6 Free & Low-Budget Marketing Ideas For Your Gym

In today’s blog, we will be tackling what independent gym and fitness clubs can do to take their marketing to the next level on a budget. And that budget? As close to 0 as possible! That’s right, we’ve shaped this entire article around what can be done for free or as close as we could find.

But why? Well, the reason is simple and intuitive. Because after talking to countless owners, marketing personnel, and other staff who work in independent gyms and fitness clubs across the country, we’ve realised what appeals. 

We realised that the people marketing independent gyms and fitness clubs are often doing so on a shoestring budget. Often it isn’t even their dedicated job! As such, we thought it best to shift away from more traditional concepts such as ‘budget’. These are things that might just turn away the sort of person we want this article to reach.

Gym and fitness club owners and staff members who want to improve their marketing, social media, and general outreach for as little money as possible. 

More and more, the people responsible for these important tasks are stretched thin. Understandably BAU (business-as-usual) operations are given priority, but given the low cost and high impact of these methods, gyms are ignoring them at their own peril! 

Everything on this list has our own seal of approval and just as importantly, everything on this list is something we’ve seen independent gyms NOT doing when it could make such a difference. 

With an ever-shifting and challenging economy, combined with an ever-increasing focus on online marketing and presentation, we thought now was the idle time to put pen to paper and list our six free or low-budget marketing ideas that can make a powerful impact on the presentation, presence and outreach of independent gyms and fitness clubs! 

We will be starting with basic, free and instantly actionable measures. Just because these are free, doesn’t mean that they aren’t worth doing! Quite the opposite. Several things we are about to recommend are cornerstone marketing methods for many gyms! 

From there we will be ramping it up, taking methods that require a minimal amount of expenditure, while still maximising effect! This will help create a smooth curve from what is immediately actionable and free to what will take a little more effort and a small amount of money.

And so with that out of the way, keep reading to find out what knowledge we have gained between our twenty five years of experience in the fitness industry and our desire to stay on the cutting edge of value creation for independent gyms and fitness clubs!

 Jump ahead to our 6 marketing ideas!

Build an E-Mail List and Increase Email Engagement

Build a Website

Create a Google Business Page

Fill up Your Gyms Social Media

Run Competitions, Events & Giveaways

Work with Local Partners & Community Groups

Build an E-mail List and Increase E-mail Engagement!

So starting at the beginning of that ‘easy and actionable curve’, we have a simple but incredibly powerful opening strategy for independent gyms and fitness facilities to recommend.

That strategy? The humble e-mail list. A bedrock of marketing strategies and engagement initiatives across the world, we have been alarmed by the number of gyms and fitness clubs that have neglected to incorporate e-mail into their business-as-usual engagement operations!

The premise (for those not acquainted) is simple. Gather together the e-mail addresses of members and potential members and…Well, get e-mailing! 

It really is that simple. For some businesses, gathering e-mail addresses and gauging interest can be hard. Thankfully for the fitness industry, many people harbour a genuine interest and do not mind receiving e-mails about their lifestyle choices and hobbies. This means independent gyms and fitness club management are in a unique position to capitalise on this medium…Making it all the more bizarre some don’t! 

The materials required to start this are simple, just a singular website. Not even e-mails initially, they will come later!

There are many websites that provide the service of managing an e-mailing list for a gym or fitness facility. The differences and nuances between them are too varied for the scope of this article, but we will briefly touch upon some of them and list a few names for the interested to explore!

Perhaps the website that has made its mark on industries ranging from insurance to influencers and beyond is Mailchimp and it is easy to understand why.

Simple, easy to use and all importantly, free for the needs of the average small business as it tests the water (with options for greater capacity and other features). This has ensured that Mailchimp has become a by-word for the type of e-mail list distribution service we are talking about.

We would recommend that all independent gyms and fitness clubs that have not yet set up an e-mail list at least consider and explore the service Mailchimp has to offer. 

https://mailchimp.com/

But mailchimp aren’t the only game in town for gyms seeking to increase engagement via an e-mail list.

Services such as the similarly animal themed Moosend, the ominous Omnisend and the high-flying Mailjet have all encroached on a portion of the market share. 

While there are slight variations in service and the post-free premium price points, we would suggest that the choice can be made after browsing a few different options, starting with the most famous and well-reviewed such as Mailchimp. 

Now as for e-mails, this part is comparatively simple and just as free. As we stated earlier, the good news is that lots of a gym’s members, and even many of their prospective members are keen to hear from them!

It isn’t like car insurance or town-hall, people are often actively excited to hear from their gym or fitness club. It can help enhance the sense of community and connection, as well as keeping them informed and motivated. 

As such, our simple solution for gathering e-mails for the burgeoning e-mail list is…ASK!

Whether it is through sign-up or on the gym floor, we often hear stories of surprise at just how many members were willing to sign-up and what a difference it made to engagement within an independent gym or fitness club! 

When it comes to getting potential members on the list, we find social media competitions and an on-website sign-up function are often the best. This allows prospective and potential members to come to the gym! 

Build a Website – Wix (free version) https://www.wix.com

Our next action is just as free and just as important. Arguably even more important. Whereas an e-mail list will make a difference in terms of engagement (and that is very important to a gym!) then this makes a difference to not only engagement but appearance!

And that all-important first impression that we’ve seen determines whether a potential member turns up or turns away!

What is that you ask? Well it was in the section title, it is a website! 

Now we know (in fact, we hope!) that some independent gym management and owners will just be met with a firm ‘Well, of course, I have a website’. And that is fantastic, but it is not a given… 

But from our lengthy experience in the fitness industry, we know that there are still a significant portion of independent gyms and fitness clubs up and down the UK and Ireland (and beyond!) that don’t have websites.

The impact on the online footprint of a gym or fitness club that doesn’t have a website is noticeable and immediate. Recent studies across multiple industries have shown that the majority of people under 35 and a good portion of people over 35 use Google as a significant part of their filtering process when it comes to choosing the goods and services they consume.

This is no different in the fitness industry. Upon first hearing of a gym from a friend or seeing it advertised, one of the first things most potential members will do is check out the gym’s website. 

If the website is nowhere to be found, what does that say about the gym or fitness club? Very little good unfortunately. Reactions can range from assuming that the gym has closed down to just thinking that they are newly established or amateurish.

All that to say: Nothing good!

Reactions fare only a little better if the first hit is a Facebook or Instagram page. While it might reassure them that the gym or club hasn’t shut down entirely, it is still considered largely ‘unprofessional’ and ‘negative’ in the eyes of most potential consumers.

As such, you can see why this recommendation made it very near the top of our list! 

First impressions are absolutely vital and for the vast majority of customers, their first impression is going to be digital, not physical!  A Google business profile link that leads through to a Facebook page is not a good first impression. It is difficult to parse information, it shows low commitment to production values and professional aesthetic and it doesn’t instill faith in the potential member. 

This is why we recommend any website builder if it helps a gym or fitness club get their online presence off of solely social media and onto a sleek and dedicated space.

While websites certainly benefit from a little bit of monetary investment, that can come later. If a gym or fitness club is entirely lacking a website in 2023, it is time to get something simple and effective up quickly!

To that end, our first recommendation for a free website creator for independent gyms and fitness clubs is www.wix.com. 

While it won’t be able to match the standards of professional website builders, it is a fantastic tool for getting a simple and effective website up and running in good time and at a low cost. 

The information to focus on will include:

• The services, equipment and machinery that the gym or fitness club provides
• Value of the gym/club and history
• How to navigate to the gym or fitness club, including maps.
• A list of events and classes being held (updated regularly)

It needn’t win awards, but as long as it looks coherent, aesthetic, and communicates the necessary information it will provide an infinitely better first impression than the lack of a website. 

Once a simple but professional free website has been created, an independent gym can either ask members for feedback or plan what the more complete, consummate version of the website will eventually look like.

One thing is for sure, having a website and combining that with our next strategy will result in an uptick of potential members becoming actual members if they value the online presence and presentation of their gym or fitness club! 

Create a Google Business Page – Google Shows Your Business For Regional Searches Automatically

This is another simple and effective strategy that we highlight primarily because we find so many independent gyms and fitness clubs neglecting it!

It is safe to say as of 2023, we are firmly in the digital age, and searchability is everything! Searchability not only means that a gym or fitness club should show up if it is googled, but that the way it shows up will reinforce to the searcher that this is a brand and a service that can be trusted. 

