It might be freezing outside but there’s never been a better time to prep your gym for the spring rush. Before knowing it, gym-goers will be flocking to the gym to work on their beach bodies. Spring is probably the busiest time of the year, so it’s a good idea to be prepared. Below are our top tips on prepping for your gym’s spring rush.
Plan Ahead
To keep current customers happy and attract new ones, you need a plan. Aside from discounts and promotions, you also need to think about their wants and needs. Even with vaccines and boosters readily available, some customers may still feel apprehensive about working out indoors. What’s that mean for you?
It means you need to find a way to ease their anxiety and make them want to work out. In addition to promoting enhanced cleaning procedures, you take things one step further and offer exercise classes outside. With the temperatures warming up, you can market your new fitness classes as something that’s new and exciting, highlighting the fact that outdoor gym equipment is good for your health. Since it’s outdoors, customers may feel more at ease in the fresh air and be able to socialize distance as well.
Practice What You Preach
In addition to promoting outdoor fitness, you also need to show how you plan to keep the gym as clean as possible. A few weeks before spring, run an email campaign promoting your new safety measures and cleanliness practices. Show customers that their health comes first and encourage them to contact you for information. You can also start running social media campaigns to promote your new outdoor equipment. Create enticing videos showing snippets of the equipment. Reinforce the fact that spring is the best time to get in shape and drop those extra pounds.
Hire New Staff
If you’re currently short-staffed, now’s the perfect time to start the interview process. In addition to having a friendly front desk staff, you also need to think about your trainer-to-customer ratio. A common complaint among gym-goers is that there are never enough qualified trainers in the gym. They’re either underqualified and don’t know how to help clients reach their goals, or they’re too aggressive with them. Both situations are unacceptable, so you need to reevaluate your current staff and hire new trainers if necessary. This will go a long way towards creating an engaging environment in your gym overall.
Equipment Prep
Indoor and outdoor equipment also need to be maintained. Now’s the time to make sure all of the equipment meets regulatory standards without needing repairs. Replace old and tattered gym mats, order new hand towels, and prep the pool if you have one.
If necessary, replace the training equipment! When it comes to training equipment, high quality is important. Do not fall back on cheap home models that do not meet the high demands of your customers. In the worst case, you increase the risk of injury because the devices may not be designed for such intensive use and break quickly. In addition, if you actually cause a serious injury to an exerciser by using inferior equipment, it can cost you, massive customers. Word of this will get around incredibly quickly and will cost you the trust of many members. In addition, it is helpful if you provide illustrations with descriptions of correct use on or near the devices.
Create Your Financial Budget
Unless you create an annual budget, you should use this time to create a quarterly one. It’s a good idea to include all the expenses you routinely incur and ones you think you have. If you plan on marketing your gym, how much is your marketing budget? Will you need to reorder any supplies this quarter, or is that at the beginning of the year? You also need to decide if you have the budget to hire extra help or give current employees a raise. If so, how will these funds be distributed? You can either use the funds as a bonus or as a monthly incentive.
This is how you attract new customers to your gym
The range of fitness studios is large and customers do not come to yours on their own. For this, you must first properly stir the advertising drum. Of course, this can be done with classic means such as flyers, advertisements, an opening party, and opening offers. Nowadays, however, you should primarily rely on the Internet. A Facebook account is essential and you should also consider other social platforms such as Instagram or YouTube.
For example, post fitness exercises on your YouTube channel and draw attention to yourself and your studio. You can also attract customers via voucher campaigns. For example, offer a trial membership, a one-week trial including advice, or a yoga class. In order to spread the campaigns and generate reach, you can also use providers such as MyDays, Groupon, or Jochen Schweizer.
