As we approach the holiday season and the very popular New Year’s resolutions, it’s important for fitness business owners to be strategic and cash in on the season! Holiday fitness marketing is an art, so stay with me!

First of all, it’s a time of year with more sweets, alcohol, parties, and tasty food. For some, it’s also a time of more skipped workouts! (We’ve all told ourselves “I’ll get back at it in January,” haven’t we?)

However, it’s also a time with tons of potential! New clients will be looking for a January plan. Even though they are indulging and having a great time during the holidays, the thought of the gym will still be on their minds. And hey, if it’s not on their mind yet, it’s our job to put it there!

Choose your holiday offer

It’s time to get thinking early about how you want to promote your training business to potential clients over the holidays. When I say “create your offer,” what do I mean? I mean it’s time to think about what you want to promote (and how you are going to promote it). Craft an offer that will resonate with your target audience, and that will be easy to promote to your existing channels.
Some trainers create challenges beginning in January that include access to their online training app and possibly accompanied with a meal plan. Others offer gift cards that people can give away as gifts (or purchase for themselves). Another option is to put a promotion on some of your training offers that are already in rotation. Choose the offer that makes the most sense for your business, your niche, and your goals.

Build a marketing campaign around your offer

Take advantage of the time of the year and the way people will be feeling in January. Make sure to promote your signature offer throughout the holidays to play into the New Year’s Resolutions and the fact that people are more willing to spend their money over the holidays (before those January credit card bills hit!).

Here’s how to do it.

1. Build an email marketing plan

Create an email campaign with a few strategic newsletters loaded up with testimonials, before and after pictures, and your offer. One thing I found that has worked well is to build a call-to-action in the email, such as “Forward this to someone who might be looking for gift ideas for you to let them know this is what you want!” This statement worked very well, as sometimes I think husbands are often scared to buy their wives fitness memberships for Christmas as they are worried it might be taken in the wrong way. However, if the wife has forwarded them your email, it makes both your life and the hubby’s life much easier! This also works in social media posts, such as “Tag someone who might be looking for gift ideas for you to let them know this is what you want!”

2. Develop a social media strategy

Speaking of social media posts, have your posts pre-planned and strategic in order to promote your signature offer over the holidays. Be sure not to sell in every single post, but make sure your posts are still drawing attention to your services through before and after pictures, testimonials, or just videos of you showing how your Trainerize app works.

3. Run a contest

Contests always draw more attention to your services and offer. Considering it’s the season of giving, think of a fun way to run a few contests either through your email campaign or through social media (social media works great!) in order to give back a little bit and get some more eyes on your offers. Twelve Days of Giveaways is always a good idea (I know it’s not very original, but something along these lines will work great!). Or, you could run a contest once a week giving away something associated with your offer, like a freebie or a discount. Contests are always an effective way to get people interacting and interested in your services.

The main thing to think about during the holiday season with your marketing is that people are thinking about the new year and all the great things they are going to do. If you keep your services in front of them consistently and strategically, this time of year could be very profitable for you as a fitness business owner. Start planning now and close out the year with many thanks and many new clients!