It sounds like a weighty task to the uninitiated, but really it is quite simple! Most people have an idea in their mind about what looks ‘right’ and professional’ when they are searching for a business.

One large aspect of this is the Google Business Profile. It is an innocuous little piece of information on the side of many Google searches, especially those pertaining to businesses. I’ve put a picture of our most trusted and up-together partner gyms below and their fully fleshed-out Google Business Profile. 

At a single glance, this will tell any savvy searcher (and therefore, potential member!) either what they need to know, or how they can search for it further in a simple and efficient way.

It demonstrates that the gym is currently open, when it closes, the reviews it has been given, the general location it is in, the address, and the telephone number.

Within a single click, these same potential members will be able to access a detailed Google Maps layout with the gym location highlighted, pictures of the outside and inside, and a breakdown of the reviews and directions.

All that information is either immediately available to a potential customer or a click away! And all of this can be available to a gym or fitness club for free!

So you can see why we find it baffling that so many gyms still do not have this system in place! It is so simple and easy. It instantly communicates all the necessary information, while impressing upon old and new members alike that you are open for business!

So the next question becomes, how do independent gyms and fitness clubs create a business profile?

Well, sometimes we are happy to leave it to the experts and thankfully Google has put everything in place necessary for an independent business to set up their own Google Business Profile with minimal fuss. 

The link below will be vital for any independent gym or fitness club that wants to increase its online profile with a Google business profile! 

Sign up for Business Profile – Google Business Profile Help

And it doesn’t take a visionary to imagine how having a simple but professional website in place, backed up by a Google business profile to guide members and potential members where they need to be can drastically improve the online engagement rate for a gym or fitness club!

Fill Up Your Gym’s Social Media Pages with High Quality, Bespoke Content

While we are on the subject of making a good first impression, it is time to address another weakness we see when it comes to the marketing and engagement of some independent gyms and fitness clubs. 

The good news? Once again, it can be addressed for free! Here at https://www.canva.com/

Over our time, we’ve seen some truly awful graphic design come out of the fitness industry. We get it! As we said at the beginning of this article, marketing personnel and departments (And they are rarely departments!) are stretched thin.

But that doesn’t mean we need to immediately lower our standards to Paint and other unmentionable programmes in order to create banners. 

Not when Canva exists! 

The plucky Australian company that could, Canva now boasts over 100 million users, and for good reason. It is a simple, powerful, and all-importantly free at point of entry piece of software that can be used by anyone to create high-quality, bespoke marketing materials. 

What sets Canva apart from the crowd? Many things. 

So many things, in fact, we’ve made a mini-list within a list of reasons why Canva can’t be left on the shelf

1. It is free! And the premium version is fantastic value for money, even for an independent gym or fitness club!

As with many services, Canva has adopted the model of having a free and a premium option. For our needs, this is fantastic as it means that it can be obtained immediately by any member of staff within a gym or fitness club. The free version gives you a large number of options and does not impede your ability to make sleek and bespoke images quickly. 

The premium version of the service is something we would recommend if a gym or fitness club comes to rely upon Canva sufficiently enough that they want to improve their options. Starting prices are very reasonable and can easily be utilised by a small gym to great effect if necessary. 

     2. The versatility of Canva means it can fulfill a plethora of roles:

The fitness industry is fast-paced and varied. One day a gym might need fliers, another day it might need posters, and during both of those days, it might also need several social media posts.

Luckily Canva is a service that allows gym staff to meet all of these needs and more while doing a good portion of the work itself with the help of thousands of templates to choose from. This allows even a relative newcomer to graphic design to make visually coherent and impactful promotional material quickly.

Combine this with a large library of pre-existing images and a fantastic workspace for editing images and it is clear that the only limit to Canva is the imagination. 

      3. You don’t need to be a professional designer:

Due to an easy learning curve and a host of pre-existing and free templates, we are confident that anyone on the staff of a gym or fitness club will be able to pick it up and quickly produce quality material.

As we mentioned earlier, this is perfect for the average independent gym environment where some roles, such as social media and marketing, are not dedicated roles. With only a little training, a member of staff can generate quality content in no time! 

       4. Canva makes creating class schedules, promotional material, and customer engagement easy!

Speaking of social media, we thought it deserved its own point on the list.

And that is because the effects that Canva can have on a social media page are incredible.

In an age where every major business and corporation is running ultra-sleek, daily social media campaigns. It becomes very noticeable if an independent gym puts something out that isn’t quite as in vogue. 

With Canva, that worry can disappear. Anyone within a fitness facility can immediately start creating material with a strong visual style that will catch the eyes and stand out.

With this ability at the fingertips of virtually anyone within the gym or fitness club’s staff, it means that every sale, class or event can have its own bespoke, eye-catching social media post ready to go! Customer engagement will never be higher. 

     5. Canva allows multiple employees to collaborate! 

Some design tools, especially traditional, non-web-based ones, only allow one person to edit or create at one time.

With Canva, this issue is a thing of the past.

Once again, we’ve seen this be particularly useful to independent gyms, who often have to start and stop tasks due to the fast-moving nature of this business. The Canva collaboration system means that if one staff member is unable to finish, another can pick it up in their place!

Running competitions, events and give-aways- Use incentives that are free or low-cost such as memberships, free day passes or overstocked goods. 

For our last two tips, we are going to move on from ‘free’ to ‘very low cost’. 

While we could’ve ended the article with what can be implemented within a gym or fitness club for free, we thought it was a shame to limit the scope of the article to only that which can be achieved with no budget whatsoever.

This is because we didn’t think it was right to ignore a couple of the great methods of driving membership engagement and marketing that can be achieved for very little.

And they fit our theme, what can be achieved by independent gyms and fitness clubs on a super-low budget, so here we go. 

Starting with that classic piece of engagement, competitions!

Events, competitions, and giveaways are a great method of generating hype, publicity, and engagement within the local community and beyond. With the benefits of social media, these gym competitions and events can far outweigh the reach they generate on the day as well!

(Especially if you have slick Canva images to promote them!) 

Gyms and fitness clubs find themselves in a good position when it comes to competitions, there are lots of prizes they can offer, many of which come at a relatively cheap price point. 

Memberships are, of course, the go-to prize. It is a valuable commodity to the consumer while costing a gym or fitness club no immediate budget upfront. Not only that but if a free membership is given, there is every chance that the money might be partially or fully recovered by secondary spending. 

The same applies to runner-up/secondary prizes such as day passes. They are a perfect sweet spot as they represent both value saved by the consumer/potential member and also a potent and free advertising mechanism for the gym or fitness club. 

The publicity generated from these competitions is also an asset that must be considered.

It has become a frequent and effective trend to run a ‘following and retweeting’ (now reposting) competition on Twitter (now X). The entry method for each potential winner is merely retweeting and liking the post. This enables it to be spread far and wide, with the cumulative effect of each participant retweeting it to their own batch of followers while increasing the online following and reach of the gym or fitness club!

As you can imagine, when combined with our earlier steps, especially utilising Canva and providing a good ‘first online impression’, a gym or fitness club can rapidly start to reach a lot of people in a professional, engaging, and largely free way! 

Working with local partners and community groups

Our final strategy will require the most time and commitment, and most likely the most resources if it is to be done correctly. But if done correctly, it can significantly increase engagement and membership numbers within an independent gym or fitness club! 

And the method you ask? Getting out there into the local community, establishing a presence within the area, and making connections that will give a gym or fitness club the edge in the local community and economy.

In this increasingly online, increasingly stratified society it almost feels like the local area sometimes takes a backseat. There has become this trend, even amongst some independent gyms and fitness clubs, to view their business as a detached, aloof brand first. 

But this isn’t the case, and one of the many lessons that the Covid-19 pandemic taught us just how physical and just how local the world truly is. 

The local community and economy that an independent gym exists within cannot be overlooked or underestimated. Time and time again we have seen that there are significant gains to be made from reaching out to the broader community, meeting influential individuals in the area and engaging with pre-existing groups and organisations for community and sporting events. 

And the fantastic news is the options are as varied as they are effective.

Whether it is approaching the local regional, town, or city council. Whether it is reaching out to charities, sports clubs or local businesses. There are opportunities everywhere when viewed through the appropriate lens.

We have seen independent gyms increase their engagement by reaching out to councillors and council workers involved with the health, sports, and fitness sector. Organisations and organisers responsible for weekly events within the area, and people within the fitness and health sector can be vital. We find that once a gym starts reaching out to these individuals, they can help them get into contact with others within the community.

