Author: Kathryn Dressler

As we kick off the new year, it’s critical to have your gym’s 2023 fitness marketing plan in place—or, at least in the works—as well as your updated fitness content calendar.

While creating your annual fitness marketing plan is no easy feat—it’s worth investing the time upfront to think through and develop a comprehensive plan of action to serve as the roadmap to guide all of your marketing efforts for the year ahead and keep everyone on the same page.

When utilised correctly, fitness newsletters have the ability to transform leads into paying customers, upsell your current customers, and re-engage lapsed members—all while simultaneously building up brand authority and improving brand loyalty

A newsletter also helps you build a brand personality and familiarity, making you instantly recognisable in a crowded inbox. By creating and sending regular newsletters, you are keeping your fitness brand at the top of your customer’s minds. You’re building a relationship that other brands aren’t.

So, no matter what type of fitness business you run, let’s jump into how you can craft the perfect fitness newsletter for your audience.

Do I really need a fitness newsletter?

In the age of social media, you may be wondering if you really need to bother with fitness newsletters anymore? The short answer is, yes.

While some marketers may think email is dead—the statistics prove otherwise.

Don’t let contemporary communication methods distract you from one of the oldest, yet most effective strategies—email marketing. In fact, email marketing boasts the highest ROI of any marketing channel.

Here are some other staggering email marketing statistics for you to consider: 

• Email marketing is 40x more effective at acquiring customers than Facebook and Twitter combined
• 50% of people buy from marketing emails at least once per month
• Nearly 22% of all email campaigns are opened within the first hour of sending
• 59% of respondents say that marketing emails have influenced their purchases

Another huge benefit to using email to communicate with members is nearly everyone uses email.

So, yes–regardless of the size of your gym or fitness facility, you should absolutely have an email marketing plan in place and you should be utilising gym newsletters correctly and effectively. 

Best practices for fitness newsletters

To create an effective fitness newsletter, there are some best practices and key considerations to keep in mind.

Define your goals & objectives

Starting with a clear understanding of your goals and objectives is critical to the success of your email campaigns.

You’ll want to define the specific goal of each fitness newsletter you send as that will drive the content and design, as well as the relevancy to your recipients.

Identify your target audience

If you want to engage your audience, you need to know about them—for example, their likes, interests and other demographic data. By understanding who you’re talking to, you can create tailored content to pique interest and maximize engagement.

Segment your email lists

Segmenting your email lists can take some time, but it’s necessary to ensure the right content is going to the right people.

Segmentation places subscribers into more specific lists based on their interests, whereas personalisation entails using the recipient’s name, or reaching out to them on their birthday or to celebrate other milestones.

Sometimes general information newsletters are appropriate to send to your entire distribution list, but you’ll want to proceed with caution. If you send too many emails that aren’t relevant to the recipients, you risk getting blocked or even reported for spam. 

Determine distribution frequency

After you’ve defined your goals and identified your target audience, you’ll want to create a distribution plan that outlines the emails you plan to send, what you plan to include, and when you plan to send them.

Consistency is key, so outlining your dates and topics in advance will help you avoid the last-minute scramble.

It’s important to be realistic with the goals you set, so if you’re just starting, consider sending one or two emails per month—you can always increase the frequency later.

Design your templates

To make things a bit easier on yourself, consider creating several templates to use for different audiences and purposes. The templates and features available to you will vary by your service provider.

Keep in mind that the templates you create will be the foundation of your email marketing campaigns, so it’s important to ensure your branding and tone is consistent in order to build trust and familiarity with your audience. 

How to write an effective fitness newsletter

The primary purpose of a fitness newsletter is to keep your members informed, connected and engaged with your facility—but to do so, you’ll have to catch their attention first, and then keep them engaged.

Write snappy, attention-grabbing headlines

The subject line is one of the most important parts of your email. We’re all busy people, and most recipients will make a snap judgment whether or not to read your email based on the headline alone. To entice readers to open your email, your headline should be a balance between being informative and intriguing.

Include high-quality, captivating visuals

Visuals are the first thing we look for, so the reader’s eye will be immediately drawn to whatever visuals you include. Using rich imagery is a great way to highlight an essential point and keep your readers engaged. But it’s important to find the right balance between text and imagery because using too many images will increase your load times and risk losing the reader’s interest.

Make your text scannable

The simplicity of your fitness newsletters is key to their readability. The majority of your subscribers will open your emails on their mobile devices, and long blocks of text can quickly cause readers to lose interest. Break up your content into shorter, more digestible chunks.

Include a clear call-to-action

If you want recipients to take specific action after reading your email, tell them. Guide your readers to a clear call-to-action button so they understand the purpose of your newsletter, and make it easy for them to do what you’d like.

Optimise for mobile devices

The vast majority of your subscribers will likely be reading your fitness newsletters on their phones or other mobile devices. For this reason, you want to make sure your template is optimised for mobile use to provide a seamless user experience.

Include important links

Don’t forget to tell subscribers where you need them to go (and make sure the link works)!

Something as simple as a missing, broken or easily overlooked link can make a huge difference.

Content ideas for your gym newsletter

When defining your email marketing content strategy, it’s important to plan and map out content ideas that will be timely, relevant and important to members throughout the year.

Try to limit your e-newsletter content to two or three topics, with about 200 words of descriptive text per topic.

Here are some email marketing content ideas to get you started:

Facility news

Your gym newsletter is the perfect opportunity to share facility news and updates, exciting announcements, and other general news or developments with your members.

