It is now estimated that over 75% of Americans actively use Facebook on a daily basis and approximately 45 million adults have a gym membership. These two statistics alone suggest the inclusion of Facebook advertising campaigns in your gym or fitness clubs marketing plan could be extremely prosperous.
How to Incorporate Facebook Advertising campaigns into your gym marketing plan
There is a substantial customer base just waiting to be engaged and in this article we will provide practical information to ensure you’re making the most out of Facebook.
Identify Your Objectives
Before you start to generate any Facebook campaign you need to clearly define your goals and objectives.
The most important question to ask yourself is: What is the purpose of my campaign?
Possible outcomes could include, but are not limited to, generating social buzz, increasing membership after the Christmas period or re-targeting existing members and making them aware of a new promotional campaign.
Having a clear objective will not only dictate what kind of content you produce but also who you choose to target through your Facebook campaign. For example, a new business enterprise might want to target people who are both new to the gym and also lure existing gym members to your new facility with promotions and the offer of a superior fitness experience.
It Pays to Pay
Using the internet, and specifically Facebook, is a requirement to ensure the success of any business in the digital age. Despite the social media site being free to use, if you want to make a significant impact, it's crucial that you allocate a budget for Facebook campaigns.
Generating traction via organic shares has always been a difficult task but since a change in the social media giant's algorithms, it's nearly impossible. A small budget is necessary, even if it's just as an initial springboard. Remember, it pays to invest.
Start Small and Grow
Deciding how much of your marketing budget to spend on a Facebook Ad campaign is a problem all businesses grapple with. As a general rule of thumb, only spend a little, to begin with – even if you have the resources to spend more.
After a small initial investment to raise the profile of your campaign it is possible that your advert will generate traction organically without the need for additional expenditure. Remember, you can always add more budget to your campaign if necessary.
Some rudimentary analysis after a small initial spend is useful to gauge the credibility of your content. If your advert is not returning your expected return on investment (ROI), you might want to reconsider the content you are promoting or amending your current target demographic.
Audience Targeting
This is one of the most crucial elements of any Facebook Ad campaign and is closely connected to your strategy curation process. Facebook has a wide range of marketing data you can use to enhance the success of your campaign. Here are some of the sample variables which can be used to tailor your ads:
- Location
- Age
- Gender
- Language
- Relationship
- Education
- Interests
- Life Events
It would be churlish to attempt to explain how to correlate all these attributes to a specific campaign. However, some of the most important ones when running a gym are likely to be location, age and interests:
- Location: A gym or fitness club should target individuals within a specific parameter of its local area. Spending money advertising to people beyond a commutable distance is money wasted.
- Age: The majority of gym users are under the age of 50. As the largest cohort of social media users is those under 35s, facebook advertising could be your key to success.
- Interests: Those with an interest in fitness, sports or outdoor activities are more likely to lead to higher conversion rates.
Get Visual
Facebook is now a highly competitive market place with a range of businesses vying for the attention of potential customers. Research shows that excellent photos are the 'holy grail' when it comes to clicks and conversions.
Photographs have an engagement rate upwards of 80% on Facebook - links, albums, and statuses, significantly lag behind at under 5%. This doesn't mean you cannot include a link but it is imperative that a photo is used when advertising your gym/ offers. In short, make your campaign as visually appealing as possible.
Build Your Audience
Building an online audience is not only an excellent way to generate more conversions but it will also cement your online authority. Building an online presence generates trust with users who are much more likely to invest in your services when it comes to membership signups. There are multiple ways which you can glean the interest of online users and become an industry presence. For example. you could:
- Share general health and fitness tips
- Offer free nutritional advice and recipes
- Suggest home-based exercises to help get people fit
Finally, it's important to remember that there is no recipe for success and evaluation is key. After each small campaign, have a process to assess what worked and what didn't before moving forward with your marketing strategy.