In order to achieve this effectively and meaningfully, this will require going to events, even sponsoring events, and hosting events. It will require networking and it will require a genuine passion for the community that the gym is operating in.

But the rewards in terms of membership uptake and membership engagement are well worth the time, effort, and cost. In an era of corporate, budget gyms attempting to dominate the landscape with cookie-cutter gyms up and down the country, independent gyms and fitness clubs can really play to their strengths and shine by engaging with the community and making their facility more than just a place people can work out. 

Conclusion

And really that same mantra applies to all of our tips. In a time of increased competition and challenge, the innovation that can occur on an independent level is vital for not only surviving, but thriving. 

We hope these strategies, methods and ideas have helped show that there is an awful lot that an independent gym or fitness club and their staff can do to improve, even when resources are tight and the budget is tighter!

“Content as a Tool for Increasing Your Gyms Marketing Potency”

Content as marketing is not a new strategy, but it is one that has seen a marked increase. We think that part of the reason for this is that it has never been easier to get a long-form, detailed opinion out into the public at virtually no cost.

Whereas before the rise of the internet and digital marketing, there was always a prohibitively expensive cost associated with length that has started to recede and vanish. Now there is very little to stop long form, insightful content from being published online with a high chance of reaching its audience through ever more advanced search engines.

This is, in our opinion, a blessing. It has allowed companies to post valuable and meaningful content without fear it will go completely unread, or even end up costing significantly more than it generated.

Now the ability to share relevant and impactful information directly to the audience cannot be overestimated as a tool for marketing. Now rather than relentlessly and monotonously bombarding potential customers with the same message in order to build some semblance of trust, businesses can put their message, their product, their expertise and their value right where their mouth is.

Unlike terrestrial advertising, this method allows for the story and expertise of the company to be demonstrated through the content they produce. In turn, this can help create a bond with the potential customers that a business is trying to reach. 

At time of writing, it is estimated that over 80% of brands are either utilising or in some way participating in Content Marketing. It has become a tour de force that has transcended marketing and become a way to get a business into search engines while generating valuable and meaningful content. 

So how can a gym or fitness club owner incorporate content based marketing into their marketing strategies?

We are going to cover off a few of the most accessible and impactful methods that can be implemented swiftly.

1. Blogging

2. Podcasting

3. Events. Virtual, Real, Hybrid

4. Educational Videos & Infographics

1. Blogging

Blogs are the mainstay of content-lead marketing for a number of reasons. As we discussed previously, one of the draws is the ability to communicate impactful information and have it reach the audience for the lowest possible cost.

Blogging fits that criteria perfectly. Not only is creating it cheap, requiring only expertise and a word processor, hosting it on a website is a negligible expense. Furthermore, given search engines focus on keywords, the potential for it to be found is very high relative to other forms of marketing.

So that is the positive news. The downside is that, especially within the fitness industry, Gym content lead marketing is very competitive. It is an industry full of people who know their stuff and do a significant portion of their business through their websites.

As such, it is important that gym owners keep in mind two mantras when producing blogs as content lead marketing for their websites. 

First, it must make a real contribution. No half measures. The information that Gyms are putting out shouldn’t be contentless clickbait or a guide that has been done better elsewhere. Every gym or fitness club should be a hub of talented and experienced individuals, with valuable expertise to contribute.

It is therefore necessary that Gyms bring their A-game to all content. The blogs will be what is selling the gym or fitness club to the customer. We want them to be drawn in and understand that the organisation has something to offer them that can improve their life. That it is worth their time and money. 

A useful thought exercise is something we call ‘The bookmark test’. Does the blog provide valuable enough content that someone who is interested in the subject would want to bookmark or favourite it on their browser so they can return to it. If the answer is yes, the content is on the right track.

The second is the more pragmatic and marketing side, and that is keywords. The best content in the world won’t draw a business any new custom if it can’t be found. As mentioned earlier, blogs trade in keywords and that is especially true in the fitness industry.

With prospective customers often searching very specific queries, whether it is related to an exercise, or a class, or an exercise machine. It is necessary for the content to be precise and purposeful in the language that is used. 

In addition, a successful blog should try to mention the location of the gym or fitness club it is trying to promote. A lot of searches are locational, so the more that the gym or fitness club can be linked with the specific area, the better. 

2. Podcasting

Take it from us, making a podcast and getting it onto the big platforms that people actually use has never been easier. 

There has been a big rise in the number of brand podcasts and they are enjoying a large amount of success.

In a recent poll, 50% of content-led marketers who have adopted and utilised podcasts as a marketing tool have described it as one of their most effective content mediums they use. 

So then the question becomes, why are podcasts experience such an increase in adoption by businesses?

The answer is actually above, it has never been easier.

Accessibility and outreach always used to be the issue. Even as little as ten years ago, podcasting was a niche with few defined outlets. Still very much the domain of iTunes and Apple. Recording, editing and then releasing a podcast was a lot of work and there was no guarantee it would be downloaded (not streamed!) onto more than a few devices.

Now both recording and distribution has been made simple. Multiple websites can allow a business to upload a podcast once and then have it put onto all major streaming services (including the big hitters like Spotify).

As it often goes, this meant that businesses were able to test the water with comparatively little time and effort. In turn, businesses learned that there was a market for these podcasts and so a content marketing method was born.

The success factor has come from the casual nature of podcasting. A conversation between two people within the fitness industry, about the fitness industry doesn’t feel like marketing but it is highly effective at doing so. Given that people will be listening to the podcast on either a phone or a computer, they will have a search engine to hand, so any mention of a gym or fitness club that grabs their attention can be instantly followed up upon. 

The topics are endless and normally we find if you just set out a few topics of conversation and get the right people in the room, the conversation will flow nicely. Unlike a blog, it can be more freeform and anecdotal while still communicating valuable insight into the fitness industry.

It can also exist to deliver news about a gym or fitness club, a few minute segment either at the beginning or the end of the podcast is the perfect time to detail new equipment, renovations, classes or events. These topics could even spark a conversation themselves about the running of the gym or fitness club. 

The last aspect is promotion. By putting up posters and sending out emails promoting the podcast, a gym can get a core group of followers interested in the podcast. In turn, just like with blogs, this will help with discoverability. 

The only limitation, and it is a relatively minor one in 2022, is getting the necessary equipment together. This will include a recording-quality microphone or microphones, headphones and computers to record and edit on. Nothing particularly outlandish and with a little candid conversation and audio quality, any gym can join this exciting and contemporary content marketing avenue. 

3. Events. Virtual, Real, Hybrid

Hosting events may not feel intuitive to many gym or fitness club owners, but their facilities are an asset that many businesses envy. A big public space with plenty of room for activities. It has novelty value to some and lifestyle appeal to many. 

This makes gyms and fitness clubs a very attractive place to host events, whether they are in-person events, virtual or a hybrid between the two. 

It is important to take stock of every asset a given gym or fitness club has. Whether that is a spacious lobby, a central location within the town or city, a coffee bar or a large, easily emptied space for free-form events. 

Open Days

It is the oldest trick in the book, but it stayed in the book for a reason. Open days are a great event for the area to see what a gym is made of, invite people in, publicise it in your area, invite local people of note.

Furthermore make sure the day is filmed so that footage can be uploaded to your social media channels. It might even be a good topic for a podcast.

A food fair that focuses on healthy living: A universal human experience and perhaps one of the best. Partnering with local food distributors, cafes, restaurants or healthy takeaways can be a great way for a gym to act as a nexus and a hub for the local community. 

Online Classes: Utilise a gym’s existing class system and personal trainers to hold free online classes. 

Charity Events and ‘Event’ Events: It may sound slightly ridiculous but we all love a tie-in event. Whether it is for Easter or the Olympics, the Tour De France or St Valentine’s Day. Topical events are easy to market and will get people through the doors. The same with charity, everyone loves to support a good cause and for some a good cause can be the push they need to get exercising. 

4. Educational Videos and Infographics 

The chances are everytime you log onto social media, you see at least one instance of the following two things.

The first is educational video content. Whether it is the TikTok ‘how to’ or YouTube short ‘life advice’, short-form video is everywhere. And where the individual goes, a company can follow. Just as we discussed with podcast, this new cultural trend is just ripe for companies to get onboard with and many have already. 

The second is infographics. We live in a world teeming with statistics, data and advice. This is good for content-marketing because it means that the audience of today is very receptive to infographics. More than ever, people are consuming their information from individuals and businesses through the snappy combination of data, images and text. 

