I speak to gym owners all the time that are seeking more web site visits and more leads from their web site. The key here is to create internet density and visibility. You simply need to be everywhere that your prospect may look. Now, this is not meant to be all-inclusive, but it is a good starting point for most gyms. Here are 5 things you can do immediately to improve the branding of your gym and increase exposure.
Write a Blog. A blog is important to your web site because of the fresh, new content it provides, key words used in the blog that may show up in search and your customer will stay on your site longer. Many gym owners like the idea of blogging, but struggle with what to write about. Here’s what I suggest, have each staffer write a blog, the blog should be about questions that come from members or prospects on how to achieve their goals, or even personal testimonials. The blog can be as few as 300 words on up. If you have 10 staffers, then you now have 10 blog posts. To start, I suggest posting you blog once per week. Put it on your schedule. The key to any marketing that you do is consistenly.
Quotes. Once you have posted your blog, you want to extract sentences from the blog that can be used as quotes attributed to you in social media posts. Typically these will be posted on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. To help you save time as you develop your content marketing strategy, be sure to set up all posts for future postings with an automated service. We use socialoomph.com.
Audio. Now, for those that prefer to listen and not to read, you want to set up an audio podcast and narrate your article. We use soundcloud.com for this but there are many options. Not only will this help you reach a new audience, but you will also place these links into socialoomph.com for future postings.
Video. Now, you will have some folks that do not want to read or listen, but they prefer to watch, so you now want to turn your blog into a video. Simply extract the 2, 3 or 4 key points from your blog and record a video. I try to keep these videos at one minute so they can also be posted on Instagram and Snap Chat. Don’t procrastinate this. Don’t wait to be perfect. If you do, it will never get done. Now for those of you that simply will not do a video, try lumen5.com. This site will take your blog and turn it into a slide show with images and music that can be posted on YouTube.
Images. This can be used for all mediums, but was originally intended for Instagram and
Press Releases. One final thing to increase exposure is to write and publish a press release. We use americantowns.com and prlog.org. The americantowns.com site will also submit your press release to all local newspapers. With both sites, you will now have additional online exposure and other sites will likely pick up your release – most everyone is looking for quality content. But here is the real secret, on your Twitter account, be sure follow all of your local media…radio station, television stations, newspapers, magazines, etc. Now, you want to become known by your local media, you can do that by likes, comments and retweets. Once that has been successfully accomplished you can grab your link on the press release and send it as a direct message on Twitter.
What is the secret to all this? Just do it and you’ll prosper.
Now, go market your gym!
Jim Thomas is the founder and president of Fitness Management USA Inc., a management consulting, turnaround and brokerage firm specializing in the fitness and health club industry. With more than 25 years of experience owning, operating and managing clubs of all sizes, Thomas lectures and delivers seminars, webinars and workshops across the globe on the practical skills required to successfully to overcome obscurity, improve sales, build teamwork and market fitness programs and products. Visit his Web site at: www.fmconsulting.net or www.jimthomasondemand.com.
