Easter just ended and it feels as if summer is nearly here. The weather is warming and your gym members are planning vacations. Take advantage of this bright season to try something new and build a strong base of loyal clients. Here are three membership-building strategies you can start now.
1. Market to college students
It’s a no-brainer gym growth strategy — Every year students return from college to hometowns searching for jobs and things to do. Don’t lose this lucrative market to big box competitors. Build promotions targeted at college students through social media, word-of-mouth, email, and local mailers.
- Geo-target social media posts for the immediate vicinity nearest your gym.
- Advertise internally with referral promos. Students listen to each other the most, so take advantage of this built-in lead generator. Give your current members a good reason to recommend your gym to their college-aged friends.
- Use your internal email list to connect with members, encouraging them to refer their college student to your gym.
- Send direct mail to capture their or their parent’s attention.
- Emphasis ease of sign-up with digital keytags.
2. Create a live-streaming campaign as a gym growth strategy.
Social media’s gone live and, according to Wyzowl, “82% of consumers have been convinced to buy a product or service because of a video they watched.” Live-streaming on social media is easy and accessible, as the technology is built into existing platforms. Connect with members and extend your reach by engaging with your online community in real time.
If you’re comfortable on camera, consider live-streaming new equipment demonstrations, upcoming classes, and seasonal events.
Current live-streaming platforms include:
- Facebook Live
- Instagram Live
- YouTube Live
- TikTok
- X (formerly Twitter)
Maximize your live-stream’s impact by promoting your live feeds through existing email, in-app messaging, and social media campaigns. Schedule the live-stream in advance and tease content.
Be forewarned, though, check for limitations such as streaming restrictions and required followers as each company differs. Also, consider your platform when choosing to live-stream. Are your members more likely to use YouTube or TikTok? If YouTube, consider its legacy as the birthplace of online video, and ramp up your lighting, sound, and cameras. TikTok users are younger and the company recommends keeping live-streams to under 30 minutes.
Almost every platform requires a certain number of followers before sending out video. Realistically, it’s best to start live-streaming with your most successful social media source.
3. Promote vacation-ready bodies through personal training.
Everyone is on the move again, and it’s time to prepare for the rigors of vacation. Use this sense of urgency to promote and sell personal training sessions. Bring in new clients and boost results for existing ones with a campaign directed at pumping up personal training sales. In Gym Insight, our recurring scheduled paymentstool makes this easy. Just create a membership with personal training incorporated into the rate. Add this choice to the membership selection on the Sales Guru tablet and train employees on the new offering. The software automatically establishes a recurring charge for the service.
Clients who hire personal trainers remain with your health club three times as long as regular members. More importantly, though, they experience results quicker and at a higher level than through training alone.
Closing in on a strong summer
With the right promotions and a dip into new technology, you’re sure to set your gym up for a strong dive into a healthy summer. Following this strategy, you’ll find enrolling college students can fill the gaps when sales are down, while increased personal training clients bankroll future plans. Take the time now to start summer promotions and discover a new and loyal member base.
Gym Insight
Our gym management software boosts sales and grows your company through tools created by fitness owners for fitness owners. Maximize sales through recurring payments, no hidden fees, and an intuitive reports system that keeps you on top of revenue. From such features as a free members app ensuring regular, legal communication with clients, to digital keytags that make sign-ups easy and quick, we’ve created a software that is as user-friendly as it is effective. Call us today at 855-FOR-GYMS and ask for Anthony or Natalia. You’ll quickly realize why we are also #1 in customer service!
