The Pros of Event Marketing

Event marketing is a great way for health clubs to showcase their services to the local community. And forming partnerships with other local organizations or businesses can expand that reach even further. Recently, Hive Lifespan Center in East Amherst, New York, partnered with its local Lululemon for a number of events, including a Trunk Show.

According to Chris Salisbury, the owner of Hive Lifespan Center, there have been many benefits resulting from the partnership. “Most importantly they share our vision and passion for working toward a healthier and more active western New York community,” he said. “We are blessed with an excellent Lululemon management team who does not hesitate to share their time and ideas if we ask their assistance when brainstorming an upcoming event. We often ask for their help to connect with other studios and instructors that are not in direct competition with us to bring guest trainers and instructors onboard for our events. This broadens the marketing reach and our members love the experience. It can be simply summed up with the philosophy that ‘teamwork makes the dream work.'”

Hive Lifespan Center and Lululemon promote the events in a variety of ways. Each event follows the same steps for promotion, beginning two weeks out from the event date. Steps include a photo shoot to use in marketing, Instagram teaser posts, a blog detailing the event and more.

According to Salisbury, event marketing finds its strength in its ability to showcase your staff and exercise programming to an advantage. “Furthermore, it provides numerous opportunities for grassroots marketing and social media marketing,” he continued.

When creating your first event, Salisbury advised keeping things such as a theme, exercise event calendar, image campaign, catered food and drink, and staffing in mind. “It’s all about the details,” he said. “From gold-dusted dark chocolate buddhas for each member upon check-in on Valentine’s day to custom t-shirt designs and signature cocktails, each detail is done with the intention to make the member feel like fitness royalty.”

Chris Salisbury’s step-by-step event promotion guide:

• Photo shoot. “Every marketing piece we do at the club uses our members or staff in the image campaign.”
• Instagram the shoot as a teaser.
• Create a blog post detailing the event.
• Create a Facebook event and encourage staff to share on their personal pages.
• Share the blog post on your Facebook page and boost the post.
• Promote the event inside the club
• Create a “slinger” to distribute throughout the community and as take-aways for members.
• Email blast the entire “community” list, and link to the blog post.
• Share posts about the event on all social media platforms repeatedly leading up to the event.