Smart Marketing Ideas For Fitness Centers To Boost Membership

Like any other business line, the biggest challenge faced by fitness centers is to retain their existing members and gain new members. You may need to think about fresh and innovative strategies that will attract the members like a magnet all round the year beyond the New Year fitness resolution phase and weight loss goals of most people. Setting up fitness centers involve a lot of investment and to keep it profitable it is important to have a steady business.

Here are some brilliant promotional ideas that will boost your gym memberships.

Build a buzz by hosting an event

Try to get more people in the door by creating a fun and free event. Encourage the members to bring in their friends and family to drive the crowd. Free entry hours or special deals will all make great ideas to generate a fresh interest in your gym. This will also give an opportunity for the fitness enthusiasts to test out your gym facilities and see why they should join.  Think about organizing a health and wellness fair or a fitness retreat for your members. Freebies and special deals will get the event attendees back to your fitness center.

Loyalty Incentives

Loyalty incentives will retain the existing members and bring in new leads. These special offers will make a great talking topic for your customers to talk about your business in their daily lives and to set off word of mouth publicity. A loyalty discount card for the juice bar, 10 minutes of free massage during every 12^th visit, referral gifts and birthday gifts to your members are some of the many ideas that can be considered.

Offer special deals

New Year and the few months leading to summer are the busiest enrollment season for fitness centers. Run a special deal during this peak time of the year to get maximum leads and to make your brand stand out among the competitors. Freebies and extra deals will make the customers feel that they are getting a nice bargain, which in turn will increase the chances of signing up with you.

Build a Community

Getting into the gym and being a regular requires some serious motivation for people.  Build a community of fitness enthusiasts, hold discussions and share tips that will help them to stick to their fitness goals to enhance the interaction of the members and make them more fitness oriented. Post work out discussions and programs to build relationships and an emotional connection with the users.

Tie up with a Local Business partner

Teaming up with a local business that is compatible yet non competitive is a great way to spread your target audience reach. Strike an alliance with businesses like food café, juice bar or sporting goods store to reach out to a wider and like-minded audience without any concerted effort. Give away discount vouchers or free samples at the front desk or come up with discount coupons that can be used at either locations.

Participate in Community Events & Festivals

Gyms often put off people and the best way to encourage them to step into your fitness center will be to participate in local festivals and community events that will get your message across and drive up your popularity. It will give your staff members a wonderful opportunity to talk to the potential customers and encourage them to enroll. It will actually be more effective than a formal business talk at the background of the weights and machines. A friendly talk with a very low marketing tone can work wonders in drawing more people to your fitness center.

Free handouts

Everyone loves freebies. Custom gym bags, water bottles and cooling towels imprinted with your name will make a great way to popularize your gym and the best part is that your name will travel with your customers. Custom gifts can be handed out to new customers who sign up for your membership. The new members will be happy to get something useful as duffel bags or totes and every time they carry these bags around , it will be free  promotion for you.

Online promotions

Reinforcing your web presence is the key to your promotions. Encourage your customers to share the fitness transformation images online. Promote special photo contests, challenges and fitness events and let the trainers share their favorite work out tips and fitness recipes to encourage the online engagement of your brand with the users.

Do not forget the Referral Program

It is hard to beat Word of mouth publicity. A positive feedback or a testimonial from a friend will enhance your trust and repute and offer an effective free marketing option. Introduce referral gifts to encourage the existing customers to refer more people

Do you have more interesting promotional tips for fitness centers? Do share with us at the facebook page and get spotted!

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