Help keep members in the loop and informed about new classes, class schedules, staff changes, and anything else that may help them feel connected.

Showcase staff members

People relate to people. You can help build trust, comfortability, and nurture relationships by showcasing staff members in your fitness newsletters.

Interview different staff members and ask them to share the story of their personal journey, what keeps them motivated, their favourite workouts, and other information your members may find relatable.

Diet & nutrition tips

Nutrition is probably the most crucial thing for balanced health and fitness—because staying fit and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is not easy.

Ask your personal trainers, nutritionists, or health coaches to lend their expertise and share some of their favourite tips, tricks, or links to their favourite healthy recipes.  

Special offers & promotions

Are you running a promotion on personal training services? Do you have a membership drive coming up? 

Don’t forget to let your customers know! 

Class schedules & registration links

Do your classes change from week to week? How often do you add new options?

Keep members in the loop by providing a detailed class schedule. Make it easy for members to access up-to-date class schedules and registration links.

Scheduling information is especially important for gyms that rely on drop-in attendance or class punch cards, as members may need to be reminded of classes to keep attendance up.

Upcoming events

Promote upcoming events by including a brief event overview and link to the social media pages, or the website registration page.

You can also share a post-event recap that includes a brief summary, a list of noteworthy attendees or sponsors, and a few select photos.

Client success stories & customer testimonials

Help keep motivation high by sharing member success stories—include before and after pictures, discuss their weight loss journey, and provide additional information to help your readers believe they can achieve their fitness goals, too.  

This is also a perfect opportunity to work in some testimonial marketing by asking readers to submit their own success stories, provide feedback, or leave a review.

Customer reviews and testimonials are a powerful way to showcase results, build trust, demonstrate your ability to deliver an exceptional member experience, and offer social proof that you’re able to help clients achieve their goals.

Fitness industry news & events

Share the latest industry news, events, videos and happenings with your subscribers.

Not only is this a great way to keep your content relevant and timely, but it also helps establish your credibility.

Motivational quotes & images

Who doesn’t love ‘em?

Keep things light and help members stay motivated by including some of your favourite motivational quotes or imagery. 

Multi-Channel Outreach

Reach current and prospective members with multi-channel messaging. Use email to schedule informative branded content. Employ text messaging to deliver quick, relevant information within seconds. 

Template Library

Save time on design to focus on high-quality messaging. Choose from 500+ customisable email templates to kick-start your outreach. Select, edit, and apply templates to automated campaigns. 

Advanced Messaging

Create advanced email campaigns to develop new customer relationships or nurture leads throughout the buying process. With instant sending options you can ensure delivery when contacts are most likely to engage.

Targeted Campaigns

Increase the efficiency of your email and text messaging campaigns with targeted marketing. Send emails and messages to all contacts or apply filters to create specific cohorts. 

In-Depth Reporting

Use in-depth reporting to track, measure, and optimise campaign performance. Report on client referrals, lead conversions, promotion engagement, bounced emails, and more.

Optimise Lead Touch Points

Boost sales with increased lead touchpoints. Meet your prospects with the messaging they need at just the right time. Create more opportunities for inquiries and engagement with calls-to-action that move contacts through your funnel. 

Conclusion

When utilised effectively, a fitness newsletter can be one of the most useful, efficient and cost-effective marketing tools at your disposal.

Did you know EZFacility can help automate and improve your email marketing campaigns from one intuitive, responsive platform?

EZFacility’s full suite of marketing tools makes it easy to customise and send advanced email marketing campaigns to develop new customer relationships or nurture leads throughout the buying process.

With automated email and text message functionality—you can ensure your clients receive the right information at the most opportune time.

Want to learn more? Schedule a free, no-commitment demo and product tour today.

According to the IHRSA, 81% of health and fitness businesses fail within their first year but despite this the fitness industry continues to grow.

In fact, projected revenue for the U.S. fitness industry is expected to reach £356.87 billion by the end of 2028, representing annual growth of 33.10% from 2021-2028.

Have you been wondering how to increase gym revenue and take profits to the next level? Owning a gym can be a very lucrative business venture, but only if you understand how to turn gym revenues into profits.

The good news is you don’t need a financial expert to understand the foundation of gym valuations. We know it can all be a bit overwhelming, so in this blog we’ll cover the basics of assessing gym profitability and what you can do to lower costs and increase revenue, thereby also improving profitability. 

How to evaluate profitability

Did you know your business can show a profit without actually being profitable?

When you do your quarterly financial reports, you may show a profit at the end of a quarter which effectively means your gym made more money than you spent. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re bringing in enough income to remain in operations for the long haul.

This is why it’s important to understand the difference between profit and profit margins.

How to calculate gross profit

Gross profit (also referred to as gross income) is the amount of revenue left after subtracting the cost of goods and services (COGS). To calculate your gym’s gross profit, you’ll need to calculate the total amount of earnings, in addition to the cost of selling your products and services.

Then take your total sales revenue for a designated period of time, which is typically either by month, quarter or year and subtract total expenses. What’s left is your gross profit.

Total revenue – total expenses = gross profit 

How to calculate net profit

The major difference between gross profit and net profit is that the latter also accounts for the cost of operations. For example rent, utilities, wages, salaries, insurance etc. And subtracts those from total revenue.

For this reason, net profit is a more precise assessment of a gym’s profitability, but gross profit is still a suitable calculation to give you a general idea of your gym’s performance.