Both methods are capable of turning someone who has just stumbled across the content into an interested party right away. More people than ever before are discovering new businesses due to the informative video content that they are putting out. The rise of near limitless mobile data means that people are doing this everywhere and at every time of the day. Combine this with Instagram, Twitter and Tiktoks ever more efficient video integration and shareability and a Gym would be remiss not to capitalise on this effect and far-reaching trend. 

As for what to show, we’ve listed ideas below for inspiration. 

Facility tour: Showing off a Gym or Fitness club is a surefire way to get people interested. Unless a gym has large windows, local people can pass by every day and never know the great facility instead.

How to use equipment: education and entertaining: This can also help reduce gymtimidation if someone has never used a piece of gym equipment. 

Exercise tips from your PTs: Short-form, well edited tips are the most shared and likely to hit the biggest audience. 

Classes in Action: If a class is going on, ask for permission and then get filming! 

Testimonials from the regulars: If regular customers are content and comfortable with saying a few words, the genuine enthusiasm they display can be a powerful motivator. 

Meal preparation and diet tips and tricks: Whether it comes from customers or staff, a great way to share what works for the people who use a Gym.

As has hopefully become apparent, the 2020s have heralded a golden age for content-led marketing. Never before have gym or fitness club owners been able to put out meaningful content at such a cheap price point, and with such broad reach. There is a reason that all the methods above have seen such a rapid uptake and uptick in popularity over the last few years.

Here at Ashbourne, we’ve been working with gyms and fitness clubs, growing their business and helping them reach their potential for over 25 years. While our primary domain is membership management, we’ve learned plenty along the way. Interested in seeing if we can help enhance the reach and potential of your Gym? Please do not hesitate to contact our team today here. 

“Proven Marketings Tricks For Your Gym!”

Marketing for Gym and Fitness Club owners can feel like an undiscovered country to the uninitiated. We know that every Gym and Fitness Club is marketing themselves to a greater or lesser extent every single day and yet the discourse regarding it feels listless and perhaps even a little secretive.

This is why we thought it was time to write this blog. Ashbourne has been working with independent Gym and Fitness Club owners for 25 years. In that time, we’ve seen the ascendancy of internet marketing in a huge way and we’ve helped Gym owners keep up the pace in a rapidly changing and challenging online environment. 

So if you’ve ever looked at a sleek looking mega-Gym and wonder how they have built up such a large customer-base. The silver bullet you might be looking for is marketing. 

Given how competitive the fitness industry can be, it is no wonder the aforementioned secrecy has come to define the industry when it comes to talking about what works in the vital arena of marketing.

So many times we’ve had people come into a Gym they’ve never set foot in before and say ‘Oh wow, I had no idea it was like this in here!’ or ‘This is so much better than the Gym I go to’.

Unfortunately, without spreading the good word, customers can walk past your Gym or Fitness Club every day and never know how much better it is than the soulless chain gym they are going to just down the road. 

So what do Gym and Fitness Club owners need to do to stay competitive in this market that is obsessed with increasing levels of automation and price-reduction? In this article we will be going deep into the details of marketing for independent Gyms, how to energise your existing membership base with impactful engagement and most importantly, how to reach new customers, soon to be members, within your local area. 

All Our Marketing Tricks (click them to skip ahead)…

Content Marketing

Events

 Educational Videos & Infographics

Google Business Profile

Forge Local, Meaningful Partnerships

Content as a tool for increasing your Marketing potency

Content as marketing is not a new strategy, but it is one that has seen a marked increase. We think that part of the reason for this is that it has never been easier to get a long-form, detailed opinion out to the public at virtually no cost.

Whereas before the rise of the internet and digital marketing, there was always a prohibitively expensive cost associated with length that has started to recede and vanish. Now there is very little to stop long form, insightful content from being published online with a high chance of reaching its audience through ever more advanced search engines.

This is, in our opinion, a blessing. It has allowed companies to post valuable and meaningful content without fear it will go completely unread, or even end up costing significantly more than it generated.

Now the ability to share relevant and impactful information directly to the audience cannot be overestimated as a tool for marketing. Now rather than relentlessly and monotonously bombarding potential customers with the same message in order to build some semblance of trust, businesses can put their message, their product, their expertise and their value right where their mouth is.

Unlike terrestrial advertising, this method allows for the story and expertise of the company to be demonstrated through the content they produce. In turn, this can help create a bond with the potential customers that a business is trying to reach. 

At time of writing, it is estimated that over 80% of brands are either utilising or in some way participating in Content Marketing. It has become a tour de force that has transcended marketing and become a way to get a business into search engines while generating valuable and meaningful content.

So how can a gym or fitness club owner incorporate content based marketing into their marketing strategies? We are going to cover off a few of the most accessible and impactful methods that can be implemented swiftly.

Blogging

Blogs are the mainstay of content-lead marketing for a number of reasons. As we discussed previously, one of the draws is the ability to communicate impactful information and have it reach the audience for the lowest possible cost.

Blogging fits that criteria perfectly. Not only is creating it cheap, requiring only expertise and a word processor, hosting it on a website is a negligible expense. Furthermore, given search engines focus on keywords, the potential for it to be found is very high relative to other forms of marketing.

So that is the positive news. The downside is that, especially within the fitness industry, Gym content lead marketing is very competitive. It is an industry full of people who know their stuff and do a significant portion of their business through their websites.

As such, it is important that gym owners keep in mind two mantras when producing blogs as content lead marketing for their websites. 

First, it must make a real contribution. No half measures. The information that Gyms are putting out shouldn’t be contentless clickbait or a guide that has been done better elsewhere. Every gym or fitness club should be a hub of talented and experienced individuals, with valuable expertise to contribute.

It is therefore necessary that Gyms bring their A-game to all content. The blogs will be what is selling the gym or fitness club to the customer. We want them to be drawn in and understand that the organisation has something to offer them that can improve their life. That it is worth their time and money. 

A useful thought exercise is something we call ‘The bookmark test’. Does the blog provide valuable enough content that someone who is interested in the subject would want to bookmark or favourite it on their browser so they can return to it. If the answer is yes, the content is on the right track.

The second is the more pragmatic and marketing side, and that is keywords. The best content in the world won’t draw a business any new custom if it can’t be found. As mentioned earlier, blogs trade in keywords and that is especially true in the fitness industry.

With prospective customers often searching very specific queries, whether it is related to an exercise, or a class, or an exercise machine. It is necessary for the content to be precise and purposeful in the language that is used. 

In addition, a successful blog should try to mention the location of the gym or fitness club it is trying to promote. A lot of searches are locational, so the more that the gym or fitness club can be linked with the specific area, the better. 

Podcasting

Take it from us, making a podcast and getting it onto the big platforms that people actually use has never been easier. 

There has been a big rise in the number of brand podcasts and they are enjoying a large amount of success. In a recent poll, 50% of content-led marketers who have adopted and utilised podcasts as a marketing tool have described it as one of their most effective content mediums they use. 

So then the question becomes, why are podcasts experience such an increase in adoption by businesses?

The answer is actually above, it has never been easier.

Accessibility and outreach always used to be the issue. Even as little as ten years ago, podcasting was a niche with few defined outlets. Still very much the domain of iTunes and Apple. Recording, editing and then releasing a podcast was a lot of work and there was no guarantee it would be downloaded (not streamed!) onto more than a few devices.

Now both recording and distribution has been made simple. Multiple websites can allow a business to upload a podcast once and then have it put onto all major streaming services (including the big hitters like Spotify).

As it often goes, this meant that businesses were able to test the water with comparatively little time and effort. In turn, businesses learned that there was a market for these podcasts and so a content marketing method was born.

The success factor has come from the casual nature of podcasting. A conversation between two people within the fitness industry, about the fitness industry doesn’t feel like marketing but it is highly effective at doing so. Given that people will be listening to the podcast on either a phone or a computer, they will have a search engine to hand, so any mention of a gym or fitness club that grabs their attention can be instantly followed up upon. 

The topics are endless and normally we find if you just set out a few topics of conversation and get the right people in the room, the conversation will flow nicely. Unlike a blog, it can be more freeform and anecdotal while still communicating valuable insight into the fitness industry.

It can also exist to deliver news about a gym or fitness club, a few-minute segment either at the beginning or the end of the podcast is the perfect time to detail new equipment, renovations, classes or events. These topics could even spark a conversation themselves about the running of the gym or fitness club. 

The last aspect is promotion. By putting up posters and sending out emails promoting the podcast, a gym can get a core group of followers interested in the podcast. In turn, just like with blogs, this will help with discoverability. 

