Visualize this. You are running an awesome Facebook ad campaign with a great offer to get the attention of the people in your area and you’re getting tons of engagement! Your special offer is something that really resonates with your market and your leads are pouring in.
This is a pretty great scenario, right?
Hell, yeah!
But the REAL question is: How many of those leads will actually be converted into long term gym members?
I’ve been in the fitness industry for a while now and I’ve seen studio owners collect hundreds of leads each month thanks to special offers and free giveaways like class trials and PT sessions. But then they’ll only convert a few of these leads into members, and let everyone else fall through the cracks.
Why does this happen, you ask? Well, I get basically the same reason every time. You. Are. Busy.
So for the busy folks, the email automation could be your new best friend. This is a great way to allow busy fitness studios to maintain relationships with their potential client base and nurture hot leads in their sleep.
Without a follow up process, you won’t have time to track down each individual who opts into an offer and sell to them. Automations offer a ton of great tools to set up your follow-up sequence, nurture all your warm leads, and convince them to come back, and, hopefully, open their wallets and invest in a membership in your gym!
When someone opts in online, or even walks in and fills out a waiver, you should always collect their name and email address. This means you’ve got everything you need to send them emails that allows them to get to know your studio and what you offer. This helps build trust and establishes you as a solid brand in their eyes.
The cool thing is that, if done right, it is absolutely possible to build a good relationship with your leads via email using simple email automation.
How could this work for you? Let’s break it down…
- Someone leaves their contact information when they opt in to your offer
- This info is automatically entered into your email marketing platform
- This triggers an automated email sequence that sends them emails to build trust and credibility and provide them with as much value as possible.
When someone signs up for your email list via forms/boxes on the website, they should immediately receive an automated email from you that should increase their engagement and begin a relationship.
Obviously, it is important that you have a reliable and user friendly emailing platform to be able to pull this off, and that may require a purchase on your part. But, trust me, this investment will pay off in time and could lead to HUGE returns down the road. Remember, it takes between 6-8 times of contact before someone usually invests.
And that’s what’s awesome about a great lead capture strategy – they build your email list for you and allow you to continuously reach out to them by automating the process for you. Even if you start with the simplest steps in a follow up email sequence, it could seriously propel you past your competition, build trust and credibility in your community, and help grow your fitness studio!
Personally I use ActiveCampaign for email automation. Its very user-friendly and has awesome automation functions that will help you grow your contact list. Click here to get my ActiveCampaign VIP rate (saving about 40% a month).
