8 Effective Fitness Marketing Campaigns that Actually Boost Leads

Would you join this gym?

Reddit user Kooky_Elevator8337 shared a free offer asking if people would sign up at his gym.

Source: Reddit

The answers were brutal.

“No one’s going to do all this to get a free day at the gym. Make it easier. Text this, download that, sign this, bring that. Nope.”

They’re absolutely right.

If the friction around your offer is too high, prospects won’t take you up on your offer. They’ll ignore you—even if your offer is free. Okay, how do you create marketing campaigns that work?

You study success stories.  

Then, you use their campaigns to create successful marketing campaigns of your own. Here’s a look at 8 highly effective fitness marketing campaigns you can use to boost lead generation and revenue.

#1: How Orange Theory Uses Social Media to Generate Leads

Orange Theory Fitness (OTF) is a boutique fitness studio and franchise founded by exercise physiologist Ellen Latham, Jerome Kern, and David Long. As of 2024, OTF has 1,500 locations across 24 countries. One thing that stands out about OTF (besides the orange color) is their use of social media.

Here’s a list of the various types of content used by OTF on their social media profiles.

• Mean comments
• Member stories
• Fitness challenges
• Product updates
• How-tos
• Quotes
• Holiday posts
• Comedy reels
• Events

Here are a few examples:

Source: OrangeTheory

Source: OrangeTheory

OTF focuses on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X. As an organization, OTF keeps its focus on its coaches, members, and events. They use design, story, and depth to create compelling content.

Using Social Media to Generate Leads

If you choose to use social media to generate leads, there are three ways to approach this.

1. Organic social media: This form of advertising is free. You build an audience, then you create, share, and promote your content with your target audience. This option depends on your organic reach (the number of people your posts attract naturally) with each platform.
2. Paid social ads: These ads are best for building relationships and generating interest from your ideal prospects. You create a campaign, sponsored posts, or ads; and then you promote that content for a fee.
3. Social influencers: You collaborate or partner with influencers who are connected to your target audience. These influencers are typically willing to work with you—so long as the fee is right. Some may prefer a fee, others prefer to trade, while others prefer a long-term partnership.

You’ll want to focus on one of these three areas in your fitness marketing campaigns.

#2: How ClassPass Uses Email Marketing to Generate Leads

ClassPass is a monthly fitness and wellness membership. Users can access thousands of fitness studios, gyms, salons, and spas. ClassPass credits allow you to book at thousands of studios, gyms, salons & spas. Users can use these credits however they like to create a workout routine that’s best for them.

How do they promote their service?

They use email.

They use email marketing via broadcast and autoresponder campaigns, motivating users to try their service free before they buy.

Take a look.

Here’s an example of their $9 free trial.

Source: ClassPass.com

Here’s an autoresponder sequence where they offer 5 workouts free.

Source: ClassPass

Didn’t bite after their first round of emails? ClassPass uses urgency triggers, incentivizing users to take action quickly before time runs out.

Source: ClassPass

The image is in GIF format, so the timer looks like it counts down to zero when users check their email.

Source: ClassPass

Boost Lead Generation with Email Marketing

Email’s great. It works like gangbusters, and prospects are still responding to it. There’s just one small problem. We’re not sure which emails will perform best. How are you supposed to generate more leads if you’re not sure what to say?

Here’s a simple, five-step formula you can follow.

1. List your target audience’s desires, goals, fears, frustrations, and problems.
2. Write broadcast (one-time) emails that you send out.
3. Use your email provider’s analytics and A/B split-testing tools to see which subject lines, body, and emails perform best.
4. Make a list of the winners.
5. Create an autoresponder sequence with your winning emails—the messages proven to work and consistently generate leads.

You’ll want to repeat this process consistently over time. Use your broadcast emails as the proving ground to identify the messages that perform best. If your broadcast emails are terrible, it’s a one-time thing. You never have to use that message ever again.

On the other hand, if it works, you’ll have the messaging and data you need to create a high-performing autoresponder sequence.

#3: How Reebok Does Video Marketing

Reebok is an international company.

