Q. Our city is very strict when it comes to marketing — gated communities, signage restrictions. What creative strategies do you recommend on a startup budget? – Justin Bowers, the co-owner of Synergy Fitness, Mechanicsburg, Pa.
A. We all know how important marketing is to the success of a fitness business. Knowing this, I’m sure it has come as a major setback to find out about all of these restrictions — especially since it sounds as if your marketing plan depended on the ability to utilize many of the strategies you aren’t allowed to implement.
Therefore, you’ll have to go old school.
Here are four strategies that you can adopt or adapt to fit your marketing needs while following the rules:
1. Face-to-Face Marketing
Nothing beats face-to-face marketing. While it may seem time consuming and a chore, it works. If you were to, a) send me a postcard with an offer of two weeks free or, b) shake my hand in the grocery store and give me a gift card good for two weeks free, which one do you think I’ll be more likely to respond to?
While you may be limited in your ability to market your club in other ways, no one can take away your ability to meet people and make friends in your community. Always have day passes or gift cards and make it a goal for you and your staff to each meet 10 people per day and invite them to try your facility.
2. Referrals
Half of all of your new member signups should be from referrals. If not, it’s time to kick this trusted marketing strategy up a notch. You should be running varying referral contests every month to drive new prospects through the doors. Be sure not to use the same tired “one month free” incentive. Your prizes must always be changing because everyone has different motivations.
Some members may be motivated by public recognition for their referral, while others are thrilled with a t-shirt. In a down economy, instead of giving your members that free month, give them the cash instead. There are members who are motivated by the thrill of competition and members who would love to get a personal training session, two weeks of bootcamp, an iPod, or other freebies. You must always provide powerful incentives for referrals, and most importantly, you must always be asking for referrals.
3. Profit Centers
When it is difficult to drive more new members through the door, successful clubs will focus on making more money from the members they already have. In fact, it has been proven in market research that it is exponentially easier to sell more to someone who already purchased from you, than it is to sell something to someone new.
From personal training and bootcamps to nutritional supplements and tanning, there are dozens of different profit centers you can implement to generate more money per client. Not only will your current members be happy you have more to offer, they’ll gladly pay for extra amenities.
4. Joint Ventures
Likely, there are hundreds of businesses in your area that you can partner with to generate more traffic to your facility. For example, the local chiropractor sends a letter to his 400 clients advocating you and letting them know that he has arranged a complimentary 30-day trial membership for all of his clients. You pay for the mailing, he has a reason to communicate with his clients and looks like the good guy for offering something of value to them, and there are 400 new highly targeted prospects thrilled to have received an unannounced gift from someone they trust.
When it comes to partnering with local businesses, you are only limited by your own creativity. They too are looking for new ways to add value to their customers and reach new prospects. They’ll be willing to listen to your ideas. Make a list of all the businesses in your area; then, pick up the phone and call.
The bottom line is that marketing has no boundaries. When there are regulations that restrict certain types of marketing strategies, there are always more available to you. Marketing by nature is very fluid and limitless. Get creative and show your local regulators they don’t know who they’re messing with. -CS
