Target your marketing to net more gym members

If you want to grow your gym business, as important as it is to attract new members, you can’t just focus on them alone.

Because if you don’t focus on your existing members too, they’ll leave. And you won’t make any net gains if for every new member you attract, an existing one decides to cancel.

Your gym business will remain static.

If you want to net more gym members, you’ll need to focus on retaining more of your existing members.

How can you retain more members?

If you want to retain more members and grow your gym business, there are lots of different strategies and tactics you can deploy.

There are lots of ways to get your members to stick with you.

We’ve highlighted eight of them in our latest eBook. Eight great ways to supercharge gym member retention.

In it, we pinpoint how you can improve your members’ in person experience with four simple tactics that every gym can do right now.

And we show you how to improve online experiences, through smarter technology, more engagement and by keeping up your on-demand workouts. Why? Because it’s what your members want.

Find more detail – and six more retention strategies – by downloading our eBook now.

Can targeting your marketing increase member retention?

The third strategy in our gym member retention eBook is all about personalising your communications and targeting your marketing more effectively.

When your marketing and communication are more personal, your members will feel more valued. Make personalisation a key part of your members’ experience wherever you can.

That personalisation is also more cost-effective. Instead of wasting money on a generic, catch-all marketing campaign that tries to appeal to everyone, you’ll focus your efforts on specific demographics who will take note.

A targeted, personalised marketing campaign is far more likely to get noticed by your members too, because it’s more specific to them and their needs. It’s more relevant to their expectations and demands.

If you can show you’re meeting your members’ needs, again, they’ll feel more valued.

And when your members feel more valued, they’re going to stick with you.

How to target your marketing to specific demographics

When you’ve read our latest eBook and recognise the value of targeted marketing to net more gym members, you’ll want to get started right away. You’ll want to:

1. Collect your data

Your data needs to be accurate and collected in real-time wherever possible. You’ll need a single source of truth on all your members’ demographic data – including their age and gender where provided – alongside information on their class preferences, usage stats and visiting habits.

2. Segment it

Take all your collected data and segment it into different demographic groups. Separate by age, by ability and by any other common trends you spot.

3. Identify each group’s needs and demands

Explore each group in a little more detail. What are their priorities? How do they use your facilities? What do they want from their gym, and which services/facilities are they wanting more of?

4. Create your messaging and marketing pieces

When you know what each specific demographic expects and demands from your gym, you can create the messaging and marketing that addresses them specifically.

If you know younger demographics prefer more technology, you can create online campaigns that highlight your state of the art equipment and support for wearable tech. If you identify a group of members with low mobility, you could start a new ‘zero-impact’ exercise class and promote it to them.

5. Target and send

With your marketing created, you’re ready to send. You should have highlighted each relevant demographic already, so now you can use your marketing and gym management software to precisely target all your communications.

Your software should ensure it’s quick and simple to send emails, text messages and direct marketing straight to your targeted members.

Keep existing members engaged… and attract new ones

When you know what works for existing members, use the same findings, demographic groups and targeted messaging to market your gym business to new members too.

It will be more specific, more relevant and help you attract more members.

And if you want to streamline the process even further, explore ways you can automate your targeted marketing to stay engaged with your members. Use preference data to automatically target onboarding emails, for example, or class booking data to automatically recommend other relevant classes.

It’s a great way to showcase the true value of your gym business.

If you’re looking for more ways to demonstrate your value and keep your members coming back again and again, don’t forget to download our eBook: 8 Ways to Supercharge Gym Member Retention.