When you are in the fitness center business, you spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to attract new members and how to keep the ones you have. If you do much research in the area of health club business marketing, you will likely see a lot of references to automating your marketing and to personalizing your content.


Marketing via automated, personalized email campaigns is an effective way to increase your fitness center business revenue.

While these two concepts may appear to be on opposite ends of the marketing spectrum, the truth is that using the proper automation tools will help you better personalize your fitness marketing message. How so?

Understanding the Terms

Before discussing how the two work together, perhaps it is wise to start with what each term actually means. Marketing automation is the process whereby certain marketing processes can be set to perform automatically, without major hands-on intervention by your marketing staff. For instance, one example of marketing automation might be email marketing, in which emails are automatically sent to prospective or existing clients based on a pre-determined action or set of actions.

Personalization, on the other hand, is about sending highly targeted, highly relevant content based on the member with whom you are communicating. Rather than generic, one-size-fits-all marketing, personalization is about tailoring your marketing message to the right person at the right time via the right platform. The bridge between automation and personalization is the process of segmentation. By segmenting your target audience into smaller, more focused audiences, you can aim an email campaign or text message precisely to the recipients who would most benefit from it. Marketing automation software enables you to do that more easily.

Automation for Every Stage of Fitness Center Business Buyer Journey

Automated, personalized marketing can be done at every stage of the gym member journey. Automated emails can be sent to your prospective members personalized to where and how those leads were generated. For instance, if you encountered potential leads at a health fair or community outreach event in which your fitness center participated, a reference to that event can be made in your email messaging.

If you are trying to nurture the interest of prospective members who have used a guest pass but who did not immediately sign up for membership, you might send content such as short videos about some of the benefits of a gym membership or include information about discounts for those who become members within a certain time frame.

Brand new members might benefit from a welcome email that contains information about how to make the most of their membership, what is included in the various group fitness classes offered, and how to schedule a session with a personal trainer. Some clubs have found success with short videos introducing their personal trainers.

For existing members, you might send targeted text messages or emails about fitness group classes offered, promotions in your juice or snack bars, or upcoming special events in your gym.

On the business side of things, software that automatically captures member data, customer behaviors, and member engagement can help you keep your finger on the pulse of your fitness center business and optimize your offerings and your business processes to more effectively meet the needs of your members.

Automation within Your Fitness Center

It is good to note that automation is not just for your use as a fitness center owner. Your gym members also want to use automation tools. The explosion of interest in wearable technology is proof that members want a way to accurately measure their progress toward fitness goals and their performance inside and outside your gym.


Keep gym members engaged by providing automated methods of tracking fitness progress.

The AccuroFit system is designed to help your gym members stay engaged with their own workouts, group fitness workouts, and even their physical activity outside your gym. AccuroFit heart rate monitors and displays help your members stay on target inside the gym with highly personalized information, and the AccuroFit mobile app helps them keep up with their personal fitness activity anywhere at any time. To see how the AccuroFit system can help to enhance your fitness center business, simply request a demo today.