Internet advertising is growing the fastest of the entire marketing market, says the Association of Communication Agencies of the Russian Federation. Therefore, without belittling the merits of outdoor advertising, in our article we will focus on online channels and answer the question of how to attract customers to a fitness club in the summer.
Advertising in social networks
Social networks contain a huge amount of information about potential customers, their preferences, location, and so on. Therefore, in them you can especially accurately configure (target) who and what will be shown. For example, if a person lives in your city and is in several groups dedicated to a healthy lifestyle - bingo! - he is your potential client.
An example of an advertising post from the VKontakte news feed. It differs from the usual one only by the mark "advertising record".As an example of setting up targeting for finding clients in a fitness club, we will give the parameters that were used marketArts agency in one of their cases:
Audience parameters:
● Are located within a 3 km radius of the club.
● Live in certain areas.
● Go to competitors' websites.
● Have in the interests of healthy lifestyle, dance, yoga, sports, proper nutrition, etc.
● Age from 14 to 40 years old.
● We visited your site but did not take any action.
contextual advertising
Here we will talk about Google Adwords and Yandex.Direct. We see contextual advertising in the form of links in the TOP of search engine results, as well as in the format of banners on websites. Once you google, for example, curtains, and their ads will follow you on all sites 🙂
Examples of contextual advertising. On the left - advertising links in the top of the search engine results, on the right - an advertising banner between posts on the information and entertainment site "Pikabu". Content marketing
Another effective way for a fitness trainer to attract clients is to share useful information with potential clients. First, they will read you and repost the texts, and then they will want you for individual training.
What to write about? Texterra portal names 25 types of content suitable for a sports club. Among them:
● training (articles, infographics, training);
● motivating (quotes, before / after photos, music selections);
● funny (jokes, memes);
● promotional content (presentation of services, feedback, news).
Native advertising
Native advertising is the placement of affiliate articles on third-party sites. They are not purely promotional and although they contain references to the company, they are still useful and valuable in and of themselves. High-quality native materials increase the credibility of the company and attract more attention than classic banners.
For example, the Meduza portal published a useful text on how to protect children from dangerous sites. The article presented many useful methods, and only one of them mentioned that you can install special anti-virus software from Kaspersky. Here is such a useful text that, without advertising slogans, arouses interest in a particular product.
New fitness advertising trends
Attracting clients to a fitness club does not only happen online. The Beboss portal has described 4 more ways to find them offline.
Word of mouth.10 times cheaper than advertising in the media and just as much more effective. Dissatisfied customers, of course, and bad reviews about you can spread. But good service will help keep them to a minimum.
Interesting activities. It can be holidays, seminars, club meetings, master classes - the main thing is that they apply only to the club's clients. Make a schedule of events so that clients know about your plans, can schedule participation in an event that is interesting for them. For example, if the girls find out in advance that an evening in honor of March 8 will be organized at the club, then in December they will rather decide to buy another subscription for at least three months. This is what this schedule might look like:
| the date | Name |
| December 15th | Master class from the master of sports in rhythmic gymnastics. Stretching from a professional |
| December 30th | A party. We celebrate the New Year |
| January 15 | Outdoor activities. Cardio training in the forest |
| 24 February | Party in honor of Defender of the Fatherland Day |
| March 8 | Party in honor of March 8 |
Buddy referrals (friend invitation).One of the most effective tools for finding new clients in a fitness club. This method attracts more than 100 clients per month. At the same time, you need to encourage the one who brings a friend to your club. This can be one free sauna or pool session, extra points, etc.
Attentive attitude towards clients.68% of people leave fitness clubs because of the indifferent attitude of the staff. Therefore, the communication of trainers and administrators with clients should be close. Your staff should be attentive to customer requests and in no case leave them unanswered.
We save found clients
We figured out how to attract clients to a fitness studio, but that's only half the battle. They must also be kept. We will tell you why customers most often come and how to keep them with help.
Lack of communication
There are many clients, and everyone needs attention. In order not to forget anyone for sure, many fitness clubs introduce special programs to automate processes. For example, a cloud-based CRM system will take on many routine tasks:
- remind the client in time that it is time to renew the subscription;
- send a sms to the client with a reminder of an individual training;
- record the call to the client so that you can listen to it again and clarify the details;
- add the client's email to the company's mailing list - and more.
... You just mark the necessary customers, and they will automatically start receiving your newsletter in their mail. No notification of changes
The workout is canceled, the pool is under repair, the gym is flooded - it happens. But if customers discover this when they arrive at the fitness club, they are unlikely to be satisfied. Thanks to the integration with the service, it will be able to quickly, and most importantly automatically, send notifications to everyone.