How to calculate gross profit margin

A gross profit margin is a metric for analysing sales. And although gross profit will show whether or not your gym is running in the black, it won’t tell you if you’re getting enough return on your expenses to stay viable. For this, you must calculate and consider your gym’s gross profit margin.

To calculate the gross profit margin, take your gross profit and divide it by total revenue to get a percentage.

Gross profit ÷ total revenue = gross profit margin

Example:

Let’s suppose your gym made £50,000 in total revenue last month and your total expenses were £30,000, leaving you with a profit of £20,000. Divide the £20,000 profit by £50,000 in income to get a profit margin of 40%.  

£50,000 – £30,000 = £20,000 gross profit

To calculate your gym’s gross profit margin, divide net profit by revenue:

£20,000 ÷ £50,000 = 0.4

Finally, multiply your gross profit by 100 to determine your gross profit margin percentage:

0.4 x 100% = 40% net profit margin

Your gym’s profit margin is one of the biggest key performance indicators (KPI) because it shows how much return you get from the money you’re spending. The larger the percentage, the more profitable the business is.

Most gyms will have a sales mix, meaning they sell multiple products and services. Therefore it can be helpful to calculate the margin mix for all products and services individually, as this calculation can help you determine which are the most profitable. 

How to increase your gym profit margin 

Profitability is the difference between your gym’s revenue and expenses. If your revenue is higher than your expenses, your gym is considered profitable. Conversely, if your expenses are greater than your revenue, your gym is not profitable.

Most gyms typically have diversified income streams, meaning they bring in revenue from a variety of sources. This includes memberships, class fees, personal training fees, as well as apparel, food, drinks or supplements.

Your expenses account for all the costs you pay to keep your gym in operation. This includes rent, utilities, staff, equipment, marketing, and more.

Generally speaking, one of the fastest and easiest ways to increase profitability is by lowering costs which could include anything from your utility bill to the costs associated with hiring and firing staff.

With the competitive market also anticipated to continue growing rapidly, it’s imperative for gym owners to be proactive about improving profitability. Fortunately, there are a number of steps you can take today to give your gym’s bottom line a boost.

Here are three examples:

Streamline operations

Gym management software—also referred to as membership management software, a facility management system, or a gym software solution—is a platform of tools that will centralise and streamline your gym’s operations. In other words, gym management software serves as a central hub for gym owners to better manage and oversee their facilities finances, staff, memberships and more.

Value-based pricing

One of the most obvious ways to increase your gym’s revenue is to increase the cost of your memberships. In addition to bumping up revenue, it can also boost the perceived value of the membership.

What you’ll need to keep in mind however, is that this only works if you deliver on that added value; otherwise this strategy could have the opposite effect and lead to a loss of members.

Add revenue streams

Some of your clients will want personal training, while others will want group classes and within those classes, you’ll need a range of levels.

Why not provide both, but limit the numbers in your group classes? Your best clients will pay more because they are receiving more personal attention than they otherwise would in a larger group class.

You might also want to consider adding new types of classes or increasing the number of your most popular classes. To figure out which are the most profitable, you can calculate the gross profit margin for each.

Conclusion

For a gym owner to be successful in today’s increasingly competitive fitness market, it’s imperative to get on board with the shift to digitisation and to invest in a gym management system that can accommodate changing business needs, in addition to the needs of employees and consumers.

Why not get started today?

Give us a call and try EZFacility for free! 

Whether you’re looking to spread the word about your fitness club’s grand opening (or a new product or service offering), add additional streams of revenue, increase your social media presence, or build brand awareness, fitness events are a fun way gym owners can promote their facility and any summer promotions they may be offering.

Why Host Fitness Events?

As a fitness club owner, strategically incorporating multiple revenue streams is the best way to create a solid foundation for financial success. Fitness events also help build a sense of community, which will keep current members engaged while also attracting new ones. Additionally, posting about your upcoming event on social media will help generate brand awareness and build your online presence.

Fun Fitness Event Ideas

When deciding which event ideas are the best fit for you, be sure to consider your target audience, goals, and budget to ensure you’re hosting events that your current members will love to keep them engaged, while also attracting new potential members.

Looking for some creative event ideas for the summer? Start here.

1.   Socials

Socials give your members and potential members a chance to connect and interact with each other, with the primary goal being to nurture bonds and build a sense of community. Socials create a space for connections so your local community can grow in and outside of your fitness club. Types of social events can include a special after-hours personal training session for a select group, a non-alcoholic night out, or a healthy eating event.

2.   Pop-up fitness class

A pop-up fitness class gives gym owners a way to generate buzz in a new location or with a new class offering. These types of events can attract a new demographic, spread awareness in previously untapped locations and generate more brand awareness. Consider using parks or other public spaces by arranging partnerships with local businesses.

3.   One-off free fitness class

If you’re getting ready to launch a new fitness class or just hired a new instructor, consider offering a one-off free fitness class event. It’s a great way to give potential members an experience with your gym before they commit to a membership. You can invite influencers from the local community to your launch event to generate more buzz around your new class or fitness instructor.

4.   Workout challenges

Workout challenges are a fun way to keep members engaged and working toward their fitness goals. They help your members set challenging yet realistic goals within a time specified timeframe—and when participants start to see the physical results, they’ll also start to associate your fitness club with success and be more motivated to keep coming back. Workout challenges are also a great way for gym owners to generate new leads, increase referrals, and assist in building long term relationships with clients and the local community.

