How email marketing can grow your fitness business.

by Maritsa Harry, Certified Personal Trainer 3 August 2022

Email marketing is often overlooked when compared to social media marketing and other types of marketing but this could be slowing your business growth. Social media is often fickle. Fierce competition among social media giants like Youtube, Instagram and Tik Tok shift users’ attention from one platform to the next as they suddenly change their algorithms; add the latest feature ;or suddenly stops working. This makes it unwise to completely rely on social media marketing as it is inherently unstable.

Your personal training is a business and as a business owner you want to maintain communication with current clients and reach out to new clients as much as possible. Email marketing is steadier and more reliable. There is nothing similar to email platform. Unlike social media marketing, people actually need emails to receive important transaction alerts, receive work, and exchange information.

Whether you are a seasoned fitness professional or just starting out, email marketing, once done effectively, is a must.

So what is email marketing?

Email marketing refers to the use of email communications as a marketing strategy to reach specific business goals.

Emails can be used to:

- Generate sales,
⁃ Maintain customer engagement,
⁃ Gain new customers,
⁃ Create/ maintain brand awareness and
⁃ Reward customer loyalty

If done right, an effective email marketing campaign can promote as well as boost your business, even more effectively than other forms of marketing. It is also more cost effective if you do not have a large budget. In fact, it costs $0 to send out an email blast. Win-win situation!

There are several types of email campaigns :

1. Welcome messages

This is great way to make new clients feel a warm welcome to your fitness family. It is also a great way to reiterate anything you may have mentioned during your initial meeting so the client can be reminded before their first session.

2. Newsletters

Newsletters are great for letting clients keep up to date with the latest in your community, whether it is reaching a new business milestone or important news and announcements.

3. Abandoned cart emails

For fitness professionals with an e-commerce website, sending an email about an abandoned cart can encourage customers to complete their purchases. These emails can be automated messages that ask the customer to complete their purchase within a specific timeframe.

4. Limited offers

Special offers or discounts can be sent to clients with a promo code that is only valid for a limited time.

Emails sent to your customers do not always have to be a pitch for a product or an offer. It can actually be quite off-putting when a customer only hears about another sale or upsell. Use your emails to also bring value to your audience. Some non-promotional email content ideas include:

- Helpful tips or tricks
- Gentle reminder to stay on track
- a great recipe

A simple email giving reminders to eat better or complete a short stretch routine at their work desk shows a level of care, dedication to your craft and shows a level of appreciation for your clients which would in turn deepen brand loyalty.

As a fitness business owner, you have to know your audience. It is important to segment your audience into groups. We will focus on three baseline groups that your emails should be customized to:

1. For your existing fitness clients and customers, email marketing can be used for communication and awareness.

2. Customer prospects are those who are already in your email database and have shown signs of interest in your business but have not converted. Emails can be used to entice and attract in an outreach campaign to encourage them to book you as their coach.

3. Customer leads are those who you do not even know about your business yet. You can tailor strategies for capturing email addresses, and entice them to book you.

In conclusion

Training extends beyond the one-on-one session at the gym and is only 1/3 of the work as a fitness professional. Promoting your services and your brand is just as important as training your clients. Emails can present a number of business opportunities from lead generation to increased customer satisfaction. There are many email marketing tools available which can simplify the process, allowing for greater automation and customization.

There are many Email Service Providers (ESP) out there. Some popular ones include:

- Mail Chimp
- AWeber
- Campaigner

There will be a learning curve to your email marketing tools, but once you get the hang of it, you can use it to drive growth for your business. Other aspects of email marketing such as frequency, creating click-worthy content, and email design also play crucial roles that affect open rate and engagement, which we will cover in another article.