Gyms and fitness centers are in a very unique situation when it comes to marketing strategy. There are a lot of things to think about:
How do we attract new members?
How do we retain current members?
How do we keep our members engaged and excited about being a part of our fitness community?
All of these questions are important to the success of a fitness center and there are all sorts of strategies that you are probably trying right now to attempt to accomplish these goals.
But let’s talk about a strategy that I am willing to bet you are not using today but could pay big dividends in accomplishing all of your goals: Facebook Live.
The ability for your business to go live and share information instantly is pretty powerful, especially when you start to get creative with it and set yourself apart.
Now, we could sit here all day and tell you why something is important and throw 100 stats at you, but what fun is that? Let’s get real tactical. Here are 4 Ways gyms should be using FB live right now to attract new members and increase engagement and retention.
1) Equipment How-Tos
Hosting Facebook live sessions where a trainer or another employee gives a demonstration of how to use different pieces of equipment accomplishes a whole host of things that can be really valuable. First, it gives you the chance to show off all of the equipment that your gym has available. This gives people who are looking for specific types of equipment an inside look at what you have to offer without ever having to step foot in your building. At the same time, it will be helpful for current members who might be a little bit afraid or intimidated by trying something new. Showing them how that crazy piece of equipment that they have always been too embarrassed to try will give them an overall better experience.
2) Routines From Personal Trainers
For gyms with personal trainers that are available for members, it can often be a struggle to get more people to sign up for the extra service or to upgrade their membership. One way you can use Facebook Live is to showcase some of the workout routines that a trainer is doing for a client. By showing the occasional workout, you might pique someone’s interest enough to make them want to take the next step. Now you don’t need to show anything complex or give away any secret sauce, just give enough to show what the experience of working with a personal trainer is like and how it could possibly benefit them.
Related Post – Why Marketing is Like Working Out
3) Live Classes
Along the same lines of showing personal training sessions, you could also do live streams of specific group fitness classes. Every week, select one class that you either want to promote or is one of your more popular classes. As long as you have permission from the participants in your class, you can stream it live for everyone to see, and even participate in at home. For members, this is a cool way to maybe join a class on a day that they couldn’t make it to the gym. For non-members, it again gives them a way to experience what is going on at your gym and will hopefully whet their appetite enough to join so they can participate in even more classes!
4) Member Success Stories
A great way to tie together all the other Facebook Live topics together is by doing live interviews of some major member successes. Have a member that hit a weight loss goal or hit a new PR? Ask them to sit down and talk about how they did it and how your gym helped them accomplish their goals. There are few things better in marketing than video testimonials from real people. Their stories can help show someone deciding what gym to go to, that your gym is the place that can help them accomplish everything they want to accomplish.
One awesome thing about all these topics, or any other ideas that you might have gathered from this post, is that once you record that Facebook Live, you now have a permanent piece of content that you can use over and over again. Once you do it enough times, you will have a full library of videos that you can upload to YouTube, make available to your members, or use in other marketing methods.
Now enough talking, time for you to go do! Give one of these ideas a try and see how it works for you. Something doesn’t feel, right? Try it a different way or give another idea a shot. You will never know how well something will work for you until you go and do. Make sure you reach out after giving these a try and tell us how well it worked – we love hearing success stories!