The only limitation, and it is a relatively minor one in 2022, is getting the necessary equipment together. This will include a recording-quality microphone or microphones, headphones and computers to record and edit on. Nothing particularly outlandish and with a little candid conversation and audio quality, any gym can join this exciting and contemporary content marketing avenue. 

Events. Virtual, Real, Hybrid

Hosting events may not feel intuitive to many gym or fitness club owners, but their facilities are an asset that many businesses envy. A big public space with plenty of room for activities. It has novelty value to some and lifestyle appeal to many. 

This makes gyms and fitness clubs a very attractive place to host events, whether they are in-person events, virtual or a hybrid between the two. 

It is important to take stock of every asset a given gym or fitness club has. Whether that is a spacious lobby, a central location within the town or city, a coffee bar or a large, easily emptied space for free-form events. 

Open Days

It is the oldest trick in the book, but it stayed in the book for a reason. Open days are a great event for the area to see what a gym is made of, invite people in, publicise it in your area, invite local people of note.

Furthermore make sure the day is filmed so that footage can be uploaded to your social media channels. It might even be a good topic for a podcast. 

A Food Fair That Focuses On Healthy Living

A universal human experience and perhaps one of the best. Partnering with local food distributors, cafes, restaurants or healthy takeaways can be a great way for a gym to act as a nexus and a hub for the local community. 

Online Classes

Utilise a gym’s existing class system and personal trainers to hold free online classes.

Charity Events and ‘Event’ Events

It may sound slightly ridiculous but we all love a tie-in event. Whether it is for Easter or the Olympics, the Tour De France or St Valentine’s Day. Topical events are easy to market and will get people through the doors. The same with charity, everyone loves to support a good cause and for some a good cause can be the push they need to get exercising.

Educational Video and Infographics

The chances are everytime you log onto social media, you see at least one instance of the following two things.

The first is educational video content. Whether it is the TikTok ‘how to’ or YouTube short ‘life advice’, short-form video is everywhere. And where the individual goes, a company can follow. Just as we discussed with podcast, this new cultural trend is just ripe for companies to get onboard with and many have already. 

The second are infographics. We live in a world teeming with statistics, data and advice. This is good for content-marketing because it means that the audience of today is very receptive to infographics. More than ever, people are consuming their information from individuals and businesses through the snappy combination of data, images and text. 

Both methods are capable of turning someone who has just stumbled across the content into an interested party right away. More people than ever before are discovering new businesses due to the informative video content that they are putting out. The rise of near limitless mobile data means that people are doing this everywhere and at every time of the day. Combine this with Instagram, Twitter and Tiktoks ever more efficient video integration and shareability and a Gym would be remiss not to capitalise on this effect and far-reaching trend. 

As for what to show, we’ve listed ideas below for inspiration. 

Facility tour: Showing off a Gym or Fitness club is a surefire way to get people interested. Unless a gym has large windows, local people can pass by every day and never know the great facility instead.

How to use equipment: education and entertaining: This can also help reduce gymtimidation if someone has never used a piece of gym equipment. 

Exercise tips from your PTs: Short-form, well edited tips are the most shared and likely to hit the biggest audience. 

Classes in Action: If a class is going on, ask for permission and then get filming! 

Testimonials from the regulars: If regular customers are content and comfortable with saying a few words, the genuine enthusiasm they display can be a powerful motivator. 

Meal preparation and diet tips and tricks: Whether it comes from customers or staff, a great way to share what works for the people who use a Gym.

Google Business Profile (Previously Google My Business)

We thought we’d start with a feature so ubiquitous that it requires little introduction. Chances are that if you’ve googled a business in the last eight years, you’ve seen a Google Business Profile. Their success and omnipresence make them a powerful tool for communication and legitimacy. 

Many people, even those who don’t really understand the concept of a Google Business Profile, gravitate to that box in the top right hand corner of their google search or those little pins on Google Maps. 

But despite their status as one of the most well-known and efficient methods of business communication in the business world, it is often misused. Everyone can remember the time they came across a nonsensical or out of date Google Business Profile while looking for legitimate information. It is an instant turn-off and a quick indication that some aspects of the business in question need polishing.

And there are very few excuses for this. Google Business Profile is a free service for businesses, provided by, you guessed it, Google. 

It is a simple and effective tool for communicating the nature of a business, including key contact information, pictures and location, all within a succinct information box. 

Having this box filled in is vital for driving business from the online arena, into your actual Gym or Fitness Club. 

Too often we have found that Gym Owners have suboptimal or poorly filled in Google Business Profiles. It has reached a tipping point where many people within that key demographic of 18-34 will assume that the business may be in trouble or has ceased to exist if they can’t find a confirmation that it is ‘Open’ on the Google Business Profile.

This reflects a compounding consumer trend of reliance on the Google Business Profile to determine whether a business is open, or whether it even still exists.

As such, you can imagine the damage that not having a sufficiently setup profile can do to the prospect of converting internet interest into feet through the doors. 

Not only that, but due to the poor state that many Gym and Fitness Club’s keep their Google Business Profiles in, having a functional one can greatly increase your visibility in your area. A fully optimised Google Business Profile makes it more likely that it’ll be your Gym that shows up higher on the list when someone googles ‘Gyms near me’ or ‘Gyms in *your area*’.

So how can you improve your Google Business Profile you are asking? We’ve set out the immediate and impactful steps you can take to give your business profile a boost.

Visual Media (Photo and Video) are a MUST!

It has been estimated that businesses with photos and video are clicked on 30% to 40% more than those without. That is without the inestimable psychological effect that it has on the average potential customer to see what a business hasn’t even uploaded any pictures.

While it is a simple bar to clear, it is one that many businesses do not do successfully and it is an easy and effortless way to stand out from the crowd. Use the pre-existing photographs and videos that are on your Gym website, pick the most striking one first, as they will be the thumbnail that most potential customers see. Alternatively, pick the feature you are most proud of, or that you think makes you stand out the most from your local competition.

Be sure not to just put up pictures of an empty gym, wide shots of your gym or fitness club being used by many people are a must, as well as any classes that you hold. This will show people a snippet of what you have to offer, and psychologically it will be more appealing than just an empty Gym (even if said empty Gym is well furnished). 

 

Add Keywords (or get your Keywords in order) and Make Them Relevant

While keywords are a kingdom unto themselves, we can simplify it for the sake of this section.

Make sure they are relevant! And understand that more does not equal better. Ten pertinent and powerful keywords will do more than 100 vague and meandering ones. Keywords are a tool to be used precisely and sparingly.

For anything more advanced, we recommend you visit a dedicated guide regarding keywords. But with just a thorough review and a refresh, you are guaranteed to be displaying higher than you were before. 

Choose the Right Business Category

Much like with keywords, this is another case of less being more. Google will let you select up to ten Business Categories but it is not recommended to use your full allotment. For the average Gym or Fitness Club, it will only be necessary to use a few. For instance, if you specialise in combat sports such as MMA and Boxing, it might be pertinent to put ‘MMA Gym’ or ‘Boxing Gym’. From there, you could also put ‘Octagon’ as a sub-category if that is a feature your Gym has. Conversely, if your club has a Swimming Pool, it would be fair to say that that is a category unto itself.

Make sure your categories are distinct from one another and that each one is contributing something meaningful or adding a layer of specificity.

Overlap will only confuse the issue and too many will dilute the potency of the search terms and result in less overall hits.

 

Update Regularly

Because a Google Business Profile is free and low maintenance, it is often completely neglected. In our experience, a useful paradigm is to consider your Google Business Profile to be like your Twitter or Instagram feed. If you hadn’t updated or maintained those for a week, we would like to think there would be raised eyebrows.

As such, we recommend you dedicate a small amount of time regularly to the maintenance of your Google Business Profile. Whether that is responding to reviews, updating the circumstances of your business or just adding new pictures.

Given that many will use the state and circumstance of your Google Business Profile to determine the health of your business, make it look alive! Less than ten minutes of care a week can make a significant impact in the long term. 

 

We hope you’ve enjoyed the article and you’ve learned something about this small but powerful and transformative piece of internet infrastructure.

Chances are you had seen it every day of your life and never questioned what was driving such a useful box.

Forge Local, Meaningful Partnerships

While online marketing is a vital and powerful tool for gyms and fitness clubs, we should not lose sight of more traditional marketing techniques.

