It’s about to be one of the biggest marketing times of the year for many gyms. Back-to-school is the #1 time for enrollments in my gym, and we’re about three weeks out from that right now. Below are three things you need to know to make your marketing super effective this fall:

    1. Market during natural enrollment seasons. If you spend the majority of your marketing budget and time trying to fill teams, you’re likely missing out on the natural enrollment of recreational athletes this time of the year. Remember – the gymnastics industry is easily 20 years ahead of the all star industry, and they’ve learned a few things along the way we can take. The first is, your natural enrollment seasons for recreational athletes are August and January. If your schools go back after Labor Day, it’s possible your months will be September and January though. I have about 125 all star kids, but I have 500-600 recreational athletes at any given time. That number fluctuates in the summer, so that’s why there’s such a broad range. We always see the most enrollments when school supplies go on sale and after the holidays when people are back in a rhythm. Now is probably not the time to worry about filling teams. Fill those classes and focus on recreational marketing right now! Filling half year teams will be much easier if you have a large number of recreational kids to market to right inside your gym!
    2. Imperfect technique and low-level skills are relatable to moms. Often I see gyms that are using images of their highest level, perfect-technique athletes. While you and I are impressed by stuff like this, a lot of parents aren’t seeing your gym as a viable option for their child. “My child would never be able to do that” is often their thought when they see kick double baskets and punch fronts through to fulls. I’m not saying to never use images with perfect technique. I’m just saying if their toes aren’t pointed, if their high V looks more like a T, or the bases’ grips are wrong in a stunt, it’s not a bad image for your marketing. The average mom who should be your target customer wouldn’t really know the difference. You should be targeting new athletes, not athletes from other gyms. If you’re worried the gym down the street will think you don’t know what you’re doing by posting imperfect images, good. Let them see you as an underdog and show them you know what you’re doing by having tons of teams killing it on the mat.
    3. Diversity is vital to your marketing. If you’re like me and your region lacks diversity, you’ll have to really make a point here to be inclusive in your marketing. Don’t just do the easy thing and always picture the kids right in front of you. Think of the kids who are underrepresented in your marketing currently. That means you may have to be honest and ask the most diverse athletes in the gym to be in a photo shoot or make it a point to go snap photos of all the kids on the floor during a practice. I do one photoshoot a year, and I don’t open it to the whole gym. I invite athletes who represent everyone – even if there aren’t a lot of other kids who look like them in my area. That means I seek out athletes with diversity – males, females, all ethnicities and races, toddlers to teens – everything. I once heard someone say that a certain race didn’t “market well” in her area. To be honest – if a certain race doesn’t “market well” to you, you’re not my customer. I am looking for prospective families who will be inclusive and loving of all children.

Don’t ride out these last few weeks of summer assuming the natural enrollment season will come naturally and word-of-mouth will do the trick. Make sure your community knows what you have to offer!