How to Promote Fitness Classes

You’ve done it! You’ve created a fitness class that you know people are going to love. You’ve planned the routine, you have an amazing space and music to make people want to move.

Then it gets to the allocated time slot…. and no one turns up. Perhaps you get a few people but your class could take so much more. Plus, these are barely enough students to keep your class running.

What do you do?

Whether you’re a fitness club owner, sports center manager or personal instructor, promoting your class is always going to be one of the main challenges to overcome. The good news is the fitness, health, and gym industry pulled in $30.6 Billion in revenue in 2022 (statistica). Your students are out there, you just have to find them.

We’ve put together some of the best tips for promoting fitness classes using modern methods and available technology. These should get students dropping through your door in droves. We’ve also included a few radical tips that could help you stand out from the crowd when pushing your classes.

1. Instagram marketing

Instagram is a low-hanging fruit because it has a huge user base — there are 2 billion monthly active users after all. It's also popular with a wide range of age demographics including 18-29-year-olds (59%) and 30-49-year-olds (33%). If your target audience sits within that bracket, it can be a great way to promote your fitness classes (source).

Some of the tactics you could use on Instagram include:

Instagram reels and stories

Reels, even for brand pages, have a much higher engagement rate than regular posts (source) and are relatively simple to create. It could be as straightforward as taking an image or video or using pre-created templates.

A tool like Adobe Spark, or Canva, will allow you to create a graphic in the custom dimensions 1080 x 1920, which is perfect for uploading to Instagram stories with images or information about your class.

Remember that Instagram is a visual medium, meaning that you want highly engaging visuals that stop those fingers from scrolling. Whether this is your class doing exercises, tips and advice to inspire your audience, or fun images of your team or fitness club, make sure to hook your viewers with instant action and good preview images.

Location tagging

Posts on Instagram with a location receive 79% more engagement (Atisfyreach) and for a fitness class that will take place in a specific area, this can be really useful for attracting locals.

Simply add location stickers to your Instagram stories and check in on your actual posts to make yourself more visible.

Even for general health tips, it can be a good idea to tag your venue, or at the very least your city or region.

Consistency

Accounts that perform well on Instagram tend to have consistency across the content they produce, the branding and their posting schedule.

Make sure that when people look at your account, they can clearly see your theme and even the subjects of your content at a glance. This means taking time to create engaging preview images and title cards.

Video

Images are good, but video is better. Using video is proven to provide higher engagement on social media and Instagram is no different.

This doesn't necessarily mean that every post needs to be a video, but it will most likely be your best performing content. Run a few tests to see what works best with your audience with regards to content types, video styles and other formats.

2. Facebook Live

The decline of Facebook is very much overstated. In fact, this is still one of the biggest social media platforms, catering heavily in the US to millennial women. Statistics show that 54.7% of Facebook users are women and that 70% of them are between 18 and 29 years old (backlinko). 

Whatever your audience, Facebook remains a great place to promote your fitness classes. You’ll also want to consider doing some Facebook Live videos. Now, the benefit of using it, over say pre-recorded video, is that Facebook notifies your page fans when you’re “Live” in a video so that they don’t miss it. 

Some tips that will help you to make the most of your broadcast include:

Tell people you’re going to go live

You want to build anticipation so that when you hit “Live” your audience is aware and already there, waiting to watch. One of the ways you can do this is by coming up with a specific broadcast, rather than just plugging into a fitness class in action. 

For example, why not do a Q&A with you answering your client’s most common questions? Sharing knowledge is a great way to attract viewers and remove those paint points.

Provide value

In the same way you might use a Q&A approach, think about what your audience might gain from watching your Facebook Live. Will they learn how to do a new exercise, how to improve their form, or why one exercise might be more effective than another? 

Respond in real-time

One pitfall many people make is treating their Facebook Live like it’s pre-recorded when you’re “Live”. Remember that viewers can send in questions and respond to your comments. You can and should use that opportunity to create a two-way street.

3. Fitness challenge

You could use a fitness challenge in several ways to promote your class. One idea is to offer the challenge to your current students, get them excited and push them to chase their goals. You could also use the challenge to draw in new students. 

Pick the right season for your challenge to get the maximum effect – New Year, after a celebration, or just before the summer when people are focused on their body goals are all good periods.

Sometimes, just creating the challenge may be enough if you’re managing a small community. Or, you could go big and create flyers, hold a fun run with your class students, or use the other tips on this list to promote the challenge.

4. Business partnerships

If you have a lot of spare spaces you could look at a corporate scheme or offer for a group of people who might all sign up at once. This is great for approaching companies and asking them to invest in a gym fitness program for their employees.

