8 Effective Outbound Marketing Strategies for Gyms

Online gym marketing strategies are, without a doubt, a powerful way to reach your gym’s target market. Too many gyms, however, focus solely on online marketing, to the exclusion of the ‘old school’ methods. That is a mistake. In this article, I’ll lay out eight outbound marketing strategies that you can run alongside your online efforts to massively increase your reach into the local community. 

Here’s a rundown of the strategies we’ll cover

• Local Events
• Cross Marketing
• Signage
• Submit Press Releases
• Vehicle Wrapping
• Promotional Items
• Direct Mail
• Fliers

Each of these strategies will yield decent results on its own. But the real power comes from the integration of all eight methods along with your email and social media marketing. A person may get a direct mailer, think it’s interesting, and then put it down. But the next day they see a wrapped vehicle and the offer comes back to mind. Later that same day they see a sign spinner while waiting at a red light. Then two days later they get a flier on their car windshield. Three days after that they get a second direct mailer. This is their fifth exposure to the gym in a week and it is the combined effect of these exposures that prompts them to call the gym. 

Local Events

Local community events present you with an opportunity to get up and close with the people who you want to become members of your gym. The first step to benefitting from them is to get connected with what is happening locally. Here are four ways to plug in:

• Monitor community events pages on Facebook.
• Subscribe to email newsletters from the local events center and the Parks & Recreation service.
• Follow groups on MeetUp and Nextdoor.
• Attend farmer’s markets, expos, and health fairs.

Once you have identified a local event that is a good fit for the gym, it’s time to plan out your setup. Find out exactly what your booth dimensions and shape are, and where you will be located in relation to the activities and other booth holders.

Have a banner made for the gym that features your branding that will cover the table and backdrop of your booth. You should be able to get this done for a couple of hundred dollars. You should also prepare flyers with a special offer that is tied to the event. Have several hundred printed and plan for a staff member or two to distribute them at the event. This will help drive traffic to your booth, which could otherwise be overlooked at a large, high-traffic event.

You should have a prize giveaway at the event. The most logical giveaway is a free membership. People put their name and contact details, including their email address on their entry form and drop it into a box. Advertise the prize draw as much as you can. The giveaway will serve a dual purpose; it will drive more visitors to your booth while also allowing you to collect leads. The leads can then be fed into your email lead generation list to be fed into your marketing funnel. 

The event organizers will do their own pre-event promotion. However, I suggest that you also do some marketing around your presence at the event. You can do this online with email marketing to your current members and your lead generation email list. You can also add a rider to your existing Facebook ads saying something like ‘Check us out at [name of event] on [date]: Booth #…’

When you’re at the event, be as approachable as possible to passersby. Establish eye contact, smile, and greet people. Do not engage with your phone or immerse yourself in conversation with your booth partner. Instead, engage people, listening carefully and going the extra mile to answer their questions. Don’t make judgments that a person is a time waster. What you are doing is planting seeds. They may not come to fruition yet, but the genuine interest that you show will pay dividends eventually. 

Cross-Marketing

Opportunities for cross-marketing are provided by other businesses in your neighborhood. Your target market members all need to purchase clothing, get their hair cut, and probably frequent health food shops as well. Each of these businesses presents opportunities for collaboration.

Make a list of all the neighborhood businesses that you believe your target market will frequent. Here are some suggestions:

• Physical Therapists
• Hair Salons
• Juice Bars
• Massage Parlors
• Chiropractors
• Spas
• Acupuncture Centers
• Cryotherapy Centers

You must now build relationships with the companies you have chosen as your targets. You want to get them sold at your gym so that they are happy to become your brand ambassadors. 

Giving people the chance to experience what you do is the best method to pique their interest. Offer the company manager and, more crucially, the staff members who will be interacting with the public, free sessions as a result. Make sure you offer a top-notch service workout that will push them to their limits without debilitating them.

Get the complementary business to prominently display a lead box on the counter once you have their support and they have had a chance to see what you do. You might recommend setting up a little exhibit with a weight bench and some dumbbells if they have the room. Include a professional sign that advertises a special offer. Offer to have a comparable display for them in your gym.

Of course, in exchange for the work the complementary business is doing on your behalf, you should be giving them leads. One campaign I ran that was successful was giving members a $50 hair salon gift card after they had finished their first 10 workouts. A 7-day complimentary gym membership was being offered to customers of the hair salon in the same strip mall as my club after every ten haircuts. We continued to promote each other for years because it was such a successful move for both of us.

