11 Fitness Marketing Ideas to Boost Membership and Grow Gym Revenue

Fitness is a great passion to have. But if you've turned your passion into a business, you're going to have to take your revenue and profits seriously. Passion doesn't pay the bills.

According to a report published by IBIS World, the market size for gyms, fitness clubs and health clubs is expected to increase by approximately 4.7% by the end of 2021.

And as you may expect, a growing fitness industry translates to more competition for gyms, health clubs and fitness centers.

Hence, if you are a gym owner or you run a fitness center, you will need to find a means of attracting new members to your gym, retaining the existing ones and standing out from the competition. And this is where fitness marketing comes in.

In this article, we will share 10 creative and effective gym marketing ideas, which can help to bring more members to your gym, boost retention and grow gym revenue.

1. Give Out Free Gym Memberships

Offering free gym memberships to new gym members is an effective health club marketing idea, which can help to grow your gym membership.

With the free gym memberships, you will offer something like a seven-day free trial, where new members get an opportunity to sample your services, equipment and gym culture.

And if someone is happy with the services and training offered, it’s highly likely they will happily sign up for full gym membership, after the seven-day promotional offer lapses.

2. Establish Partnerships with Local Businesses

Establishing fitness partnerships with local businesses is another great fitness center marketing strategy, which can help to boost your gym’s membership.

For instance, you may be running a kickboxing gym while someone else is running a yoga studio, within the same locality.

You can then reach out to the yoga tutor to ask whether they may be interested in setting up a fitness partnership.

For such a partnership, the yoga students can get five free cardio classes in your gym while your kickboxing students can get five free yoga sessions in the yoga studio.

You may be probably asking yourself how this fitness partnership can help with member acquisition. Well, the yoga students will experience a new type of workout in your boxing studio. And with time, there’s a high chance that some will sign up for your kickboxing classes on full membership.

At the same time, your kickboxing students may also opt to sign up for yoga classes, to keep their minds focused and bodies flexible. Simply put, this fitness partnership will benefit both businesses.

3. Use Social Media Advertising

The number of social media users keeps growing every year. People spend time on various social media platforms to keep in touch with friends and family. Also, social media users use those platforms to follow their favorite brands.

Therefore, if you are looking for fitness marketing ideas, you should consider setting up a robust social media marketing strategy. The question is, which social media platforms should you use?

Well, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are currently the most popular social media platforms. But considering the visual aspect of gyms and fitness centers, it will be highly advisable to focus on Instagram and Facebook.

As for promotional strategies, you can opt for social media advertising, Facebook ads and Instagram ads.

Also, ensure you are constantly engaging with your audience through comments, and likes, to boost your engagement.

By having a strong social media presence, you will grow your fitness business tremendously with minimal effort.

4. Share Testimonials

Sharing your clients’ success stories is an effective gym marketing idea. Through such stories, you will show your target audience where someone started their fitness journey and where they are currently.

So, how do you source for such success stories? Well, you can ask your fitness clients to take before and after pictures or videos. You can then request these pictures, mentioning that you intend to use them in your marketing campaigns. And there’s a high chance your clients will allow you to use their photos. Once you’ve obtained them, you can share them on your social media accounts.

Such stories are enough proof that your training methods or your gym has inspired others to achieve their fitness goals. Therefore, they will convince someone else in that position that they can achieve similar results.

Hence, testimonials, success stories and reviews should be an integral part of a gym marketing campaign. They can help to increase social proof, enhance your gym’s credibility and attract new fitness clients.

5. Use Email Marketing

Whether you run an MMA gym, a yoga studio, Pilates classes or a general fitness club, email marketing should be part of your fitness marketing strategy.

With millions of people using email across the globe, email marketing can provide an affordable and reliable means of promoting, advertising and growing your gym.

When properly utilized, email marketing can help you to attract new customers and maintain long-term relationships with your fitness clients.

6. Use Video Marketing

Video marketing is key when it comes to growing your fitness brand. According to Smart Insights, videos embedded on a site can increase the conversion rate by approximately 80%.

Furthermore, emails that contain videos have a higher click-through rate, compared to those emails without videos. Also, videos tend to capture attention better than plain text.

As you can see, you have every reason to incorporate video marketing into your fitness center advertising strategy.

They will provide you with an easier means of reaching a wider audience, help to keep your current gym members engaged and help to attract more clients to your fitness center.

So, if you are yet to incorporate video marketing into your fitness business marketing plan, then you should do it right away. And make sure that you use professional video editing software for better quality.

Some of the fitness video ideas that you can incorporate into your health club marketing strategy include how-to videos, promo videos, fitness tips videos, customer testimonial videos and company overview videos.

7. Use Referral Marketing

Referrals are a type of gym marketing strategy, where you encourage your gym members to refer their family and friends to your gym. With referral marketing, you are turning your gym members into brand ambassadors.

Referral programs provide a cost-effective way of acquiring new gym members. With this method, the reward you offer to the referrer will be the only expense that you will incur.

However, make sure the incentive you offer the referrer is worth their time. Some of the relevant awards or incentives that you can offer include free workout programs, free gym swags, gym retail products or discounts on a gym membership.

8. Offer Free One-on-One Personal Training Sessions

If you've got the proper certification, then you can offer one-on-one personal training.

Some people avoid going to gyms because they may feel intimidated or out of place. Others may avoid going to gyms for the first time, for fear of being judged.

To prevent such scenarios, you can break the ice by offering free one-on-one personal training sessions to all new customers, for the first month.

Offering such sessions will help them to get familiar with your gym, the environment, the equipment and other gym members.

With this gym marketing idea, you will not only attract more newcomers to your gym but the retention rate will also be high.

9. Offer Specialized Classes

One of the reasons why some gyms face low membership retention rates or struggle to attract new members is that they only offer one type of fitness activity.

For instance, if you go to most gyms today, you will notice that they only offer weight lifting sessions.

The problem is, some people are not into weight lifting. Some are into yoga, kickboxing, Zumba, or gymnastics, among other fitness activities.

So, if you are looking for ways of acquiring new gym members, you should consider offering a wide range of fitness classes.

Offering a wide range of fitness classes will not only help to attract new gym members but will also help to keep your current members motivated, thus increasing the retention rates.

10. Leverage Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing has been around for quite some time. It’s a powerful gym marketing idea, with a proven return on investment.

So, how does this gym marketing idea work? Well, when you partner with influencers, they will mention your gym on their social media for a certain incentive. The incentive can be in the form of cash or free gym membership.

It’s worth pointing out that you don’t need to work with popular gym influencers, since they may too costly. Instead, you can opt to work with micro-influencers. Besides being budget-friendly, micro-influencers are equally effective.

11. Start a Fitness Blog

Approximately 77% of internet users regularly read blogs. And your fitness audience is also part of this number.

Therefore, fitness blogs remain one of the most relevant forms of content marketing for fitness centers.

With a blog, you may attract new customers, who are looking for fitness tips and tricks. A blog also gives you an opportunity to showcase your gym’s expertise and credibility in the fitness industry.

Also, a fitness blog will help you to reach a wider audience, which may translate into more leads.

12. Wrapping It Up

We hope that the above gym marketing tips, gym advertising tricks and, gym promotion ideas, will help to boost your gym’s membership and grow your revenue. And you don’t have to implement all of them. You simply need to choose those tips, tricks and ideas that align best with your gym marketing strategy.