Health club marketing opportunities are everywhere and are only limited by your own creativity. Your small club is definitely newsworthy, whether you believe it or not. Your health club will always is rewarded when doing something to help others
1. Canned food drive
The trick is to partner with a homeless shelter of food pantry and tell all of your local newspapers and tv stations about the charitable arrangement you established. With all the bad news permeating the airwaves, your positive news will be a welcome addition. You can promote your offer with a headline such as "1/2 off enrollment when you donate 5 cans of food!"
2. Write for your town's newspaper
Does your local paper have a weekly fitness editorial? Write one for them! Contact your local paper(s) and let them know you would like to write a weekly fitness tip/article for them. The worst they will say is no. What other publications are distributed in your area. Community newsletters? Free newsstand periodicals? What about online resources? Are there websites catering to your area? Write articles for them. If you cant write, have one of your staff members write.
3. Partner with a radio DJ in your town to run a contest at your club
You can have a radio station sponsor your 8-week weight loss contest. Get a DJ as your advocate. They can announce the contest to the listeners, have them submit applications, maybe even get teams set up between two DJs. All participants can have a free membership during the contest in exchange for lots of plugs for your club over the 8 weeks. Be sure to get contact info for anyone whose application wasn't accepted so you can give them a short term trial membership as well.
4. Run a contest for charity
Always remember that the media is always in need of positive news topics. If you set up a charitable event at your club, they will run a story. You can have your members get their friends to pledge money for every mile you walk or every pound you lift. And don't worry if there aren't many people who participate, anything charitable, even on a small scale, is newsworthy.
5. Conduct Seminars
Go to your local chamber and they will have a huge list of people in the area who present on a large variety of topics. There will be topics ranging from financial planning to scrapbooking. See if they already have someone who presents fitness. If not, see if they'll schedule you. If they do already have someone presenting a fitness topic, find a different fitness topic to talk about. They do all of the promotions for the events, but you should do some promotion on your own as well.
6. Promote one of your members as local hero
As mentioned before, your local media loves positive stories, especially when the story is on a person who did something great. Have ll of your members apply to be in the Hero of Your Town Event. Everyone can send in an article on their rise to success and how your health club has helped them achieve their dreams. You'll pick a winner and create a press release (or have one written). The press release can say something like, "local hero recognized at XYZ Fitness". For those people not selected, they will still get a prize. You could even have multiple heroes recognized at your health club. This is a great way to market your health club to new prospective members.
Free publicity opportunities are everywhere. You just have to recognize or create opportunities for positive press. Come up with unique ideas and you will find that the local media will look forward to the next story they can do on you. - 15478
1. Canned food drive
The trick is to partner with a homeless shelter of food pantry and tell all of your local newspapers and tv stations about the charitable arrangement you established. With all the bad news permeating the airwaves, your positive news will be a welcome addition. You can promote your offer with a headline such as "1/2 off enrollment when you donate 5 cans of food!"
2. Write for your town's newspaper
Does your local paper have a weekly fitness editorial? Write one for them! Contact your local paper(s) and let them know you would like to write a weekly fitness tip/article for them. The worst they will say is no. What other publications are distributed in your area. Community newsletters? Free newsstand periodicals? What about online resources? Are there websites catering to your area? Write articles for them. If you cant write, have one of your staff members write.
3. Partner with a radio DJ in your town to run a contest at your club
You can have a radio station sponsor your 8-week weight loss contest. Get a DJ as your advocate. They can announce the contest to the listeners, have them submit applications, maybe even get teams set up between two DJs. All participants can have a free membership during the contest in exchange for lots of plugs for your club over the 8 weeks. Be sure to get contact info for anyone whose application wasn't accepted so you can give them a short term trial membership as well.
4. Run a contest for charity
Always remember that the media is always in need of positive news topics. If you set up a charitable event at your club, they will run a story. You can have your members get their friends to pledge money for every mile you walk or every pound you lift. And don't worry if there aren't many people who participate, anything charitable, even on a small scale, is newsworthy.
5. Conduct Seminars
Go to your local chamber and they will have a huge list of people in the area who present on a large variety of topics. There will be topics ranging from financial planning to scrapbooking. See if they already have someone who presents fitness. If not, see if they'll schedule you. If they do already have someone presenting a fitness topic, find a different fitness topic to talk about. They do all of the promotions for the events, but you should do some promotion on your own as well.
6. Promote one of your members as local hero
As mentioned before, your local media loves positive stories, especially when the story is on a person who did something great. Have ll of your members apply to be in the Hero of Your Town Event. Everyone can send in an article on their rise to success and how your health club has helped them achieve their dreams. You'll pick a winner and create a press release (or have one written). The press release can say something like, "local hero recognized at XYZ Fitness". For those people not selected, they will still get a prize. You could even have multiple heroes recognized at your health club. This is a great way to market your health club to new prospective members.
Free publicity opportunities are everywhere. You just have to recognize or create opportunities for positive press. Come up with unique ideas and you will find that the local media will look forward to the next story they can do on you. - 15478
About the Author:
Curtis Mock has quickly become the go to person for fitness marketing advice. You can sign up for his fitness marketing tip of the week and be sure to take advantage of your trial membership to the powerful fitness marketing resource site created specifically for fitness center owners.