The most effective in our experience? Engaging with the local community that surrounds the gym or fitness club. Ultimately, even when partaking in social media and other online content, what a Gym is trying to do is grow a network of individuals within the proximity of the gym. Of people who could realistically be customers of the gym.

This is where local partnerships come into play. While the internet can make us feel connected to someone on the other side of the planet, the most important connection in most people’s lives is within their local area. Whether this is the centre of a town or city, a neighbourhood or college or a school, people will have somewhere they gravitate to.

We have found that gyms and fitness clubs can benefit immensely from identifying these areas and attempting to support and integrate. Ultimately this is what sets apart independent gym and fitness club owners from cold, corporate chains and the importance of a connection to the local area can’t be overstated. 

As we covered earlier in the article, a spacious gym or fitness club is the ideal place to host community events. Reach out to council and local charity networks to see what projects they have running in your area. Chances are they will already be engaged in encouraging fitness and healthy living within the area.

In addition, approach local businesses that either also work within or are related to the fitness industry. Whether it is health supplements, sports and fitness equipment or sports clubs. Whether it is just to pass on advertising materials such as leaflets and pamphlets, or deeper collaborations involving the products of the business, these partnerships can help spread the reputation of the gym into the local area. 

Moving Forward

We hope this article has given some actionable ideas to any gym or fitness club owners with a desire to grow their business. 

Over the past 25 years in the fitness industry, Ashbourne Membership Management has worked tirelessly with independent gym owners to streamline their processes and grow their businesses. Whether it is through our lightweight and powerful membership management software, sleek and professional website design or our wealth of industry expertise, we are confident that we can help any gym or fitness club owner take their business to the next level.

Interested? Book a meeting with our team today and find out more here.

“How To Maintain & Improve Your Google Business Profile”

A Google Business Profile, a feature previously known as Google My Business, is a vital but often neglected piece of online infrastructure for any business.

We’ve noticed that Gyms and Fitness Club owners aren’t always on top of their Google Business Profile and there is a very fine line (and amount of effort!) between a sleek and professional-looking profile and one that looks shabby and abandoned. 

So for today’s article, we will be looking at what we can do as Gym and Fitness Club owners to improve our Google Business Profile and really stand out.

All Your Questions Answered (click them to skip ahead)…

What Is A Google Business Profile?

How Quickly & Easily Can Your Improve & Maintain Your Google Business Profile?

 – Visual Media

– Keywords

– The Correct Business Category

– Update Regularly

What Is A Google Business Profile?

Chances are that if you’ve googled a business in the last eight years, you’ve seen a Google Business Profile. Their success and omnipresence make them a powerful tool for communication and legitimacy. 

Many people, even those who don’t really understand the concept of a Google Business Profile, gravitate to that box in the top right hand corner of their google search or those little pins on Google Maps. 

But despite their status as one of the most well-known and efficient methods of business communication in the business world, it is often misused. Everyone can remember the time they came across a nonsensical or out-of-date Google Business Profile while looking for legitimate information. It is an instant turn-off and a quick indication that some aspects of the business in question need polishing.

And there are very few excuses for this. Google Business Profile is a free service for businesses, provided by, you guessed it,Google.

It is a simple and effective tool for communicating the nature of a business, including key contact information, pictures, and location, all within a succinct information box. 

Having this box filled in is vital for driving business from the online arena, into your actual Gym or Fitness Club. 

Too often we have found that Gym Owners have suboptimal or poorly filled in Google Business Profiles. It has reached a tipping point where many people within that key demographic of 18-34 will assume that the business may be in trouble or has ceased to exist if they can’t find a confirmation that it is ‘Open’ on the Google Business Profile.

This reflects a compounding consumer trend of reliance on the Google Business Profile to determine whether a business is open, or whether it even still exists.

As such, you can imagine the damage that not having a sufficiently setup profile can do to the prospect of converting internet interest into feet through the doors. 

Not only that but due to the poor state that many Gym and Fitness Club’s keep their Google Business Profiles in, having a functional one can greatly increase your visibility in your area. A fully optimised Google Business Profile makes it more likely that it’ll be your Gym that shows up higher on the list when someone googles ‘Gyms near me’ or ‘Gyms in *your area*’. 

So How Can You Quickly and Easily Improve and Maintain Your Google Business Profile?

So how can you improve your Google Business Profile you are asking? We’ve set out the immediate and impactful steps you can take to give your business profile a boost.

Visual Media (Photo and Video) are a MUST!

It has been estimated that businesses with photos and video are clicked on 30% to 40% more than those without. That is without the inestimable psychological effect that it has on the average potential customer to see what a business hasn’t even uploaded any pictures.

While it is a simple bar to clear, it is one that many businesses do not do successfully and it is an easy and effortless way to stand out from the crowd. Use the pre-existing photographs and videos that are on your Gym website, pick the most striking one first, as they will be the thumbnail that most potential customers see. Alternatively, pick the feature you are most proud of, or that you think makes you stand out the most from your local competition.

Be sure not to just put up pictures of an empty gym, wide shots of your gym or fitness club being used by many people are a must, as well as any classes that you hold. This will show people a snippet of what you have to offer, and psychologically it will be more appealing than just an empty Gym (even if said empty Gym is well furnished). 

Add Keywords (or get your Keywords in order) and Make Them Relevant

While keywords are a kingdom unto themselves, we can simplify it for the sake of this section.

Make sure they are relevant! And understand that more does not equal better. Ten pertinent and powerful keywords will do more than 100 vague and meandering ones. Keywords are a tool to be used precisely and sparingly.

For anything more advanced, we recommend you visit a dedicated guide regarding keywords. But with just a thorough review and a refresh, you are guaranteed to be displaying higher than you were before. 

Choose the Right Business Category

Much like with keywords, this is another case of less being more. Google will let you select up to ten Business Categories but it is not recommended to use your full allotment. For the average Gym or Fitness Club, it will only be necessary to use a few. For instance, if you specialise in combat sports such as MMA and Boxing, it might be pertinent to put ‘MMA Gym’ or ‘Boxing Gym’. From there, you could also put ‘Octagon’ as a sub-category if that is a feature your Gym has. Conversely, if your club has a Swimming Pool, it would be fair to say that that is a category unto itself.

Make sure your categories are distinct from one another and that each one is contributing something meaningful or adding a layer of specificity.

Overlap will only confuse the issue and too many will dilute the potency of the search terms and result in less overall hits.

Update Regularly

Because a Google Business Profile is free and low maintenance, it is often completely neglected. In our experience, a useful paradigm is to consider your Google Business Profile to be like your Twitter or Instagram feed. If you hadn’t updated or maintained those for a week, we would like to think there would be raised eyebrows.

As such, we recommend you dedicate a small amount of time regularly to the maintenance of your Google Business Profile. Whether that is responding to reviews, updating the circumstances of your business or just adding new pictures.

Given that many will use the state and circumstance of your Google Business Profile to determine the health of your business, make it look alive! Less than ten minutes of care a week can make a significant impact in the long term. 

We hope you’ve enjoyed the article and you’ve learned something about this small but powerful and transformative piece of internet infrastructure.

Chances are you had seen it every day of your life and never questioned what was driving such a useful box.

Want to understand more about your membership?

Ashbourne can help you gain unprecedented insight.

Here at Ashbourne Membership Management, we are committed to not only working with our partners, but growing their businesses in every way. Whether it is something as large and vital as streamlining the collection of monthly membership fees, or something as small but impactful as fine-tuning their online presence. We are interested in being a valued partner that elevates your Gym or Fitness club to the next level.

Interested in knowing more? Follow the link here and a member of our team will be in touch swiftly to see how we can help your Gym or Fitness Club to reach the next level.

If we said you could have free advertising for your gym, with access to millions of viewers, would you take us up on it?

Well the good news is, you already do – it’s your Instagram!

The only thing that holds you back from fully utilising the power of your Instagram page is how you use it. We’ve already gone into how paid advertising on the Instagram and Facebook has been broken recently, but that doesn’t mean that you still can’t grow a successful and engaging community on Instagram.

There are so many recent changes to Instagram lately that you need to implement to maximise your reach. So keep reading and discover our 5 top tips to growing your gym’s instagram page without spending a penny.

Tip 1 – Start Using Instagram Reels

Instagram Reels are the new photo posts. More and more users cite that video is their preferred way to consume content on the internet.

Creating small 60 second videos and spreading your message is the new way forward on Instagram, to mix up your content beyond just images.