As well as the types of businesses we’ve already identified, I recommend approaching fast food joints and restaurants. I’ve been successful in working with neighborhood eateries. After overindulging in dessert, it’s natural for people to begin to feel bad. The best time to introduce them to your gym services is at that point.

Signage

One of your key marketing goals is to cut through the haze of imagery that people are exposed to and get your message into their consciousness. To do that you need to expose them to your message as frequently and in as many different ways as possible. Signs are an effective tool to help you do that. 

In addition to your building signage, consider having some form of monument signage. If your gym is part of a strip mall or there are several other businesses in your area, approach them to go in with you for the cost of a monument sign that features all of the businesses. Your portion should include an enticing offer and a call to action.

Small real estate sized signs can also help get your message out there. These can be effective drivers of traffic to the gym on weekends when you’re offering a special deal. Put them out early on Saturday morning and collect them on Sunday night. Again, make sure that you have a clear offer with a call to action on the sign. 

You can also benefit from the services of a sign spinner. These are the people who stand at traffic lights and perform all sorts of juggling and spinning tricks with a sign in their hands. When you’re sitting at the lights, it’s pretty hard to ignore a sign spinner. Thousands of people will be sitting at that red light every day, giving you a ton of potential exposure. 

A little tip that I benefited from was to employ a guy who is in great shape, with a defined muscular body, to spin your sign at peak traffic hour with no shirt on. You can offer him a free membership or make some other pro bono deal. The combination of his great shape and your great offer will definitely get people to take action. 

Submit Press Releases

One of the best forms of advertising for your gym is to get yourself featured in local newspapers, magazines, or other publications. This type of unpaid promotion has more power because it is seen as being from a neutral third party. The best way to get yourself featured in these publications is to send out press releases.

Many publications will have a submit press release button on the ‘contact us’ page of their website. If they don’t, simply send them an email. Your message needs to tell an interesting story about your business. It should follow a set formula to get read and to engage the interest of the editor who receives it. Here’s what your press release needs to include:

1. The words ‘Press Release’ and the date.
2. Your company logo.
3. An attention-grabbing headline.
4. An intro paragraph that gets your pitch across in 25 words or less.
5. Development of the story in the next two paragraphs with key facts.
6. A quote from your key spokesperson.
7. A body paragraph with more key information.
8. A closing quote that naturally concludes the story.
9. The word ‘Ends.’
10. Your contact details. 
11. Notes to the editor.

The notes to the editor could include a short history of the gym, statistics or market demographics, and links to other articles or reports. 

Here are some ideas that you can build your press release around:

• The gym’s anniversary
• Remodeling/extensions
• Member accomplishments
• Fitness trends
• New workout programs
• Seasonal fitness or wellness advice
• Local sponsored events

Vehicle Wrapping

Vehicle wrapping is a powerful yet underutilized form of small business marketing. A wrapped car provides you with a mobile billboard that is at work 24/7, 365 days a year. Large format printing on vehicles is surprisingly cost-effective. You can expect to pay around $2000 for a professionally done, stunning car wrap. That is a one-time investment that will soon pay for itself.

An average wrapped vehicle gets 30,000-70,000 impressions per day. You will struggle to find an advertising medium that reaches that many eyes that quickly. Park the vehicle in high-traffic areas where your potential members are likely to gather. This could be the local farmer’s market, a local sports event, or a concert.

Here is what should be displayed on your wrapped vehicle:

• Gym Branding
• Phone number
• Email address

Promotional Items

Paying to have your branding and contact information put on promotional items is an age-old method of marketing that still works. The obvious items are t-shirts, pins, and coffee mugs. But one that I have focused on in the past is coasters. 

Coasters are small round pieces of cardboard that are used in restaurants and bars to place glasses on. Typically the advertising on these coasters is related to a brewery company. But imagine if you were to provide the most popular restaurant in your area with branded coasters that had your highly attractive offer along with contact details on them. Every person who ate and drank at that restaurant would have direct exposure to the offer – and they’re getting it at a time when they’ve got time to take it in. When we’re waiting for our meal, we’re more likely to absorb and think about the messages that we are confronted with. Branded coasters allow you to get them thinking about your business.

Keep the message direct. Here is what I used with the coasters I delivered to the restaurant near my gym …

“2 Weeks FREE Membership!”

Then I added my gym logo, phone number, and QR code. 

Even though all of the marketing strategies you use will work together to prompt a person to come in or call, you will still get people who are directly prompted by restaurant coasters. I had 1-2 people per week who specifically mentioned the coasters when asked what prompted their visit. 

