Making the Commitment: Fitness Marketing Strategies for the New Year

The fitness industry is booming worldwide, and the U.S. is leading the charge. Revenue for U.S. fitness and health clubs generated nearly $36 billion in 2019, a number that’s expected to grow into the next decade.

Health and fitness clubs aren’t new, so what’s behind the massive growth in new boutique and chain fitness centers across the country? It comes down to a few key factors, including:

●  Rise in social media usage and awareness of health and fitness

●  Growing awareness of illnesses from lifestyle choices (and how getting fit can help to overcome them)

●  Increase in health-conscious attitude among millennials and Generation Z consumers

●  Economic changes (as retail stores close, locations open up for health/fitness clubs)

While consumers are signing up with health and fitness clubs at various times of the year, owners of health and fitness clubs know that the start of the new year is an ideal time to market to and sign up these healthy lifestyle consumers. It is an effective marketing strategy to leverage the collective remorse that comes from holiday overeating and drinking, and plug into the desire to start the new year with a healthy first step. Once you’re able to get fitness consumers into your club in January, it’s likely they will stick around for three or six months, or even longer.

So how do you market to these fitness consumers? Clearly, social media marketing plays a big part in gaining attention today. Do you have a “squad” that’s active on social media to help keep your club brand active? Is your club one of those that features the fitness class du jour (hot yoga, spinning, etc.)?

Here are some marketing ideas to put into play starting in December and through the new year to encourage health and rejuvenation:

●  Develop your start-of-new-year social media marketing (SMM) strategy to create excitement around your fitness club, its assets, the members, and their results.

●  Showcase personal club successes, such as fit gym-goers who stuck with their resolutions through the previous year.

●  Motivate current members with an end-of-year challenge for a free membership, or new members in January with a start-of-new-year challenge to reach new levels.

●  Partner with other businesses (for example, a meal-planning service partnering with a local gym, a gym providing discounted rates to employees of local businesses, etc.).

●  Test simple marketing messages (e.g., “Move more, eat less”) to new club prospects as a way to help boost self-esteem.

●  Focus on retention strategies, and not just the acquisition of new members.

●  Message frequently and retarget on the most effective platforms, using first-party data to reach former members

Start formulating your 2020 marketing plans now to bring new members into your fitness world.