Marketing a Fitness Studio 101

So, you’ve decided to take the leap and develop a marketing plan for your gym or fitness studio. Where do you start?! Creating a marketing plan from scratch can seem like an overwhelming process, posing questions such as: What message am I trying to get across? What channels should I use to get this message out? 

With this in mind, we’ve set out three simple questions that all gym and fitness studio owners should answer before setting their marketing strategy in stone. The answers to these questions will provide a solid foundation on which you can build a realistic marketing strategy.

Let’s get your creative juices flowing! The 3 key questions:

1. Who is my ideal customer?
2. How will my service resonate with my ideal customer? 
3. How will I reach my ideal customer?

Question 1: Who Is My Ideal Customer?

The number one step to creating your marketing plan is truly understanding your ideal member. We’re talking about going all out and creating a detailed profile of the character that encapsulates your dream members. Take the time to sit down and really think about the members you wish to target:

• What is your ideal member’s age, gender, location and income level?
• What are their communication preferences (email, social media, phone)?
• What are their goals and aspirations?
• What challenges do they face on a day to day basis?

For example, let me tell you about Steph, our ideal customer here at Glofox:

Steph is a determined fitness fanatic who has always dreamed of turning her passion into her profession. Three years ago, Steph took a leap of faith and opened her very own fitness studio. Although Steph lives and breathes for the results that she helps her clients achieve, she understands that she needs to be business focused and have the right tools in place to help her to achieve real business results. Steph wants to find the perfect solution to help free up her time so she can get back to doing what she loves. 

That’s our ideal customer, who’s yours?

Question 2: How Will My Service Resonate with My Ideal Customer?

So you’ve identified exactly who your ideal member is. Now, it’s time to create a marketing message that will resonate with this audience. What better way to do that than to address their challenges and aspirations (which you should have set out when answering question 1!)?

Reality is, if you want your gym or fitness studio to appeal to a particular audience, you need to ensure your offering meets this audience’s core needs. For example, if you’re gym or fitness studio targets time constrained working women, how does your messaging convey the fact that you understand their stresses? Are you catering to late evening classes? You may even start a blog focused on helping young, working women to achieve their fitness goals through intense 20 minute workouts.

By directly addressing your ideal member’s pain points and goals in your marketing messaging, you have the opportunity to get one step ahead of rivals who may have opted for a more generalised approach.

Question 3: Where Will i reach My Ideal Customer?

Once you have visualised your ideal customer and created your marketing message, you then need to figure out how exactly you can reach them with this message. Where do your target members ‘hang out’ online and offline? If your current members have proved an ideal fit for your gym or studio and you’re looking to grow further, ask these members questions such as:

• How did they find out about your gym or studio?
• What enticed them to purchase a membership?
• What are their favourite social media platforms?
• Where do they hang out on the weekend?

Once you understand this, you can begin to determine the best possible channels to reach these members through. It’s no coincidence that many top gyms or fitness studios targeting young fitpros have great instagram accounts. They know that’s where their target audience are hanging out!

You might even identify a partnership opportunity with a local business. A two way referral system is a very attractive marketing strategy for small businesses!