Marketing Ideas for a Health Club or Fitness Center

Discover how to create a stampede of new members into your health club, fitness center, or gym using these "no-discount" street marketing tactics! Developed by a Connecticut man who created $59,845 in new billings practically out of thin air, and how he reproduced similar results four years later!

A proven expert in fitness marketing, he has put these tactics into a complete step-by-step fitness center marketing system anyone can follow to launch a new health club, re-launch an old one, or get a bunch of new members on the cheap.

Can Fitness Boot Camps Really Help Your Fitness Business?

The Bottom Line on Boot Camps

The fastest way to attract new clients and collect plenty of profits for your fitness business is with a new program. But what? You don't want to put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into a fast-dying fad or a program that attracts a limited target market because your profits will dry up quickly. Your solution:Fitness boot camps. Boot camps appeal to a large range of people because just about anyone can do the exercises. And they escape the women-only stigma of aerobics and the men-only stigma of weight lifting. Influenced by traditional military boot camps, these fitness programs are so popular because they work-- when they're done right--and because of their social element. Boot camp participants enjoy the camaraderie of exercising in a group. And much like peer pressure keeps soldiers moving in military boot camp, peer encouragement - and developing friendships - keep people moving in fitness boot camp. Plus, more experienced participants often help newcomers, which provides an element of support that the trainer alone cannot give. Here are other major ways that fitness boot camps benefit you and your clients.

Fitness Boot Camp Benefits for You

If you don't offer a boot camp as part of your fitness business, you're missing out on serious dollars. Fiscally speaking, boot camps are a no-brainer. Compared with aerobics, weight lifting, spinning, treadmill workouts or in-home training, boot camps are a virtual money mill. Here's why: They are an efficient use of your time. As the trainer, you typically handle large groups of people at once. Class sizes range from 20 to more than 50 people, so you can afford to charge less per person, which means a greater potential for plenty of people to sign up. Look at it this way: If you were to charge $10 per person for each session, and you had an average class size of 20 people, you'd collect $200 for a one-hour session. It's hard to charge that much for a one-on-one training session!

Boot camps help you make money, but they also save you money because there are no overhead costs. You could hold your program in parks, school gymnasiums, parking lots, parking garages, or any place you can fit your class; you don't need a studio or facility. You can arrange for a typical boot camp location for little or no money. If you're planning to use a public park for a group boot camp, be sure to make any necessary reservations with park officials.Of course, if you already have a studio or facility, boot camp classes will make that space especially cost-effective.

The fact that you don't need a lot of equipment to run a boot camp means you reduce your expenses even further. Bodyweight exercises, such as push-ups and sit-ups, form the core of most boot camp programs. Even if you decide to include dumbbells or resistance bands, you can pass that expense onto clients as a one-time fee. Or, you could have your business logo and contact info imprinted on the equipment to further promote your business and write it off at tax time.

Boot Camp Benefits for Clients

There are two main aspects that keep clients coming back to boot camp programs time after time: these programs are effective and fun. Let's tackle the effectiveness part first. As you know, the key to weight loss, which is what the majority of boot campers are looking for, is burning calories. Boot camps cram a lot of exercise and calorie-burning into a short time. Clients don't have to fool around with working out for 90 minutes to 2 hours every day. Forty-five minutes, boot-camp-style, is enough. Plus, participants benefit from higher metabolism for the rest of the day, which means they burn more calories for longer. And unlike many Nautilus and weight lifting programs that isolate only a few muscles, boot camp movements -- such as push-ups, pull-ups, jumping jacks and running -- recruit many muscles in every exercise. So, instead of doing 3 sets on every machine in the gym, boot camp participants get the job done much more efficiently.

Besides their effectiveness, boot camps appeal to people because of the fun and social factors. Sure, Denise Austin or Jake Steinfeld videos are motivating--but video workouts are very impersonal, and the motivation often lasts only for the first week or so. With a boot camp, participants get personal motivation from their trainer that is fresh and new every session. Boot camp trainers can also correct exercise form and postures for clients to keep them safe and get the most from the exercises. A video can't do that.

The bottom line is that boot camps make your bottom line look better. They are an efficient and profitable way to attract more clients and deliver effective fitness to more people. Adding a fitness boot camp to your programming reinforces your image as an effective, affordable fitness professional.

About Georgette PannGeorgette Pann, BS Health/Physical Ed., Physical Therapist Assistant, ACE Certified Personal Trainer, IFA Certified Sports Nutritionist. She is the owner of Nutrifitness Personal Training and Nutrition Studio. She has co-authored the book "Sure Victory-How to Design Boot Camp Workouts that Blast Fat and Build Power" For more information visit : http://www.thefitnessbootcamp.com

• Display a banner in front of your health club announcing a special promotion, grand opening, new hours, an open house, a fitness seminar or other event. Custom banners available online at BuildASign.com!
• Invite a reporter to write an article about your fitness center, fitness boot camp program, or personal training classes. Try to think of an interesting or unusual "angle" for the news article.
• Get free publicity and instant credibility by contacting a local radio station and offering to do a radio interview about losing weight, looking younger, and reducing the risk of heart disease. (Check out Five Steps to Free Radio Advertising.)
• Mail coupons, either on your own or through a coupon-mailing company, that offers prospective gym or health club members an incentive for joining before the end of the month.
• Create your own blog about the benefits of fitness -- and/or post useful, meaningful comments on other local fitness-related blogs -- and make sure to identify yourself, your fitness club, and/or include a link to your fitness center's web site, which helps with SEO. Set Up Your Blog Now!
• Offer to be an occasional (or frequent) guest blogger on other people's blogs or fitness-related web sites.
• Have a professional web designer create or improve your web site, and make sure it's optimized for the search engines, so people can find you when they're searching for local fitness trainers, weight loss programs, a top-notch gym, or health club.
• Ask existing members for referrals. Incentives, such as a free 30-day membership extension, free water bottle, or a no-cost personal training session, can improve your success ratio with this strategy! When doing fitness marketing and personal training marketing, referrals, testimonials, and word-of-mouth advertising are among your most important marketing tools and strategies. There are a variety of ways to get referrals, including the techniques described in a program called "Instant Referral Systems".

• Hand out passes for free one-week trial memberships at your fitness center, gym, or health club. Distribute them to existing members who might have friends of family who might be interested in joining, or hand them out directly to prospective members That would be a key part of an integrated fitness marketing campaign.
• Place ads is local newspapers and magazines, but remember four things: 1) stick with a conservative budget, 2) make sure the ad is noticeable and distinctive, 3) focus on benefits that members will experience, and 4) target your intended audience, whenever possible.
• Other fitness marketing ideas, products, and services to consider*:
  1. Get a website and get found by new members
  2. Send a monthly email newsletter to members and prospective members. (Email marketing and online surveys by Constant Contact make it easy to connect with your fitness club members. Try it FREE for 60-Days.)
  3. Brand yourself! Logowork Start Up Package is perfect for new health clubs, fitness centers, and fitness boot camp programs. Includes logo design, stationery design, a three page website, and 250 business cards.
  4. Promote your gym, health club, or fitness center with custom imprinted promotional products
  5. Market your fitness club with targeted mailings. Get 20% off your direct mail campaign.
  6. Put your marketing message on postcards: 5,000 full color Postcards for $189
  7. Create a brochure: 1000 Brochures for $204
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