Gym Text Marketing Tip #1 – Opt-In
The first tip, and basis of any text marketing campaign, is getting your clients to opt-in. The mobile opt-in gives you the required permission to be able to text them in the future. Offer some kind of incentive at your gym: a discount, free service, or free item; this is a very effective way of getting clients to opt-in. The opt-in process is very simple; advertise your keyword and shortcode along with the incentive by saying something like “Text fitness to 77948 for a chance to win a free 3 month membership” This type of gym or fitness center incentive would be used to draw in new clientele. For current customers you might give away a free massage or tanning session or offer a discount off of merchandise, personal training sessions, or other products or features.
Gym Text Marketing Tip #2 – Create Groups
Text marketing tip for gyms number two is that you need to make every message personal to the individual gym clients receiving the message. You can create groups that are specific to the customer’s interests. For instance you might have a group for mom’s with kids taking swim lessons, gymnastics, or other classes, another group might be for spin class participants or other popular group fitness classes. If you have a supplement shop you may want a separate group for the members that shop there. By using the different demographics you can send targeted messages that are applicable to the individual. Instead of sending a message to 500 people about a special on tanning sessions when there are really only 100 of them that regularly use the service. With TXT180 groups are free and unlimited and easy to use. Each group will have a unique extension and you can manually add people to a group, after they have opted in, or have them opt-in directly to the group by texting the keyword a period and the extension (e.g. fitness.1) to the shortcode 77948. Check out this article to learn more about how to create a group for your text marketing campaign.
Gym Text Marketing Tip #3 – Message Timing
The third fitness center text marketing tip is to make sure you pay attention to the timing when you are sending out fitness center reminders or gym advertisements. If you have a 6:00 am spin class and the class members want a reminder text at 5:30 am (to wake them up and get them out of bed) then great, send it to that group. But in general you don’t want to send messages really early or really late. People will get annoyed and opt-out very quickly. Also be sensitive about the number of messages you send. If you send too many messages, especially if they are general and often not applicable to the recipient, this can also result in a lot of opt-outs. But don’t be afraid to send a message every couple of weeks at a minimum, more often during special events or promotional periods. You really want to take advantage of text marketing because it is a direct line into the hands of customers you know are interested in your message.
The key is to get creative with your messages, keep your gym promotions interactive and valuable. Whether you are getting members to send referrals, using giveaways or activities to keep people coming back, or whatever it may be. The more they are involved and invested in the community atmosphere of the fitness center the more loyal they will be to your business. Keep it fun and exciting using text message marketing.