If you have been in the fitness business for any significant period, you are well aware of how competitive it can be. It seems like every time that you turn a corner you notice that another gym is popping up in your neighborhood. That means that you need to be marketing yourself even harder and more strategically than you ever have. Custom printed t-shirts and other fitness promos help brand your business.
The flooding of new gyms to the market and their spending on online ads on Facebook, Instagram, and Google have driven up the cost of advertising and generating leads online. Which means that you and other fitness business owners need to find more creative and cost effective ways to promote and market their businesses. Today, we are going to discuss some innovative and profitable ways that you can market your fitness business.
1) Summer and New Year Challenges
One excellent aspect of owning your fitness center or gym is that you have a built in client base already. Two of the biggest times each year that we see boosts in the fitness business is at the end of summer and the beginning of each new year. You can run New Year challenges and end of summer challenges that offer:
- Nutrition counseling
- Extra programming
- Custom workouts
- A supplementation guide
Offer your existing clients an opportunity to sign up for a 60 to 90-day challenge at a flat rate, which includes a lot of additional content. Thatās an excellent way to boost your sales with your existing membership. Spread word of mouth and tell them to get their friends to join too. The best thing is that you can run both of these challenges every year and offer custom printed t-shirts as commemorative rewards.
2) Run a Gym Anniversary Special
Every year you have the opportunity to run some gym anniversary special. Offer your existing and new members a special discount when they purchase longer contracts. Offer referral discounts to your current members, so if they bring in a friend or two, they get a certain percentage knocked off of a month or the total. Include cool custom-printed t-shirts as an added incentive.
3) Run a Business Challenge
If you run a fitness center that offers programming and classes for businesses in your area, why not start your corporate fitness challenge? Have different companies or teams within the same business compete using metrics like:
- Classes attended
- Weight lifted
- Personal records
- Weight lost
- Inches lost
And offer a fun prize or gift bundle to the team that wins. Custom printed t-shirts they can wear to the gym are sure to be a hit!
4) Free Session with a TrainerĀ
One of the best ways to market your fitness business within and outside of your business is to offer a free or complimentary personal training session. This gives your members personal attention and time with you or your training staff, adds value to your business, and gives you the opportunity to build another revenue stream with an existing or new client. Offer discounts for an introductory training package with you so that you can help your clients:
- Improve their performance
- Refine their diet to suit their goals
- Assist them in proper supplementation
- Help them perfect their technique to improve their results and reduce the chances of injuries
5) Offer Free Passes and Prizes for Check-ins
Another great, free way to market your fitness center is to run a check-in challenge. Have your existing members check into your gym on Facebook or Yelp every time that they come in for a workout, and share where they are with their friends. Tally the number of check-ins that each of your regular members had at the end of each month and offer prizes, free passes, custom printed t-shirts, and rewards for your top check-in clients. This will give you a ton of free word-of-mouth marketing via your client's social media when all of their friends see where they are working out and how often they are going in.
6) Free Month Pass with a Review on Google or Yelp
Another free way to build buzz about your gym or fitness center is to have your clients or new members review your business on Google or help. Great reviews online are one of the best ways to pick up new clients and improve your businessā SEO. Offer a free month or week pass, free personal training, custom printed t-shirts or something of value to any of your clients that give your business a positive review online.
7) Run Social Media Contests
Running social media contests is another fun and free way you can promote your business through your existing clients. Set up a list of social media activities that your clients can do, and set a point value for each item. Run your contest for a month and see what clients have the most points at the end of the month. Offer them a free month, free personal training package, gear, custom printed t-shirts and more for the winner. For example, members earn:
- 1 point for each Facebook check-in
- 2 points for each check-in with a tagged picture on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter
- 3 points for adding and tagging your gym in your clientās Snap, Facebook, or Instagram story
- 4 points for each check-in with a video that tags and mentions your gym
There are a ton of great ways to market your fitness business for cheap or for nothing at all. Our custom design t-shirts can help you promote your business and all its special events and giveaways. Plus, everyone who wears your tee is like a walking billboard for your fitness enterprise.
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