Most owners looking for gym marketing ideas go in with the intention of boosting their membership levels. However, one of the first solutions that comes to mind for their marketing needs is commonly advertising. While there is nothing wrong with advertising (assuming that a proper marketing campaign and sales funnel are in place), you can leverage other resources first or in conjunction. In this blog, we will discuss implementing email programs surrounding gym marketing ideas for referrals that can benefit fitness facility growth and run congruently with other marketing initiatives.
This content is part of a four-blog series that covers gym email marketing ideas for:
- Gym Lead nurturing
- Gym Member Engagement
- Personal Training Studio Client Retention
- Boosting Gym Referrals
How Gym Referral Programs Work
Referral programs are a time-tested option for growing a gym’s business, especially from a membership standpoint. When properly implemented, they continuously yield great results. But you might be wondering how a proper referral program actually works.
In short, referral programs incentivize customers/members/clients to talk about your business positively (similar to word-of-mouth marketing) and refer people to try your services. There is typically some way to track or record the referring person’s recommendation and a potential reward for leads generated or new business captured.
Traditional Ways Boost Gym Referrals
Looking at referrals from a natural standpoint, the concept of someone referring a business to someone else typically stems from having a good experience with that business’s services or goods. That said, when considering boosting your gym’s referral program, it makes sense to focus on the core attributes of your fitness facility’s operations before pushing a referral campaign too hard.
Quality of service is one of the most challenging points, but it is fundamental to your business’s whole structure. If your product (e.g., your fitness facility, the training/coaching services you offer, etc.) is not good enough to stand independently, the business becomes unsustainable. Further, owners need to focus on building on that structure and taking it from good to great or recommendation-worthy when organically trying to drive their referral potential.
Building a system with tracking and rewarding infrastructure is the next step to the traditional method of establishing a referral program. Whether it’s a paper-based system, spreadsheet, or feature in your gym member management software, having a way to capture referrals and who introduced them is critical to successfully managing this type of program.
Educating staff and members about the program is the final traditional way of boosting referrals. Gym marketing methods for referral programs typically include flyers, mentions of it when onboarding clients, or maybe even mentions on the facility’s website. But where we believe owners fall short with successful referral programs is building a marketing campaign around it and giving it the proper amount of planning and effort it deserves.
Email-Based Gym Marketing Ideas for Referrals
One aspect of a marketing campaign that is broadly underutilized when promoting a referral program is email. While most fitness facilities already have an established email list for newsletters or other marketing purposes, implementing these gym marketing ideas for referrals may help drive your overall referral campaign initiatives to the next level.
- Announcing Your Referral Program—If you have not officially announced to your audience base that your referral program exists and the details surrounding it, this is your sign. As mentioned earlier, often, owners roll out a program with minimal effort on the launch and promotion side of things. Leveraging your email system to help launch, announce, and inform your facility members is a simple way to help get the word out.
- Limited-Time Offer—Running promotions or limited-time offers to your email list to help muster up interest and engagement with your program is usually a great tactic. Adding an element of interaction, exclusivity, or even timeliness can help further enhance the traction it may get.
- Special Event Invite—Another option for enticingly marketing your referral program, which can also run in parallel with other promotions, is the implementation of invite-based events. You can run a referral program under a different name by conducting special events where members can bring outside people to their class, work out, or visit. Though these types of events can have great success in getting referral numbers up, many facilities have also seen carry-over benefits with retention rates.
- Thank You/Appreciate Email with a Reminder—One of the tricky parts of email marketing is getting people to open the email in the first place. Running an appreciation or member gratitude campaign can be a great way to boost open rates based on the topic, subject, or content. Capitalizing on the hopeful higher open rates by stacking helpful reminders about your facility’s referral program and how it works is a great way to capture additional impressions.
- Highlight Email About Referral Program Promotions—One unique email idea for gym marketing ideas with referrals is to leverage FOMO through highlights. Sending out email recaps of previous winners of referral games, how much the payouts were, or even new referred member success stories can all drive awareness and interest in your program. Make sure to include additional reminder information for your program details and a clear call to action to get additional people to participate.
Making A Splash
For many owners operating a fitness facility, you know there are many tools in your box to help grow your business. Like an actual toolbox, each item typically has a specific purpose and application, and marketing works similarly. Email is just one of the tools available to generate gym marketing ideas for referrals. By properly implementing a referral-based marketing campaign, you can help drive higher success rates by building a proper system with great execution points—like email!
