If there’s one area in fitness marketing that ofter goes overlooked, it’s the email marketing newsletter. Yeah yeah, I know what you’re thinking, that email newsletters are soon 2005; here me out though. You’re thinking about the boring email newsletter that you get from the local bank in your city asking you to think about refinancing. If you produce a newsletter like that for your business, of course you’re going to have people complaining. However, if you put some effort and create a worthwhile newsletter publication and build your mailing list (like SUMO has), you’ll be getting more gym members in no time. If you haven’t set up a marketing list for your fitness business, I’d suggest you head on over to MailChimp. Those guys have it down to an art form and they’ll have you up and running in no time. They offer really sharp online signup forms and great list management tools. We here at FitnessTexter don’t do any email marketing, we’re a lead generation company for fitness business. However, you CAN put your FitnessTexter code in your monthly email blasts to get more leads and members.

1. Start a Monthly “Easter Egg” Newsletter Drawing

If you’re not familiar with easter eggs, and no, we’re not talking about the the ones filled with candy that you hide for your kids, then you’ll need to pay attention. Easter eggs are hidden prizes or experiences that are concealed by software developers and game designers. Google is famous for having some pretty cool easter eggs every year. Anyways, how does having easter eggs in your marketing email list help you get more gym members? Simple, it’ll get people reading your newsletter. If people are are excited to read your newsletter every month, you’re going to get more members signing up to receive it. Let’s say that you hide a 25% discount in the newsletter. Use an online puzzle generator to create some type of cryptogram. Whichever member is the first one to email a correct answer gets the discount. Make sure to publicize the winner of the month drawing your website and social media feeds. It’s always great publicity to show that you’re giving away discounts or free stuff; this will make others want to start reading/joining your email marketing list as well.

2. Create an Athlete of the Month Newsletter

If you already have an athlete of the month club you can skip over this one. However, if you haven’t started an athlete of a month club, this can be a great way to get more people on your monthly email list. If people think they have the chance to get the athlete of the month award, they’re going to want to be on your monthly newsletter list so that they can see themselves in the article that you write about them. Vanity plays a big part here, there’s not doubt about it. If you’re looking to start an athlete of the month club, set up some simple non-biased rules and make sure to give out a kickass promotion to the winner. No one wants a $5 discount to the tire store if they win. Make the monthly award something worthwhile so that people are encouraged to participate.

3. Cultivate Stories of Interest for your Members

One of the easiest ways to build your gym’s email marketing list is to cultivate good articles for them. I’m signed up for quite a few monthly newsletters. However, they’re GOOD newsletters. They provide quality information from relevant sources and I always enjoy my time reading them. If you’re only writing 200 words in your newsletter, it’s going in their digital trash can before they even open it. Create a reputation for cultivating worthwhile news for your members and they’ll start opening it up when it arrives in their inbox. The more people who read your newsletter, the more people are talking about it. Write articles about health and wellness, find guest writers, etc. Put some effort into it and you’ll see results.

4. Keep Your Monthly Newsletter Informational and Not Sales-y

Last but not least, for the love of god, please don’t make your entire newsletter about selling more stuff to your members. You need to realize that they’re already giving you a decent quantity of money every month (their membership), so try not to guilt them into giving you anything else. Make your gym’s monthly newsletter something that is exciting and funny to read. Maybe put some memes in it and have some coupons attached. Anything to make it worthwhile reading material. If your members figure out that your newsletter is consistently another sales device, it’s getting trashed the instant it lands in their inbox. Building your gym’s email marketing list isn’t hard, it just takes time. Create quality content, make it fun to read, hide some prizes and you’ll have new readers in no time.