10 Killer Marketing Ideas For Your Gym To Drive Membership Sales by LEADLION a Health Club Marketing Agency.

As the founder of a Health Club Marketing Agency with over 20 years in fitness marketing experience I get a front row seat to what’s working in the industry and I’m happy to share! Use these health club marketing ideas to speed up the growth of your health club or gym. This means more leads, more happy members, and of course greater profitability.

Because health clubs have attrition it’s important to have a steady stream of new members each month that surpasses cancellations. Keep the pipeline full with 10 Killer Marketing Ideas for Your Health Club that you can implement right away.

1. Facebook Advertising For Health Clubs

The reason this is the first marketing idea is NOT because we are are health club marketing agency that specializes in Facebook advertising… it’s because it flat out works better and faster then any other method.

Right now Facebook is the #1 way you can get low cost leads from targeted ads into your health club or fitness facility.

Fitness is one of the highest converting industries on Facebook.

I’ve written a lot on this blog about Facebook advertising so I’m going to keep this one short.

If you’re not running Facebook ads (properly) I can guarantee your competition is.

Caution! Just boosting post and hoping for the best isn’t very effective.

For a more in-depth look at Facebook for your gym there is a link at the bottom of this post to “3 Facebook Ad Strategies For Your Gym, Health Club, or Fitness Studio.”

You can also use the button at the end of this post if your looking for a done-for-you solution with a health club marketing agency.

2. Email Marketing For Your Health Club

What a powerful tool! When you can reach thousands of people with the click of a button that already have some affiliation with your health club or gym, it’s a no brainer. The problem most health club owners face is poor headlines leading to low open rates and weak email copy.

Sending emails with subjects like: “20% off your first month” or “join now” are not going to get your emails opened. It’s painfully obvious but I’ll say it anyway email marketing only works if the emails get opened.

Instead use subject lines that work. Don’t sell in the subject line.

For example if we we’re sending out an email to prospects it would not say “Hire a Health Club Marketing Agency!”.

Better options would be: “3 Quick Tips to Sell More Memberships” or “Losing Members? How to Boost Retention”, or “Guaranteed Tip To Close More Memberships”.

These are benefit rich subject lines that spark curiosity and entice the click.

Before hitting send put yourself in the recipients shoes and ask this one question…”why would I care?”

This one technique will help increase your open rates and your email marketing efficiency.

3. Referral Contest

Once in a while you should stir the pot and run a referral contest. People are more likely to refer your business the first week they sign up and over time it they cool off. You can stimulate buzz internally by giving a reason for people to talk about you again but this time actually drag their friends and family in.

Offer prizes like a big screen TV and put it near the front desk with a big bow on it.

Give clear instructions and make it really simple to understand and easy to refer.

Finally, stay on top of it. Promote it throughout the gym and have your staff make a big deal about it daily.

Celebrate on social media every time a referral signs up with video. You can say something like:

“Congratulations to Kim for referring her friend Jennifer (high five), Kim gets 5 raffle tickets in the bowl for a chance to win this big screen TV right behind me and Jennifer got an exclusive referral discount on her first month because of Kim! The drawing will be on the 30th so keep referring to win all these fantastic prizes behind me”.

This fuels the excitement of the contest and generates more referrals.

4. Run A Fitness Challenge

Running a fitness challenge several times a year helps get unmotivated people off the fence. The psychology of having a smaller commitment meaning a short period of time with a firm deadline that just works.

Ever sign up for a race or some fitness based event? Notice how all of a sudden you got really focused.

Challenges can be 21 days, 28 days, a month, six weeks, eight weeks, or 90 days. We find that shorter challenge tend to work better most the time.

5. Host An Event

Throw a party or event for a charitable cause, do an open house, have an anniversary celebration, a new program launch, or re-grand opening after a remodel.

Partner with tons of vendors for free food, drinks, discounts, prizes, and experiences inside your gym.

This creates excitement, strengthens the community, and generates membership sales. Oh, remember to take lots of pictures and video to use on social. This is a great way to demonstrate how awesome your fitness community is and will create additional buzz.

“Grow your club! Hire a health club marketing agency with 20 years in fitness industry experience. Connect with us”

6. Build An Army Of Ambassadors For Your Health Club.

Business Of The Month. Give nearby local businesses a free or low cost trial memberships for a month. If a small business has 12 employees maybe 20-50 percent of them will use it. This means you could have 3-6 new people in the gym giving you a chance to create raving fans.

After the initial business of the month trial ends some will join and entice the rest of the office plus friends and family to come in. Think of this as a low cost snowball strategy to get the ball bigger and rolling faster over time.

7. Be A “Rock Star” Brand With A Positive Online Presence

Are prospects pre-sold before they come in or worse, are you unknowingly losing potential members because of how your health clubs or fitness facilities looks online.

People shopping for a gym online will check out your website, Facebook page, and read reviews first. They will also Google it to just see what other media comes up.

What will they find?

If they find an informative blog that showcases expertise and builds credibility…points for you.

Will they find interesting video that’s engaging and builds trust. Is so…more points for you.

Do you have lot’s of good reviews? Check that’s a big win!

Is your social media rocking? Check now they feel warm and fuzzy about your brand.

Did they see you or your team speaking at local events, hosting workshops and seminars. Check, you must be the best gym in town.

Your online presence matters! Be proactive in monitoring it and filling each channel with the content you want people to see so they are “Pre-sold” before they even come in to see you.

8. Strategic Partnerships

I’ll keep this one short but it does work but you need to stay on top of this for it to work. Offer complementary businesses like running stores, beauty salons, chiropractors, health food stores, and many others one or a few of the management complementary memberships to get referrals.

By offering the owner or manager or key team members free or discounted memberships you can reach people you might not otherwise reach with word of mouth.

9. Motivate Your Team

Give your team incentives and run contest for your employees to spark motivation to earn more positive online reviews and new membership sales.

Employees get bored so get them motivated by stirring up competitive juices. Put them on teams, offer a fun prize or team celebration, and incentivize them to get more referrals, more positive reviews, sell more personal training, or any area that needs to be rekindled.

10. Traditional Media.

Television Commercials never been cheaper. We have clients “partners” who run TV a few times a year and it’s a lot cheaper then you probably think. It’s good for branding and multi-touch attribution.

For example, a prospect sees a Facebook ad, then a day later your commercial, then they happen to be in the plaza the gym is located in shopping for groceries and they walk-in. Your front desk then marks them down as a “walk-in” when in reality the “multiple touches”, seeing the tv commercial and the Facebook ads created “intent” which was not there the 100 other times they went to the same grocery store. So they are technically not a “walk-in”.

Check with you local cable providers for rates as they have been falling ever since digital marketing became the first choice in media.

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