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Growing a Successful Gym in the Fitness Industry Requires Consistency in Marketing

May 4, 2016

By: Jim Thomas

The biggest problem your gym has is obscurity.  No one knows who you are and those that do don’t have you at top of mind.  Job one is to be sure the door is swinging, the phone is ringing and the email is dinging.

Most gym owners know the importance of marketing and promoting their gym on a consistent basis, but so many gym owners really struggle at delivering on that promise.

What keeps gym owners from marketing consistently? How can owners put a plan in place to make consistent marketing easy?

Here are some quick questions

  • Do you post regularly on social media? Since only about 5% of your posts will be seen by your audience, you’ll need to post a lot. To start we suggest Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and Instagram.
  • Are you posting on your blog a minimum of once per week?
  • Are you using Constant Contact or something similar to send out a monthly newsletter to your members, former members and missed sales?
  • Are you utilizing such platforms as Medium or LinkedIn to publish your articles?
  • Are you posting regularly to YouTube?

How about this?

  • Are you participating in local networking groups to help grow your gym ambassadors? Check out meetup.com and search for local networking groups.
  • Do you comment and share other blogs, social media posts, articles?
  • Are you doing webinars to help reach a mass audience in your community?
  • How are you doing on lead follow up? Most follow up has success between the 5th and 12th attempt.

Here’s what I hear from gym owners on why this is not done.

  1. I don’t know what to write about.  Here’s what I do, I write about what going on around me.  Questions that I’m asked, training that is requested…I simply turn it into an article. You can also stay focused on creating interest and desire with your audience.  Share success stories, offer coaching tips, something motivational or inspirational will work.
  2. I’m just too busy.  It will all come down to where is the greater pain…taking the time to do this and creating more guest traffic or not doing it and finding your gym business going backwards each month. This must be the priority.
  3. I’m not a very good writer.  You don’t have to be.  Write like you talk.  Keep it simple. Solve problems for your readers.  You’ll improve as you go along.  Your blogs and articles can be as short as 300 words. For example, this article has about 660 words.

Why Inconsistency is a Bad Thing

17 Templates to Streamline Communication With Your Members in 2024

E-books

It’s easy to think that if you miss a weekly newsletter or daily video post that it’s no big deal. But when you publish a weekly newsletter or regular videos, it’s making a promise to your members (and to yourself). When you miss that connection, it breaks your promise and weakens your relationships.

When you communicate consistently with your members and other readers it builds a trust, a rapport and a connection. They look forward to seeing your posts arriving into their inbox. Don’t let them down.  Also, inconsistency can lead to your members and prospects to forgetting about you (obscurity).

Get help from an industry professional.

If your gym is growing so fast that you don’t have time to handle all the marketing yourself or even if you do have time to handle your own marketing, outsourcing it can free up time for you to spend on profit-generating activities. Plus, an industry expert who specializes in social media, blogging, and copywriting etc. can often help produce better results in less time.

Imagine how your gym would grow if the door was swinging, the phone was ringing and the email was dinging. Make the commitment today to make marketing your gym a top priority and watch it grow.  Overcome obscurity.

Now, go attract attention to your gym!

Jim Thomas is the founder and president of Fitness Management USA Inc., a management consulting, turnaround and brokerage firm specializing in the fitness and health club industry. With more than 25 years of experience owning, operating and managing clubs of all sizes, Thomas lectures and delivers seminars, webinars and workshops across the globe on the practical skills required to successfully to overcome obscurity, improve sales, build teamwork and market fitness programs and products. Learn more here: Jim Thomas On Demand