Participate in Local Parades and Festivals The key to increasing your business's visibility is to make sure that anyone and everyone knows about your business.
Make it a point to start participating in local parades and other types of city festivals.
Beyond getting publicity and visibility for your gym, the actual creation of a gym-specific parade float can be a fun team-building event for your current members.
Once you have found a member that will let you use their heavy-duty truck and flatbed trailer, here are a couple examples of possible parade floats:
- Attach a BowFlex or similar workout item to the trailer and have a member do a workout throughout the course of the parade.
- Use a loud-speaker system and, at certain intervals, stop the truck and have your members perform a quick aerobic workout so that parade watchers can see the types of fun workouts you gym offers.
- If you are a CrossFit affiliate, create a parade-specific WOD for your members to perform that includes jumping on to the trailer, flipping tires, and doing eye-catching kettlebell swings.
Hold "No Experience Necessary" Weekend Events in Public Parks Many people are intimidated by gyms and working out.
In order to get people to try working out, you should hold free, open to the public, weekend events in public areas.
The workouts you offer don't need to be very intense.
A simple, but sweat-inducing bootcamp will do the trick.
Remember, you are not trying to scare these people away from the gym.
On the contrary, your goal is to make them enjoy themselves so much that they choose to become paying members are your gym.
It's all about increasing your gym's public visibility.
3.
Sponsor a Local Sports Team Another great way to increase your gym's membership is to sponsor a local sports team.
There are two main advantages to this type of marketing effort.
The first is that you will get your logo screen-printed on the uniform of the entire team.
Athletes, especially bar-league teams, tend to wear their uniforms outside of games, so your logo will get a lot of eye-traffic.
The second benefit of sponsoring a sports team is that your gym name and logo will be placed on all marketing materials for the team, as well as on the "Sponsor's Board" at all of the team's games.
People who didn't previously know about your business will now know that your gym is an avid supporter of the local sports team.