A Simple Guide For Gyms

Fitness email marketing is a fantastic promotional strategy for gyms, health clubs, and workout studios. We often recommend it to our clients over social media because it gets such fantastic results for fitness businesses. You can use it to get leads, promote products, generate revenue, onboard new clients, boost retention, and more…

In this article, learn how to implement a fitness email marketing strategy that gets results for your business (including list growth and campaign ideas).

We’re a specialist fitness marketing agency with 15+ years of industry experience, so we know first-hand what works (and what doesn’t!). We’ve helped gyms, fitness studios, and personal trainers to successfully promote their businesses using email, so our digital marketing strategies are tried and tested.

Email marketing benefits for fitness businesses

Email is a fantastic marketing strategy for fitness businesses. It’s an incredibly effective way to generate sales and boost retention, yet is often overlooked by gyms and health clubs. This means businesses that do tap into it can benefit from a huge competitive advantage.

• 60% of people have bought something because of an email compared to just 12.5% for social media.
• Email generates $42 for every $1 spent.
• 80% of businesses say email marketing is their most important customer retention tool.

We almost always recommend email marketing to agency clients when they ask about effective promo strategies. This is because it offers several benefits that are especially important for fitness studios, gyms, health clubs, and personal trainers…

• Nurture prospects – use email to turn website visitors into prospective customers by educating them about your products, services, and overall approach to fitness.
• Promote products – promo new exercise classes, gym membership offers, nutrition programmes, or workout gear and supplements.
• Generate revenue – run email marketing campaigns that drive sales and revenue for your fitness business.
• On-board new clients – use automated welcome sequences to induct new members and clients into the gym or online fitness programmes.
• Boost retention – build a loyal customer base by emailing them regularly and providing useful fitness tips, healthy recipe ideas, and educational info.

Email marketing has so much potential as a lead gen, promotional, and retention tool. Plus, it’s relatively low-cost compared to other forms of marketing.

But one of the key benefits of email is that you own the marketing channel.

Unlike SEO and social media, email is a digital option where you’re not relying on third-party platforms for access to your audience. Google can update its algorithm and tank organic traffic to your website overnight. Social media platforms can ban your account without warning so you don’t have access to the followers you’ve worked hard to build up.

But email is different. You can email your subscribers whenever you like without worrying about algorithms or feeds. While only 1-2% of your social media followers will see a post, 20-40% will open an email. So, it’s a powerful marketing tool for health and fitness businesses to utilise.

We offer email marketing services and DIY solutions for fitness businesses. You can hire us to create your email strategy, set up automated sequences, and write impactful email content (get in touch here). Or you can purchase our Email Marketing Kit which is packed with pre-written templates, guides, and done-for-you lead magnets.

Fitness Email Marketing Strategy Overview

So, now you know why email is such a powerful marketing channel, let’s look at how your business can take full advantage. Here’s an overview of the steps involved in implementing an effective fitness email marketing strategy…

1. Define your email marketing goal
2. Choose the right email software
3. Build your fitness email list
4. Create engaging email campaigns
5. Scale & automate your emails

Lets look at each of these steps in more detail…

1 – Define your email marketing goal

So, how do you develop a fitness email marketing strategy? The first step is to define your goal.

What is it you want to achieve with your emails? Is it membership leads, programme sign-ups, or retention?

Without a clear objective, your email strategy is destined to fail. You can’t reach your destination if you don’t know where you want to go.

Here are some examples of fitness email marketing goals that businesses often aim for…

• Generate X number of gym membership leads per month.
• Increase participation in X workout class by X date.
• Raise awareness of nutrition strategies that support weight loss among our gym members.
• Generate anticipation and buzz for the launch of X product.
• Increase sales of X fitness supplement.

Once you’ve defined your fitness email marketing objective, you can move on to the next step…

Fitness Marketing Planning Kit

2 – Choose the right email marketing software

The good news is there are lots of email marketing platforms to choose from. Most are easy to use and have similar features.

Some, like Podia and Mailchimp, will let you get started for free. But if you have an existing list, then prices will vary depending on how many subscribers you have. If that’s the case then it’s worth doing your research to find the most cost-effective option for your list.

We’ve used the first three email platforms on this list with our fitness clients and heard good things about the other two…

Simply register for an account and you’ll be ready to move on to the next step…

3 – Build your fitness email list

You’ll want to build your fitness email list with people in your target market. This way your subscribers will be more likely to convert into paying members and customers.

The simplest way to do this is do add an email opt-in form to your website. You’ll need to do this within your email marketing platform and then insert it into your web pages. It’s really easy to copy and paste or you can ask your web designer to do it for you.

Most fitness businesses include an opt-in form on the homepage, sidebar, and at the end of blog articles. You can keep it basic with a call to action that says ‘join our email list’. But you’ll grow your fitness email marketing list more quickly if you offer an incentive like a freebie or lead magnet.

In our experience working with gyms and personal trainers, the top-performing opt-ins for fitness businesses are…

• Complimentary day passes to the gym
• Ebooks that summarise strategies for achieving a fitness goal (such as bulking up or weight loss)
• Recipes and shopping lists that support fitness goals
• Discount codes for fitness supplements or workout gear
• Quizzes that help people choose the best product for their needs

Make sure that your opt-in freebie aligns with your target audience’s needs and your product or service offering. This is the best way to collect high-quality email addresses and grow an engaged list that generates revenue.

You might also like… How We Grew Our Fitness Email List Of 15,000 Subscribers. or Fitness Ebook Ideas For Email Lead Magnets.

Set up your email opt-in forms so that people automatically receive their freebie after subscribing. Your platform should have a feature that makes this easy to do.

