Here’s 12 Brilliant Gym Marketing Ideas That You Can Take To The Bank This Christmas
- Craft The Perfect Holiday Promotion
- Wrap Up The Season With A Challenge
- Give The Gift of Add-On Products
- Deliver with a Festive Merchandise Range
- Run a Jolly Product Sales Promotion
- Decorate Your Little Fitness Workshop
- Add a Charity Event To Your Gym’s Stocking
- Show Off Your Little Helpers With BTS Content
- Raise Spirits With A Club Competition
- Make A Holly Workout Advent Calendar
- Rejoice With A Very Merry Party
- Join Santa’s Nice List Through A Referral Program
‘Tis the season to be jolly! A time where decorations go up, lights start flashing, and members knuckle down to pre-emptively work off their yearly Christmas Feast.
The question is, how can you use this moment to help give the gift of fitness to all people far and wide?
How can you utilise Christmas Marketing ideas to not only attract new members, but deliver a memorable experience for your current ones, too?
Well, we have you covered! Our team has spent hours compiling top tips that Kris Kringle himself would wish he thought of them!
Here are 12 absolutely brilliant gym marketing ideas that you can take straight to the bank this holiday season!
Craft The Perfect Holiday Promotion
There are a few times a year that you get to completely take advantage of your surroundings and start selling A LOT of memberships!
So, strap on your thinking hat and put together a plan for a Christmas Themed Promotion!
There’s really no limit on how creative you can get here! In the past, we’ve seen gym’s simply promote a ‘Special Offer’ where they remove their joining fee. There have also been fitness businesses who have levelled-up this idea with full-on marketing campaigns.
Regardless, it’s a way to instantly be recognised by potential members while they’re on the hunt for some ‘Santa Sales’.
Here’s a few ideas:
Have The Year Free: Come December, there’s only 31 Days left of the year. So, why not give new members the month free? It reduces the entry risk and increases the likelihood of converting leads! Plus, it counts their membership down until the new year when they’re likely to need your gym the most.
12 Days Of Christmas: A common sale we see across some of the top gyms around the globe, is the ’12 Days of Christmas’ Sale. It’s quite simple! 12 Days – 12 Deals. Remove the joining for for one, give them 2 weeks free for the other. This one will peak the interest of everybody and keep them extremely engaged as they wait to either lock-in a deal or gamble on what’s to come.
Wrap Up The Season With A Challenge
If we were to ask you what time of year you receive the most new member sign-ups, there are sure to be at least three major answers that spring to mind.
Christmas, New Years, and Easter…
What do these holidays have in common?
Well, they all usually involve a large group of people binge eating until they lose all sense of who they are, what they’re doing, and where they belong.
What’s the cure?
Overcompensating with extremely ambitious workout goals which, you guessed it, requires a gym membership! So, that’s where you come in.
Why not give people a gift that to them, could be better than fitness itself?
We’re talking about a free hall pass to eat all the sliced ham, fruit mince pies, and christmas puddings that their heart desires.
You can do this by setting up a seasonal ‘Wrap-Up’ Challenge. It’s like the typical 8-Week challenge but it runs from the start of December, up until a few days before Christmas.
They get something extremely tangible (And familiar) to look forward to, and you get to help people achieve fitness goals they never knew they had. It’s almost like the gym business equivalent of the classic ‘Donut On a Stick’ ploy!
Regardless, it’s a fun way to involve current members in a creative workout challenge, a great way to encourage new member sign-ups, and an even better way to reduce the quantity of people who would otherwise only come knocking in January (Then leave 30 Days later).
Talk about marketing… Try pairing this challenge with the perfect holiday promotion (As above). That way, you’re reducing all the risk associated with the challenge and building a bridge straight from their heart, to your gym.
Give The Gift of Add-On Products
If you haven’t already started offering add-on products at your gym, now could be a great time to start. They’re a great way to drive up revenue and add a significant amount of value to your members.
Not sure what products to sell?
That’s fine (Really!). We wrote an entire article about the top gym products that you should be selling at your gym!
The thing is, sometimes add-on products aren’t just physical, tangible items. They can be services too!
Think things like Body Scans, Personal Training, Physiotherapy, Massages, etc. The list really goes on.
So how can you use these things to your advantage and as part of a successful Christmas marketing campaign?