5.   Health and fitness retreats

Health and fitness retreats are growing sectors. They do require more planning and monetary investment, but they can generate a steady stream of income for gym owners. Yoga retreats, mindfulness breaks, and weekends away give your members the opportunity to connect with your fitness club on a personal level and elevate the brand. Fitness retreats can target current gym members and non-members, and can be held at locations all over the world.

Conclusion

Whether you’re looking to create a buzz around a launch, generate additional revenue streams, or build brand awareness—the possibilities are endless when planning fun summer fitness events! With a thorough understanding of your target audience, goals, and budget, you can create a fitness event that your current gym members love, while also attracting new members and building stronger relationships within your local community.

We all know there are gyms and health clubs all over the place–and, at their core, they all offer essentially the same thing: a place to work out and improve physical health. With so much variety among competitors, it can be challenging to figure out how to attract potential clients and retain your existing ones.

To remain competitive, it’s important to stand out rather than to fit in. So, what can you do to differentiate your gym from competitors?

Read on to learn four ways you can make your gym shine and stand out amongst your competitors.

1.    Focus on the Member Experience

In today’s increasingly digital world, ensuring a positive member experience is more important than ever. A great customer experience provides your business with a competitive edge, improves customer satisfaction and customer engagement, and helps you attract potential clients. Conversely, a bad experience has the opposite effect, and can quickly lead people to cancel their memberships, or leave negative reviews online and on social media.

The experience you provide is what makes your gym unique, and it’s what attracts people to your products or services over your competitors. Providing a great member experience gives you a competitive edge, and it’s critical to creating a positive association with your brand, and building a community of loyal, engaged members.

The member experience begins at the first point of contact with customers and encompasses all the touch points throughout the customer journey. To ensure you’re providing a positive member experience, you need to continuously offer exceptional customer support, anticipate customers’ needs and expectations, and make your members feel like your gym offers something they can’t get anywhere else.

2.    Expand Your Digital Fitness Offerings

Online training and on-demand classes were perfect solutions for fitness businesses trying to stay afloat and generate new income streams during worldwide lockdowns and forced business closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The demand for digital and hybrid fitness options isn’t going away any time soon. Many members have grown accustomed to the flexibility, and they still want the option to go to the gym a few days a week, or to get their workouts done at home.

To stay competitive in 2022, fitness businesses should continue to focus on expanding, improving, and marketing online fitness offerings. Consumers now expect a hybrid combination of in-person and online workout options, and they want to be able to research, book services, and communicate with brands easily.

3.    Showcase Online Reviews & Member Testimonials

When it comes to business, nothing speaks louder than results. And in the fitness industry, customer reviews and testimonials are a powerful way to showcase results, build trust, demonstrate your ability to deliver an exceptional member experience, and offer social proof that you’re able to help clients achieve their goals. 

Your online presence will affect everything from how many people follow you on social media to your company’s bottom line. For fitness businesses, a positive reputation can help attract new potential clients, entice a better selection of prospective employees, create more business opportunities, improve your local search engine rankings, and more. Conversely, a negative reputation can lead to loss of sales, membership churn, high employee turnover, and other costly consequences.

When a potential client is considering making a purchase decision, they want to make the best choice—and they base their decision on which product or service appears to be superior. Nearly 90% of consumers worldwide make an effort to read reviews before buying products, and 86% of customers rely on word of mouth recommendations and online reviews. These statistics illustrate the importance of your online reputation and digital footprint, as well the impact of positive reviews.

4.    Streamline Operations

Gym management software continues to grow in popularity given its ability to increase efficiency and productivity, reduce the risk of human error, save time and money, and enhance the member experience. On top of that, the low upfront cost structure of a cloud-based software solution makes it a financially attractive option for fitness businesses of all sizes.

Gym management software—also sometimes referred to as membership management software, a facility management system, or a gym software solution—is a platform of tools that will centralise and streamline your facility’s operations.

Gym software makes it easy for members to update payment information, pay outstanding balances, view your calendar, schedule sessions, purchase packages or memberships, register their kids for summer camp or soccer clinics, and more—all online, and all on their own.

Conclusion

For a gym owner to be successful in today’s business climate, it’s imperative to get onboard with the fitness industry’s shift to digital, and to invest in a gym management system that can accommodate changing business needs, in addition to the needs of employees and members.

To learn how EZFacility’s comprehensive gym management software can help you easily connect with members and potential clients, convert leads into long-lasting relationships, and streamline operations so you can focus on the most important aspects of running your business, schedule a free demo and personalised product tour today.

Workout challenges are a fun way to keep members engaged and working toward their fitness goals. They help your members set challenging yet realistic goals within a time specified timeframe—and when participants start to see the physical results, they’ll also start to associate your fitness facility with success and be more motivated to keep coming back.

From a fitness business standpoint, workout challenges are also a great way to generate new leads, increase referrals, and assist in building long term relationships with clients.

Key Considerations When Designing Workout Challenges

When it comes to workout challenges, the opportunities are limitless. You can choose to structure them any way you’d like, and it’s a great way to keep your online and offline customers engaged. 

Here are some key considerations to keep in mind:

• Once you set your duration for each challenge, be sure it’s communicated clearly to participants so they know what to expect.
• Promote your workout challenges on your social media pages to generate buzz and encourage more sign ups. 
• Results can be tracked using a mobile app, gym software, or your staff can create a leaderboard and manually enter results. Participants can take pictures of their results, if need be.
• An individual challenge has members working toward a set goal, such as running 100 within a certain time frame. Rewards are typically smaller with individual challenges since every participant could be a winner.
• A competitive challenge has members compete against each other. Since awards are usually tiered and given in the order in which participants finish, rewards are usually larger.
• Once you determine how many people will be rewarded for participating in your workout challenges, you must decide what the reward(s) will be. Popular rewards include free swag, a personal training session, or a discount on membership.

