Marketing Your Gym in 2022

The continued changes in the pandemic have left lasting effects on the way that consumers search for and interact with businesses. One industry that has had to adapt its marketing during the pandemic is the health and fitness industry, which includes gyms and health clubs.

The pandemic has left many gym owners and operators wondering how they need to change their marketing moving forward. Darwill has put together marketing tips that will allow gyms and clubs to continue to reach their current members as well as prospects in the ever-changing market. 

Personalize Your Marketing

The first approach we recommend implementing in your marketing strategy is to include personalization. Consumers are more likely to engage with brands that connect with them in their communication and marketing efforts. When creative and messaging is personalized to the member or prospects experience, they feel more inclined to interact.

With gym member data, Darwill is able to send personalized, timely messaging with trigger marketing. Automated triggers allow your gym or club to set-up direct mail campaigns to members or prospects based on their actions or behaviors. Once campaigns and pre-determined triggers are set-up, the automation does the rest of the work for the gym owner. This enables us to automatically send targeted marketing based on the member’s progress. For example, once a member joins, we can automatically send “new member letters” to welcome them to the gym or club and outline all the amenities they now have access to combined with a 7-day trial for a friend and referral incentive – great for strengthening member retention.

Personalizing your marketing to the members’ or prospects’ interests is key to keeping high levels of engagement. You wouldn’t want to send a member that only checks in for yoga classes marketing about a new weightlifting machine, this will have no relevance to them and be a waste of your marketing spend.

Understand Your Audience

One initiative you can take is to research your current members and prospects. Researching your audience will help you understand their needs and interests. This is useful as one campaign will not work for every consumer. You’ll want to craft multiple campaigns that will work for various types of audiences as they will all have different interests and be at different stages of wellness. 

Through research you will gain takeaways as to the language they use and what social media apps they are on. Discovering this can help you incorporate the same terminology that your audience uses into your marketing. Doing so helps you stay fresh and relevant to your members. This is a good opportunity to gain insight on what your audience is talking about so that you can create content for your brand around topics that are trending. In your search, you will also find out what social media your members and prospects are using. With this knowledge, you can build your social presence organically and through paid social media to help boost your gym or clubs’ digital presence. Make it easy for them to find your content by being active and present on the same social channels that they are already using.

Brand Accessibility

As mentioned in the last section, you want your brand to be reachable. This means that members and prospects have an easy time searching for your website online or profile accounts on social media. If your gym or club is difficult to find online potential prospects may give up searching and turn to a competitor that has a better digital presence. If your brand is not easily accessible, you risk your credibility as well as losing a member to another gym or club.

Another thing to keep in mind is the responsiveness of your brand. Whether it’s employing someone to answer phone calls, emails, or direct social messages, how you communicate with consumers will impact your membership growth.

Keep Members Coming Back with Darwill

Take time to understand your members interests and needs. Doing so will help you better plan and adapt to the ever-changing market. If you get stuck, Darwill is here to help. We’ll create custom campaigns for your gym or club that will have you seeing a rise in memberships and number of people in the gym and in classes.