It wasn’t too long ago that a certain type of customer was commonly expected at your gym. You had your “New Year’s Resolution” types, your high-performance yuppies, your fitness junkies, and other classic archetypes of the neighborhood gym.
Recent cultural shifts in how people view personal health have expanded this audience. Now it’s hard to pinpoint a specific customer in terms of what kind of person they might be, but there has emerged a connecting link to all these different gym-goers: they are part of Generation Active.
While going to the gym used to be a niche activity that was reserved for those looking to be serious about their physical fitness levels, it has since expanded towards those in the millennial and generation Z populace that have a different perspective on their personal health.
Indeed, almost 80% of all gym-goers fall into this category, which is only boosted even more by the wide availability of digital fitness programs for home use.
Luckily for those gym owners out there, Generation Active shares a collective culture that can make it easier to reach out to them and cater to their evolving needs. Below is a list of 5 things that you can do to better appeal to this high-value audience.
One of the most important aspects of better connecting with the younger generation that is now populating the gyms is to develop a brand identity that remains relevant to the people you’re trying to target. This can help you better resonate with your clients, differentiate you from customers, and provide longevity to your business.
There are many ways to go about this, but you’ll need to ensure that the identity you choose to go with as a brand evolves with the times as well. The last thing you want to do is to fully flesh out a concept only to have it be outdated once you begin rolling it out.
Gone are the days of dubious marketing and wide-reaching statements that are 90% promotional and 10% truth. These days, especially with generation active, brands have a better chance of creating more customer loyalty if they remain transparent with their business practices and offerings.
With 90% of consumers finding transparency as a key aspect of any business in the modern market, having this as a key factor in your business can help develop rapport with you and the value-driven younger gym members.
If you believe you’ve developed a brand identity and maintained transparency that can help you be noticed by generation active, it’s important to keep those communication lines open by maintaining a reachable contact method either on your website or some other form of digital listing.
This can help your members navigate your services as well as give them an avenue to express any issues or concerns they may have (which falls nicely into our previous tip of being clear and transparent).
Having all the personality and communication channels open will mean nothing if your prospective clients can’t find your business in the first place. This tip falls deeply into the realm of advertising, which in today’s world can mean several integrated strategies that can help put your business on the map.
All these options can make navigating the marketing aspect of your business challenging for some, which is why the next tip we have is likely the most important tip we have on this list.
As you may have noticed, the above 4 tips are not necessarily the easiest to develop on your own. In fact, developing an entire marketing presence for your business will likely take you months to do on your own, which can keep you left behind by some of your more agile and more experienced competitors in the industry.
That’s why our last, and arguably most important tip, is to seek out the development of your brand identity, your communications, and your overall presence, with a marketing agency. It’s important that you choose not just any marketing agency but one that truly understands your business and your objectives as a gym. This often means that local agencies would be the best choice to reach out to as they often have the best understanding of your local area as well as connections to some strategies and resources that are not readily available.
With these tips, especially the last one, we hope that you can further develop your business to make the most out of this opportunity. Remember, it’s not just about how you operate your business but how you communicate that value to the customers that will make all the difference.