Of course, you need to report not only about problems, but also about the events that you hold.
Luca Osevar, entrepreneur, fitness trainer in an article for jasonferruggia.com:
- This is one of the best lead generation strategies for such a business. We ran a Sunday boot camp, the proceeds of which went to charity. Everyone could come and work out - and it was in demand, people brought friends to support something positive. No pressure, no sales, just a method for potential customers to try our service and feel the atmosphere.
Timetable confusion
Even the most attentive administrators can make a mistake and accidentally assign several people to the trainer for the same time. This will never happen again thanks to the built-in SalesapCRM, which allows you to register customers for services. Each employee has its own schedule in the calendar, and you can record clients in two clicks, indicating the date, time, type of service, duration of the lesson / procedure, etc.
In this case, a customer card is attached to each record. This means that you can immediately view the entire history of interaction with him, including correspondence, call records, letters, payments, and so on.
And those who like to sign up for the gym online will like it for your sites. The client simply visits your website, chooses a convenient branch of the club, the time of the visit and the specialist he needs, leaves contact information and confirms the application. The new entry will automatically appear in the calendar of the hall administrators.
Personnel control problems
The equipment in fitness clubs is of the same type, but people are different everywhere. If you have competent and hardworking coaches who work well with those who train, they will come to you. SalesapCRM allows online about team work:
- how many cold calls the administrator made,
- how many deals each manager made,
- how many services and for what amount each coach rendered, and so on.
As you can see, all the main problems of a fitness club related to customer retention can be solved using a CRM system. But she also needs to be chosen wisely. We recommend comfortable and functional. You can try it completely free of charge right now!
- Often, to attract customers, fitness clubs, yoga studios, gyms, rocking chairs provide an opportunity for a free first visit.
- The classic option is to distribute leaflets. But in no case should you distribute them at the entrance to shopping centers, on the street - this annoys people. One of the important factors for clients is the location of the club (studio), the ability to practice close to work or home. Make sure that all potential customers who work or live near your establishment know about it. What office centers are nearby? How do you get advertisements in the mailboxes of people living in the area?
- Very often people do not go to a specific fitness club, but to a specific trainer or instructor. If you get a good specialist, make sure that those who previously worked with him know about it.
- The work schedule of the fitness club has a certain value in attracting people. For example, some clubs successfully operate late at night. There are also round-the-clock clubs, the whole question is in attendance.
- You should have a website with contact information, an address (even better, show a map with a mark) or a page on a social network (VKontakte, first of all, if we talk about Russia), which is easy to find (for example, by request "fitness [city name]" ).
- Registration in Yandex.Maps gives a good effect - in this case, people will be able to find you on the map (for example, next to their metro station).
- You can attract users of social networks using targeted advertising (aimed at a specific group of people). If you think carefully about what your target audience is (gender, age, place of residence, interests), then the cost of attracting visitors to a site or group will be relatively low.
- You can give contextual advertising in Google or Yandex, which will bring potential customers to your site. Once you've learned the basics, you can do it yourself. The suggested queries that people are looking for you are:
- fitness club [street name]
- fitness club [metro station]
- gym [street name]
- yoga [metro station]
- fitness [name of area]
- (you can continue yourself)
- Find out if there are large VKontakte or Facebook communities related to sports and a healthy lifestyle in your city, and establish a relationship with them. Become a sponsor of sporting events, there you will find your target audience. Perhaps there are cycling or cross-country skiing nearby - this is a great opportunity to make yourself known.
- Participate in city events (eg City Day, Athlete's Day). Demonstration performances and flyers can be distributed.
What to think about
- Remember that advertising's task is only to bring the client to the doorstep. If he doesn't like the atmosphere, the coach, the class schedule, then he will leave, and the advertising costs will be in vain.
- People want to come to a place where they are expected and where there is an opportunity to communicate. The experience of the "Tonus Club" is indicative - they "made a bet on lazy people who want to do fitness without doing anything special." And another characteristic quote: "A middle-aged woman lacks a place where people are waiting for her, besides work and home. So she can communicate with her friends and not think about how you look." ().
- A fitness club is spelled like this: fitness club. There is a hyphen between the words "fitness" and "club". The same applies to the yoga center. Illiteracy will indicate that you are not serious enough about the matter.
Hidden marketing
- You can make friends with a pizza delivery service (they could put your flyer in a box), a cafe, a restaurant (give your brochure along with the menu or place information on the tables).
- If there is a bookstore nearby, you can negotiate with him and put your flyers in literature on your topic.