It should be no surprise that Instagram wants you to use its newest and most popular features, so Instagram actually pushes your reel posts much harder than normal posts. This gives you more chances to be seen by more people and therefore grow your follower count much quicker.

And the good news is, you don’t need to be super tech-savvy to create good content with Instagram Reels.

Here is a super quick tutorial on how to set up a reel:

1. Go into the Reels creation screen and tap on the photo square in the bottom left corner of your screen. …

2. Select one or more videos to create your Reel.

3. Edit the length of each video, one by one until you have reached the 15 second maximum time.

4. Then click the back arrow to watch the whole video.

5. Add some music to it OR a voice over. A voice over feature is brilliant for gym tutorial videos. Get your staff and PTs involved and use their knowledge.

With just a few simple steps, you now have engaging content, which contains more of your club’s personality, reaching more people than ever before.

So experiment between your regular posts and your new Instagram reels and see which one brings you more attention.

Tip 2 – Switch To A ‘Business Account

If you don’t have one already, ensure you have a business account on Instagram.

Beyond just sounding more professional, a business account for your Instagram gives you access to more analytics which can help guide the kind of content you want to make.

You see everything from when your followers are active, so you can post strategically to get maximum views; All the way to the demographics who are watching your content, so you can post content which suits your members.

For example, if your gym has got 60% male following and you want to engage with more female followers, you can easily identify this and post more content that women relate to in the gym.

You can see these by clicking the ‘Insights’ button on your main menu.

Great social media is equal parts art and science (with a dash of consistency)

Tip 3 – Re-Share Your Customers Tags

When your members tag you in a story or post, try to re-share their posts to encourage more customers to share and tag you in their own content.

If you can make your members feel special and included in your community, then you can truly build a loyal customer base.

However, don’t get too re-share happy. Be mindful of re-sharing the same content too many times. Once is plenty, as there is nothing worse than seeing accounts re-share the re-shared post over and over to pretend like they have something to say.

Instagram is all about trying to widen your reach, and one of the main source of new followers will be from tags. To tag someone in a post or story type ‘@’ followed by the account name. 

So give it a go, here’s just a few ways you could shout out your members:

1. Shout out your members who have been signed up with you for the longest.

2. Celebrate members who have hit their fitness goals and made the most improvement.

3. Make it a routine of tagging every single new member to your gym and give them a warm welcome.

The possibilities for engaging with your audience are truly endless if you make it a part of your business’ philosophy!

Tip 4 – Use Old Content That Did Well

If creating new content is taking up too much time, well we have some good news for you: You can just recycle old content.

Don’t be afraid to re-post an old post that is already featured on your page.

Posts that did well before, did well for a reason. So don’t waste them!

Whenever you post, only a fraction of your audience will ever see that post, so it will always be fresh even when you share it again. Maybe some of your new followers will benefit from seeing it who weren’t around the first time as well!

It takes a long time to build trust in your service and brand. Consumers need to see your service multiple times to be convinced to sign up or buy what you are selling, so make sure to maximise value from every single post, so your brand is always at the forefront of your potential members’ minds when they’re looking for their next gym home.

Tip 5 – The 10k Followers Limit To Link In Your Stories Is Gone!

Recently IG has changed its restriction for smaller accounts to add links to their stories.

The traditional ‘swipe up’ feature is still only available to accounts with more than 10,000 followers but now any account can add a ‘link’ feature to a story.

This means that you can link this to your gym ‘Join online’ page, or a product like Personal Training.

So start creating a journey and plan to get your Instagram viewers over to your gym’s website. It’s time to turn your social media marketing into profit!

Instagram is at its peak…so don’t miss it!

It can be very easy to assume that a social media platform will be around forever and you can get round to making the most of it someday when you have more time.

But social medias change. Facebook was once seen as a goliath of social media, but it’s reporting a drop in user numbers for the first time ever. And it’s no surprise, that when a social media platform wants to maximise its profits, then it can quickly become a “pay to play” service, where you start having to spend a lot of money to get a basic reach to your audience.

Instagram has been around for a few years, but it’s still finding its feet and has so much potential.

Its audience numbers are growing, and most importantly, it’s still being used by a younger audience who haven’t abandoned it for the latest social media trend.

So take advantage of the moment and start experimenting with your Instagram’s business page. You never know, you might just discover the fun in your marketing again!

Get the notebook out and start brainstorming ideas with your team!

And we can help…

As you can see, we really get stuck into every aspect of helping gyms and clubs succeed. Our success is directly tied to the success of our partnered clubs, so we are always ensuring that we’re at the cutting edge when it comes to helping all of our gyms grow and market themselves effectively.

If you’d like to get in touch about how we can help your club succeed, then you can always book a demo with our sales director, Grant Harrison, who would love to show you how our full club management package can help you improve and grow every aspect of your business.

With so many gyms, fitness clubs, personal trainers, and online health resources readily available today, it can be hard to define your business and know how to best set yourself apart from your competition.

At Ashbourne, we think it’s important to test out new strategies with the end goal always being in service of trying to attract more members. Before sharing these ideas, we always ensure to trial these ideas in one of our in-house run gyms so we can confidently share the most innovative approaches that have solid evidence of working to grow your gym.

Explore our most recent 20 new tried and tested ideas below and see which ones pique your interest and start implementing them today!

If you want our advice in getting started, or have some ideas of your own that you’d like to share. Please come and join our free gym owners forum and begin networking with like-minded fitness professionals.

Hold a membership referral drive

Referrals are widely believed to be the most cost-effective method of attracting new members, which is why you can afford to incentivise your existing members for attracting new customers.

Why not supercharge this process with a membership referral drive

Offer a prize each month to the member who refers the most new members who sign up for 12 months. From experience, investing in an attractive prize doubles or triples the impact. A flat-screen TV, a good quality bike or even £100 in cash can generate around 30-40 new members every month, with the winner usually referring to around 3-4 friends.

How To Implement An Effective Referral Campaign

• Purchase a good-looking prize and display it in your reception with balloons and banners to catch people’s attention.
• Put up signs around the club explaining the rules and that the member who refers the most new members this month will win this incredible prize.
• Display a list of the members who have referred people to your club, complete with a running total. You will find that if two of your members have referred the same number they will both try to get more new members in order to win the prize.
• Present the winning member with their prize on the last day of the month – take a photo and put this on display. Include a list of the other members who referred friends and thank everyone for their efforts. Keep this picture displayed for the whole year and then add each new month’s winning picture.
• Start the whole process again on the 1st of the following month with a different prize of similar value. How to ensure your referral campaign is effective:
• Start your campaign on the 1st of every month. If you go about this in an ad hoc manner, it won’t seem professional and your members may be hesitant to recommend your service. 
• Always present the prize on the final day of the month and display the winner around the club. At the bottom write that next month it could be you walking away with the prize.
• Keep a running total of who is in the lead – this keeps everybody motivated.
• Make sure you have a few people signed up before the campaign begins or pad the list out with a few names from the staff. No one likes to be the first one on a list. 
• Make sure the prizes don’t feel cheap. Personal Training Session might not cut it. 
• Maintain the display. Nothing looks more tragic than deflated balloons and a chipped sign. Keep it fresh, keep it relevant. 
• Make the winner the person who refers the most rather than having a prize draw – this rewards hard work.
• To keep the campaign strong in November and December offer an even greater prize such as a trip to Paris.

Closing consideration: Securing membership referrals has been proven to be one of the most cost-effective forms of growth a Gym or Fitness Club can embark on.

A campaign such as this will cost significantly less than the corresponding Radio or Television campaign and should result in a large membership boost if executed correctly. 

Label and Number Your Equipment

Not everyone knows what the Rear Delt Fly Machine is (which is a shame because it is definitely the best machine mankind has ever invented). 

But they are much more likely to know what Machine 3 is, as indicated by the large number 3 sticker you are going to put on it.

Back when I was a novice Gym-Goer, a system like this saved me so much time and effort.

Include a small sign or label with the officially recognised name of the machine and soon even your newest members will be sounding like veterans.

Display quality motivational banners

Avoid cliche motivational banners and posters.

Do your research and look into messages that will really speak to your members.

Make sure to include signs of moderation as well. Encourage your members to push themselves, not hurt themselves.

Cultivate a collection of fitness resources

Your Gym or Fitness Club should be an institution of knowledge and experience.

With the internet, this is easier than ever. Collect articles, journals, and blogs of interest and put them in a dedicated area on your website. This will allow you to showcase your dedication to fitness as more than just a profitable venture.