Direct Mail

Direct mail is one of the oldest marketing methods. When done right it is still as effective as it has ever been. During the period that I was managing a gym, direct mail was the second source of new members, second only to referrals. To get the most out of your direct mail marketing campaign, though, you need to organize it well. Here are the areas you need to be on top of:

Mailing Distribution

Your direct mailing campaign should cover a three miles radius from your gym location. You should plan on distributing about 5000 mailers. Alternatively, you could target your mailing to a specific group of people. For instance, you may have been a sponsor of a local marathon. Having collected contact details of the event participants, send out a direct mailer offer that is couched as a congratulatory reward for their success in completing the marathon.

I recommend doing a three-stage mail drop over 90 days. . You should distribute three separate messages throughout that time.

An introductory or warm-up message ought to be sent as the first message. However, it should still include a call to action. The call to action in the second communication will be a little stronger. The third message will be based on FOMO and will emphasize scarcity and not missing out.

Compelling Offer

Rather than simply advertising that you exist, your direct mail campaign needs to be built around a compelling offer. Whether it’s a 14-day free trial or a 30 percent price slash, it needs to be something that will cause the recipient of the mailer to sit up and pay attention. 

You should also add an expiration date to your offer to give the recipient a boost to take action now. 

Call to Action

The wording of your mailer should include a call to action that includes the words ‘Call Today!’ Your goal is to get the recipient of the mailer to phone or come into the gym. Make that clear without cluttering up the mailer with too much wording. Keep the message simple with an amazing offer and a specific call to action. 

Your direct mailer should include a QR code and a dedicated phone line. This will connect it to your online marketing and make it easier for you to monitor the results of the campaign. 

Be Prepared for the Response

I know of more than one gym that sent out direct mail flyers to the local community and started getting people calling in and phoning but had no coordinated response. The end result was disappointing. Imagine a person who receives a flier inviting them to join the gym at a 40 percent discount, then rings up only to talk to a person who has no idea about the offer and isn’t prepared to transition the interested person into an appointment. That caller would immediately get a bad impression and would probably decide to pull the plug.

The point here is that for your direct mail campaign to work your whole team needs to be plugged into it. They all need to be excited and every person who potentially answers the phone or greets a person coming through the front door should be ready with a well-prepared and rehearsed script to transition the person to the next stage. Have training sessions where your staff practice the script so they can deliver not a canned reading of words but a second nature relating of key information to enthuse and engage the potential member. 

When people call, your goal will be to make an appointment within 48 hours, while their enthusiasm is still high. 

Track the Results

You should be monitoring the results of all of your marketing efforts. When it comes to direct marketing, you should have a system in place where all incoming calls and inquiries from the campaign are recorded, along with the appointments and conversions.

Fliers

Fliers are a form of direct marketing that typically involves placing your advertising message under the car windscreen of potential clients. They can also be handed out at local events. Fliers are read more frequently than direct mail that lands in a person’s mailbox. 

Fliers present a single-page, easy-to-read message. They are attention-grabbing and immediate. They’re also easy to design and relatively cost-effective. 

Here are some tips to get the most bang for your buck from a flier campaign.

• Use a headline that gets your key message across in as few words as possible while also being attention-grabbing. 
• Add a call to action in the heading – here’s an example – Get 2 weeks free at Joe’s Gym Today!
• Keep it very short, using bullet points rather than full sentences. 
• Brand the flier with your logo and contact information.
• Finish with another strong call to action.
• Don’t mix up too many colors – keep with your brand logo colors.
• Vary the font sizes for the heading, subheading, and body text.
• Use a single, compelling image.
• Distribute your fliers at trade shows, sporting events, and industry gatherings.
• Leave a stack of fliers at restaurants, hair salons, juice bars, etc.
• Place flyers under windscreens within a three miles radius of your gym’s location. 

Summary

Confining your marketing efforts to online avenues is a big mistake. Offline marketing may be old-fashioned but, when integrated with your online efforts, it can still play a major role in getting more eyes on your gym’s message. Remember that all of your marketing arms need to be seen as parts of a whole. When online and offline marketing is streamlined with the same message and the same branding, your target audience will be constantly seeing the same message reinforced. 

Marketers tell us that it takes an average of seven contact points with your message before a person takes action. The offline marketing strategies we’ve covered will help boost those contacts. Here’s a reminder of the eight strategies:

• Local Events
• Cross Marketing
• Signage
• Submit Press Releases
• Vehicle Wrapping
• Promotional Items
• Direct Mail
• Flyers

Aim to have three or four of these offline strategies running concurrently with your online marketing, The combination of these efforts will maximize your target market exposure, providing you with a steady stream of interest.