Read on to learn six of the most popular types of workout challenges.

Six Popular Workout Challenges

So, which workout challenges are best for your fitness facility? The great news is that you can structure them however you’d like—feel free to create your own, or pull inspiration from the examples outlined below:

1. Most Club Visits

Most Club Visits is an easy challenge to set up and run, and there’s no better way to incentivise your members to come in as much as possible than with a total check-ins challenge.

2. Improve Your Personal Best by 10%

Most people enjoy certain activities and exercises, and this type of workout challenge encourages members to work toward their long-term fitness goals by improving upon their favourite workout routines—whether that’s rowing, running, walking, or any type of lift.

To successfully run this challenge, ask everyone who wants to participate to come in on a particular day to record their best number to-date and document it.

3. Cycling Challenges

Cycling challenges work especially well for members who may not be able to run. The challenge can be based on distance traveled, the speed at which it was traveled, or the duration.

4. Running Challenges

Running challenges are one of the most common types of workout challenges because members can go at their own pace. The challenge can be based on total distance, or the speed at which a certain distance is run.

5. Rowing Challenges

Rowing is a popular workout because of its aerobic intensity and full-body training, so consider adding a rowing challenge to your repertoire. You can use the machine’s digital dashboard to set time, distance and speed challenges.

6. Calories Burned

This challenge makes the goal an end-result, so it gives your members a little more freedom to choose the exercises they’re most comfortable with.

Conclusion

Workout challenges can benefit your fitness business by improving member engagement and retention rates, generating new leads, and increasing referrals. They also benefit your members by providing a fun and competitive setting for members to pursue their fitness goals, make friends, and develop a sense of community and belonging. It’s a win:win.

What workout challenges have you held at your gym? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.

By now, we’ve all seen the extent to which COVID-19 has disrupted the fitness industry—from the physical location where people work out to the heightened expectations consumers have regarding how gyms should operate and what health and safety protocols should be in effect. 

Fitness business owners should understand that gym members’ expectations have changed dramatically since the pandemic hit. And with more fitness options than ever before—in-person workouts, online classes, and hybrid options—you need to determine your gym’s competitive advantage, and really hone in and highlight that in your marketing materials to attract new gym members, keep current members engaged, and improve member retention rates.

5 Ways to Increase Member Retention Rates in 2022

Getting new members to join your gym is only half the battle. Once new members join—how do you keep members engaged and member retention rates high?

Below are five easy strategies to give your gym retention rates a boost.

1.   Communicate health and safety protocols

With the Omicron BA.2 Subvariant sweeping across, health and safety protocols are once again top-of-mind for most gym members. Customers now expect gyms to have health and safety standards in place to minimise the transmission of COVID-19—and they want to know what specific steps you’re taking to help keep them safe and comfortable when visiting your gym.

Consider creating a one-sheeter that outlines what steps your gym or health club is implementing and post it throughout your facility, ideally in highly trafficked and visible locations—for example, at the front desk, near the water fountains, on the bathroom doors, etc. You can also easily copy and paste the information from the one sheeter into a newsletter template, and send out an email blast to your database

2.   Focus on the member experience

In today’s increasingly digital world, delivering a positive member experience is more important than ever. Providing an exceptional member experience not only helps you attract new gym members—it gives your facility a competitive edge, and improves customer satisfaction and retention rates.

It’s important to remember that the member experience extends beyond just signing up members—it needs to be emulated across multiple platforms and touchpoints. Additionally, you need to understand how your members think, and what they want.

3.   The hybrid model

The hybrid gym model has become the new norm in the fitness industry. With a hybrid gym model, your digital offerings are meant to complement your brick-and-mortar operations. A hybrid gym offers the best of both worlds. It includes a combination of in-person and online workout options. For example, your gym may offer in-person exercise classes that are also live streamed or available on-demand for members who want to continue with home workouts.

Because the pandemic continues to create new challenges and restrictions on society, a hybrid fitness model puts gym owners in a more secure position to navigate the current climate, as well as future obstacles that may arise.

4.   Small Group Training

As a gym or health club owner, you’re constantly thinking about ways to keep members engaged and improve member retention rates—especially considering 50% of members quit the gym within the first six months. One solution is to provide consistent motivation.

Small group training classes are a great way for gym members to meet, interact and socialise with each other. It also helps them bond with each other, and creates a sense of belonging at your gym. When you have a community of members that are excited to come to your facility and interact with one another, it creates a better overall member experience for everyone. 

5.   Utilise gym management software

If you’re a gym owner, you already know how much time and energy it takes just to manage the day-to-day operations. From scheduling staff and fitness classes to overseeing equipment maintenance and inspections, the number of moving parts at any given time can be overwhelming.

Gym management software continues to grow in popularity given its ability to increase efficiency and productivity, improve communication, save time and money, and enhance the member experience. On top of that, the low upfront cost structure of a cloud-based software solution makes it a financially attractive option for fitness businesses of all sizes.

Conclusion

The fitness industry is still treading uncharted waters, and the pandemic will continue to impact the ways consumers engage with gyms and health clubs. During these uncertain times, maintaining ongoing communication is fundamental to attracting new gym members, as well as keeping member engagement and retention rates high.

