gym. But, what if you have just started a gym business? How will you promote your gym studio to attract more potential customers? Here, digital marketing plays a major role.
It’s all about connecting your audience in the right place and at the right time. There is a spectrum of tactics that fall under the umbrella of digital marketing. Various fitness marketing companies can help you implement with these digital tactics to promote your gym business. Here are some tried and tested fitness marketing ideas to consider.
12 Gym Marketing Ideas for Fitness Classes, Personal Training Services, or Seasonal Campaign
1. Develop a User-Friendly Website
Marketing for gym business is really a challenging task. This is because only 23.2% of the US population meet physical activity guidelines. Therefore, to encourage other 76.8% of people towards fitness isn’t easy. One of the important steps to attract more clients to your gym studio is through website designing.
“Website Designing – Ultimate Way To Enhance Your Fitness Business Online Presence”
A website is responsible for creating the first positive impression on the people online. Therefore, it is a good idea to keep up with fitness graphic design the latest trends. It will help you to have a unique and eye-catching fitness website, attracting potential customers. Along with this, it is also important to have responsive i.e., user-friendly website.
If your gym studio website is responsive, then it will enhance the user experience on different devices. This means your website automatically identifies the size of the screen the user in on and responds accordingly. As a result, your website design will look good no matter what device people are looking it on. Wix, WordPress, Squarespace and much more are the tools help you create a version of your website.
Google prioritizes website that are responsive in nature over another website. It will help you generate more leads and sales while growing your fitness business. Therefore, the next time whenever you want to market your gym studio, website design and development can be the primary step.
2. Get Your Business On Top With SEO Marketing Strategy
Most of the people searching on Google enters the phrases like “gyms near me” or “fitness clubs near me” to find the best fitness centers in their area. They will contact the first or second gym listed on the Google Search Result. So, do you want that maximum number of people make a call to your fitness center? If so, then it is important to have your website on the first page of Google search engine result pages (SERPs).
Search Engine Optimization i.e., SEO is one of the most effective online marketing strategies to improve your fitness brand awareness among customers. It is responsible for getting your gym business website on the first page of Google Search Engine.
When you want to promote your fitness center, local SEO plays a major role. It allows advertising your business targeting local customers who are looking for a gym in the particular area. For example: When a particular person enters the keyword “gym center in San Diego” in the Google then through Local search engine marketing it is much easier to rank your website in that area.
To improve your Local search engine results it is important to use local keywords in your website content, create lots of local citations, and get a Google Business Profile. Overall, Local SEO helps your business stand out in local searches.
3. Get Your Gym Business Listed in Niche Directories.
Niche directories means web directories that target a specific business category. Getting your gym business listed on these niche directories is very important when you want exposure online. It might provide you a link back to your website. These backlinks are important for successful SEO campaign while growing your business.
In order to find niche directories, type your industry i.e., fitness + directory in Google search engine and you will see the list of various directories.
Other than the one listed in above figure, there are other popular fitness directories such as gymGO, Ideafit.com, iPersonalTrainer, TRXTraining.com, FindMyFitnessTrainer.com, Youtrainer.com, and much more. Submitting your fitness business on these websites help you rank better on Google.
4. Start Blogging to Generate More Fitness Clients
If you have not yet written any blog for your gym website, then you should write it. Blogging can play a significant factor in growing your gym business. Maximum people have exposure to your brand and can learn more about your gym business.
According to marketing experts, it is a good practice for gyms owners to market their business using the content. Gym owners should be aware that in the world of search engine marketing, fitness related keywords are extremely competitive.
For eg, ranking for a keyword like “how to do pull up and push up” is not going to bring you a lot of targeted results. As people coming to your website for that keyword 99% of the time will not be the local residents of users.
However, ranking for keywords that are fitness and local-oriented, can help you more.
Here are some examples of locally developed content:
- The best fitness trainer in (Location name)
- Best outdoor workouts in (Location name)
- Gyms providing steam bath in (Location name)
- Where I can get cheap supplements in (Location name)
Overall, the best thing you can do is simply start writing blogs about fitness and post it to the website or various social media platforms to grow your fitness business. Content marketing can help you achieve your business goals only when the content is 100% original and plagarism-free.
Related Article: Major Benefits of Blogging for Small Business
5. Run a Contest on Social Media
Do you want to grow your followers’ base or increase user engagement? This all be possible by running a social media contest. It is the easiest and most effective way to promote your fitness center without spending a penny. You can choose any of the social media platforms for posting your contest information.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube all are the leading social media platforms. Among all, Instagram is the best and trending social platform for companies in the fitness industry. The main reason is fitness and Instagram both are a visual medium. Most people love watching fit individuals achieving their fitness goals.
