According to Smart Insights, about 59% of the world’s total population, which makes up about 4.70 billion people, uses social media. From these numbers, you can see that just promoting your gym offline is not enough. It has become a necessity to promote it online as well. Creating an online presence requires a lot of time and effort but we are here to help!
In this blog, we have discussed 7 strategies which you can use to effectively market your gym online.
7 Strategies For Marketing Your Gym Online
Here is an overview of the 7 strategies we will discuss in this blog:
- Make your online presence prominent
- Use Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Use E-mail newsletters
- Launch seasonal campaigns
- Host online challenges
- Host webinars
- Incorporate fitness influencers
1. Make your online presence prominent
For effectively marketing your gym online the first step is that you have an online presence. Creating a presence includes both your website and the social media platforms you will be utilizing.
First, let’s discuss the website, a good website is a focal point of your online presence. The design of your website is very important as every page should attract visitors to your site. Having a well-designed website also shows professionalism in your work and gives the first impression to your visitors.
Other than having an attractive website, you need to have a social media presence so that you can communicate and reach your audience. Sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter help you in sharing any news or update about your business. These sites also let you interact with your members or viewers without any other third party coming between you.
Related Article: How To Boost Your Gym Marketing Plan with Facebook Advertising
2. Use Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Having an online presence is essential, as we have discussed earlier, but you need to optimize your website so that whenever someone looks up gyms, your gym can be on the first search page. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is how you can make your website visible on the first page of Google results.
The first step to optimizing your website is to use keywords that are related to your business. Keywords such as weight loss, fitness workout, bodybuilding, or nutrition can be utilized. Adding links to your website can also help in making it more credible, but you should not just add any links, they should be inbound links from influential websites.
How does SEO help in marketing your gym? When your website will be visible at the top of the Google results page, users will definitely check it out hence generating traffic toward your website. This means you have a great opportunity in creating more customers from the prospects you are getting. It also creates a sense of trust in your members.
3. Use E-mail newsletters
Using e-mail newsletters is a great way to let your members know about what is happening at your gym. You can send email newsletters to your members and potential members containing news, offers, or even wishes for special occasions. But don’t send email newsletters to random people or everyone who visits your website.
You need to get permission from your members and prospects first. You can do that by showing a pop-up message on the home page of your website which shows as soon as someone visits your website. Send e-mail newsletters to only those people who opted to be on that list.
As for the design aspect of your newsletter, using only text can be a bit bland and may not be as attention-grabbing for your members. Use either promotional images or graphics that might grab the attention of the reader.
Another important aspect is to add a call to action to your newsletter as this will serve some sort of purpose for the newsletter. Your call to action can be for the reader to visit the page, visit a specific offer, or sign up for the offer that you are trying to promote. This allows you to guide your subscribers in the direction of the action you want them to perform.
4. Launch seasonal campaigns
Launching different campaigns depending on the season and holiday is a great idea to effectively engage your members. Usually, members cancel their membership with their gym after the first four or five months of the year. A major reason could be that at the beginning of the year they are very enthusiastic about pursuing their goal of a healthier and fit lifestyle.
With all of the different offers and discounts that gyms offer on New Year’s the members get motivated to join the gym. If you don’t continuously provide them with different campaigns they will most likely cancel their membership.
You can come up with different summer and winter campaigns for your members. Incorporating activities such as hiking, swimming, and outdoor challenges, is a great way to motivate your members into signing up for seasonal campaigns. These campaigns can be a great way to market your gym. You can promote your seasonal campaigns using your social media pages as well as your website.
Google Ads can also be used to place your ads on different websites. Fall and winter might be your slower months but they pose a great opportunity for your online marketing skills. You can gain valuable feedback as to what your members want to achieve from your gym and through trial and error you can polish your marketing skills.
5. Host online challenges
Who would say no to free gym merchandise or a full week of taking a class of their choice for free? Giveaways are a very effective way to attract our target audience. Giveaways or contests can boost your online presence and increase viewer ratings, these viewers' ratings can drive potential members to your gym.
There are a lot of activities you can do for a giveaway both physically and online. As for the prizes, you can give away t-shirts, mugs, caps, etc as merchandise prizes. You can also give away a pass for a week to any course of the winner’s choice.
6. Host webinars
You can utilize your social media platforms to host webinars online. You can showcase a new workout that you will soon be incorporating at your gym in these webinars. You can guide members on how the workout is beneficial and the steps involved in it. Or you can invite well-renowned fitness experts to give a briefing on why being fit and focusing on your routine is important.
It is a great way of showing your members online what they can achieve by joining your gym. You just need to make sure that you are hosting the webinar straight from your gym, doesn't matter what your topic is.
The main purpose of webinars is to create awareness. They are a great way to promote your gym. Webinars are the best way your viewers can experience your gym in real time without having to physically be at your gym. Viewers can even practice the exercises at home if they want to. Webinars build a sense of trust with your viewers.
7. Incorporate fitness influencers
Fitness influencers are a great way for you to market your gym. Currently, influencer marketing has become a great way to market your business online, especially on Instagram. As influencers have trust built with their followers, their followers are more likely to follow whatever they are doing or at least will try to follow it.
Influencer marketing is a great way to create awareness about your brand. Providing valuable content is the way to go when you are using influencers to market your brand, such as educational videos about an exercise that you will be introducing at your gym.
You just need the right kind of influencer to promote your gym online. Fitness or nutritional influencers are the ones you should target as through them you can effectively reach your target audience. This will let you save funds on researching your target audience as the influencer with whom you will be collaborating will already have that audience on social media.
Engaging an influencer can create a powerful relationship between your business and them. As their connections can also help you in the future if you need them. So not only can you effectively market your gym online but can also create strong links for future ventures.
Conclusion
Digital Marketing is essential for promoting your gym as the internet, including social media is now used by most of the population. There are many digital marketing strategies through which you can effectively market your gym and also achieve audience engagement. You just need to figure out the right strategy for your business.
Once you have your strategy set, transforming leads into members will become relatively easy. This will also improve the word-of-mouth marketing for your business. Thus at the end of the day, you will have a better return on investment and will see an increase in your membership sales.
Related Article: Reasons Why Social Media Marketing Is Essential For Your Online Business
