Gymnastics Marketing Ideas for your Gym

Olivier Rousseau
2 mars 2024 Gymnastique 2 minutes de lecture

Gymnastics Marketing Ideas for your Gym

In this article, we’ll go cover 5 unconventional yet effective ideas for marketing a modern gymnastics club.

We’ll cover:

  1. How to Grow your subscriber list
  2. Registrations not open yet? Add a reminder form
  3. Offer an early-bird discount
  4. Ads on Facebook/Instagram
  5. End-of-session survey to promote the next session

Note: We go beyond the usual gymnastcs club promotional tactics, such as social media engagement, open gym events, local business collaborations or collecting online testimonials. We’ll focus on practical, actionable strategies, complete with real-world examples, that your competitors are probably not doing.

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About the author: I’m Olivier, co-founder of Activity Messenger, an Gymnastics Management software. I also run a multi-franchise business dedicated to introducing sports to children aged 2-9 with over 100 employees. Over the last decade, I’ve spent over $200,000 on Facebook and Google ads, sent hundreds of email marketing campaigns, all aimed at increasing enrollment in classes and camps.

1- Grow your subscriber list for gymnastics

You may be surprised to see this tip at the top of the list. But I believe it represents a golden opportunity that many overlook.

Here’s the takeaway:

At Activity Messenger, we’ve seen countless businesses use email marketing to promote upcoming classes. Which is great.

However, a significant number of these efforts only target existing or past members, overlooking the potential to engage new prospects.

How to fix this? Add a newsletter subscription option on your website.

When we did this, we were surprised by the influx of prospective members who signed up to stay informed about upcoming classes.

1- Grow your subscriber list for gymnastics

Read more on how Activity Messenger can streamline your email marketing efforts.

Segment by enrollment status

As we began to grow our email database, we also made a strategic move to categorize contacts based on their enrollment status.

Here’s why:

Imagine receiving a promotional email for a class you’ve just signed up for. It’s frustrating enough to make you consider unsubscribing, right?

This was the scenario that caused many subscribers to unsubscribe.

As we implemented this, we saw three positive changes:

✅ A significant decrease in the number of people unsubscribing
✅ An increase in email open rates
✅ An increase in class registrations

Why did this strategy work?

Subscribers can see that our communications were tailored to their history, making the information sent highly relevant.

Those who enrolled early for a session receive fewer emails, making them less likely to unsubscribe.

Conversely, those who haven’t signed up yet receive more reminders, minimizing the chance that they’ll miss out or simply forget (think busy parents) to register.

Tips for growing your email list:

  • Add a subscription feature to your website.
  • Display a QR code at the reception making it easy to subscribe.
  • Promote subscription at the end of free trials, open houses or events.

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📌 Pro Tip: We quickly gained over 100 new subscribers in less than 10 days when we added an email sign-up option to our website. Many parents come to our site from advertising or search. Often, their child is too young or their schedules don’t match our current session times. These families are valuable leads, eager to register to sign up for next session. Enough to give you their email.

2- Registration hasn't started yet? Add a reminder form

What happens when someone visits your website and registration have not started yet?

They go see elsewhere and many never come back.

Some will come back, but others will regsitrater at a competiors that opened up registration earlier

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All the you have to do is open registration earlier to turn web visitors in clients (and ambassadors).

But as an operator, I know it’s not that easy.

I can hear the excuses going through your head:

« I’m still finalizing the venue details. »
« I’m uncertain about staff availability. »
« It’s too soon for anyone to commit. »
« This strategy is not applicable to our business model. »

Ok… so say I accept your excuses.

You can still avoid losing clients with one simple tweak:

⏱ A reminder form.

Steps to Set Up a Pre-Registration Reminder Form:

  1. List the class offerings on your website before finalizing all the details.
  2. Swap the registration link for a reminder form (see this example for guidance).
  3. Schedule an SMS or email alert to remind potential registrants 24 hours before the official registration begins.

3- Start registrations earlier (and offer an early bird-discount)

One of the key strategies that has propelled us to a seven-figure annual revenue stream has been surprisingly simple.

We open registration well ahead of our competitors.

And we offer enticing early-bird specials to encourage early enrollment.

Why this works

This tactic not only increases our cash flow and revenue it also simplifies staff scheduling.

It also creates an army of ambassadors who spread the word to friends and family encouraging them to register with them.

How this changed our business

It’s now common for activities to be filled several months in advance.

Over time, parents have come to understand the high demand for our classes.

As a result, they are signing up earlier.

This early commitment gives us valuable insight, allowing us to fine-tune marketing, add classes, or even adapt class offerings to maximize revenue.

3- Start registrations earlier (and offer an early bird-discount)

📌 Pro Tip: For several years now, we’ve consistently managed to secure 25-30% of the registrations for our classes well before many of our competitors even open registration. This early head start not only gives us a competitive advantage, but it also allows us to more effectively refine our marketing strategies and focus our advertising on promoting classes that need additional exposure.

4- Don’t be afraid to pay for ads

Investing a modest amount of money daily in Facebook or Instagram ads can be a game changer.

Relying solely on organic posts on your business profile may seem sufficient, but the reality is different.

As organic reach has taken a nosedive in recent years, the importance of paid advertising has skyrocketed.

This strategy isn’t as demanding as keeping up with our social media presence, but it delivers far better results and broader exposure.

Simply create an engaging image or video ad, target it to a local audience within a few miles/kms of your gym, allocate a daily budget of a few dollars and watch the magic happen.

Gone are the days of struggling to fill every seat in your classes. A strategic advertising spend of a few hundred dollars can provide the boost you need to maximize your enrollments.

This approach can significantly increase your profit margins, as each new gymnast adds to your bottom line at minimal additional cost.

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📌 Pro Tip: In a 7-day window, Facebook ads typically cost me $7 to $10 per purchase. Which is amazing. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg in terms of value. A lot of people are going to sign up without even clicking on the ad, or after the 7 day window is over. And a surprising percentage sign up to receive our newsletter, which allows me to target future outreach.

5- Use end of session survey to promote next session

Conducting a participant survey is an excellent way to gain insight into what your gymnasts enjoy, what they don’t, and areas where your program could improve.

With Activity Messenger, you can streamline this process by scheduling an automated email to go out 2-3 days before the last class of the session.

How to create a survey for gymnastics

Want to know how to turn your post-session reminder into a powerful marketing asset?

  • Include a link that makes re-enrolling for the next session easy to increase retention.
  • Include a customizable certificate that attendees can print and share on their social media. This will increase your organic reach through word-of-mouth.
  • Encourage survey respondents to post a positive testimonial on social media, harnessing the power of peer-to-peer referrals.
  • To further increase the visibility and appeal of your program, consider personally reaching out to those who leave glowing feedback to request a testimonial for your social media channels.

 

More tools for Gymnastics Clubs

This article shares a few unconventional marketing ideas for a gymnastics club.

Activity Messenger is an online registration software for gymnastics that can help you:

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Écrit par Olivier Rousseau Olivier est propriétaire d'une franchise Sportball depuis plus de 10 ans avec des emplacements à Montréal, Québec et Ottawa, tout en aidant des propriétaires d'entreprise en tant que consultant en marketing sportif.

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