The Instagram contest can grow your fitness business followers 70% faster compared to those who don’t run a contest. There are certain Instagram promotion guidelines according to which you need to create the contest description.
Let us take one example of leading fitness Transformation Company who performs Instagram contest to market their business.
Beachbody® is the leading provider for fitness programs across the United States. They have started a @beachbodychallenge Instagram contest. In this contest people first enroll in their fitness, nutrition and support program. Then, share their transformation result to Instagram contest and ask for people to vote or tag. This way the participate win free gifts and life-changing rewards.
6. Facebook Ads For Personal Trainers and Fitness Centers
Over 2 million businesses use Facebook to enhance their online presence. Are you one of them? If no, then get started today!
Marketing your fitness business on Facebook provides access to 1.8 million users worldwide. Facebook has the highest number of audience on any social media. Also, it is the prime platform for reaching your potential customers online.
Before you post any promotional content on facebook, you should go through its policies for promotions on Pages, Groups, and Events.
Through Facebook ads, you can market your gym business. You can grab the attention of users of different age groups according to your requirement. It can take your business far by increasing foot traffic and conversions. Facebook designates three types of categories in its Ads manager: Awareness, consideration, and conversion.
If your fitness center is already known, then you can use conversion goal to turn already engaged people into permanent members. Else, for startup gym studio, awareness or consideration objective is there to provide information to audiences about your new business.
Daily 1.28 billion people are using Facebook. What does that mean to you? The chances of targeting local audiences are extremely high. As a result, you can easily reach them and convey your gym studio offers easily. Overall, we can say that Facebook Ads for your gym marketing campaigns is considered as the best gym marketing ideas.
7. Witness the Power Of Email Marketing
Gym studios or personal training centers use email marketing as a way of communicating with their potential audiences. Almost 281 billion consumers sent & received emails per day in 2018 and it will grow over 333 billion by the 2022 year end. An email is usually used to promote discounts, events, offers about your fitness programs.
There are various types of emails you can send while implementing an email marketing campaign. They are newsletters, follow-up emails, customer welcome emails, gym promotional email, customer nurturing emails including tips for fitness, etc. You create all these using a free email marketing software such as MailChimp.
You can even send reminders to current gym members via email. Send emails to members who have not to use their membership to come back and enjoy the benefits of the gym. Here, creating a targeted email-marketing campaign is useful to find the potential customers who might need encouragement.
A targeted email feels like one they are coming from a friend. Here you can personalize emails which draw the attention of more customers. It is the ultimate way to connect with the right people at the right time. Overall, through email targeting you can create a personal touch while boosting clicks and increasing revenue for your fitness business.
8. Create YouTube Videos to Showcase Your Offerings
Do you know that over 1,5 million logged-in users visit YouTube each month and every day to watch relevant videos? If no, then you are missing out a big thing.
Youtube is the internet’s second largest search engine. Like Twitter and Facebook, Youtube can be your helping hand in generating business for your gym studio. Creating videos on Youtube is a great way to reach new customers and encourage fans to spread the word on social media.
64% of customers say watching video has influenced their buying decision. You can create one video once a month covering the facts and interesting content related to your gym services. This helps you improve your SEO and overall brand presence.
Whether you are a full-service gym, a personal trainer or a fitness studio, YouTube marketing is the best way to gain potential customers. The more shares and views you start getting on your video, the chances of generating sales increases. Your Gym YouTube videos often appear on the first page of the Google search engine when gym freaks searches.
For example, the search “how to do a pilates” turns up a video on the first page the first rank of Google. Videos are the most frequently clicked posts. Therefore, if your gym business website is having trouble getting in competing, then try YouTube marketing.
9. Start a Referral Program To Attract Maximum Members
If you run a gym, particularly a small one, referral marketing is one of the best Gym Marketing Ideas. There are many gym owners who have already adopted this technique to promote their fitness club. It is essential because sometimes the best marketer for your gym can be your members.
Your current clients will likely find families or friends who would enjoy the gym as much as they do. This will create a more meaningful, engaged membership for your gym. Additionally, your clients will get the reward for getting someone to join.
Consider giving away a free month of membership or a cash bonus for a number of referrals. There are many ways to implement a referral program in your gym advertising campaigns such as one-time bonus for referring customer and on-going incentives for a base of long-term and loyal customers.
Here’s how to promote your referral program:
- Display it on your website & social media with special graphical effects
- Advertise it on social platforms
- Have referral hand-out cards (for easy promotion)
- Post pamphlets at your front desk
- Post pamphlets in your locker room
- Get your staff talking about it to clients.
