Whether you run a large chain of gyms or a small gym, your fitness center needs a robust gym advertising strategy. Without a gym advertising strategy, you will struggle to attract new members to your gym. And without new members, your revenues will stagnate, making it hard to compete with other fitness centers.
Fortunately, there are hundreds of gym advertising ideas available, which you can use to market your fitness center and attract new members. The problem is, which of these ideas should you implement?
Well, the methods you choose will ultimately depend on your target audience. However, there are certain gym advertisement ideas that can apply to almost any fitness business. In this article, we’ve compiled a list of cost-effective fitness center advertising ideas that can help to bring in new clients and grow your revenue.
1. Launch a User-Friendly Gym Website
According to a recent survey, 76% of consumers check a brand’s online presence before visiting it physically. Therefore, every business needs a strong online presence, including gyms and fitness centers.
And this is where a gym website comes in. Without a gym website, you will be missing out on a significant number of potential fitness clients. Hence, a website remains one of the most effective gym advertising methods. And every fitness center should have one.
But for a gym website to attract fitness prospects, it needs to be easy to navigate. Also, it needs to have all the vital details about your fitness center. It should have information about the location of your gym, operating hours, available facilities and contact information. Also, it should have a robust presence on the key search engines.
For most gym owners, creating a website appears like a tough, expensive and time-consuming process. But, this is not always the case. You can easily create a gym website from scratch, even if you are not a competent web design. And you can do so using platforms like Wix, Squarespace or WordPress.
Once you’ve created a website and optimized it, you can then use other gym advertising methods to direct prospects to your site, where they can sign up for your fitness classes easily and quickly.
2. Create a Google My Business Listing
According to Statista, Google had an 86.64% market share in 2021, compared to other search engines. With such a huge market share, it goes without saying that Google is the most widely used search engine in the world.
Hence, if you are a gym owner, it will be highly advisable to set up a Google My Business (GMB) listing.
What makes a Google My Business listing a powerful gym advertising idea is that it will make it easier for people to find your gym online whenever they are searching for gyms in their area. And if you already have a gym website, it may appear at the top of the search engine results page if it’s already on Google My Business.
A GMB listing will make it easier for prospects to find your gym’s vital details like contact information, location, as well as hours of operation. Also, this listing will help you to start collecting reviews once it’s up and live. And if you manage to collect lots of five-star reviews, you will set yourself apart from your competitors, making it even easier for you to attract more clients.
3. Run Fitness Challenges and Promotions
One of the easiest ways of bringing new members to your gym is by running fitness challenges and promotions. And when it comes to fitness challenges and promotions, your options are almost endless. Here are some fitness challenges and promotions to run in your gym:
3.1 Summer Slimdown Challenge
A slimdown challenge will be perfect for women looking to slim down and get in shape before summer comes around. You can start this challenge on 1st January when fitness motivation is at an all-time high.
For this challenge, you can have new members signing up for a high-intensity six-month program. And if they like the results, they can sign for a long-term gym membership in your fitness center.
3.2 Free Training Day
Some people in your area may be looking to get fitter. However, setting foot in the gym can be intimidating for some of them. And this is where a free training day comes in. With a free training day, you will be giving everyone in your area an opportunity to come and experience how an ordinary training session feels like. And such a session will give everyone the confidence to come to your gym.
To set up this session, you simply need to ask non-members to sign up, either via email or their social media handles. After the free training session is over, you can then use the information you’ve gathered to nurture these prospects. And, it’s highly likely you will end up with several people who will sign up for long-term memberships.
3.3 Weight Loss Challenge
A weight-loss challenge is another great advertising idea for a gym. And you don’t have to limit it to members only. You can simply keep it open to everyone for a fee, both members and non-members. However, your members can enjoy a 50% discount for those who want to participate.
With a weight loss challenge, you will be killing two birds with one stone. First, you will be helping your gym members to accomplish their weight loss goals. And second, it will help to bring non-members to your gym, who you can then convert from prospects to long-term clients.
4. Create a Referral Program
Convincing someone to join a new gym is not easy. The good news is, referral programs can help to make the transition easier. And that’s why they are they are a highly valued fitness center advertising and marketing idea.
And besides helping to attract new gym members, referral programs can also help to retain your current fitness clients. After all, we all love working out with our family members, friends, work colleagues or other close associates.
Furthermore, when someone you are close to vouches for a business, it’s highly likely you will trust them compared to conventional gym advertising strategies.
For the referral program to work effectively, you should keep it as simple as possible. Make it easy for both members and non-members to participate. And for the rewards, you can offer free training sessions to non-members and discounted membership fees for the referees.
5. Run Facebook Ads
With over 2.9 billion active monthly users in 2021, Facebook remains one of the biggest social media platforms globally. Hence, it provides the ideal platform for reaching potential gym clients if you are ready to spend money on gym membership ads on Facebook.
Facebook comes with powerful targeting features and options. And you can leverage these features to target and reach potential gym clients in your neighborhood. Besides location, you can also target potential fitness clients based on gender, age, or even income.
And considering that Facebook and Instagram are from the same parent company, you can cross-promote your ads and campaign across both platforms, thus increasing their reach while bringing your more leads.
Don't forget to learn how to write attention grabbing headlines, for maximum efficiency.
6. Post Videos on Social Media Platforms
Social media users love videos. So, by posting videos on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook, you will reach more prospects compared to posting image posts or regular text.
And besides Facebook and Instagram, you should also consider posting videos on TikTok. According to Market Watch, TikTok has approximately 1 billion monthly users, thus providing another great social media platform to post your videos.
You can post different types of video content such as workout videos, your gym’s facilities, Q and A sessions with fitness professionals, workout meal plans or recovery tips, just to name a few.
7. Run Google Ads
If your fitness center is located in a large city, there’s a high chance you are competing for fitness clients with hundreds of other gyms. In such a situation, organic traffic may not be enough to bring you enough fitness clients. And this is where Google ads come in.
When you use Google ads, your gym website will always appear on the first page of the search results. And as you may probably know, most people rarely go beyond the first page of Google when searching for a business. Hence, Google ads provide one of the most effective fitness club advertising ideas.
Also, Google ads provide a cost-effective fitness center advertisement method. With these ads, you will only pay when someone clicks on your ads since they work on a cost-per-click basis.
When properly set up, Google ads will help you to reach the right people in your area, help to outrank your competitors and increase brand awareness – all of which may lead to more gym memberships and more revenues.
8. Wrapping It Up
Whether you run a bodybuilding gym, a CrossFit gym or any other fitness center, you have plenty of gym advertising ideas and strategies, which you can use to attract more clients. However, the strategies you will decide to implement will depend on your location, the gym you run as well as your target demographic.
So before you rush to implement any of the above strategies, ensure you take time to research your target audience, try out gym advertising ideas and then choose what works best for your fitness center.