Author: Kathryn Dressler

While the fitness landscape is always evolving, there’s no doubt the coronavirus crisis accelerated the adoption of the hybrid model and changed the face of the fitness industry forever. And despite ongoing concerns regarding the coronavirus and how it will continue to impact businesses and society at large, the collective interest in health and fitness remains at an all-time high.

With Q4’21 looming just around the corner, now is the perfect time to review your current marketing plan to gauge the success of this year’s marketing campaigns in order to gain a better understanding of strengths and weaknesses, and to identify areas of improvement that you’d like to focus on next year.

And although the negative financial impact of the pandemic has led many fitness businesses to reconsider their marketing budgets, it’s imperative that you continue marketing your fitness center in order to differentiate yourself from competitors, reach and attract new potential customers, and keep current gym members engaged.  

5 Fitness Marketing Ideas for Your Gym

It can be challenging to figure out where to allocate your marketing budget and resources, especially during uncertain times like these. Below, we’ve provided five fitness marketing ideas to help you optimise your digital presence and effectively reach your target audience.

1. Utilise targeted advertising

As of 2021, the number of people using social media is over 3.96 billion worldwide. With the average consumer now spending an unprecedented amount of time online, utilising targeted advertising is one of the most effective ways to reach your target audience. And, fortunately, there are a number of tools at your disposal to make it easier than ever. In addition to being the world’s most widely used social media platform with an active user count close to 2.8 billion, Facebook also offers a comprehensive targeting solution to ensure you’re getting your content in front of the right users. 

2. Invest in digital content marketing

Outbound marketing is the old way of doing business. With more people turning to their digital devices to interact with fitness brands and to search for exercise videos, at-home workout routines, fitness tips and the like, many fitness businesses are shifting their marketing efforts to focus on digital content creation. Considering content marketing can generate over three times as many leads as outbound marketing—and costs approximately 62% less—it’s pretty clear why investing in content marketing makes sense for fitness businesses.

3. Promote your digital offerings

Digital fitness is in, and it doesn’t look like that will be changing anytime soon. Even as social distancing and other mandates are being lifted, many people have come to prefer the flexibility that at-home workouts provide. To remain competitive in today’s digital landscape, you’ll need to invest in digital content creation (as we touched on in #2) and invest the time required to develop strategic marketing campaigns that highlight your digital offerings. 

4. Update your social media marketing strategy

Social media platforms are always evolving to meet the needs of their users, so it’s important to review your social media marketing plan throughout the year to make sure it’s updated to reflect the current environment and trends. Staying up to date on new social marketing tools and features will help you create more effective, tailored marketing campaigns to engage your target audience.

5. Create a seamless experience

The user experience plays a vital role in the online customer journey, and it directly impacts consumer purchase decisions. Today’s consumers are time-sensitive and expect to be able to locate what they need quickly, easily and without interruption. Any delay, glitch or interruption in your online services can cause potential customers to lose interest quickly, or even develop a negative association with your brand.

Conclusion

Let’s face it—the pandemic has changed the fitness industry as we once knew it. And while you may be tempted to cut back on marketing your fitness center during uncertain times, investing in online marketing is an investment in your future success. In today’s increasingly digital world, fitness businesses need to meet potential customers where they are—online.

To learn how EZFacility’s suite of marketing tools can help you attract new potential customers and nurture leads throughout the buying process to grow your fitness center, click here to schedule a free demo today!

Being a fitness entrepreneur can offer a myriad of benefits—it allows you to create a career that aligns with your values, dictate your own schedule, choose who you want to work with, build a network of like-minded individuals, and it gives you control over important business decisions.

But while owning and operating your own company can be extremely rewarding, being the person who’s ultimately responsible for whether your business succeeds or fails is a heavy burden to carry alone, and it can have a significant impact on your mental health. In addition to harming you personally, mental health problems can also negatively impact your business by hindering productivity, impacting relationships, and negatively affecting company culture.

In this blog, we’ll cover some of the common stressors fitness entrepreneurs face during their careers, why it’s so important to start talking more openly about mental health, and how to build a support network.  

