With an increasing amount of attention placed on health and fitness these days, it may seem like a gym is the ideal type of business for you to establish. However, a lot of entrepreneurs will be thinking the same thing, and you need to come up with ways of standing out from the competition.

But this is always going to be a challenging task, and you need to have a clear plan of action in place. To start off with, you can check out OriGym’s Fitness Marketing Guide. But here are just some of the main channels which you need to take advantage of when you are marketing your gym.

Create a User-Friendly Website

More and more people are looking for fitness centres online these days, so you need to ensure that your website is user-friendly and appealing. As well as showing photos of your fitness suites, you can also give new members the chance to sign up and allow people to sign up to classes as they would like. Make sure that the site loads nice and quickly, ensure that it is easy to navigate, and track the usage of visitors where you can. You need to make sure that the SEO performance of your business is good as you need to stand out from the crowd as much as possible.

Utilise Social Media

The other major channel which you should be utilising online is social media. This is one of the best ways that you are going to be able to attract a younger target market to your fitness centre. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can all prove to be highly useful platforms to take advantage of. You need to have a clear strategy in place to ensure that you are making the most of them. Ultimately, you should be aiming to grab attention and offer something different to the norm.

Launch Your Own Referral Program

One of the best ways of marketing your gym can prove to be through your own members, and a referral scheme is a common tactic which has always proved to be very effective. These tend to work by offering a reward to both the referer and the referee. Ultimately, the most important part of a referral scheme involves reminding your members that you have one on a regular basis. Sometimes, it is the tried and tested methods which are still the ones that stand the test of time.

Annual Promotions

Much of gym marketing is very much tied to the time of year. For example, around the New Year, gym memberships spike in a big way as people vow to get fit as their resolution. Similarly, people tend to want to look their best as the summer approaches and their thoughts turn towards going on holiday. When you are running these types of promotion, it is a good idea to put a time-sensitivity on them so that people feel incentivised to take advantage of them.

Host an Event

Another way that you can generate some attention for your gym is to host an event where you invite members and non-members alike. This provides a good opportunity to show off everything that you have to offer, as well as generating goodwill amongst people and increasing the likelihood that people will talk positively about your fitness centre. Perhaps you could give people the chance to try out some of your facilities for free or take part in one of your classes. If you don’t want to host the event in your gym, you could always launch a pop-up event on the street to attract passersby. Ultimately, you need to think about the kind of ideas which are going to help you stand out from the crowd.

Send Out a Regular Newsletter

When you run a gym, you need to be innovating all the time to keep getting people through the door. And one of the best ways that you can keep people informed of your latest updates and changes is through a newsletter. As well as keeping in touch with your current members, you can also keep in contact with your previous members who have not unsubscribed to your updates as a way of luring them back once again. You need to make these emails short, snappy, and sweet to ensure that people don’t hit that unsubscribe button.

Marketing your gym takes a great deal of innovation and effort, but these are just some of the ways that you can do this.