Attracting new members to your gym can become a whole lot easier if you get the foundations of your marketing right.
One of the core foundations of marketing is the concept of positioning.
Positioning means how you position your offer in relation to your competition or what separates you from your competition.
It can make sense to imitate marketing leaders, including copying their marketing and positioning; however, this can be a grave mistake.
The key to attracting new members is to stand out. To stand out, you need to be unique. You need to be different.
"Marketing is a battle of perceptions, not products." This is a quote from the book positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout. I recommend that you check it out as its eye-opening.
It talks about the concept that there can only be 1 market leader who will tend to dominate the industry.
The book suggests that the best strategy to win more customers is to pick a unique "position" that is contrary to the market leader. This makes you stand out as a different and speaks to the segment of the market that is looking for the unique aspect that you offer.
It is easy to make the mistake of trying to target ALL people with your marketing. However, this dilutes your message and makes you blend into the crowd.
I found this out the hard way over 10 years ago when I started my software business in the fitness industry. I would cold call gyms and say that we had software for gyms. As soon as I mentioned this the owner or manager would say "sorry, we already have a gym software" and they were in a hurry to get off the phone before I could explain further about the unique benefits of our software. I did this for several months and was getting nowhere until I read the positioning book by Al Ries and Jack Trout.
I then change my approach where I called and said, we help gyms improve their member retention through a new software solution, suddenly almost everyone I spoke to was interested in knowing more. The simple change in messaging has a profound effect on our ability to cut through and win customers.
Your messaging needs to speak to your prospects in a way that makes them say in their mind "that's the gym for me".
Here are some ideas for how you can position your gym differently to the competition in your region.
- We have the best classes
- Offering members the highest level of support
- The community gym
- The widest range of equipment
- Premium
- The gym with the latest technology for achieving results faster
If you get your positioning right, it can give you a massive advantage and foundation to build your other marketing efforts on.
Learn more about ways to grow your gym membership base.
Download our FREE guide: 5 secrets to building a profitable health club
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