Enable your members to give effective and actionable feedback

Most club owners feel that they have the greatest club in town but it’s your members who really have the final say in that respect. If you don’t listen to your members you won’t know if there are areas in need of improvement. Create a lockable feedback box that only the gym owner has access to and allow your members to post their comments anonymously.

This box should be positioned in an area away from reception so that members can post comments without the glare from staff (who they might be commenting about). If the member has left their contact details, follow up immediately by thanking them for their feedback and stating that you will give the matter your immediate attention. And then ensure that you do!

Provide your members with free Wi-Fi within the club. Keep the publicly offered Wi-Fi and your club’s own Wi-Fi separate to protect your PCs and data. Provide the Wi-Fi code when members purchase drinks etc. from you and change the code regularly. You can even give the code when members check into your club on Facebook!!

Provide free Wi-Fi

Free Wi-Fi isn’t as expensive as it used to be, and members will really appreciate it.

As we mentioned in point 45, it also allows you to offer more data-intensive feedback systems without the presumption and burden of draining your customer’s data allowance.

Display the History of Your Club

Like any business, your fitness club or gym has had a journey. No matter how big or small, it is a personal story that will endear your members and prospective members to it.

History can help make a fitness club or a gym feel less like a building and more like a living institution that they can contribute to.

As we mentioned earlier, the inclusion of success stories from your club’s past can help feed into this legacy. Make your members feel proud to be a part of your success!

Be generous with exercise programmes. Don’t unnecessarily gate resources off.

Many club owners have the desire to gate off as much content as possible, to incentivise your members to pay that little extra. This is not always prudent.

Attending a gym can be a very personal experience, and exercise programmes being made readily available can have a vast impact on the individual member. 

Offering these programmes can effectively make the difference between a prospective member choosing your club or a competitor.

Take this as an example of a thought process that might secure you a membership: 

“So Mary, as you can see, we provide you with a complete personal training programme for you to follow, so you know exactly what you’re supposed to be doing to get results every time you come to the club. Then in 6 weeks’ time, we will have a re-assessment of your programme to ensure your time with us is even more beneficial”.

The last thing you want is for a member to be left to wander aimlessly around the club guessing at the best exercises they are supposed to be doing.

Especially not when you have perfectly good exercise programmes ready to go! 

Make sure your staff and personal trainers have their names displayed

It is daunting to walk into a new gym and not know anyone, and while your staff will hopefully be friendly enough to introduce themselves. Monogrammed or name-tagged clothing can really help break down the barriers for new members and members on trials.

I first learned the name of my adored and feared Trainer of choice Marcel by his name tag. A handy and timeless ice-breaker.

Let the t-shirt do the talking for your fitness club or gym

A free t-shirt, especially a good quality one that you’ll actually want to wear out or to the gym, can make all the difference.

Give it to members when they cross a certain membership threshold, say 3 months. Or as a sign-up incentive during certain campaigns and pushes. 

Discount on your first visit

Create a culture among your staff and PTs of offering a discount on the first visit of someone. This can be particularly effective during referral drives or on ‘Bring a Friend Friday’.

This once again helps trigger that primal desire known as ‘Fear of Missing Out’.

Offer to refund a joining fee on the spot. Short term gain for a long term commitment

If you have a guest in your club who has decided to pay for one session or if they are there on Bring a Friend Friday, then now is the time to put them on the spot and offer an incentive.

Whatever incentive you decide, ensure that the guest knows that this option is available to them and that they will need to make a decision at the end of their session. Only offering a limited number of membership options might be a reason some prospects leave your club without joining. Create several tiers of membership so you and your staff are more likely to find a membership package that will make them buy on the spot.

Not everyone is confident to sign up for a year on the spot. 

Here are some membership options to consider:

• A short-term deal such as 1 month cash paid in full (highest price)
• A one month rolling direct debit membership (slightly lower price)
• 12 month direct debit contract memberships (lowest price).

By creating tiered options in this manner, you are more likely to find the sweet spot that the prospective member is happy to sign on at. 

A cash-only option should be available but only as a last resort. Direct Debit is always preferable.

Offer membership alternatives

As previously inferred. One-day passes, week-long passes and other modular alternatives can be a great way to get prospective members in the door.

This can allow friends of your existing members to work out with them for a week and get a taste for it.

Alternatively, a prospective member who isn’t aware of the myriad free trial schemes we’ve suggested will be able to buy in for a set amount and if your service/business pulls them in, they will hopefully be inclined to stay. 

Online sign-ups are a must

If we could put this point twice and still be satisfied that we’ve maintained our principles, we would.

Make sure your website has online sign-ups. The year is 2020, there is no excuse. Ideally, you should be signing up members inside your gym on your online system for ease of use.

Make time work for you by introducing off-peak and peak membership times

As we indicated earlier, Off-Peak and Peak membership is a good way to offer your prospective members a gateway package that they might eventually wish to upgrade.

The other big, tangible benefit to this is maximising the number of members you can have. Using some fairly basic data-mapping and projections you can work out how many members you can accommodate during a normal peak and off-peak.

If your peak membership capacity is full, it is the perfect excuse to push off-peak.

Boost your profits by introducing additional products

Maximise the amount of cash flowing through you by selling supplements, clothing and accessories in your club. Make sure any clothing with your brand on it is actually comfortable to wear and well priced.

Now is not the time to be making a large profit by selling an overpriced, generic t-shirt. The clothing will be a reflection of your brand and will impact how often the buyer wears it. 

You want to create one of their go-to items of clothing, not something they buy, regret, and throw to the back of a cupboard. 

Keep track of your stock levels using a digital EPoS (Electronic Point of Sale) system. This can also be used to track which member of staff sells the most clothing with a little bit of setup. This can be a vital reward metric for incentivising your staff.

The first 45 days are crucial for member retention

As we touched upon in our section on Fitness Programmes, the first few weeks are vital for determining if a member will stick with your Gym or Fitness Club.

Just as we detailed in that section how it is important not to withhold resources from new members. It is also important to encourage them and focus on their process in the first 45 days.

This is a key time period as it’ll determine whether they fall off their latest health kick or grow disillusioned with your gym. 

Get your Personal Trainer or staff to check that the new members are happy with their programme. Incentivise them to contact them via their preferred contact method to find out how things are going and when they will next be in the club.

Highlight to them how much they have improved or how much time they have spent in your gym or fitness club. Motive and encourage them.

Again, this approach will depend on the size of your gym or fitness club. This approach can be resource-intensive but intensely rewarding.

Member testimonials on online and onscreen

Use a high-quality smartphone or a video camera to record short snippets of your members explaining how they have improved by attending your club. Low-quality footage will reflect poorly on your Gym or Fitness Club so make sure it is up to a certain standard of audio and visual. 

Get the member to explain how they felt before they joined, what they feel now that they have achieved their goals, and what a prospect will find if they join.

Record their testimonial and post it onto social media. Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are all great places to share and spread this message. This is the sort of message that will really resonate with a certain type of prospective member.

Alternatively, email a link to your prospective members and add it to your Gym or Fitness Club’s website. Video testimonials are extremely simple and powerful methods of engaging new members. 

Hone the brand identity of your club

As with any institution or business that wants to succeed and make a name for itself, branding should be one of your main priorities.

Branding for your Gym or Fitness Club doesn’t end at a logo above the entrance door.

Your logo should be on every letterhead and email signature, as well as featuring prominently on your social media feeds. It should be displayed as your Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter profile picture, unifying the brand identity of your social media presence

Your branding should become synonymous with your club so that whenever people see your two colours together they think of your club. For example, the colours red and yellow together make you think of McDonalds, so think of your own branding in this way.

Show off your gym or fitness clubs qualifications and accreditations

Joining relevant trade associations and professional accreditation bodies gives your club credibility and reassures prospective members that you have achieved a certain standard.

Encourage or even sponsor your PTs to achieve the highest levels of professional qualification that they can and then promote their achievements on social media as well. 

If someone leaves you to go to another gym, give them some really good reasons to come back to you. If you’re running a good gym or fitness club, chances are they will be regretting their decision. Figure out what the deterrents might be keeping them from coming back and address them.

It might cost money, it might not. Figure out what makes good business sense for you and do it.

And if you thought 20 ideas to get you started on attracting more members to your club was enough, then you’ll be delighted to hear that it really is just the start. Our team have collated an astounding 100 tried and tested strategies for you to experiment with. You can find all 100 ways to attract more members in bitesize chunks in our blog posts, or in our completely free downloadable PDF.

So what are you waiting for? Get started today!