Here are a few ideas:
Free Body Scan For New Members
Claim A Free Nutrition Consultation With Every $100 Supplement Purchase
Five PT Sessions With Every 3-Month Membership
I know what you’re thinking… These all involve giving something away for free. Now, while most marketing research suggests this can be a phenomenal (And highly profitable) idea – You add-ons aren’t always about giving things away for free.
Giving the gift of add-ons could be less about ‘Freebies’ and more about value upselling.
This is simply where you recommend a complimentary product for your members to purchase alongside what they’re currently investing in.
- Purchasing a PT Package : Here’s a Bootcamp you would love!
- Buying Protein Powder : We happen to have protein shakers 20% off
- Booking in to see a nutritionist : Take a peek at our supplements
Deliver with a Festive Merchandise Range
This, right here, is where things start to get fun. Where you get to play on the inhibitions of many gym goers by offering a fun (Yet functional) product.
What makes this better?
It’s a limited edition line… Those words are enough to make anyone go crazy! All because we want things that not everyone else can have (It’s Neuroscience).
Now, this may take some prior planning but once you have everything sorted out, it’s as easy as can be!
The main problem with this idea is the possibility of not selling through your stock. This is why it’s essentially to properly forecast sales and perhaps even test the interest levels of members walking by.
The point here is that people love activewear. People also LOVE festive clothes. Mix the two together and you have an absolute winner!
Here’s one we created for fun! We got our creative director to illustrate the product and used Canva to flesh out the design concept!
Run a Jolly Product Sales Promotion
You already know about membership products and you’ve just read about add-on products above, which is perfect, because now we’re walking through how a sales promotion could be one of the most profitable Christmas marketing ideas that your gym implements.
What is a sales promotion?
Almost exactly what it sounds like.
It’s a promotion that you use to entice a potential customer to buy one of your products or services.
Here are some examples:
- Lock-In for 12 Months – Get 1 Month Free
- Refer a Friend and Get 20% Off Your Fee’s
- 30% Off All Protein Powder By Optimum Nutrition
- Buy 2 Get 1 Free On All Quest Bars
Now these aren’t unfamiliar from the sales promotions you would have been running throughout the year – but there is one big difference!
It’s Christmas!
This matters for the same reason that ‘Black Friday’ and ‘Cyber Monday’ are a big deal.
Sometimes the prices aren’t too different to the typical sales price. What’s important is you just add in a little something extra!
Since it’s Christmas, you can play around with themes and words! Wrap up your promotions in a pretty package.
One of the most commonly used marketing ideas around this time is the notion of a ‘Free Gift’. For example, Spend $100 – Get a Free Gift Pack (Valued at Over $60!).
Simple in practice, but effective in execution. It’s a great way to help increase gym revenue while putting a few stocking fillers in the hands of your loyal members! Win-win!
Decorate Your Little Fitness Workshop
This festive idea is usually a given and, in no way, relates to you making money (Bummer, I know).
Instead, this is the perfect way to lift the mood within your club and help provide an immersive experience for gym-members and bystanders alike.
Decorating your gym can be quite a time-consuming feat, which is why you only need to put in the amount of effort you feel comfortable with.
What do most gyms do?
They put up a piece of tinsel and a few Santa stickers around the place.
But, you aren’t most gym’s, are you? You’re the gym that people prefer to go to!
So, you’re going to unpack the Christmas tree, dress her up, place fake presents around the place, and maybe add in a few lights.
That festive merch we spoke about earlier. Put that on with a hat as well.
Now, we’re not insinuating or suggesting that Christmas decorations will give you a massive competitive edge.
What we are saying is that it shows how good your gym community is. How involved you get. If you care this much about Christmas, imagine how much you care about your members.
Plus, nobody really likes a Grinch. So, at least put up the tinsel even if you’re not feeling the whole “festive season.”
Add a Charity Event To Your Gym’s Stocking
While this whole article has been super light-hearted and full of fantastic holiday marketing ideas, this suggestion is where things get serious.
Honestly, supporting a charitable cause and adding a charity event to your line-up should be non-negotiable.
The holiday season is the time for giving and finding a way to bring joy to those less fortunate is honestly the definition of a “Christmas Miracle.”
So, is there a charity that you’re passionate about? Do your members know of a good cause?