The company got its start in 1895. By 1924, their shoes were being worn by the 100m Olympic champion Harold Abrahams in the 1924 Summer Olympics held in Paris. By 1985, Reebok was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. One of the things that’s always stood out about Reebok is how they use video.

Take a look.

See what I mean?

Their focus isn’t just on inspirational content. Reebok uses video for partnerships and collaborations:

They use it for product announcements and launches:

While Reebok isn’t as popular as it used to be, they’re still using video in their fitness and athletic marketing campaigns to generate the sales and revenue they need to grow.

Boost Lead Generation with Video

When it comes to creating video content, it’s all about giving what you have. If you want to use video as a marketing channel, you’ll want to define how you want to use it. The sky’s the limit, you can use video to:

• Create a video tour of your gym: It’s easy to forget what being a new member is like. The awkwardness as you walk around looking for specific equipment, the bathrooms, or the locker rooms. Video tours make it easy for new members to get acquainted with your facility before they show up to train.
• Promote products and services: You’d be surprised at the number of members who don’t know about your products and services. Many would be eager to buy, if they knew your products and services were available.
• Share testimonials and reviews: Share important before and after information. Give prospects and members a detailed breakdown of the results you’ve helped others achieve. Share reviews and testimonials in your videos, then use those videos on your sales pages, social media profiles, emails, and more.
• Create educational content: Show gym members how to use the weights and equipment in your gym. Go over the dos and don’ts and share information about amenities and programs. Have personal trainers and staff share important how-to information and tips to help members get the most out of their workouts.  
• Create offers and incentives: You can use video to pitch new offers and services to your members. Video content makes pitching free trials, buy-one-get-ones, discounts, and many other promos easy.
• Teach members about your loyalty program: Your ideal members are active, engaged, and eager to do business with you. Your loyalty programs give them a reason to promote your company—but you have to teach them about your loyalty programs.

As I mentioned before, when it comes to marketing with video, the sky’s the limit. The more consistent you are with video, the better your results will be. Want to take your video further? Create long-form video content, then use it to create clips, reels, shorts, and decks.

#4: How Nike Generates Leads Using Content Marketing

Nike is the undisputed leader in shoes and athletic wear.

According to Statista, Nike generated $51 Billion in sales in 2024.

Source: Statista

Nike’s content marketing is legendary; it’s so good that they won an Emmy award for their “Can’t Stop Us.” campaign.

They’ve built one of the world’s most iconic and inspirational brands. Nike’s content marketing strategy is simple: Focus on people, events, and ideas—they use compelling stories to create a strong emotional connection with their followers. While many of their competitors focus on more practical details—price, features, value, etc.

Sure, Nike’s content marketing strategy is a mix of education and story, but it’s also practical and helpful. Here’s a fitness routine created by a Nike Trainer.

Source: Nike.com

Using Content Marketing to Generate Leads

Is it possible to generate leads with your content? Absolutely. If you can create value with your content, you can generate leads. Here are content ideas you can put to work in your fitness marketing campaigns.

• Gym comparisons
• Fitness challenges
• Nutrition workshops/webinars
• Workout routines
• Fitness quizzes
• Workout guides
• Fitness competitions
• Fitness podcasts
• Wellness programs
• Fitness tutorials
• Performance newsletters
• Training boot camp
• Charity events

Inspirational content and storytelling are compelling but not the only type of content you can use. You can use top, middle, and bottom-of-funnel content to attract new members. Imagine that you’re looking to create content that generates leads.

Not sure how to do it?

Here are five ways you can create amazing content— the kind of content that stands out ahead of your competitors.

1. Depth: This is thorough and well-thought-out content that goes deep.
2. Design: Beautifully designed content that’s easy to look at.
3. Drama: Dramatic content is any content that triggers a strong emotional response.
4. Data: Content that leans heavily on scientific research, statistics, factoids, metrics, and original data.
5. Degree: A large volume of high-quality content that’s churned out consistently.

