Your fitness center strives to empower each member to lead a healthy and fulfilling lifestyle. This can be accomplished not only through encouragement in the gym, but also through the content you provide in targeted email campaigns. Creating a fitness newsletter for your gym can help keep members engaged while also reminding them what they stand to gain by visiting your gym.
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To help you get started with a fitness newsletter for your gym, in this article, we’ll cover seven topics that you should include in your fitness newsletter campaigns. But first, let’s talk about:
The benefits of creating a fitness newsletter
Today’s fitness enthusiasts view the gym as more than a simple collection of treadmills. Many view their gym or fitness center as a community that helps them achieve their fitness goals. They don’t regard exercise as a repetitive task to check off, but rather, as a crucial component of their healthy lifestyle.
By creating a fitness newsletter, today’s gyms can use brand positioning to draw on their members’ powerful commitment to personal fitness and make them feel part of a community of workout warriors.
Email is universal
While logo selection, social media campaigns, and a variety of other marketing strategies can help get fitness-oriented individuals interested in your brand, newsletters are among the most effective tactics for maintaining loyalty. After all, regardless of age, experience, or current level of physical fitness, most club members check their email inboxes on a regular basis.
While browsing subject lines, members are eager to open messages that provide information and inspiration. Those committed to improving their physical health are especially likely to read messages from their local gym.
Email allows you to get personal
Despite its universal nature, email also provides the opportunity for tailored messaging. Through list segmentation, it’s possible to deliver the exact types of insights that different types of members appreciate.
For example, performance-oriented gym members preparing for marathons or weight-lifting competitions might enjoy tips and techniques that help them cross-train at the gym. Those focused on losing weight for health reasons may prefer success stories from specific gym members or healthy recipes. Subject lines and motivational images can also be adapted to better fit various categories of email recipients.
Newsletters can reinforce brand messaging and philosophy
Which fitness philosophies guide your gym? Are members aware of your overarching mission? If not, your newsletter provides the perfect opportunity to share that information with your members — helping to create greater depths of understanding and loyalty.
Newsletter content builds credibility
Given the important role gyms play in modern communities, it should come as no surprise that prospective members aren’t willing to place their trust in just any facility or staff member — they want to work with the best of the best. Newsletters can ensure them of your gym’s expertise by creating a sense of authority. Detailed health insights or staff member information will help members feel more confident about your offerings and advice.
Now that you know why having a regular fitness newsletter is a great idea for your gym, let’s talk about what you should include when creating your newsletters.
Seven topics to include in your fitness newsletter
When you’re ready to get started with a fitness newsletter, it’s important to plan your content strategy so you can deliver relevant, timely information to your members.
It can be tempting to go the sales pitch route but remember: many of the people who receive this newsletter will already be paying members. They’re looking for informative and creative email content that’s relevant to them, not just another sales pitch.
Ensuring each newsletter includes dedicated sections for scheduling, workout tips, community updates, and more will help keep your members engaged.
1. Class schedule
Do your classes change from week to week? Does your gym regularly add new options? Keep members in the loop by providing a detailed schedule. This saves them the effort of looking up classes on their own while also alerting them to group fitness opportunities worth trying.
Scheduling information is especially important for gyms that rely on drop-in attendance or class punch cards, as members may need to be reminded of classes to keep attendance up. If you’re currently providing virtual classes, links to online sessions or details about upcoming Facebook Live events can also be featured in this section.
2. Special events
If you regard your gym as a close-knit, fitness-oriented community, you’ll want to hold plenty of special events to help members build relationships with one another. While these events can be promoted on your Facebook page, a brief overview should also be provided in your newsletter. This can easily be accompanied by linking to Facebook events or website-based registration forms.
Another option: providing brief recaps from recent events. These can feature pictures of attendees and festivities with an overview of how many people attended and which activities they participated in. Email subscribers who neglected to join the last event may be more inclined to get involved when they see the fun they missed out on.
3. Requests for feedback from gym members
Are you ready to launch a new class but not sure if there’s enough interest among current members? Or are you nervous about committing to expensive equipment that you’re not confident members will actually use? Either way, your email newsletter provides a perfect opportunity to obtain feedback. Forget dealing with paper surveys — create a survey right in your newsletter, or include links to other online polling tools to gather opinions on new initiatives, compile responses, and analyze feedback on the spot.
4. Promote new video content
If you’ve recently expanded your video collection on Instagram or YouTube, let members know. Many would love to take advantage of video guides that demonstrate proper form for specific exercises or otherwise provide ideas for staying engaged at the gym.
5. Fitness and nutrition tips
Another top option for getting ordinary gym members invested in personal training? Allowing trainers to provide helpful suggestions in your newsletter. This could be as simple as highlighting an exercise or a healthy recipe of the month.
Such insights can be contained directly within email messages or provided in linked blog posts that go into greater detail. All readers will find this information helpful, but some may also be impressed enough to seek further insight by booking paid sessions with your trainers.
6. Success stories
Nothing inspires gym members quite like seeing another’s success. Success stories are especially motivating when they feature familiar faces who are regularly seen at your facility.
Stats such as pounds or inches lost may be included with the featured member’s permission, but it’s often more effective to focus on the many ways in which this person’s physical transformation improved their lives. Asked for such inspiring feedback, they may share stories about lower blood pressure, completed 5k races, or simply goofing off with kids or grandkids.
Don’t forget to ask whether gym members profiled in success stories feel comfortable sharing before and after photos. In addition to using them in your newsletter, these can also be used as motivational images for your gym’s social media page.
7. Staff member profiles
The fitness instructors and personal trainers at your gym work hard to help their clients. Give them the recognition they deserve by featuring them in your fitness newsletter.
Each month, provide a glimpse into the life of one staff member. This blurb can feature details on each fitness professional’s philosophy and accomplishments, as well as silly details that make them feel more personable and approachable.
Helping your members feel more comfortable with your staff can remove some of the intimidation they may feel about asking for workout advice. Ideally, this will drive greater interest in — and signups for — services such as personal training sessions.
Strengthen your gym’s marketing with an email newsletter
The best gym email newsletters provide relevant information that supports members on their individual fitness journeys. Good newsletter content helps verify their decision to continue investing in themselves by maintaining their gym memberships — and it just might drive add-on purchases such as group fitness or personal training packages. Don’t neglect this opportunity to speak directly to your members on a regular basis and improve gym member engagement and retention.
Now that you have some ideas for your next gym email newsletter, take your digital strategy even further with help from our free online marketing guide, The Download, for fitness and recreation.