- You can negotiate with schools, institutes and place information about yourself there, distribute invitations, etc.
- Arrange a "bring a friend" action. Encourage those clients who bring their friends and acquaintances.
- You can run a promotion in conjunction with one of the coupon services, but it is believed that this will lead to you mostly one-time visitors.
- Call companies, businesses and offer them corporate membership. As a rule, employees are happy to visit fitness centers when the employer pays for it. The question can only be about the price - not all companies can afford this.
Specific examples
What unforgivable mistakes fitness clubs make is shown by the specific story of the person who called them to buy a subscription (below). It is worth noting that no amount of promotion will help if the club ignores a client who is almost ready to pay the money. And this problem is quite common.
But preparing large projects is not a quick and resource-intensive business (it takes time and people)
Today I want to throw you a very simple idea, a kind of mini-project for the New Year holidays (I hope your club does not rest with the whole country until January 10 ?! :))
The idea is very simple: organize full-fledged leisure for your clients throughout the holidays. Let something interesting happen every day in your club!
(To be honest, it's not me that smart, I heard this thought at an online conference “Fitness season. Winter 2012-2013 " in the speech of one of the speakers. Once again, a deep bow to the organizer of the conference, Marina Knyazeva: coming to the conference as a trainer, every time I "pull out" a bunch of useful "chips" for implementation!)
All clubs (well, or almost all) are doing sales, some kind of "discount" promotions, Days of Open Doors, etc. You won't surprise anyone with this ...
One way or another, most activities revolve around fitness. But in addition to fitness, our clients are also interested in a lot of things in life: why not turn your club into a get-together of people with a variety of interests and for a variety of reasons?
Let something interesting and unusual happen in your club every day! And people should know about it!
This is what our New Years Marathon of Events looks like:
I hope you already have your own ideas on how to make your fitness club a "magnet" for clients (and not only for them, but also simply - for everyone who is interested!). Or you can take our list of events as an example and implement it with minor adjustments to your capabilities, of course!
Yes, of course, all these events are FREE, both for clients and for “casual visitors” - this is a great reason for you to increase your incoming flow and bring people into your club who may not have heard of you before. (The only paid event for participants is a photo session, for which you involve professional photographers and makeup artists ... but here, too, there are options)
For this to work better, STRONGLY remind customers that they can bring their friends and acquaintances to the club for these events!
__________________________________________________________________________
Good luck, Colleagues! ... and have a great New Year!
Yours sincerely, 
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The task of every sports club manager in today's competitive environment is to increase the number of visitors and their retention. For this, it is important to know how to attract clients to a fitness club. So what should be done to achieve this?
How to attract customers
The first step is to prepare magnetic stripe cards and distribute to as many people as possible. Why plastic? It's very simple - a person subconsciously, picking up a plastic card, does not want to throw it away. He will consider the firm a serious organization and will definitely want to go there. The same cannot be said for paper certificates and coupons, which are often thrown away without even reading them.
You can arrange with other organizations to distribute cards to their employees. It is also worth giving them out to regular customers so that they, in turn, share them with friends. At the same time, it is important to systematize classes and competently form groups by age category and level of training.
Organization of leisure for visitors
As you know, on holidays, clients seem to be "blown away" from the fitness rooms, since the establishment has no alternative, for example, going out into the countryside. A few weeks before the holidays, you can post an announcement about all the interesting events that will be held for visitors and their families.
What can be offered to clients
- family relay races
- dating evening
- weightlifting tournaments;
- photoshoot
It is even worth giving away small surprises and bonuses for attending events.
Gift cards (certificates)
Club members should understand that they have the opportunity to purchase real gift certificates and cards for loved ones and relatives. Most modern sports facilities can succeed if they launch an information and warning system. With a competent approach, a large percentage of clients are those who came with a gift certificate and decided to attend classes constantly.
Attracting high-ranking clients
It is worth offering high-ranking people of the city a free visit or a generous system of discounts. Ideal candidates for this are:
- radio and television presenters
- heads of large organizations
- athletes
You definitely need to work on the staffing. Again, outstanding individuals need to be offered generous wages. These people will be the "business card" of your establishment.
Rest arrangement
Agree, few visitors go to fitness centers only for yoga and aerobics. Loners try to make new acquaintances, and families want to spend time with benefit. The correct decision of the management will be to open their own cafe, a cozy locker room, a hall with soft sofas.
If you want to organize a successful sports club, you should skillfully work out a marketing policy, be customer-oriented, create all the conditions so that your establishment becomes a favorite for visitors!