You’re ahead of your competition if you create content that relies on any of these. If your content pieces rely on two or more of these categories, you may have a 10x content piece on your hands.

#5: How Mode Gym Uses Local SEO to Generate Leads

Did Mode Gym fly under your radar?

Mode Gym is a Chicago-based gym where “Luxury meets functionality in our gym, where we cater to everyone from beginners all the way to seasoned bodybuilders and athletes.” Their Google Business Profile describes Mode as “a State-of-the-art gym offering personal training and group fitness classes, plus an in-house DJ.”

Here’s what makes Mode so significant.

The search query “best fitness gyms in Chicago” puts Mode in the local pack.

Take a look.

They’ve been in business for seven years. Today, they have a Google rating of 4.6 stars with 456 reviews. They have 190 inbound links (according to Majestic) and 394 inbound links (according to Uber Suggest). They’ve spent a considerable amount of time using local SEO to optimize their websites, profiles, and assets.  

How to Generate Leads with Local SEO

Local SEO is street-level marketing that’s designed to attract locals via Google. Local SEO increases your visibility in search engines like Google or Bing. The better you rank, the more visibility, traffic, and leads your gym brings in. Google looks at three criteria:

• Relevance: Does your gym match what Google searchers are looking for? If your business is relevant to someone’s search, Google rewards you with better rankings.
• Distance: “Google looks at how far each place is from the user. If you don’t say where you are, Google will calculate distance based on where it thinks the user is.”
• Prominence: Is your gym well known? Some places—museums, the post office, Target, or Home Depot, are all examples of prominent businesses. Your gym doesn’t have to be famous to have a high degree of prominence.
  

According to Google, “You can’t ask or pay Google to rank your business higher. We keep the ranking system confidential so it’s fair for everyone.”

So, how do you improve your rankings?

1. Create, claim, and optimize your Google Business Profile
2. Build internal and inbound links to your web pages
3. Focus on On-Page Signals (links, title, meta description, keywords) on your website
4. Optimize your social media account
5. Build reviews on well-known platforms
6. Personalize content for your followers and prospects
7. Build citations (name, address, phone)

If you’re interested in a more comprehensive breakdown of local search for gyms, check out our handy guide: Local SEO for Gyms.

#6: How Planet Fitness Uses Loyalty Programs to Boost Lead Generation

They’re the gym we love to hate.

Planet Fitness is an affordable gym with 2,600+ locations throughout the world. They have a variety of rules and procedures that haven’t earned them a lot of praise. But their members love it—As of December 31, 2023, Planet Fitness had approximately 18.7 million members.

How are they doing this?

How does Planet Fitness keep its members loyal?

They lean on their loyalty program, PF Perks. PF Perks is the Planet Fitness loyalty program. These perks can be used at any of the club’s 2,600 locations. You can earn points for participating in various activities. Those points can be cashed in for fitness-related rewards.

These perks are always available, providing members with various amenities, products, and services.

Using Loyalty Programs to Boost Lead Generation

With loyalty programs, you can (a.) attract and convert new members, (b.) earn referrals from existing members, and (c.) use your loyalty program to keep the members you already have. Here are some ideas you can use to do that.

• Earn referrals and rewards
• Personalized rewards (e.g., cash, products, etc.)
• Create content challenges
• Give customers loyalty points
• Offer sign-up bonuses
• Offer rewards for new member sign-ups
• Discounts for the first month
• Challenges and badges that help others to join
• Referral leaderboards and competitions
• Members only events
• Members only content

You can use these strategies in your loyalty programs to reduce member attrition rates, attract new members at a lower cost, and keep member consumption and engagement high.

#7: How Lululemon Uses Community Building to Sell

Lululemon is a Canadian-American athletic apparel company—think yoga pants, joggers, sweat shirts, rashguards, accessories, and personal care products. They’re a 10 billion dollar company, and they’ve been hailed as the next Nike.  

How did they do it?

They used community-building to get there.

First, LuLu started by building a community internally—they worked towards building a strong community among their employees. Managers at the company act as facilitators, and many decisions are made from the bottom up. From there, they work to build a community around their customers.