There are so many ways to help… Here are some top-tier ideas:
Food Drive – Put up a sign at the front of your gym. A place where everybody will see it. Tell your members that every can of food they donate to the food drive, they go into the draw to win 3-6 months of free membership (Or something else, you decide).
Clothing Donation – Most people will get new clothes for Christmas. Many people don’t have that luxury. Ask your community to bring in old coats, unwanted clothing items, jumpers, etc.
Charity Challenge – Remember when we spoke about the possibility of you hosting your own gym challenge? Though it’s a great way to increase gym revenue, it’s an even better way to raise funds for charity. Set up a challenge leading up to Christmas – donate the proceeds.
It’s important to remember that the little things matter here. You don’t need everyone to donate $600. How about 60 Cents? It all adds up!
Show Off Your Little Helpers With BTS Content
This idea falls more under the umbrella of ‘Social Media Marketing’ but it’s still a fantastic tip going into the holidays!
In fact, we believe this idea is so powerful that we have written about it before… Over and over.
Behind-The-Scenes Content. That’s it! Take pictures of your staff, your club, everything. Give everybody a little peek into what life is like at your club.
This does two things which are more beneficial than you might know:
- It completely humanises your business and gives potential members an insight into what they’re investing in. It’s a proven way to not only drive interest and engagement, but membership registrations too.
- It offers you the chance to deeply connect with your community on a personal level by letting them in. In turn, you foster a much closer gym community and develop more meaningful relationships with clients.
So, what BTS content are we talking about? Well, if you want a full deep dive into social media marketing ideas, we wrote a blog (With Examples). We also built an 80+ Page social media marketing guide for gyms.
Read the Gym Social Media Marketing Blog
Download the free 80+ Page Gym Social Media Guide
Otherwise, it simply includes things you already do on a daily basis. Film you putting up the Christmas tree. Take your Instagram followers on a gym tour. Introduce a new staff member.
See, simple!
Raise Spirits With A Club Competition
No doubt that all this talk about social media marketing really got you fired up. So, here’s another idea for us!
Now running your own club competition can work a treat when just looking to build a better connection with current members, but it can work even better if you use the power of social media to open things up to the wider community.
Competitions are an absolutely fantastic way to get mass exposure and significantly increase the reach of your brand.
This is important because exposure and reach will often translate into leads when paired with the right content (Or message).
One of the best and most recent examples comes straight from Facebook. Here’s how the story went.
- An anonymous group created a fake Facebook account called ‘Cadbury Australia’ to imitate the famous ‘Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate’ page.
- They posted a picture of a large chocolate block, promising the world a free Cadbury Christmas hamper for all who shared and commented.
- The post went absolutely viral
- Before being taken down for fraud – it amassed over 77,000 comments and 68,000 shares in 2 days.
Now, don’t go making fake accounts. That’s scamming…
Do go utilising your own brand to create a competition where people can get something small for free, or win something big!
Share this post for 1 Month free membership!
Tag Us on Instagram to go into the draw to win an iPhone
The finer details of this are up to you. But, it’s one heck of a marketing idea going into the holiday season.
Prefer to keep things within your club?
Tell members that they can go into the draw to win something if they refer a friend (More on this soon). Or, if they attend gym 12 days within December.
Then sit back and watch the Christmas miracle be born into fruition. Just remember you need a great prize, a fantastic photo, and a winning call-to-action (Matched with message).
As an example, here’s the transcript from the Cadbury Competition Scam (Plus, a photo).
“Hello Everyone, my name is Becky White and I’m one of the managers at Cadbury Australia! I have some good news for you all – To celebrate 126 years of Cadbury, EVERYONE who shares and comments in the next 24hrs will get one of these Cadbury Hampers delivered to their door on Wednesday 9th. Limit 1 per person. Make Sure You Enter Here: (Link). Enjoy your free chocolate.”
Here’s what this message did well:
- Framed the message from a personal with a credible title to make it realistic and personal.
- Placed a 1 Per Person Limit to improve the likelihood that it could be real.
- Ask for a comment, a share, and some details.
Again this was a scam, but a great example of how things can go viral.
A more legitimate example would be the decent Dominoes Promotion that promised 60 Years of free pizza to the first parent who legally named their new-born child Dominic or Dominique on the day of the company’s anniversary.