To learn how EZFacility’s comprehensive software solution can help you create custom membership plans and effectively manage gym member relationships, schedule a free online demo or personalised product tour today.

If your background is in sports and athletic coaching, you may find yourself struggling to understand “the whole marketing thing”—let alone, which strategies and tactics you can use to effectively promote your youth football program, increase registrations and enrollments, and build stronger relationships with your team, players’ parents and the community-at-large.

But that’s why we’re here to help!

Read on to learn why building a strong, seamless online experience is more important now than ever, and three things you’ll want to keep in mind when developing a digital strategy for your youth football program. 

The Impact of COVID-19 on Youth Football

The COVID-19 pandemic completely disrupted youth football participation when local governments began imposing business closures, stay-at-home orders and social distancing policies. On top of that, online usage and mobile rates skyrocketed as more people flocked to their phones than ever before.

And now that many children and families are ready to re-engage with youth sports, it’s important to understand how the landscape has changed so you can figure out how to assist and improve future registrations and participation.

Three Ways to Build Your Youth Football Leagues Online Presence

Here’s a rundown of three things to keep in mind as you build your online presence:

1.     Keep your website up-to-date

It’s not enough to just have a website—you need to make sure your website stays up-to-date, and that it’s mobile responsive. When players’ parents are looking for youth sports programs in their area, their first stop is likely an online search engine or social media platform. To appear in searches, make sure your club is updated regularly with recent and relevant content.

Make sure you create noticeable links or buttons on your site so that players’ parents can find them easily and be able to follow them. This will also help minimise the amount of time your staff has to track down various practice schedules, tournament dates, and so forth.

2.     Use your social media accounts

Social media is an easy and free way to help parents looking for local activities to enrich their kids’ weekends and summers. Having a strong social media and online presence for your youth soccer program is important as it can extend your reach and spread information quickly.

Another easy way to build up interest in your youth football program is to regularly post photos of players, their parents, and any related events you may have. People, especially youth football players and their parents, love seeing themselves being featured in Facebook posts.

3.     Keep in touch with the community

Stay in touch with both past and present players and their parents. Use your email database to easily send reminders on the new programs, check up on the ones who have missed registrations, and let them know why they should not miss the next.

Offering incentives, referrals, or discounts for early registrations or referring new players is another effective way to give your registration numbers a boost.

The complete solution for your youth football league

Your youth football league’s path to success involves everything from facility scheduling to online registration and more.

Here are three ways our comprehensive software solution can help:

1. Registration: Provide clients the flexibility to register as a team or as individuals. Utilise online waivers and simplify fee collection with the use of registration deposits and a variety of processing options.
2. Scheduling: Generate schedules for your leagues and tournaments reflecting team preferences, venue availability, bye-weeks and tournament seeds using our automated scheduler.
3. Public Website: Provide clients real-time access to view standings, stay up to date on current league leaders, check scores and even browse through classified ads from teams looking for players.

Want to learn more? Schedule a free demo and personalised product tour today.

When you manage a sports league, the most important job during the offseason is promoting your league and securing players. The nature of your sports league will dictate your target audience and potential customers—so the first step is to figure out who they are, what they want, and what forms of marketing they’re most likely to respond to and engage with.

Once you have a solid understanding of your target audience—which, for the purposes of this blog, we’re assuming you do—you’ll be able to effectively utilise the strategies outlined below to guide your marketing efforts, as well as the tone, language and structure of your communications.

Read on to learn five quick and easy ways to increase your sports league’s online registration numbers.

1.     Organic Social Media Efforts

Consumers are more dependent on digital content than they’ve ever been in the past. In fact, one recent global study found that engagement on social media has increased 61% over regular usage rates since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Two of the hottest and most rapidly growing social media platforms you should consider using to generate more online registrations are TikTok and Instagram.

TikTok

TikTok has overtaken Google as the world’s most visited online destination, and boasts a staggering 105% user growth rate over the past two years. TikTok is a free, short-form video and social media app, and is available for download on both Apple and Android devices. The major difference between TikTok and other social media platforms like YouTub, is that TikTok is based on small, short video clips.

When utilised as a part of your larger social media marketing strategy, TikTok can be a great way to promote your sports league by creating fun video content, tapping into a niche community, and engaging with a younger demographic (if applicable to your league).

Instagram

Instagram now has over 1 billion users worldwide, and the social media giant has been shown to have a strong impact on consumer opinions. With the right approach, you can utilise your Instagram page to increase your number of followers, build meaningful connections with your audience, increase your sports league’s online registrations, and gain unfiltered feedback that you can use to evaluate the success of your league management.

2.     Paid Ads on Social Media

As of January 2022, there are 3.96 billion total social media users across all platforms. 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 that make it easier than ever, regardless of which social media platforms you choose.

3.     SMS Marketing / Text Message Marketing

Text message marketing has come a long way since the early 2000s. Today, it’s one of the most highly effective, and cost effective, marketing methods available.

With roughly 97% of people owning some type of mobile phone—and approximately 85% of mobile phone users having smart phones—everyone’s more connected, and constantly connected, than ever before. On top of that, the average text message conversion rate is 30%.

It makes sense, then, to utilise SMS marketing to promote your sports league’s online registration page. It’s also a great way to touch base with your contact base, keep them informed of any important changes or updates, and to continue building the relationship in a nonintrusive way. Keep your texts short, friendly, and informative, and be sure to let subscribers know where to find your online registration.

