Last updated on August 21st, 2025 at 07:17 pm
With what seems like a gym on every street corner of every city, it can feel nearly impossible to make your gym stand out and attract the attention of your ideal clients.
If you’re looking to grow your revenue and change more lives, though, there are 6 killer gym marketing strategies you can use.
In this guide, we’re going to dive deep into each of those strategies, give you proven examples to show you what success looks like, and help you start capitalizing on each and every one of them.
By the time you’re done reading, you’ll have a clear roadmap you can use to start growing your revenue month-over-month.
To kick things off, one of the first things you need to do is make sure you show up where your potential clients are already searching for gyms just like yours.
Create A ‘Google My Business’ Profile
When people are looking for a gym like yours, one of the first things they’re going to do is head over to Google and start searching for ‘gyms near me’.
If you’re not showing up in the top search results, though, they’re never going to find you.
They’ll head to your competition, instead.
To prevent that from happening, you can set up a Google My Business profile.
If you’ve never heard of these before, it’s a profile that will appear in Google Maps and local search results, helping increase your visibility and making it more likely that someone looking for a fitness center will see your listing and your contact information.
You’ve probably seen them before — check out the example below to see what it looks like:
When you set up your Google My Business profile, you’re giving your business more credibility and visibility in the search results, where people are looking for businesses just like yours.
You also give people a chance to check out your business before they actually visit.
Other members can go to your Google My Business profile and leave reviews (which you should encourage them to do) and ratings, which new members will see.
If your ratings and reviews beat your competitors, the chances of you converting them into a new client dramatically increase.
On the flip side of that, if you have a ton of negative reviews, you could be costing yourself big.
Keep this in mind as you start optimizing your profile to ensure you’re getting more positive reviews than negative reviews — and take your negative reviews as feedback to improve your business around.
Setting up your profile is free to do. You can get started by clicking here now.
Now, as you’re setting up your profile, there are things you want to do to make your listing stand out from your competitors so you get a chance to earn the person’s business.
For instance, people searching will typically sort gyms by the rating they’ve received from other members.
Once they sort by ratings, they’ll be able to dig deeper into your reviews:
They can also filter by the review rating — to help them see both your best and worst reviews.
Having a listing in place will help you show up higher in the search results since the “map pack” is typically one of the first blocks of content in Google’s search results pages for local businesses.
The key here, though, is not just putting up a listing and hoping for the best.
You want to continually optimize it by requesting your patrons go to your business profile and leave reviews, especially when they’re feeling good about their experience with your gym.
You can potentially incentivize leaving a review, too.
For instance, you can offer a free class, a free tanning session, a free credit at your protein bar, or any other number of incentives for leaving a review.
Leverage Email Marketing
You’ll also want to incentivize people to give you their email addresses so you can leverage email marketing to keep people coming back to your gym — and convert new people into paying clients.
Your email list is a direct connection with your customers.
There are no social media algorithms to get in the way, to navigate around, or to stay ahead of.
Instead, you’re able to share content the way you like, with a mix of text, images, videos, you name it.
When it comes to leveraging your email list and email marketing, there are a few steps you can take.
The first (and most important) is starting with a list — or starting to grow your list if you haven’t already.
You have two main options for growing your list, too.
You can include a physical signup sheet inside of your gym, on the counter where members and walk-ins can provide their email addresses.
To help increase the number of signups you get, offer an incentive for people to join.
One of the best ways to get people to join your list is by offering a free trial to your gym.
This can be anything from a free week, to a free month, or even a free session with a personal trainer.
Then, to drive even more signups, include a form directly on your website or in your social media profiles.
Check out the example of an opt-in page on Virgin Active’s website below:
If you want highly-qualified leads (and leads that are highly likely to convert into regular customers), you can also make a small addition to your free trial:
For example, F45 offers 14 day trials for $14.
This low barrier to entry helps weed out those who may not be motivated enough to commit to your gym in the long run while still giving people an easy and affordable way to get started.
Another great way to grow your email list is through Facebook Ads.
What most people get wrong with Facebook Ads, though, is sending people directly to their website or trying to sell them full-time gym memberships or training packages.
Since these people will be new to you and your gym, you want to capture them on your email list, instead, and then begin developing a relationship with them.