Referral marketing can be one of the most effective gym membership marketing strategies at your disposal. So don’t pass it up! You can always try it for a short period of time and see how it goes. If it goes as planned, then you can consider it implementing it permanently.
10. Affiliate Marketing for Fitness Clubs
It’s performance-based marketing. In which a business rewards one or more persons/business for each visitor or customer brought by their efforts. The person/business can target anyone who is interested in or planning to join the gym. This gym marketing plan can help you to get new clients with the help of the people you believe in.
In some locations, there are some businesses that can refer their customers to your fitness clubs, such as
- Doctors
- Physiotherapist
- Supplement Providers
- Sports Malls or Stores
- Personal Trainers
In return, you can incentivize these persons/businesses by providing special value or reward to the person/business. You can give a heavy discount or just a flat fee for every member they refer, for e.g., 20% of their contract value. For instance, if your trainer brings a client by his own efforts you can provide an incentive to the trainer.
On the other hand, this will make the clients comfortable and associated with the trainer and with your club, which helps you retain them for longer periods.
Start your own affiliate program today! Follow and implement the best marketing strategies, and proven SEO strategies, and see the magic!
Note: Health Club Marketing Ideas
11. Promote Your New Gym Business Via Billboard Marketing
Setting up a billboard is the leading marketing strategy since the 20th century. You can easily get your new gym business in front of customers with billboard marketing. Maybe you have started with Facebook Ads, Social media posting or Ads, but now it’s time to get ahead in the field of online marketing.
Through billboard advertising i.e., outdoor marketing you can draw the attention of the customers when they are moving. Leasing an eye-catching billboard promoting your fitness event details is a more effective way to start a conversation between two people.
These billboards are also very useful when you want to promote your gym business at particular area. That’s exactly what the famous online platform Netflix does by owning billboards to promote their streaming movies and television shows. They are implementing outdoor advertising throughout Los Angeles.
However, billboards and other printing advertising is very helpful in cities surrounded with lots of fitness clubs. This is because other businesses already been using modern marketing tactics. So, by promoting your gym business on billboards help you engage more members.
12. Send out a Weekly Newsletter
When it comes to the weekly newsletter gym owners think it is only great for existing clients. It’s totally wrong; a weekly newsletter is for everyone.
Before starting with the weekly newsletter campaign as a part of fitness marketing ideas you need to know how to use.
Related: Learn Newsletter Designs To Increase Conversions and Loyalty
Create a newsletter for the churned members or the old clients that didn’t buy a membership. Mostly churned members may have canceled their membership, but most often they still stay subscribed to your emails. This means you can still reach them with clubs updates, promotions, jaw-dropping offers, and fitness advice.
But the most important question is how to get people to sign up for your email list? There are few ways to do this, but the best way is to put a small sign up form on your website. You can also collect email addresses in person at your location. For example, the in-charge person at the check-in table can ask the clients if they would like to receive email updates from us?
You can make a newsletter regarding many things such as gym offers, updates about the fitness clubs, fitness tips. Moreover, you can also show an exercise routine of the month and many more.
13. Track Your Gym Marketing Business With Google Analytics
In this digital world mostly customer acquisition happens over the internet. Hence it becomes very important to include various gym marketing ideas in the plan according to the current trend. Before you drive users to your website or to the client portal, you need to know which marketing channels are useful for your gym. That’s the reason it becomes vital to set up goal tracking in Google Analytics to monitor the success of each campaign.
Google Analytics is a great tool to increase Google ranking. Moreover, it is a free and powerful tool from Google that provides insight into the audience, such as:
- Who visits your website
- Where they’re from
- What pages they visit
- How long they stay there
- And many more.
It’s easy to get started with Google Analytics, you can also learn through the beginner’s guide to Google Analytics. But when you want to use it properly with all the functions, you may need some assistance from the developer. Trust us; it’s definitely worth it to know which campaign is bringing you the most clients to grow your gym business efficiently.
It is important to set up goal tracking in Google Analytics to monitor the success of your fitness marketing campaigns. After setting up goals, attach utm tags to each post on social media platforms or email newsletters. Build utm tags here by naming your gym business advertising campaign. So, we can say that analytics help you know how people use your gym website, so you can easily improve their experience.
The Takeaway
In short, marketing your gym business isn’t easy. But, with the above-mentioned effective gym marketing ideas, you can achieve your business goals. We cannot say that it is 100% going to increase your revenue. But for sure it will help you generate more business in a long time. Implement it in your fitness marketing plan and share your experience with us!
