“Free Enrollment when you bring in 5 canned foods!”
This is a perfect campaign to run around the holidays, when it seems everyone is in the giving spirit. Call your local soup kitchen or Salvation Army and arrange a partnership. Let them know that you will be doing all of the work. Then tell the newspapers and news stations about the partnership…the media eats that stuff up! (And of course, you’re also helping those in need, which always feels good)
Not only will the local media run the article or the story on the partnership, once the campaign has ended, they will likely run another story announcing the number of cans of food you collected for the cause. Obviously, you will need a decent turnout and a sizeable amount of canned goods collected for it to be a worthy story.
You can run a campaign for your current members too!
In addition to your external advertising, you can also run an internal canned food promotion. Let all of your members know that if they bring in 5 canned goods, you will provide them a complimentary personal training session. Not only will you have a lot of cans of food to provide the charity, you will also be introducing dozens of people to your personal training program!
Instead of simply telling your members that you are going to give them a personal training session, having them bring in the cans of food feels somewhat like a payment. This means that they will associate a price with the PT session and will not be alarmed when you present prices to them after their complimentary session.
The key to success for this is the media, so don’t forget to have all of the local papers, community newsletters included, run the article. It is all but guaranteed that the local news channel will come out, as they are always looking for a positive story. It seems these days all we see is doom and gloom, so they are always excited for something uplifting. But you need to contact them in advance. Do your research and find the right person to pitch your story. Allow yourself a couple of weeks prior to the event to begin communicating with them.
Establishing a contact person at all of the media outlets is going to help you in the future as you do other press releases, local partnerships and announcements. It is a great marketing strategy that helps a great cause.
Curtis Mock is an author, speaker, and consultant to health clubs worldwide, and is the Executive Director of GymSuccess.com.
