If you’re a gym owner, fitness center director, or maybe even just starting out as an independent trainer, one of the biggest challenges you face is attracting new members.
Pandemic Low Membership Woes
Since the pandemic hit, many gyms and fitness centers have been shutting their doors due to Covid-19 lockdowns. Many states have even put in place temporary lockdowns that make it difficult for people to leave their homes. This is causing a significant decline in gym and fitness membership rates as more and more people are becoming increasingly paranoid about catching the virus.
While some gyms and fitness centers have managed to keep their memberships afloat, they’ve done so by having virtual tours of their facilities online.
If you’re struggling with low membership numbers, it’s not just your imagination. Fitness centers across the US are dealing with low membership numbers due to many factors affecting society today.
The good news is that there’s a way to overcome this challenge without having to beg your friends and family members to join you. You can use virtual tours of your gym or fitness center and set up an online presence on sites like Facebook and YouTube.
Fewer People at the Gym Means Fewer New Members
This lack of free time also slows down people’s intent to get into shape. In a world where faster and faster speeds are always desired, nobody has time for going to the gym when they can go home and jump online in a matter of seconds.
Virtual Tours Can Help You Gain New Members
However, there may be hope for your gym or fitness center’s marketing strategy. A virtual tour allows potential customers to walk through the facilities virtually, on their own time, before they ever have to set foot in the place.
Build Relationships Before People Even Show Up
If you’re lucky, people will start to learn more about your business through these virtual tours, and they’ll begin to build a relationship with it before they even show up. They might visit your site multiple times, learning all about how you run your fitness center, whom you have working with you, the prices you offer people for membership, and more.
Build Trust Before They Step in Your Gym
They’ll start to build trust with your business before they ever step foot through your doors – meaning that when they are finally ready to join up with your gym or fitness center, you’ll have a much easier time convincing them to do it. After all, if somebody doesn’t walk into your gym, you can’t get them to sign up for a membership. Virtual tours allow people to get a feel for the place from their own homes or offices before they ever do that.
Fast and Easy Way to Promote Your Gym to More People
Virtual tours are a fast and easy way for you to promote your gym or fitness center to more people as a business owner or manager. Set up your virtual tour, then share the link with as many people as you can. They’ll be able to click on it at their convenience and see precisely what they’d be getting as a member of your gym or fitness center.
Hotspots in Virtual Tours Engage Customers
Gyms also use hotspots in their virtual tours to engage and inform potential customers. For example, you can use interactive custom buttons to show people how to use a machine or video clips of sample workouts led by personal trainers. You can also use hotspots to provide information about classes offered or the hours of operation at the front door. In short, virtual tours are a great way to give potential customers a sneak peek of what your gym has to offer. So if you’re looking for a way to stand out from the competition, consider using virtual tours in your marketing strategy.
Use Virtual Tours on YouTube
So you have your virtual tours up. Now how about using the power of videos? You can purchase video views that will give you exposure online, which is essential for getting new members through the door. It works just like it sounds: someone sees a gym’s video online and decides to give it a try.
Or, if you don’t want to pay for views, you can post videos of yourself demonstrating exercises or talking about the gym’s philosophy.
If someone sees an ad for your fitness center or gym on YouTube that they’re interested in, there’s a good chance that what will catch their attention is the fact that it’s a video, not an ad.
Use Virtual Tours on Facebook
If you don’t already have a presence on Facebook, set one up now. People love seeing photos of their friends’ lives on this site, so they’ll be more than happy to check out your fitness center or gym’s photos.
In other words, this is a great way to get members to visit your gym or fitness center without having to pay for advertising.
Once you have a page up and running on Facebook, stay active with it. Post new photos of the place regularly, so people know what’s happening. Also, interact with your followers by asking questions and sharing interesting articles.
Include a link to your virtual tour on Facebook, so anyone who wants to get a good feel for the gym can do so without having to visit in person.
Using Virtual Tours Plus Word-of-Mouth
If you want the best way to market your business, consider going old-fashioned: let your current members do the talking.
There’s no better way to convince someone you’re in a great place than hearing it from one of your members. Give your members some business cards that they can give out when they talk about the gym, and offer them incentives for getting people to sign up.
For example, just last year, my brother-in-law got a free month of membership to the gym he goes to because one of his friends joined. All he had to do was print out a form for this friend, who filled it out and gave it back to the guy at the desk.
The best part? It didn’t cost my brother-in-law any extra money. Because he got a free month, the gym just counted his friend as one of the new members for that month – nothing more.
How can your business use virtual tours to attract new members?
You can attract new members by using virtual tours to give a sneak peek of your facility online. Prospective clients looking for a gym with a lap pool, for example, can quickly discover all the features you offer with a virtual tour.
With virtual tours, clients virtually navigate through your facility and discover all the features you offer. A potential client looking for a gym with a lap pool or rock climbing wall can quickly find all the features you offer with a virtual tour.
Virtual tours are becoming increasingly popular for gym owners to attract new members. By giving potential clients a virtual tour of your facility, you can showcase all the features you offer and help them decide if your gym is the right fit for them.
Virtual tours can also help with your SEO efforts, as they can increase your presence in Google searches and help you attract more website traffic.
Additionally, virtual tours allow customers to spend more time on your site than traditional photography, leading to increased efficiency in your tours.
Also, virtual tours are available and consistent across multiple platforms, making it easy to reach a variety of demographics.
Finally, virtual tours offer a 24/7 open house to unlimited people. This makes it easy to reach an increasingly large number of people, which increases marketability.
Though many people aren’t yet using this marketing strategy, it’s a great way to catch someone’s attention and get them interested in your fitness center or gym.
If you have a website, blog, YouTube channel, or any other online presence, take some time to post your virtual tours. Once people see what your business is all about, they’ll be more likely to come in and give it a try for themselves.
In short: people want to see how things look before they commit their money to them. If they like what they see, there’s a good chance that you’ve just made yourself another member.
Contact us today if you’re interested in learning more or want help setting up a virtual tour for your business. Our team of VR experts at ViviScape is ready to help you create an engaging and effective online presence that will drive sales and increase membership. Contact us or call (574) 207-6511.