Entrepreneurial Stress

Those who choose the entrepreneurial path tend to know they will face stress and pressure throughout their careers, but COVID-19 upended day-to-day life, global industry, and the world as we once knew it. The fitness industry was hit particularly hard, and many brick-and-mortar facilities were forced to close permanently, while others are still scrambling to adapt and survive in the post-pandemic era.

It’s been an especially tumultuous time for most businesses, but even more so for fitness entrepreneurs who must navigate the obstacles and changing landscape largely on their own. The high level of stress that comes with running your own business can have a dramatic impact on your physical mental health—and, if not managed appropriately—can lead to burnout, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and more.

Below are a few examples of common challenges fitness entrepreneurs face:

1. Assuming multiple roles

When you run your own business, it’s oftentimes necessary to take on multiple roles, especially when you’re first starting out. But when you’re doing everything on your own, it’s easy to become overwhelmed, stressed and burnt out. If you have a team of employees, it’s critical to learn how to delegate so you can focus on the high-level priorities.

2. Financial burdens

Financial management is a part of every business, and paying close attention to your finances is key to staying in operation. Staying on top of your finances to ensure you’re in the green can be extremely stressful and time-consuming, so it’s important to establish a process for how you plan to manage the books and as well as how you will tackle financial pressures head-on.    

3. Loneliness

Research shows that many entrepreneurs struggle with mental health issues—and many try to keep it to themselves.

Without a proper support network in place, entrepreneurs who struggle with mental health issues can experience feelings of isolation and loneliness, as well as depression, anxiety and a number of other health issues.

Making Your Mental Health a Priority

Running a business can be overwhelming, but trying to deal with everything on your own can be very detrimental to your physical health and mental health. It’s important to be open and honest with those close to you, and to seek external guidance if you’re struggling with any mental health problems.

In order for your business to be the best it can be, you need to be the best you can be, too—and that means making yourself and your health a top priority.

In case you haven’t already heard the big news—we’re excited to share that we’re rolling out a major user interface (UI) redesign on May 1! Featuring a responsive, modern design across devices, our new UI offers an intuitive edge and solution to workflow challenges fitness businesses have been struggling to address since the pandemic upended the industry as we once knew it. And our latest investment doesn’t end with design—the upgrade also includes a new hosting partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

By now, we’ve all seen the extent to which COVID-19 has disrupted the fitness industry—from the physical landscape where people work out, to the needs and expectations consumers have regarding how fitness businesses should package and deliver products and services. To address these new challenges, we chose to invest more heavily into technology in order to create an all-in-one, seamless solution that addresses our customers’ unique operational needs.

“Many of our users are on-the-go admins who rely on our software to provide time-saving solutions. The latest interface updates are fully responsive, require fewer clicks to accomplish tasks, and are packaged into a clean, intuitive dashboard. This helps ensure we continue to lead from the front and provide our clients with the tools they need to excel in a new landscape,” says Bryant Strozinsky, President of EZFacility.

The UI redesign carries over the same functionality users are familiar with, while also introducing simplified processes and expanded capabilities. Features in the latest update include, but are not limited to: memberships, packages, scheduling, email campaigns, check-in, documents, reports, and settings.

The transition to Amazon Web Services prioritises client data security and increases site speed, with AWS boasting a reliable 99% uptime rate. “With built-in, unlimited storage capacity our clients can spend more time building out their operations without worrying about typical associated costs. Moving forward with AWS puts our development team in an excellent position to incorporate cutting-edge tools and integrations like Machine Learning into our software in the future,” adds Michael Vidal, Director of Research and Development at EZFacility.

As of May 1st, EZFacility will train and onboard all new users to the latest interface. Current clients will have the opportunity to enroll in an Early Access Program through the summer which will allow them to toggle back and forth between the previous and updated dashboards. EZFacility will permanently transition all users to the new interface by May 2022.

For additional information about our new UI launch, or to schedule a personalized product tour, click here.