Gym marketing

[Moto Ace]

I know we have some past and present gym owners on the forum and I am looking for some insight into the marketing aspect of gym ownership. I am really looking for some input on what worked and what did not work to draw in members?

We recently opened our gym and within 6 weeks I was forced to fire our operations manager who was in fact responsible for the marketing. He literally was a worthless piece of shit, drawing in maybe 30 members in the first 6 weeks.

We are exploring a number of marketing ideas including two firms to handle all marketing, let me know what worked for you guys and what was a total waste of money.

Thanks

[GFKINGKONG]

I know we have some past and present gym owners on the forum and I am looking for some insight into the marketing aspect of gym ownership. I am really looking for some input on what worked and what did not work to draw in members?

We recently opened our gym and within 6 weeks I was forced to fire our operations manager who was in fact responsible for the marketing. He literally was a worthless piece of shit, drawing in maybe 30 members in the first 6 weeks.

We are exploring a number of marketing ideas including two firms to handle all marketing, let me know what worked for you guys and what was a total waste of money.

Thanks

Define marketing? How broad are you looking to go? Personally I prefer to handle all of my gyms marketing because it keeps me in the loop on whats being done effectively. Theres a lot of companies that try to ham you over about what they can do and it’s a lot of bullshit. Especially when it comes to “web presence” and social media.

[liftsiron]

Radio and local TV adds seem to work well, once you get a member base word of mouth works very good. Give members an incentive to bring in others.

[Roughrydr]

You can do a mail out to everyone in the community through the post office. Its relatively cheap and hits every household.

[Dakota]

What Lifts said about giving incentive to get a new member in the door is great. I don't know how you are doing memberships but if it is yearly you can really handcuff them with an incentive. X months free on your next renewal for getting a friend to sign. Then you have a new member and the existing member will renew because they can't resist X months free. Also successful is the $1 for the first month with a membership. $1 gets you the CC and auto payment. Do the first month and then you sign them for 12 months not 11.

If you have tiered memberships and have a primo type membership you can advertise a 2 for 1 membership "for limited time" Chicks love the 2 for 1 thing. It is only for the primo membership once you get them in the door. If they don't want a the primo (expensive) memembership this gives you the opportunity to sell them each a basic membership and "save them a lot of money"

There is no substitute for a great TV or radio ad. I suggest radio. If you do your homework you can get it at a decent price and you can hit target audiences. Usually you will get more bang for your buck on radio. You need to commit to a long enough period that it will get to the listener multiple times. Also set it up so all someone driving has to do is text XXX to this number or hit #xxx. Now you have an excellent lead with a very strong chance of landing a membership. You can also bang all those numbers with a text every couple of months with a reminder.

I don't know your gym but if you have high end facilities you can also do a 1st week free ZERO commitment, no contract thing. Then you pay a ton of attention to them and let the salesman work and get them to commit to a membership by the end of the week. You have to be careful with this one cause all us ironheads with memberships just want to take a break and work out a new gym for a week we aren't signing up for a 2nd gym.

Retaining members is obviously super important. Aside from making it a great place to train, consider that most will just stop working out. Then you may want to offer a X days a week or month only membership for someone trying to leave. They still will not show up but you are getting the to continue to auto pay at a reduces price.

AND... auto pay, auto pay, auto pay, auto pay.

I just discovered an auto pay on my business credit card for $20/month and I have NO idea how long I have been paying for it. Years for sure.

[Moto Ace]

Thanks for the feedback gentlemen!

All great ideas some of which we are incorporating at this time. We have our challenges ahead of us due to a couple of factors, one of which is location. We are 7 miles from the closest city, location is due to the fact that we have a MX training facility on site and needed to stay out of the city limits.


Second issue is the area, we are in an area that has a fair to low average income and we all know the struggles with that.


HOWEVER, we recently hired a lady specifically for marketing. We have been discussing a number of ideas that her and I will be working on. I am excited to see what she can bring to the table as she was the marketing manager for Anytime Fitness in central Wisco

[Dakota]

You are definitely going to need to use radio if you are out of town. I don't know your hours but one gym I used to belong to offered off hour memberships. After 9pm before 5 am. The Electricity is on, you might as well be collecting dues.

[Moto Ace]

You are definitely going to need to use radio if you are out of town. I don't know your hours but one gym I used to belong to offered off hour memberships. After 9pm before 5 am. The Electricity is on, you might as well be collecting dues.

I like that idea! Yes radio is a great idea as this area is still very out of touch with reality lol most people do not have a clue as to what social media is or does!

[Bananas]

Depending on traffic, i would drive 7 miles for a good gym. no problem.

Thanks for the feedback gentlemen!

All great ideas some of which we are incorporating at this time. We have our challenges ahead of us due to a couple of factors, one of which is location. We are 7 miles from the closest city, location is due to the fact that we have a MX training facility on site and needed to stay out of the city limits.


Second issue is the area, we are in an area that has a fair to low average income and we all know the struggles with that.


HOWEVER, we recently hired a lady specifically for marketing. We have been discussing a number of ideas that her and I will be working on. I am excited to see what she can bring to the table as she was the marketing manager for Anytime Fitness in central Wisco

[Dakota]

I like that idea! Yes radio is a great idea as this area is still very out of touch with reality lol most people do not have a clue as to what social media is or does!

Use your separation from town as a positive. "tired of the crowds?" "needs some space"? "like a gym with breathing room?" "a gym you escape to" I assume you don't have the parking issues that many gyms do either.

Keep us posted, we all think we would like to own a gym. If it was easy we all would.

[Moto Ace]

We did a soft opening this past weekend, teamed up with the National Guard and has a HUGE success!!! I am pretty excited about the number of new members signed up as well as the number of potential leads, especially for personal training!

Once people found out we had free food and beverages, they came out in droves haha! We are also meeting with the local radio station this week and working on a long term ad campaign with specific discounts for people that hear our ads. I am real curious to see who actually listens to the radio anymore!

[Roughrydr]

I'm sure you're already doing this, but you can offer reduced rate memberships for military, cops, firemen, etc.
Also find these huge companies with hundreds of employees and offer their employees special rates to help lower their insurance costs and reduce sick time, and so forth.

[Moto Ace]

I'm sure you're already doing this, but you can offer reduced rate memberships for military, cops, firemen, etc.
Also find these huge companies with hundreds of employees and offer their employees special rates to help lower their insurance costs and reduce sick time, and so forth.

Great idea, already offer police, fire and ems a discounted rate. Plus we have teamed up with the National Guard and offer a military discount