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The Importance of Your Gym Referral Program
Hi to all my fitness professional friends… Omar Nasouri here with Gym Site Solutions and today I want to chat about referral marketing. Let’s dive into the power of how your gym referral program can impact your fitness marketing strategy.
If you’re a small gym or fitness business owner, your gym referral program is an essential part of your overall marketing strategy. I talk about this a lot and I’m sure you’ve heard (from myself and from others) the impact that referral marketing can have on your fitness business and gym.
I personally know fitness trainers who consistently attract new clients through referrals alone. They don’t need to run other fitness marketing campaigns or ads.
Now, a quick side note. Just because you don’t have to promote your fitness business, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t. Sure, steady growth is great, but you don’t ever want to risk missing any opportunities. When it comes to your business, speed of growth is the ultimate factor.
All right, let’s get back to growing your fitness business by marketing with your gym referral program.
I’m sure you already know that a lead from a referral holds more value than any other form of gym marketing .
Referred leads have higher conversion rates. There’s a better chance that they’ll actually convert into paying clients. They’re more likely stay with you for longer than a lead who responded to one of your fitness ads and, they’ll probably send you referrals of their own.
Referrals are easy to onboard and have minimal to no hesitations when it comes to starting your fitness program. When you think about it, the perfect new client scenario come from a referral.
Aside from the perfect client, do you know what most trainers love about referral marketing? People love to think that referral marketing is great because it’s free.
It’s not.
At least it shouldn’t be.
Let me explain.
What Is A New Referral Worth To You?
Consider the value a new referral brings to your fitness business. You invest in ads and are willing to pay for acquiring new clients. Why not invest in clients who come in through referrals?
Your clients want you to succeed. I know they want to be a part of your business growth. They’re obviously loyal to you and your service and some might already be promoting your fitness programs.
Sure, some of your clients are referring clients your way but, If you really want to turn this into a successful marketing campaign, two things need to happen.
One, you absolutely have to be willing to pay for your referrals. And two, you need to eliminate that feeling of “selling”. Nobody wants to come off as a salesperson during a casual get-together with their friends.
Take some time to determine how much a new client is worth to your fitness business. Think about how much you typically spend on advertising just to get a new client. Not a new lead, but an actual client who is paying you for your services.
That number is going to vary based on what services you offer, how much you charge, and how long your average client sticks with your fitness program. Once you come up with a number, start a referral reward program.
Let every one of your current clients know that you appreciate referrals and will gladly pay for any referral that comes in and joins one of your paid programs.
They might not need it, but now your clients have an incentive to refer their friends and family.
Make It Easy For Them To Refer
But, how do you get them to refer? How do you eliminate that icky sales chat? As much as they want you to succeed, they don’t want to be your sales rep.
A simple way to eliminate that issue is to create a simple referral card that doubles as a gift card. Now, your clients are giving away something of value instead of randomly referring your service. This approach is much more welcomed by both your client and their referred friend.
An example might be a gift card or a heavily discounted promotional card towards one of your programs or maybe a 1-on-1 personal training session.
In this scenario, everybody wins.
The referral wins because they get something of value.
Your clients wins whatever reward you decided on paying them.
And you win a potential new client.
Don’t leave your incoming referrals to chance. Be proactive about it. Take some time to determine what a new client is worth, incentivize your current clients, and make it easy for them to talk about your business with referral gift cards that they can distribute.
If you like this fitness marketing campaign and want to add it to your gym referral program, be sure to grab a copy of my free gym marketing kit and we’ll go into more details on how to get referrals for your fitness business. I’ll even include a six week action plan and workbook to help you get started right away.
