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50+ Best Gym Marketing Ideas for 2025

Brian Denim
Published in Business Dec 5, 2024 9 min read
Gym Marketing Ideas

Looking for gym marketing strategies that work? Year-round marketing efforts are crucial to sustaining revenue, particularly during off-peak times or when you aim to increase membership at your gym or studio.

With our top gym marketing ideas, you can bring value to customers and money to the business – this is how true marketing is supposed to work! Ready to bookmark many great ideas? We’ve categorized them to help you find the right one for the right time and need. Let’s begin.

Gym Onboarding Tips

How to deal with new clients in a way that doesn’t reduce interest in your gym offerings? These tips won’t bring you lots of money right off the bat but will help you keep your clients to sustain in the long run. Our gym marketing solutions can help you keep the momentum going.

Gym Equipments Under Big Roof

Welcome package

Don’t lose a chance to position yourself as a super client-caring business! Clients need to feel it right away. How to do that? Provide a starter kit with a water bottle, gym towel, and other crucial things. Offer an intro guide on how to get the most out of your gym. Do whatever applies to you.

Free trial or free class

Give something valuable for free. This tactic works with almost any service, helping you build confidence in your offerings and giving a customer time to value your services. Complimentary personal training sessions may also work.

Open house days

Offer free entry, tours, and sample classes to attract new members.

Highlighting personal trainer profile

Why is this a good idea to show to new members? The personality of trainers is one of the strongest things to build trust with newcomers.

First 30 days discount

Offer discounts on merchandise, meal plans, or partner services during their first 30 days in your gym.

Offer one-on-one tours

Help them reduce the fear of the unknown and offer an intro session with introductions to staff and trainers.

Personalized fitness programs

We’re sure you’ve heard this many times. Have no doubt that it works. Offer customers to tailor your plans to their goals and it’s going to be an irresistible offering.

Send follow-ups

Learn their feedback and impressions. Reach out via email or text to see how they’re settling in during their first month.

Fitness assessments

After some time for the new client, provide free initial body composition analysis or goal-setting consultations. They need to feel the progress so that they will value it for sure.

Low Season Activities

So, how to deal with post-holiday lulls or summer vacation periods? Holiday seasons and transition months may be hard to survive for a gym! But it’s not all so bad.

Gym Dumbbells

Focus on strategies to attract customers during slower months – they do work even on those who have just come back from a holiday!

Offer virtual classes

This can be a great replacement for some types of gym classes – those that don’t require any specific equipment.

Seasonal challenges

Make your clients more interested in your gym during the low season by launching various challenges with prizes, for example, get creative with names like “Winter Warrior Challenge” or “Summer Shred Program”.

Discounted memberships

Only during low season, offer short-term memberships or discounts, such as a “New Year, New You” promotion in January.

Bring-a-friend offer

Your client can’t come despite your efforts? Encourage current members to bring friends then! Of course, this should include free passes or referral discounts.

Themed novelty classes

Why not bring a bit of ceremony and vibe to your gym during special periods? Add novelty classes like “Holiday HIIT” or “Sweat and Snow Yoga.”

Social Media Gym Marketing Ideas

A lot of motivational activities are happening online. As a gym, you can use those digital platforms to find more potential customers and encourage current members to be more active. 

Gym instructor talking with a boy

So, here are a few gym marketing ideas that work for social media:

  • Live workouts on popular social media like YouTube.
  • Answer questions from your followers and provide valuable insights.
  • Run a competition between your gym instructors.
  • Free nutrition lessons.
  • Offer joint promotions and discounts to your members.
  • Share short video clips of daily activities at your gym.
  • Inspire members to tag your gym in posts.
  • Post various tips, workout habits, and motivational quotes with creativity.

Software-Based Gym Marketing Tips

Did you know that the right gym software with smart automation and analytics tools can do a big part of your marketing job? Yes, its first function is taking care of bookings or billing – but not only.

Gym Booking Software - BookingPress

Discover how to use modern gym booking software like BookingPress to improve marketing activities.

Email marketing

In addition to traditional appointment reminders and confirmations, the software can send various types of email offerings, personalized for your client. 