4.     Email Marketing

With time and resources limited, it’s understandable that you’ll want to make sure your marketing budget is being allocated wisely and effectively. You may be wondering if email marketing is really worth it, considering all the other marketing options available to businesses nowadays.

The answer is yes—and here’s why: Beyond being able to use scheduling software to create and distribute tailored email marketing campaigns to encourage more online registrations, email marketing has also been shown to be an extremely valuable tool in building upon existing relationships with customers, in addition to reaching new potential customers. 

Keep your emails short and sweet. The copy should be upbeat, visually appealing, easy to skim, and clear in nature. This applies to the subject line as well. And don’t forget to include a clear call-to-action button with a link to your sports league’s online registration page.

5.     Sports League Management Software

EZFacility’s sports league management software gives you a complete set of features bundled into one intuitive, responsive platform. Our cloud-based, comprehensive SaaS service simplifies the scheduling and management of fields, courts, leagues, tournaments, teams, coaches, memberships, and more.

Conclusion

All successful businesses—including sports leagues—are built on strong relationships. The stronger the relationship, the deeper the level of customer loyalty and repeat business.

Since successful league management is reliant upon community involvement and engagement, it’s absolutely fundamental that you clearly define—and understand—your target audience so that you can create a solid marketing plan around their needs and preferences to build long-lasting relationships. 

To learn more about EZFacility’s comprehensive sports league management, contact us today to schedule a free no-commitment demo and personalised product tour. 

According to Deloitte’s 2022 Sports Industry Outlook, the role and duty of sports in society will continue to receive increased attention, with a focus on sustainability and mental health. The study findings also predict the sports industry will continue to see an influx of money from new sources, shifting power dynamics in college sports, more widespread use of emerging technologies, and a greater focus on broader societal issues in 2022.

So even if your indoor football facility business is currently booming, it’s good business practice to always be planning for the future and to pay close attention to emerging industry trends to ensure long term success and profitability.

Read on to learn three examples of sports marketing efforts that can help build your brand, attract potential clients, boost sales, and increase your online presence and digital ranking.

Social Media Marketing

Utilising social media platforms is the fastest, cheapest and easiest way to reach your target market, drive traffic to your website, increase conversions, boost sales, and establish your brand identity and credibility.

Audiences are more dependent on digital content than they’ve ever been in the past. In fact, one recent global study found that engagement on social media has increased 61% over regular usage rates since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But it’s no longer enough for brands to just create content—to succeed in today’s digital landscape, sports marketers need to understand which social media platforms are best suited for their brand, how to create engaging content tailored to their target market, and how to deliver that content to ensure it’s actually seen by the right people.

While there’s no magic formula to dictate which social media platforms you should use or how often you should post, consistency is key. For this reason, it’s a good idea to start by focusing on one or two social media platforms at a time instead of trying to master them all. 

It’s also important to remember that social media platforms are always evolving to meet the needs of their users, so you’ll want to review your social media marketing plan throughout the year to make sure it’s updated to reflect the current industry landscape and emerging trends.

Two of the hottest and most rapidly growing social media platforms you should consider using to promote your indoor soccer facility business are TikTok and Instagram.

TikTok

If you haven’t heard by now—TikTok is a pretty big deal. So much so, that TikTok has overtaken Google as the world’s most visited online destination. TikTok is a free, short-form video and social media app, and is available for download on both Apple and Android devices. The major difference between TikTok and other social media platforms like YouTube and Vimeo, is that TikTok is based on small, short video clips.

The impact that TikTok has on consumers’ attitudes and purchase decisions is irrefutable. In fact, the social media giant’s influence is so widely acknowledged that the phrase “TikTok made me buy it” has over 4.1 billion views of the hashtag on the app.

When utilised as a part of your larger social media marketing strategy, TikTok is a highly effective way to promote your indoor soccer facility business by creating fun video content, building a niche community, and tapping into a younger demographic. 

(Read more: Why Fitness Businesses Should Be Leveraging TikTok)

Instagram

Instagram now has over 1 billion users worldwide, and 80% of Instagram users say they use the platform for help when deciding to buy a product or service. Instagram’s strong impact on consumers’ buying journey has created tremendous new growth opportunities in the digital sports marketing space.

Now more than ever, social media users want to build bonds with brands, and they’re more likely to base their buying decisions on a company’s purpose and mission. Instagram is a great way to promote a higher level of transparency, and features like Live Videos and Instagram Stories provide you with unique ways to offer behind-the-scenes looks and interesting insights into your indoor soccer facility business.

With the right approach, you can effectively utilise your Instagram page to increase your number of followers, build meaningful connections with users, and gain unfiltered consumer feedback that you can use to grow your indoor soccer facility business.

(Read more: 5 Ways to Maximize Reach on Instagram)

Text Message Marketing

Text message marketing—also referred to as SMS marketing—is when businesses send text messages to promote their products and services to consumers, provide important updates, and to maintain ongoing communication with their target market.

While text message marketing campaigns can sometimes be more expensive than email marketing campaigns—they’re typically less expensive than many paid ad options, especially on popular social media platforms. And because SMS messaging campaigns offer such a high ROI, they’re considered cost-effective. 

Text message marketing and email marketing work similarly—but data shows that SMS marketing campaigns consistently outperform its modern-day counterpart, despite its simple and straightforward nature. Text messaging has six times the engagement as email rate of email, and 96% of marketers using text messages said it helped them drive revenue.

If that’s not enough to convince you—more than 69% of consumers would be extremely likely or likely to connect with a brand to receive SMS customer service, and 58% of consumers believe text messages are the most effective way for brands to communicate.