Source: Lululemon

Can you see what’s happening in the comments? They’ve gotten their customers to buy in, to support the community. LuLu organizes events, get-togethers, meet-ups, and other community-building activities around their business. Employees and customers feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves.

Lulelemon routinely schedules marathons, 10k, and 5k runs.

They’ve built an exercise culture around the beliefs and values they share with their employees and customers. As a result, their company is filled with true believers who value the company and what it stands for.

Build a Community Around Your Business

What’s the first thing you need to understand about building a community? It’s a long-term strategy; building trust, stable relationships, and high engagement around your business isn’t rocket science, but it does take time. If you’re in it for the long haul, here are some steps you can take to build a community around your business.

1. Define your values. Here’s how Chip Wilson, founder of Lululemon, defined his values. “The mission of my family, which ended up being Lululemon, was for people to be able to live healthier, longer, and more fun lives.”
2. Write your values down. When you do this, you lay out the specifics of what your business stands for. Your values function as a checklist, enabling you to qualify the employees and customers who join.
3. Live out your values. Jeff Lawson, Twilio CEO and founder, states that culture is living values. If you know your values, living them out is much easier. Doing this is how you create culture.
4. Create shared goals. You’ll want to rally your tribe—your employees, customers, and partners around goals that move everyone forward. These goals should be win/win/win.
5. Choose your platforms. Your platform helps you manage your community and individual relationships in your community. You can use dedicated platforms like Gymdesk or Skool, social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook, or a combination of the two.
6. Empower your community. Give your community the tools and resources they need to become active members of the community. Keep them engaged and focused on your shared goals.

The community serves the group, never an individual concern.

#8: How Gold’s Gym uses Testimonials and Reviews to Sell Memberships

Gold’s Gym is the gold standard.

Started in Venice Beach by Joe Gold in 1965, Gold’s Gym is known as the “Mecca of Bodybuilding.” Gold’s offers personal training, group classes, cardio, free weights, and of course, strength training. So their gym is great for bodybuilders; what about everyone else?

There are lots of gyms competing for members.

Is Gold’s Gym an ideal option for people who are looking for a gym with a proven track record? Can you train and Gold’s and lose weight?

These are the objections Gold’s Gym had to overcome.

How did they do it?

They used a mix of testimonials and reviews to defuse these objections and sell more memberships.

Take a look at these testimonials and reviews.

Nyree gave her kidney to her brother.

She’s at high risk for heart disease and all of the associated illnesses that come with donating a kidney.

Keela struggled with severe ADHD.

How did her crew at Gold’s help her?

What about reviews?

How to build your business with testimonials and reviews

Are you asking your members for reviews? You should be.

You can use your testimonials and reviews to increase the leads you bring in. Here’s how you do it.

1. Ask each of your members for their feedback.
2. If your customers are happy, they’re much more likely to write a review.  
3. If customers are unhappy with your gym, ask them why. Fix the problem, then ask them to update their review.

That’s it! If you’re using tools like Gather Up or Grade.us, you can automate this entire process. What if you’re not sure how to ask for the review?

Hi [Name],

I’m reaching out to our top 100 customers (you’re one of them :). I have six questions I wanted to ask you. Takes 2-3 minutes.

Would you be available to chat on Zoom? I’m free on: [date/time]

Does that work for you?

[Signature]

Then, when customers agree to the call, get their permission to record it. Transcribe the call, then email it to them along with a link to the review site you’d like them to post it to. Now you have the testimonials and reviews you need.

Use these campaigns to create successful campaigns of your own

These fitness marketing campaigns are winners.

Use these examples to create marketing that resonates with your audience. Optimize each portion of your campaign—targeting, content, channels, and approach. Use the strategies and tactics I’ve listed above to create campaigns that convert new leads.

Take the time to test the elements in your campaign.  

As we’ve seen, if the friction around your offer is too high, prospects won’t take you up on your offer. They’ll ignore you—even if your offer is free. Look for success stories you can use to find the marketing campaigns that are best for your gym.