If you’re getting ready to open a new facility, you’re probably already thinking about what you can do to encourage potential members to visit your gym, as well as how you can convert those leads into new gym members in order to create a sustainable revenue stream.
The fitness industry is highly competitive, and it’s easy to get lost in the noise. So, what can you do to stand out? Answer: multichannel marketing campaigns.
Below we’ve outlined several gym marketing ideas that can be implemented across paid, earned and owned channels to create an effective multichannel marketing mix.
1. Content Marketing
Content marketing is a form of digital marketing that aims to provide value to the customer in a non-promotional way. In the highly competitive fitness industry, content marketing is essential to boosting brand awareness, establishing authority, and nurturing relationships between business owners and potential members/current gym members by building trust and providing inspiration.
Because the goal of content marketing is to provide value outside of your product or service, the fitness industry and content marketing are a perfect match. Fitness is about providing valuable information to help people better themselves, and the best way to communicate that information is through a content marketing strategy.
Here are two ideas to get you started:
- Utilize social media: Social media can help your fitness club build brand awareness, expand your digital reach and build customer loyalty. When you use social media for its intended purpose—to socialize—it helps motivate your gym members to keep coming back and inspires potential members to consider joining.
- Create a weekly blog: Blogging is still one of the best ways to connect with your target audience, and writing about a niche area of fitness can help build your authority as a fitness industry expert. Blogging also helps build your website’s authority and rank higher on search engines.
2. Direct Mail
We live in the Digital Age, and many business owners may think direct mail is dead. But don’t discount the value of integrated marketing campaigns that include direct mail just yet.
In fact, CMO Council’s Critical Channels of Choice finds that consumers have positive feelings toward direct mail, and one out of three respondents say they expect direct mail to be a part of their ideal communications mix.
Direct mail is tangible, and because of that it can actually feel more interactive than digital marketing or email marketing strategies. When utilized effectively, it can also elicit an emotional response from the viewer, making it more memorable than just another email in your inbox.
If you’re still not convinced, consider these stats from PFL’s 2019 Multichannel Marketing Research Report: Direct Mail in the Digital Age:
- 83% of marketers report good or very good ROI when direct mail is fully integrated into their multichannel campaign mix
- 89% of marketers report direct mail delivers moderate to major improvement in overall campaign performance when it’s highly personalized and tightly integrated into the channel mix
- Direct mail has a median ROI of 29%, putting it third behind email marketing (124%) and social media (30%)
3. Remarketing & Retargeting
Remarketing and retargeting amplify your marketing campaigns by reaching customers that are more likely to convert into sales (in this case, new gym members) or to complete a desired action (for example, subscribe to your newsletter). Both have the same goal—to get previous visitors on the path to conversion—but the way they accomplish this task is slightly different.
- Remarketing allows business owners to reconnect with people who previously interacted with their website through email marketing.
- Retargeting reaches that same target audience via paid advertising.
Using remarketing, you can reach out to people who didn’t complete the desired action with email reminders. Using retargeting, you can place strategically positioned ads while potential members browse the internet, with the hope they’ll click and come back to you. Both tactics are a great way to reach your target audience—people who have shown interest, but not yet converted.
4. Focus on SEO
Google is the most widely used search engine, and holds just over 92% of the global market share. That said, you want to make sure your business shows up in searches. In order for this to happen, your website’s data must be accurate and filled with keywords your potential members would use to find a business like yours.
Potential members will likely search keywords and phrases like “gyms near me” or “fitness centers in [insert city]”, so you’ll want to develop a list of similar keywords and incorporate those words throughout your site, but only where they’re relevant and make sense. It’s also important to use keyword identifiers in the page titles of your site so Google understands who you are and the nature of your business.
Another way to boost your SEO efforts is to make sure you have a completed business profile on Google My Business (GMB). GMB is a free tool that business owners can use to manage their company listing and online presence across the Google suite of websites. A completed page is essential for local SEO because it enables your business listing to appear in local searches, allows people to find your contact and location information easily, provides potential visitors with a picture of your facility, and lets users review your business.
Conclusion
Marketing is an essential function needed to promote your gym and to differentiate yourself from competitors in order to attract potential members—and, when utilized effectively, marketing campaigns can also be a great way to keep current gym members engaged and to reduce churn.
There’s no shortage of options when it comes to gym marketing ideas, but it’s important to remember that implementing a multichannel approach will increase the likelihood of reaching your target audience and the overall success of your marketing campaigns.
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