Next, you’ll need to promote your email lead magnets and opt-in forms at every opportunity. You can include it in your social media bios, blog posts, and guest posts or podcasts you participate in. The more you promote your opt-in, the faster you’ll grow your fitness email list.

Email Marketing & Lead Generation Kit

4 – Create engaging email campaigns

So, what should you send to your shiny new subscribers? A combination of welcome emails, regular newsletters, and promotional content should be enough to achieve most marketing goals.

Let’s dive into some fitness email campaign ideas…

Welcome Emails

Sending welcome emails to new gym members or PT programme clients subscribers helps introduce them to your services. You can use welcome emails to build the relationship and signpost them towards next steps, such as how to collect their gym membership card or book group classes.

If you sell online fitness programmes, then welcome emails should explain how clients should access the resources and participate in workouts.

A good fitness welcome email should…

• Reinforce that joining your gym or programme was a good decision – this helps avoid buyer’s remorse and cancellations.
• Provide essential info – like your club opening times, class timetable, and a list of what to bring or wear.
• Ask them to visit – prompt them to visit by asking them to put a workout date in their calendar that’s within the next 3 days.

You might also like… The Complete Guide To Creating Awesome Gym Welcome Emails

Fitness Email Newsletters

Sending regular health and fitness newsletters helps to build customer relationships, educate subscribers, and improve retention. They provide a variety of valuable content, such as informative articles, tips, updates, and announcements. Here are some fitness newsletter ideas to get you started…

• 3 Ways To Get Maximum Results From Quick Workouts
• Spotlight on Fitness Trends: What’s Hot In Health & Wellness
• Muscle-Building Myths Debunked: Separating Fact from Fiction
• 5 Key Benefits of Personal Training
• Inspiring Fitness Success Stories from Real People
• HIIT vs Steady-State Cardio – Which Is Better For Weight Loss?
• Protein-Packed 15-Minute Dinner Ideas

Send email newsletters on a consistent basis, whether that’s weekly, fortnightly, or monthly. This way you’ll get subscribers into the routine of opening and reading your emails regularly, which improves engagement rates and click-throughs.

Campaign Emails

Fitness campaign emails are typically focused on sales, offers, and promotions. They’re designed to achieve a specific marketing objective, whether it’s launching a new product or driving sales.

Here are some fitness email campaign ideas that you can use in your business…

• Fitness challenges – run 7-day email challenges designed to grow your list, help people progress towards a goal, and warm them up for a product or service later on.
• Product launches – use a series of emails to build anticipation for a new workout class or product, then announce the big launch and educate people about the benefits.
• Success Stories – showcase the success stories of real gym members and personal training clients over several weeks to inspire others on their fitness journey.
• Highlight limited-time offers – use email marketing to announce discounts or special offers, educate subscribers about key benefits, and remind them when the deadline is near.
• Awareness days – send email campaigns themed around fitness awareness days like National Cycling Day or Global Stress Day.

While newsletters and welcome sequences prioritise building relationships and providing value, email campaigns typically encourage purchases. With some smart segmentation and personalised offers, you can generate really strong results from these types of fitness emails.

Email Marketing & Lead Generation Kit

5 – Scale & Automate Your Fitness Emails

Once you’ve mastered your regular newsletter and campaigns, the next step is to scale and automate. There are lots of ways to use email marketing to improve your results even further.

Two effective email marketing strategies that made Life Time Fitness over $600,000 were creating automated welcome series and sending personalised emails based on fitness goals. Here’s how they work…

Send An Automated Series Of Welcome Emails

Go beyond a simple welcome email by creating a series of 3-4 welcome emails instead. Email platforms make it really easy to automate the sending of these so they go out at regular intervals.

Here’s an example…

1. Welcome email covering the 3 key points listed in the last section
2. Follow up 2 days later with an email reminder to visit the gym
3. Provide an overview of the different group exercise classes 3 days later
4. Highlight your most popular services and how to book them a few days after that

Sending regular emails encourages members to take action and educates them about your offering. It provides the perfect opportunity for you to upsell additional services.

Automate Personalised Emails Based On Fitness Goals

Take things a step further by creating personalised emails based on different customer fitness goals.

Think about the three most popular workout goals that your members or clients typically have and create three different email series based around them. This way when a new member signs up whose goal is ‘weight loss’, you can send them a series of emails that are tailored to their specific needs. Think workout tips, healthy recipes, and best classes for burning calories.

But someone else who joins your gym with the goal of bulking up will receive different emails that align with their interests. They can still focus on tips, recipes, and services, but the content will be different.

Alternatively, you can create emails around different fitness interests. So if some of your members are training for a triathlon event, you can develop gym emails that are helpful or promote beneficial products and services. Then create additional emails tailored to other popular interests, such as PT, yoga, or nutrition.

Creating emails that are tailored to your members’ interests means they’re more likely to open, click through, and take action. It can help them reach their fitness goals, feel more connected to the club, and boost your revenue too.

Personalising your fitness emails can help your marketing become even more effective. You can use email to sign up more gym members and personal training clients, keep subscribers engaged, and generate more revenue in the process.

Email Marketing For Fitness Businesses

We offer email marketing services and DIY solutions for fitness businesses. You can hire us to create your email strategy, set up automated sequences, and write impactful email content (get in touch here). Or you can purchase our Email Marketing Kit which is packed with pre-written templates, guides, and done-for-you lead magnets.

The fitness email marketing templates and resources make it easy to generate leads and sales revenue. They include a step-by-step playbook, done-for-you email templates, and resources to help you get results. From coming up with the perfect lead magnet and growing your list, to sending effective emails that help you sell more, this kit has it all.

Email Marketing & Lead Generation Kit