(Read more: What is SMS Marketing and What Are the Benefits?)

Sports Club Management Software

Sports club management software can help manage all aspects of your facility—from coach and lesson scheduling to player invoicing and payments. It simplifies and streamlines the management, marketing, and scheduling of leagues, trainers, memberships, tournaments, and more—all of which helps increase revenue by saving time, reducing error, and creating a more seamless customer experience.

EZFacility’s comprehensive suite of marketing tools allows you to customise and send advanced email marketing campaigns and automated text messages to develop new customer relationships or nurture leads throughout the buying process. With automated email and text message functionality–you can also ensure clients receive the right information at the most opportune time.

Want to learn more? Schedule a free online demonstration and personalised product tour today.

You may also be interested in:

Football Facility Business Trends

Key Considerations Before Building a New Sports Facility

How to Increase Revenue at Your Indoor Football Facility

Construction of sports and recreation facilities was largely stalled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, creating the immediate need for business owners to quickly identify new and diversified revenues streams as they navigated forced business closures, stay-at-home orders, social distancing requirements, and the global shift to digitization.

The pandemic was catastrophic for many businesses and industries, but especially those that relied almost entirely on in-person sales, operations and participation—for example, sports and recreation facilities, football leagues and sports complexes.

The Accelerated Rise of the Digital Economy

With the entire world looking to technology to bridge the gaps left in the wake of the pandemic, we—as a global society—have become entrenched in a time of unparalleled investment and reliance upon emerging technologies.

The global shift to digitization, rapid and ongoing technological advancements and improvements, and paradigm shifts in the way people engage with sports—and each other—have ushered in an exciting new era for football leagues, sports complexes, and other sports and recreation-related business.

Three Football Facility Trends to Watch in 2022

Below, we’ve outlined three of 2022’s top football trends that are predicted to impact everything from sports complex design to football player and attendee experiences.  

1.   Multifunctional Facilities & Versatile Spaces

While many sports complexes were traditionally designed to serve a distinct purpose—for example, the investor needed an indoor football facility or an outdoor football stadium—we’re now seeing a massive shift to versatility in space usage and advancements in technology to create dynamic, multifunctional spaces that allow for seamless transitions between activities. 

Sport-specific complexes are great in the right context, but they’re rarely able to be used appropriately for recreation centers. And because you’ll want to host as many football events, sports games, training camps, and other sports-related events/activities as possible, you’ll need a venue that’s versatile and able to adapt to changing needs to ensure long-term growth and viability by diversifying your revenue streams.

For example, at Tottenham Stadium—home of the English Premiere League’s Tottenham Hotspur—the stadium’s pitch can be adjusted based on the sport that’s being played. The stadium typically hosts football events which require a natural grass pitch—but the venue also hosts two NFL games per season, in which artificial turf is used.

2.   Interactive Kiosks

Placing kiosks—small booths or structures—throughout common spaces of your sports facility is a simple concept that’s been around for a long time. And they’ve been around a long time because they’ve proven their worth.

Traditionally, kiosks were mostly used as information booths and required staff to operate them. But now, thanks to advancements in technology, digital kiosks offer more dynamic, interactive and user-friendly content—as well as advertising and sponsorship opportunities—and they don’t require staff to operate.

For example, AT&T Stadium—home of the Dallas Cowboys—offers interactive kiosks to help fans connect with their favorite football players. Guests can take photos of themselves at the venue’s selfie stations, and then simply press a few buttons to add their favorite players into the picture with them.

Photo kiosks usually prompt fans to input their email address so they can have their photo emailed to them, right then. Then fans are able to upload and share the photo across their social media channels—which, in turn, enables data capture while also boosting your venue’s digital presence, social media engagement, and online ranking.

3.   Robotic Concessions

Concession stands are a must-have for football facilities because there will always be a demand for food and beverage options between the football players and other athletes, attendees, and staff. It just makes good business sense.

And, fortunately for venue owners—they’re also typically a huge money maker. But let’s not forget that concession stands do come at a cost to sports complex owners—one of biggest costs being the staff required to operate them. As technology continues to improve and advance rapidly, it’s only a matter of time before robotic concessions start popping up in sports facilities of all sizes, all over the world. 

For example, a robotic arm named Flippy was introduced at Dodger Stadium during the 2018 World Series to help manage increased demand for concessions. In 2019, Flippy became a mainstay in Los Angeles as the Chicago-based concession company is working on their technology to increase efficiency and reduce costs inside stadiums.

Flippy has since been spotted working hard at CaliBurger in downtown Pasadena, and White Castle recently announced plans to gradually roll out 100 new Flippy 2s over the next few years.

Conclusion

One big takeaway from the pandemic is that businesses need to prioritise working smarter—and the way to do that is by utilizing technology. We’re not yet clear of COVID, and businesses all over the United States are still facing labor and supply shortages.

As a football facility or sports complex owner, the best thing you can do to prepare the future during periods of uncertainty is to start saving money now by utilizing technology to streamline operations, reduce costly errors and inefficiencies, and limit risk.

To learn how EZFacility’s sports facility management software simplifies the scheduling and management of fields, courts, leagues, tournaments, teams, coaches, memberships, and more—schedule a free online demonstration and personalised product tour today.

You may also be interested in:

Key Considerations Before Building a New Sports Facility

How to Increase Revenue at Your Indoor Football Facility

Marketing Ideas for an Indoor Football Facility Business