In the wake of marketing trends like SMS campaigns and mobile push notifications, fitness businesses might assume that email marketing is obsolete. Research shows, however, that as of 2020, email marketing still had an average ROI of 36:1. That means that every dollar you spend on emailing your audience has a return of $36. Nothing to scoff at, is it? 

Strategic email marketing is not as simple as typing something up and sending it out to all your customers. Your emails should be designed, written, sent, and analyzed thoughtfully if you want to maximize that ROI. In this article, we’ll go over the steps you need to take to build an effective email marketing strategy for your gym. 

Start by building an email list. 

Email marketing is useless if you have no one to send your emails to. That’s why the first step in your email marketing strategy is to build an email list. The more subscribers you have, the more chances you’ll have to make connections and convert leads. Focus on collecting the contact information of people who have shown interest in your gym, i.e., your target audience. Here are some different tactics you can use to grow your audience: 

• Create a website lead capture form 

• Social media ads and giveaways 
• Gated content and other incentives that require the user to submit an email address in exchange for a reward (such as an eBook or promotional discount) 
• Ask members/visitors for emails in person 
• Encourage/incentivize email referrals from members 
• Email opt-ins when members or guests visit or sign up for a class  

Segment your list based on stage of the buyer’s journey. 

Members want and expect email content that is personalized to their wants, needs, goals, and problems. Along with meeting that demand, personalizing your fitness emails is important so you can be sure you’re getting the right message to the right people. In fact, personalized emails generate a median ROI of 122% — a success rate that speaks to the effect a little personal touch can have.  

There are many ways you can segment your email audience, but we find segmenting by where they are in their buyer's journey to be one of the best strategies. A prospect who’s still considering joining your club isn’t going to be interested in the same content as a member who goes to the gym five times a week, for instance. The more tailored emails are to a person’s place in the buyer’s journey, the easier it will be to move them down the funnel. 

Streamline the process with email templates and automation. 

Although email marketing is a worthwhile tool in terms of ROI and prospect and member engagement, that doesn’t mean you want to spend hours and hours creating emails. Templated emails and an automated email marketing system will save your staff a lot of time and make for a more effective and efficient emailing process.   

An email template will help with consistency. You can choose a design to use for different types of emails and then just plug in copy when you want to send a new one. Make sure your design is branded with your logo, colors, name, and other thematic elements of your gym. As for content, you’ll have to input a subject line, an opener to capture interest, the body of your content or offer, and end with a call to action. Remember to keep it short and sweet, so readers can get through it quickly.  

Then, set up recurring emails, such as welcome emails, birthdays, reminders, and lead nurture campaigns, to be sent out automatically based on certain criteria. This way, no one on your list will fall through the cracks. 

Use a variety of different content in your emails. 

Consistency is key in your gym’s email marketing strategy, so you need to have a variety of content on deck to keep them interested. If you send the same type of boring email every week or month, your subscribers are going to delete it without even opening it. Here are some types of email content you can use to engage prospects, leads, and members in your audience: 

• Welcome emails 
• Follow-up emails (after visits, assessments, and so on) 
• Gym news and updates 
• Offers/promos 

• Fitness tips and educational newsletters 
• Fitness events and challenges 
• Personalized workout advice 
• Success stories 
• Re-engagement for lost or idle members 

Track email performance. 

Fitness data analytics are an integral part of a gym’s success — and if you’re not already taking advantage of them then you should be. Email analytics are incredibly valuable in that they allow you to see how your emails are performing, so you can optimize and refine them for greater success. The top email marketing metrics that businesses track are open, click-through, and unsubscribe rates. Other common metrics worth tracking that could provide some insight include subscribe, conversion, bounce, and non-open rates.  

See the difference an in-house email marketing system that works hand-in-hand with your gym’s needs can make. 

Any modern gym that wants to capture new leads, nurture prospects, and engage members needs to have an email marketing strategy in place. If you want to execute that strategy effectively, then you should have an in-house email marketing system to go along with it.  

Club-OS offers sales engagement and marketing automation features that drive acquisition, retention, and revenue, all while making your life easier. With our email marketing features you can easily segment your audience, create custom email templates, automate delivery, and analyze important metrics from each email sent. 

Learn more about how Club-OS can help your gym work smarter and book a free demo today!