3 Gym Marketing Tips: How to Keep Your New Year's Resolutioners Coming Back

The champagne has been popped, and the ball has dropped in Times Square. On New Year's Day, most people will want to burn the holiday bulge and join a gym. Fitness clubs lure new members with introductory discounts, but the competition is fierce. It's survival of the fittest. If you own a gym, you need to invest in your digital marketing strategy now. This way, you can attract new members to your business at the beginning of 2019.

Here are three gym marketing tips you need to know about.

1. Use Social Media

Social media is a powerful digital marketing channel that improves engagement and helps you connect with prospective gym goers. Use this gym marketing method to promote your New Year's offers and services. Don't forget to incorporate hashtags into your Twitter and Instagram posts, too. #GetFit, #NewYearNewYou, #TrainHard — these are just some of the hashtags you can use to attract new customers.

[RELATED: Find everything you need to know about social media marketing in the FREE Guide to Social Media Best Practices for Small Businesses.]

Social media can also help you retain new members well into 2019. Research shows that more than a third of Americans completely abandon their New Year's fitness resolutions. It's your job to convince customers to stay with you.

Updating your Facebook or Twitter page with inspirational fitness quotes and before-and-after body transformations will inspire your members to keep going to your gym. Photos, in particular, are great for engagement. Thirty-two percent of marketers say visual images are the most crucial component of their content marketing strategy. (Blogging comes in second place, in case you were wondering.)

2. Optimize Your Blog

During and after the holidays, millions of Americans will search for local gyms on search engines like Google. (Sixty percent of adults search for local businesses on a smartphone or tablet.) If you rank on page two of the search engine results page for valuable keywords, however, customers probably won't find you.

You can improve your search engine rankings by updating your blog. Optimize your content with the right keywords and showcase your services. Explain to your readers why they should join your gym in 2019 and the benefits of living a healthy lifestyle.

Make your blog posts interesting, though. Customers are more likely to engage with your business if you use images instead of just blocks of black text.

3. Ask Your Members to Leave You a Review Online

A massive 88 percent of consumers trust online reviews as much as recommendations from friends and family, according to one study. In fact, people are more likely to join your gym if you have a good reputation online.

How can you achieve this, though? Start by asking your gym members to leave you a review online. Yelp, Facebook, Google — your customers can leave you reviews on all of these websites. Online recommendations are a great way to increase your online visibility and, as a result, you could experience a surge of traffic to your website at the start of 2019.

Then, try and get an influencer to promote your business. If a famous fitness model or bodybuilder visits your gym, ask for a testimonial and post it on your website.

Final Thoughts

These are just three gym marketing tips that will transform the way you promote your gym after the holidays. Using social media, optimizing your blog, and asking your members to leave you online reviews could improve sign-ups at the beginning of next year.