You might think that your small gym isnt newsworthy. Think again! Do something to help others, and you in turn will reap rewards. Your health club marketing opportunities are only limited by your own imagination.
1. Set up a Canned food event
Free Enrollment when you bring in 5 canned foods! You can partner with your local soup kitchen or Salvation Army, and then tell the newspapers and news stations about the partnership...they eat that stuff up! (And of course, youre also helping those in need, which always feels good)
2. Write for your town's newspaper
If your town's newspaper doesn't have a weekly fitness write up, volunteer to write for them. Try to find other types of print media, smaller papers, community newsletters, etc that you can contribute to. There might also be local websites that are specific to your area that you could contribute to. If by chance you are not much of a writer, pay a staff member or use a service like Elance to find someone who will write for cheap.
3. Partner with a radio DJ in your town to run a contest at your club
The DJ can be your main contact person and they can help you promote a 2 month weight loss program to their listeners, who just happen to be local prospects for your fitness business. The DJ can make announcements regularly over the air, can get lots of listeners to send in applications, and form two teams to compete against each other to make the announcements more exciting. Make sure as part of the contest all contestants receive a complimentary membership. This will be a benefit to the radio station since they get to offer this bonus to their listeners. You can even give something to the people who weren't selected for the contest and/or ask for their contact information to follow up with them.
4. Host a charitable event
Get members to have friends and family pledge an amount per mile you spend on the treadmill or for every step you climb on the stairmaster. Even if you only get 2 people to participate, it doesnt matter. Tell the radio station about it and they will do a story on it. Its different, its interesting, and its not negative news...which seems to be all there is on the news these days.
5. Provide free seminars
These can either be onsite at your facility or at a community center. If you call or visit your local Chamber of Commerce and ask about a listing of presentations, you will be amazed. People give presentations on anything from basketweaving to coding HTML. If they dont already have someone regularly presenting on fitness-related topics, just ask them to put you on the schedule. They announce all upcoming presentations to their member and email list.
6. Create fame for one of your members
As mentioned before, your local media loves positive stories, especially when the story is on a person who did something great. Have ll of your members apply to be in the Hero of Your Town Event. Everyone can send in an article on their rise to success and how your health club has helped them achieve their dreams. You'll pick a winner and create a press release (or have one written). The press release can say something like, "local hero recognized at XYZ Fitness". For those people not selected, they will still get a prize. You could even have multiple heroes recognized at your health club. This is a great way to market your health club to new prospective members.
Of course, these 7 strategies only scratch the surface of how you can get free publicity in your fitness facility. Be creative and you will see your club become more popular the more proactive you are in your PR efforts.
1. Set up a Canned food event
Free Enrollment when you bring in 5 canned foods! You can partner with your local soup kitchen or Salvation Army, and then tell the newspapers and news stations about the partnership...they eat that stuff up! (And of course, youre also helping those in need, which always feels good)
2. Write for your town's newspaper
If your town's newspaper doesn't have a weekly fitness write up, volunteer to write for them. Try to find other types of print media, smaller papers, community newsletters, etc that you can contribute to. There might also be local websites that are specific to your area that you could contribute to. If by chance you are not much of a writer, pay a staff member or use a service like Elance to find someone who will write for cheap.
3. Partner with a radio DJ in your town to run a contest at your club
The DJ can be your main contact person and they can help you promote a 2 month weight loss program to their listeners, who just happen to be local prospects for your fitness business. The DJ can make announcements regularly over the air, can get lots of listeners to send in applications, and form two teams to compete against each other to make the announcements more exciting. Make sure as part of the contest all contestants receive a complimentary membership. This will be a benefit to the radio station since they get to offer this bonus to their listeners. You can even give something to the people who weren't selected for the contest and/or ask for their contact information to follow up with them.
4. Host a charitable event
Get members to have friends and family pledge an amount per mile you spend on the treadmill or for every step you climb on the stairmaster. Even if you only get 2 people to participate, it doesnt matter. Tell the radio station about it and they will do a story on it. Its different, its interesting, and its not negative news...which seems to be all there is on the news these days.
5. Provide free seminars
These can either be onsite at your facility or at a community center. If you call or visit your local Chamber of Commerce and ask about a listing of presentations, you will be amazed. People give presentations on anything from basketweaving to coding HTML. If they dont already have someone regularly presenting on fitness-related topics, just ask them to put you on the schedule. They announce all upcoming presentations to their member and email list.
6. Create fame for one of your members
As mentioned before, your local media loves positive stories, especially when the story is on a person who did something great. Have ll of your members apply to be in the Hero of Your Town Event. Everyone can send in an article on their rise to success and how your health club has helped them achieve their dreams. You'll pick a winner and create a press release (or have one written). The press release can say something like, "local hero recognized at XYZ Fitness". For those people not selected, they will still get a prize. You could even have multiple heroes recognized at your health club. This is a great way to market your health club to new prospective members.
Of course, these 7 strategies only scratch the surface of how you can get free publicity in your fitness facility. Be creative and you will see your club become more popular the more proactive you are in your PR efforts.
About the Author:
Curtis Mock has quickly become the go to person for fitness marketing advice. You can sign up for his fitness marketing tip of the week and be sure to take advantage of your trial membership to the powerful fitness marketing resource site created specifically for health club operators.
No comments:
Post a Comment