I used to DREAD the summer in my fitness studio! Even our best clients’ attendance dropped off!
People were out of town.
Moms couldn’t come in because of child care issues
And new clients weren’t starting long term memberships because they had fear of commitment!
But what I was missing those first few years was how to fill classes for the SHORT TERM, and how to capitalize on the changes that summer brought! But also, I missed the key things I could do to bring people back and QUICKLY recover when September hit!
If you’re a fitness studio owner, you’ve likely seen a drop off in attendance in your studio over the past few months! But now that the kids are back in school – this should be the time that you hit your marketing hard!
Here are three great ways that you can QUICKLY supercharge your studio with growth and income now that summer is winding down!
Host a FREE Back to School Weekend
Many studio owners fight against free. They say that it “dilutes their brand.” And in many ways I agree. I don’t do first class free for most new clients (there are a few situations when we offer free classes). However, I DO believe in some short term events where classes are free to both NEW AND RETURNING clients. The reason is that once someone has fallen off the wagon, it is often hard to get them back into the studio to buy a package. But if you do a SUPER FUN, FREE event – then you’ll often get them back into the studio for just the event – and then you get the opportunity to sell to them at the event! The event needs to offer PLENTY of classes to accommodate everyone who wants to come. You want to promote it in studio. You want your community partners to be promoting it for you! You want to reach out to past clients! You want to MAKE IT A BIG DEAL! And you want to have a plan for selling once they are there for the weekend!
Host a FUN, Week Long – Back To School/Back To You Event!
If your clientele is mostly women – they may have let a lot of their routines suffer over the past few months! Whether they were home with the kids, busy traveling, or just slacking off enjoying their summer – most have struggled to maintain a lot of their normal self care routines. Host a Back To You week that invites in community partners and vendors for free/low cost vendor events – Juice demos, Nutrition Talks, Mini-Mani’s, Brow Threading, Botox, Spray Tans!! Have a schedule of events and promote the HECK out of it! In Fitness Marketing on a Dime we talk all about how to schedule that week, how to promote it, and how to get GREAT results from your Back To You Event!
Launch a Referral Challenge!
Clients LOVE great prizes! Good clients WANT to give you referrals! What better time to launch a referral challenge than:
when the kids are going back to school
Moms have some free time
Moms are meeting other new Moms
and Moms are looking for some adult companionship!
This is one of the best times to launch a 30-60 day referral challenge and give away some great prizes – at no to low cost to you! Your referral challenge could give points for social media posts, tagging friends, yelp reviews, facebook reviews, instagram posts, and/or just great referrals.
They key to a well executed Referral Challenge is to have a plan, promote the challenge, and offer prizes valuable enough that the clients really want to win them!
For more information on how to market your fitness business WITHOUT a huge marketing budget and finally make more money and find the fun in your business – join our FREE 5 Day Mini Course – Fitness Marketing on a Dime!