The right way to grow your email list using Facebook Ads is by promoting a free trial, offering an eBook or guide, or even a free consultation and training session with a trainer.
Then, drive people to a dedicated landing page that does nothing but promote that one offer.
Check out the ad below to see what we mean:
Now, to get started, you’re going to need a place to host your landing pages.
You can give ClickFunnels a test run with a free trial by clicking here now.
When you join, you’ll be able to choose from a wide variety of professionally-designed landing page templates.
Then, you can edit the templates using our easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor.
Or, if you’re a creative type, you can build your own from scratch.
And when it comes to emailing your list, you want to give people a reason to read your emails.
Start by writing engaging, short, and crisp content.
This can be anything from workout and fitness tips to fitness routines, member spotlights, and hero stories. You can let people know about classes that are coming up or special events, promotions, or discounts that you’re running.
To see what this looks like in practice, check out the email example below:
When you’re writing an email to your list, make sure to include a strong call to action so people know what to do when they’re done reading.
And if you’re looking for even more inspiration, here’s some email examples to get you started:
- Fitness Challenges: Encourage participation in gym-organized fitness challenges with rewards.
- Health and Wellness Articles: Share informative content related to health, diet, and wellness.
- New Equipment Announcements: Keep members updated about new machines or equipment in the gym.
- Gym Events: Promote upcoming events or classes hosted by the gym.
- Member Feedback Requests: Ask for suggestions on how to improve the gym experience.
- Referral Programs: Encourage members to refer friends in exchange for rewards.
- Birthday Greetings: Send personalized birthday wishes with a special offer or free class pass.
- Nutrition Plans: Offer nutrition advice or meal plans to complement workout regimes.
- Success Stories: Share before-and-after success stories of members to inspire others.
To learn even more about growing your email list, check out List Building Secrets.
Start A Referral Program
A referral program is one of THE best ways to grow your gym after building your email list.
When someone gets a recommendation from an existing member, the chances of them becoming a long-term client for your gym increases significantly.
When you get it right, you’re not spending more money to acquire these customers.
You also have built-in social proof and increase the chances that people stick around longer since they’ll have friends to work out with.
It’s easy to get started, too.
All you need is a referral page on your website where you outline the benefits of referring people they know to become members.
To create this page, you can use ClickFunnels by clicking here to start your free trial now.
Similar to launching your email list, you can pick a template to use for the referral page.
Then, you can customize everything using our drag-and-drop editor.
Once you’re done, you can use a QR code inside of your gym so people can quickly scan the code and have their phone take them to the page.
You can also have your staff notify people about your referral program and regularly ask visitors to refer their friends and family — in exchange for extra incentives and perks.
Build A Presence On Social Media
After you’ve laid the foundation to start growing your list and getting more referrals from your active members, the next step you can take to grow your gym is getting active on social media.
Social media isn’t just a way to connect with family and friends.
It’s also a place to introduce people to new things and places to go — like your gym.
When you’re trying to grow your gym, TikTok and Instagram are great platforms to use.
Since these are visual platforms, you’ll want to spend a bit of time thinking about what to post.
You’ll need to attract the attention of active people or people who want to get into fitness.
A great way to do this is by featuring your instructors and the classes they host:
You can also feature your members and their stories:
You can post new fitness challenges and recaps of past fitness challenges:
Or start building up hype for a new location you’re opening:
You can show off your facilities and the equipment and classes you offer:
And post motivational quotes:
Your creativity really is the limit when it comes to promoting your gym on social media and attracting the attention of new people.
To get started, you’ll want to create a content calendar that helps you stay focused and consistent.
You can download this content calendar sheet and make a copy to begin creating your own.
Inside the sheet, you’ll find a bunch of different categories.
- Timeline: The timeline helps you specify the dates and times that you’re going to publish new pieces of content. This lets you create a deadline for when it needs to be created and reminds you when it needs to be published.
- Content Details: The content details help define the type of content you’ll be creating and can range from blog posts to videos, images, stories, podcasts, etc. It will also outline the content title and the big idea that you want to get across with the piece.
- Publishing Platforms: This helps you and your team remember where each piece of content is going to be published. It can be on your blog, on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, or wherever you want to attract attention.
- Status Tracking: The status tracking field helps you monitor content you’ve already started working on so you know where it’s at in the process. This can be from initial idea to production, editing, approval, and publishing.
