What is marketing about if not finding new customers? And when business is at its slowest surely that is the time to shift down a gear and get the marketing efforts going properly. Marketing is about customers, who they are and what they want, as well as how you can mold your business to pick up some new members. You can bring in new members who want what you have and to do it at the lowest possible cost to you in the process.
Of course, marketing takes an investment of time and energy, if not capital. If you are an experienced small gym business owner, you already know that running a business is hard work and never-ending. So, while it may not be a welcome reminder of all the hard work, here is another one about the work you need to do to market your gym.
Extract The Business Intelligence Then Take Action
First, you need to measure your market by measuring your customers, what they want and how much they are willing to spend on it. Analyze your membership using your management software to find hidden trends and patterns; this is the first action to take because any movement in the wrong direction, about the buyer personas, to whom you should be selling, is a loss or at least just inefficient.
If you can take the good standing that you have gained throughout the year and cash it in as better retention figures, at the slowest time of year, when cancellations and losses are historically likely to peak, it is just a fair trade, isn’t it? The next stage is to put a plan into action, one that is based on what you learned from studying your market and the personas that represent the main groups within it.
Increase advertising – Based on your membership information review, decide what the best way to attract new members is and focus on advertising to the personas that best represent the composite picture from your membership records. You might try to advertise on message boards in your local coffee shops for free, or you can use Facebook to target personas directly.
Refine your brand and promote it with a launch event – This is a great one-time trick to generate some excitement about your gym. Use it in combination with advertising or some other promotion to get the curious to come in and then sell them on signing up.
Take your classes outside – Any classes you offer gives your members a chance for them to meet each other, if you are using a public venue such as a park or a beach, you can also strike up conversations with passing prospects and build some brand awareness. That social connection could be just the interest-builder you need.
Use Meetup.com to create and host free events – There is always Meetup.com to bring in prospects who share a common interest. Use the warm late evenings to arrange a speaker, trainer or guest instructor who will share something interesting with your members, and perhaps even bring some of their followers in too.
Measuring The Market For The Right Fit
The slow months are the perfect time to practice your marketing skills, to generate some interest and keep the energy flowing on the gym floor. When the busy times come around again, the experience you gain now will come in handy and be a well-rehearsed routine that you can apply at the critical moment. That doesn’t sound like much but by knowing what to do; the stress of the peak season will be something that you just deal with and help you move your small gym business to the next level of operation and popularity.
Marketing is about measuring twice, as a carpenter might, and cutting once to produce an accurate result. You have to have the measure of your market and then respond with the right offer that will do one or more of a few things. It has to increase your market share, increase your return on investment or increase the volume of your sales, hopefully, all of the above at the same time.
Gym Insight For Marketing And Management Information
If you are using Insight for your membership management, your club management, and sales solutions, there are many different ways to display and exploit the information that comes from the refined data that you have collected. Gym Insight has the member management tools that will help you find the measurements of your members to make the marketing choices, decide on a plan, and put it into action.
Bibliography
Fagan, Lawrence. Of Marketing Gurus And Gym Promotions. January 13, 2014. https://blog.gyminsight.com/2388-of-marketing-gurus-and-gym-promotions/ (accessed July 15, 2016).
Kusinitz, Sam. The Definition of a Buyer Persona [in Under 100 Words]. March 8, 2014. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/buyer-persona-definition-under-100-sr#sm.001xzy77t15h1dfdpua105lcuav08 (accessed July 15, 2016).