But that is something you can look into on your own time. Who knows, maybe you might even claim yourself some free pizza!
Make A Holly Workout Advent Calendar
You may be wondering what a “Holly Workout Advent Calendar” was.
To tell you the truth, the ‘Holly’ part was just our attempt to stick with the Christmas marketing theme…
The workout advent calendar though – we have you covered!
This one is for your existing members! A way to get them excited about your gym! That way, they engage more with your business and in turn, become more loyal.
Customers who engage with brands regularly are proven to stick around – even when times get tough.
Here’s what you do:
Step One: Plan 25 different themed workouts or exercises in advance to match the 25 days you could expect to find on an advent calendar
Step Two: Invest in a white board/ chalk board and reveal the workout of the day!
That’s it… A two-step plan to the top! You’ll be surprised just how much people engage with this.
Again, these ideas are even more effective when pairing them together, so why not make a competition out of it and give a prize to whoever performs the best across the month!
If you’re not sure what sort of exercises to include in your workout advent calendar – our team has put together a few fun ones for you.
- Santa’s Sleigh – 20M Weighted Sled (But it’s wrapped in Christmas Décor).
- Christmas Climb – Jacob’s Ladder holding a sack filled with weights over your shoulder (Just like Kris Kringle).
- Tree Topper – These are just kettlebell swings because let’s be honest… It kind of makes you look like a Christmas tree (Maybe make them wear a Star Hat).
Rejoice With A Very Merry Party
If you have taken any of our advice and implemented these Christmas marketing ideas at your gym, it’s likely that your members have been through the works!
They’re exhausted (But also extremely refreshed).
So, sometimes it’s good to let them kick back for a little while – show them you care.
What better way to do this than with a very merry party?
No need to go into too much detail here. After all, how hard is it to host a party?
Go to the local grocery store, purchase some festive décor, some naughty (And nice) treats. Pow! You have yourself a magical afternoon that you and your members won’t’ forget.
Now, if you’re worried as to whether this would be a good investment for your gym. The answer is likely yes.
It’s such a fantastic way to build an inclusive gym community in a way that facilitates member loyalty, satisfaction, and excitement.
Not only does it make your members more likely to stay, it makes them more likely to purchase any add-on products you offer such as supplements. You may not have the cheapest price but they trust you.
More importantly, it increases the likelihood of them talking to their friends about how good you are.
Now, if you’re thinking what we’re thinking… Pair this idea up another one to make it more effective.
Can’t see anything about a refer-a-friend strategy? Well, you spoke too soon. That’s coming now!
Join Santa’s Nice List Through A Referral Program
Let’s finish this list with a bang! An idea that has been proven time and time again to drive exponential growth.
Not just in the fitness industry either… This is applicable to everybody!
In a world full of “Fake News” and social media ploys, word-of-mouth is still the most trusted source of marketing. It’s the reason why influencer marketing now makes up an overwhelming portion of new promotional endeavours.
The only difference is you’re not directly paying for an endorsement. You simply just incentivise it.
Now, your most loyal members are likely already selling for you because you have provided them with such a fantastic in-gym experience.
But, for those who need a little motivation – it’s time to amp up your referral program.
Here’s some of the deals we see from other fitness businesses around this time of year:
- Get 1 Month Free For Every Referral
- Get 20% Off Your Membership When You Join With A Friend
- Refer A Friend For Your Chance To Win 6 Months Free Membership
Congratulations! You (Hopefully) made it to the end. That means your well on your way to absolutely maximising your business results!
There’s one more thing you should know though…
Something that every single one of these ideas have in common.
They all need to be communicated to your members. Otherwise, nobody knows about your grand plans!
That’s why in our experience, all of the most successful fitness businesses lead their holiday marketing with an Email + SMS campaign.
Social media is the best when reaching potential members. Email and SMS are the best when trying to talk to leads and current members.
If you want the world’s premier platform for automated communications then we can help! At VIGYR, we happen to make leading Gym Management Software that starts at $0/ Mo – saving you thousands.
The best part?
That means, even if you never want to pay a cent – you can still use us to implement these ideas for the entire month of December! What a bargain!
30 Days not enough? Well, again… If you qualify you might just be able to use this top software for free, forever!
