The top 5% of fitness studio owners my agency Loud Rumor works with all know how their Marketing is performing and what gym advertising success looks like. They know the “scoreboard” as I call it, and you should too.
In fact, the most successful business owners in the world all know, understand, and thrive in Marketing… from Steve Jobs and Richard Branson to Henry Ford and Elon Musk, all are Marketing geniuses.
They get how important Marketing is and how to measure its success.
In this episode, I’m talking with Loud Rumor’s Marketing Director, Patrick Cundiff and he’s going to break down the 7 KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) every gym owner should not just know, but measure for Marketing success.
Is Successful Gym Marketing Too Expensive?
No. Here’s why…
“Even if I’m breaking even on my marketing campaigns, I’ll increase the budget,” Patrick says, “All day.”
A lot of business owners might say that’s crazy… you just ended up back where you started so why spend the money at all. Here’s Patrick’s answer to that:
“If you break even, that’s FREE Marketing,” Patrick explains, “Not only did you make your money back but you got your business, your fitness studio, in front of thousands of other people who might be interested later. You essentially paid nothing for them to know who you are whereas if you didn’t advertise, they never would.”
Patrick’s 100% right.
Matt Kafora understands this and it’s why he encourages other gym owners to put as much money as they possibly can into Marketing and to always stay on top of their gym advertising success.
How Much Fitness Studio Owners Should Spend On Marketing
Now of course, you don’t want to lose money with your Marketing month-over-month, right? So what is a good rate of return for your fitness studio’s advertising spend?
“Advertising is a pay-to-play market. Like anything else, people who invest more earn more,” Patrick says. And here’s what he means by that:
If your gym puts $500 into advertising, you’d probably want to see a 10X return to feel like it was worth the spend, right? So about $5,000 will make you feel like what you’re doing is worth it.
However, and this is what the best fitness studios we work with do—keep in mind, they’ve all been wherever you’re at with your studio and they’ve all had really tight budgets before—if you put $10,000 into advertising and only got a 2X return, would you be disappointed?
Of course not.
That’s a $20,000 return on investment. $15,000 more than the $500 10X return.
That’s what Patrick means when he says advertising is a “pay-to-play” market.
Plus, your fitness studio is a recurring revenue business.
So your Marketing returns increase month-over-month, year-over-year, the longer you retain your members.
Brittany Welk had a member that didn’t join her studio LadyStrong Fitness until 7 months after she first saw one of Brittany’s ads on Facebook.
That’s why Patrick says breaking even is a good thing. The more you get in front of people, the better your results will be.
The Ultimate Goal Of Your Fitness Studio’s Advertising
If real estate is “location, location, location,” then successful advertising is “leads, leads, leads.”
As Patrick says, “Leads are what pay the bills.”
The more leads you get, the more opportunities you have to increase memberships and overall fitness studio revenue.
Patrick and I break down the two avenues your fitness studio will get leads from:
Direct Leads
If you run an ad campaign offering a FREE WEEK at your fitness studio, someone clicks it, fills out the form on your landing page, giving you their contact info in exchange for your offer—that’s a direct lead.
Indirect Leads
These are leads that come from your organic posts, podcasts, videos, interviews, outdoor banners, etc.
“You can’t really track indirect leads,” Patrick says, “but that’s why brand awareness through advertising is so important. When you get in front of people, they’re thinking about you, they might google you, or they’ll just come in-person or make a phone call—things they wouldn’t have done if they didn’t see your brand multiple times before taking action.”
When it comes to gym advertising success, there’s a great book Patrick recommends every fitness studio owner read on localized marketing. It’s called the No B.S. Direct Marketing by Dan Kennedy.
“If you go through this book and you still don’t think advertising is right for your fitness studio,” Patrick, “it might be time to sell your business. It’s that good.” Patrick says.
This book teaches you how to connect with your local market and physically bring people into your fitness business.
7 KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) Your Gym Should Measure For Advertising Success
This is your fitness studio’s Marketing “scorecard.”
These are the things our top-performing gym owners and some of the greatest CEOs of all time have all paid attention to in their business.
Here’s how Loud Rumor Marketing Director Patrick Cundiff breaks it down:
- Reach: # of people who saw your ads at least once.
- Impressions: # of times your ad is being seen overall.
- Cost Per Lead (CPL): $ how much you paid for each lead.
- Click-Through Rate (CTR): % of people who like, share, comment, etc. on your ad.
- Link CTR: % of times someone clicks from the ad to your landing page.
- Landing Page Conversions Rate: % of visitors who opt-in to your offer.
- Cost Per 1,000 Impressions (CPM): $ average cost for every 1,000 impressions.
4 Aspects Of Fitness Studio Marketing Success
One of the things that’s helped Loud Rumor grow is the Marketing Team Patrick has assembled.
He manages a team of 8 people and these are the 4 aspects you’ll need to start running successful ads and organic content on every platform.
Remember, like Patrick said, brand awareness helps drives leads and leads pay the bills.
- Digital Strategy – Ad campaign performance and enhancing it to improve KPIs, drive the maximum number of leads, and lower overall costs per lead.
- Content Management – Copywriting that emotionally connects with your target audience for Ads, Organic (non-paid posts), Blogs, Emails, etc.
- Graphic Design – Visual creation that’s true to your brand and captures the attention of your target audience
- Video Production – Enhances your brand awareness, it’s extremely attention-grabbing, and when it comes to Marketing, target audiences prefer and act on video more.
Too Busy To Manage Your Fitness Studio’s Marketing?
As a business owner myself, I get it. You’re extremely busy. I am too. In fact, that’s exactly why I brought on someone like Patrick and the Marketing team he’s assembled.
Marketing is a valuable, profitable investment in your business. Which is why it’s so important to have people in place who know what they’re doing and can do it right.
So, if Marketing’s just too much on your plate, I want you to email me: [email protected]
I will get you connected with a Marketing Team dedicated to growing your fitness studio.