- Responsible Parties: If you have members on your team helping you create and publish content, the Responsible Parties field will help remind each team member what needs to be worked on.
- Marketing Campaigns: This section helps align each piece of content with the bigger goals you have for your marketing campaigns. This ensures you’re driving traffic to the right places and tailoring each piece of content to meet your end goal.
- Metrics: You’ll want to monitor the performance of each piece of content you create. The Metrics field lets you keep an eye on whether or not the content has helped accomplish the goals you set for it and will let you figure out which pieces of content are worth replicating.
After you’ve established a content calendar, you’ll want to maintain consistency in your approach to ensure the social media algorithms are working in your favor.
Do Seasonal Marketing
As the seasons change, you have a huge opportunity to run seasonal promotions to help drive even more people into your gym.
This type of marketing leverages specific times of the year when people are more likely to join.
For instance, January 1st is one of THE biggest enrollment periods for new gyms.
As people start setting New Year’s resolutions, one of the biggest resolutions they’ll create for themselves is getting healthier and getting in better shape.
To capitalize on this, you can run a New Year’s Resolution Promotion.
You can run a special membership package at a discounted rate for the first 3 years of the month to help attract people who are motivated and looking to make a change.
This “New Year, New You” bundle could also include training sessions, diet plans, access to classes, or any other incentives your facility offers to help make the package even more attractive.
Take a look at how Adrenaline Training promotes their gym for the New Year’s crowd:
You can also promote your gym during the spring — for people who are looking to get into better shape for the summer.
Gold’s Gym runs a great promotion for the “Summer Countdown” audience and includes extra benefits like nutrition planning and extra classes, as long as they enroll during the spring season.
Take a look at one of their promotions for it below:
Now, most gyms tend to slow down over the holiday season, between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
While they’re struggling to attract new clients, you can run a holiday special to bring people in and help them keep weight off during the holidays.
You can offer incentives for them to join during the holiday season with a “Holiday Headstart” package that includes a special rate for November and December and then gives them a free month in January for anyone who attends regularly during the holidays.
Likewise, you can capitalize on tax season to incentivize people to join an “Invest In Your Health” campaign, offering a discount equal to the sales tax on an annual membership if they purchase in April.
Just like promoting your facility on social media, your creativity is really your only limit when it comes to how you can promote your gym and run seasonal marketing campaigns.
Plan these out in advance so you’re able to launch them before you experience the typical slowdowns that most other gyms experience and you’ll be able to drive consistent enrollments throughout the year.
Host Events
Now, if you really want to drive more people into your fitness center, hosting events is a great way to let people experience what working with you feels like — and convert them into long-term clients.
With events, especially free events, people get to experience their gym and workout routines without having to pay for anything.
This helps create buzz and publicity as people passing by your gym will see your promotional materials for it and may even see news about it online.
When you get it right, you’re being positioned as the authority and building trust with people who may not have considered joining a gym and taking classes.
Take a look at how Virgin Active does it:
Thrive Gym even makes it a charity event to draw more attention:
You don’t just want to host events, though.
When you’re using this strategy, you want to capitalize on the potential inside of them.
For instance, you can create content promoting the event in your local groups and communities to help drum up buzz around the event itself.
Then, collect email addresses and personal information for each person who attends.
Finally, capture content, photos, and videos during the event so you can continue promoting your gym even after you’ve wrapped up the session.
While people are engaged with your event, spend time talking to them about what they need, their desires, and what their hesitations might be.
You can use this information to refine your marketing and sales approach to convert even more people into paying customers.
When you get this right, and you stay consistent with how often you host them, live events can be a great way to generate buzz for your facility — and drive new memberships at the same time.
On top of that, it’s a goodwill gesture for your local community which (from a marketing standpoint) can be worth more than running ads on Facebook or promoting yourself on social media.
Final Thoughts
With each of these strategies, though, there remains one constant: you want to put your members (and potential members) at the forefront of the conversation.
Focus on what they want and need from your facility and then listen to their feedback so you can continually improve and deliver better results for your members.
Make it as easy as possible for them to refer their family and friends, join your email list, and receive your latest promotions and specials.
To do that, use a service like ClickFunnels to build and host your landing pages, manage your email marketing, and keep you up-to-date with the latest proven gym marketing strategies.