The Ultimate SMS Marketing Guide For Gyms

As a gym owner, you have probably experienced an upswing in memberships in January and September. Surveys have shown that in those months gym memberships can rise up to 20%. That same surveys have shown that more than 50% of those people will stop going to the gym within the next three months. So how do you retain those members and get the new ones? One of the answers is: SMS! People on average spend more than 4 hours a day on their phone and time to respond to messages is less than 2 minutes.

Here are some tips that will help you understand how SMS can work for your gym.

Simple membership renewal

Before your customer’s membership runs out send them a little reminder to renew their membership. Send it in enough time so they can contact you to discuss things further or cancel their membership with you. Include your contact number or give them the ability to reply back to your message requesting a callback.

Promote special offers

Send out personalised bulk messages including special promotional offers such as personal training deals or upgrades and secondary spend. If one of the classes you are running isn’t full then send out a message enticing people to join with a limited discount offer.

Refer A Friend scheme

Get your current clients engaged by rewarding them with a refer-a-friend scheme. Send a text message explaining to them what they have to do and include their referral code. Reward your clients with discounts from their membership or gym merchandise! Keep customers motivated by sending them updates on how many referrals and rewards they have received.

Send class reminders

Increase attendance rate by sending out a text message before gym classes, SMS reminders can increase attendance rate by 45%. Include a URL link to the class timetable or link to a page where they book a new class. You can get people to reply back if they are unable to attend or text back if they want to join a new class!

Review important documents

Instead of posting or emailing promotional brochures or sign up documents, send these in a text message. This means that your clients get to learn more about your service quicker and more efficiently by looking at them from the comfort of their phone. Give people the option to text back if they would like to discuss anything more with you and have your customer service team on hand.

Collect customer feedback

Improve your overall customer experience by asking your customers for their thoughts and feedback. Send them a quick SMS Survey asking for their feedback, whether it’s on your facilities, customer service or classes. Your customers will be more inclined to respond back via text message and give you their honest feedback. You can then use this information to improve your service.

Send motivational messages

Encourage your clients to keep returning by sending them motivational messages about their healthy lifestyle. You can send advice and tips about how they can improve their healthy lifestyle and include links to any information they may find useful such as a link to your YouTube channel for fitness videos. Build your database easily by getting people to text into a shortcode and keyword so they can receive these specific messages.

Text Message Coaching

You can also set-up a dedicated number or shortcode and offer a one-to-one coaching via text messaging, which would be useful for those who are using a personal trainer at your gym. Research shows at 6 months people who have NOT received positive motivational text-messages were twice as likely to quit than those who have received them.

If you liked these tips you can find more on our blog page and if you want to learn more about SMS automation go to gymleadmachine.com