Gym service bundles

Why sell one session or training when you can offer bundles of services and memberships? Easily create packages of services to get larger bookings.

Sell ‘happy hours’

Booking software like BookingPress can help you easily promote and sell unpopular times, especially for walk-in sessions. The booking software allows you to customize availability in a way to set discounts for times that are rarely booked.

Enable customers to select session duration

Give more flexibility to clients when they book online by allowing them to pick the needed amount of time for their sessions instead of choosing just one pre-defined duration. The software can manage this too.

Automatic suggestion of related services

The software allows you to easily set related services so that when someone books a service, they’re offered additional options to go along with it. It’s a great way to pair similar services, encourage extra bookings, and boost your earnings.

Offer waiting lists

Automate this process with software like BookingPress to never lose a booking. Add customers to a waiting list on busy days and if someone cancels, you can quickly assign the open slot to someone on the list.

Enable online tipping

Earn extra money from every booking by offering your customers to tip their favorite gym instructors.

Enable recurring appointments

If you show in the booking form that an appointment can be repeated and that it’s easy to book, expect more booked appointments for your gym.

Sell gift cards

This is one of the options a software can handle – provide gift cards that your clients can buy and send as a present to their friends or family. Such cards can be redeemed on your gym website.

Corporate Partnerships for Gyms

It’s no secret that many companies provide gym memberships to their workers as a bonus or incentive. Why not become their stronghold in this aspect? Think of ways to collaborate with businesses and attract their employees to your gym.

Two Girls Gym Workout
  1. Promote affiliate gym memberships.
  2. Offer group discounts for companies.
  3. Provide seminars and nutrition tips.
  4. Bring fitness programs to offices.
  5. Partner with sports equipment retailers.
  6. Customize gym programs for specific types of workplaces.
  7. Build more multipurpose wellness programs. 

Gym Member Retention Activities

A good bunch of marketing activities should be directed to engage current members to improve loyalty and stay with you longer. You should keep them always active.

Gym Member Retention Activities

Easy goal tracking

Let your clients feel they have made real progress at your gym by offering personal progress trackers or mobile apps that sync with the gym’s equipment.

Non-standard events

Find out what your customers enjoy and add more of those events to your schedule. Consider hosting members-only workshops or talks on topics like nutrition or how to handle physical challenges related to specific jobs.

Surprise rewards

Everyone loves valuable quality merchandise items, so make it a good habit to offer such to your clients.

High Season Activities

It’s not only about law periods when you need to hustle. Peak seasons also require your attention, when interest in fitness is high.

Group of Gym Girls

Dedicated campaigns

Offer guided training within tailor-made programs that require a set of membership sessions.

Upselling programs

They are ready for big challenges – so offer premium packages like personal training or nutrition plans.

Contests

Run challenges, probably on social networks, to attract more customers. Of course, make the winner feel they get it all.

Early bird offers

Gym discounts for those signing up the earliest to the new campaigns, contents, or new programs.

Transformation challenges

Seasonal challenges and competitions help you set big goals for the most active members.

Fitness Education Activities

Your staff’s knowledge directly impacts your gym’s reputation. Make education a priority to enhance your brand and attract more customers.

Fitness Education Activities

Workshops

Anyone interested in health and wellness will subscribe to sessions on nutrition, injury prevention, or advanced training techniques. Gym instructors can do that even with a lot of practice.

Guest speakers

Fitness influencers or even your gym instructors can be an inspirational starting point for your customers.

Free fitness consultation and assessments

A gym can provide free assessments to entice potential clients. An in-depth consultation with a fitness professional is what a client needs to make up their mind. Can be done online or in person.

Pop-up workouts

Make your gym more visible by hosting free fitness sessions in parks or shopping malls.

Charity events

Give free speeches and consultations at charity events.

Let’s Conclude

The best gym marketing activities always communicate the real value customers get from it, bringing your business long-term results and customer loyalty. Besides, don’t underestimate the marketing capabilities and automation that the software can bring to your website and business processes. Overall, focus on solving particular gaps you have, either with low seasons, newcomers, or bringing more loyal customers to your gym.

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Brian Denim

Brian is a WordPress expert with a decade of developing experience & technical-writing. He enjoys blogging, movies & hiking.

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