Many companies are under pressure to encourage physical activity in their employees and reduce the strain of working in an office all day. Present the idea that not only will the employees benefit, and be more likely to attend when their peer group is interested, but that the company will benefit too.

If it's a hard sell, remind them that, according to a recent study, employees who exercise regularly are 13% more productive at work.

5. Organic search

As you know, many people will turn to search when looking for a new fitness class in their area. And the ideal situation is that your website appears on the first page of Google or in AI overviews for some of the main search terms related to your activities.

This means creating content for the search engines and AI tools to find your business. Typically this means creating:

• Blog posts
• Optimized landing pages on your website
• Video content for sites such as YouTube
• Content for sites such as Medium, Reddit or local news websites

Known as SEO, or search engine optimization, the aim of the game is to manage a strategy to maximize your visibility in search, wherever that search takes place.

Fitness SEO means working out where your audience are and creating content for them.

What do you write about?

Tools like Google Trends and Google Keyword Planner can help you to discover not just the keywords people use, but when those keywords are most popular too.

A peak in traffic for the search term “fitness classes” in January is perhaps not surprising. But you can also spot the trends over time for a variety of activities or types of fitness services.

This is a great way to attract local search traffic to your fitness class that will be relevant to potential members. Try to find the keywords your audience would be searching, for example, “body pump class near Charlotte”. You can then create blog posts or landing pages which are designed to answer questions related to these queries to make it discoverable.

If you feel yourself getting overwhelmed, just keep these tips in mind:

• Try to create content that answers core questions (for example 'How can I lose my winter belly?') and offer useful and actionable advice
• It's fine to sell your service, but make the bulk of your content about them, your audience, and answer their problems
• Keep your headers and page names short and insightful
• Don’t forget to include your business contact details on your website
• Where possible, try and add descriptive tags to your images and videos
• Use language that your potential customers can relate to and understand.

You can use LLMs like ChatGPT for generating your content. But exercise caution because AI content can sound impersonal to readers. Humanize AI-generated text to maintain authenticity and improve your user experience.

6. Online ads

You may be asking, “How do I create a fitness ad?” especially if you’ve met other instructors with similar results. Online ads can help you connect more directly with your ideal audience. And despite being one of the more expensive options on this list, they can be very effective – 49% of people click on text ads and 16% on video ads (Zipdo)

Online ads for fitness classes deserve an entire guide of their own, but for now, keep these simple tips in mind.

Choose the right platforms

For fitness classes, social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are excellent choices due to their highly visual nature and ability to target specific demographics. You could also think about fitness-focused websites or forums where your target audience is likely to hang out.

Google ads are also a useful platform and can be perfect for local searches.

Create compelling visuals

People are drawn to eye-catching visuals, so make sure your ad stands out. Use high-quality images or videos that show off your classes, facilities, or happy clients breaking a sweat.

Offer incentives

Everyone loves a good deal, so consider offering special promotions or discounts in your ads to entice potential clients. It could be a free trial class, a discounted membership package, or a referral bonus.

Include a Call to Action (CTA)

Don't forget to include a clear call to action in your ads prompting viewers to take action, such as "Sign Up Now," "Book Your Spot Today," or "Learn More." Make it easy for people to engage with your ad and take the next step towards joining your fitness classes.

Track and analyze results

Once your ads are live, monitor their performance closely to see which ones are driving the most engagement and conversions. Use analytics tools provided by the advertising platforms to track metrics like click-through rates, conversions, and return on investment. This data can help you refine your ad strategy and optimize future campaigns for better results.

7. Digital signage

How many gym members do you already see each day or each week? Often, current members have untapped potential for signing up for fitness classes, but we still look outside for new members.

Digital signage can be a useful tool to reach passing trade, which can also mean people within your venue.

Now, you’d need to already have digital signage installed in your gym space or studio for this to work. Unlike ads and Instagram marketing, digital signage is restricted to the screens you own and manage. That means people need to physically be in your space.

But once they are, you can accomplish so much with your digital signage. Here are just a few ideas:

Special promotions

Showing a discount on your fitness class, a special offer, or even featuring a “member of the week” is a great way to make the most of your screens.

The Noticeboard app from Screencloud allows you to create and display custom messages with imagery, logos and more.

Countdown

Why not countdown until your fitness class is fully booked, or even until a new fitness challenge begins to get more interest and create a sense of anticipation? The Countdown app from Screencloud allows you to display a simple countdown timer.

Class schedules

If your current members don’t know what classes you have available, how can they book them? Use your digital signage screens to promote what classes are running - and when. Don't forget to make it easy to sign up from the display with QR codes linking to the booking page.

Embed QR codes on your screen designs easily with Screencloud's easy to use digital signage .

Testimonials

What better way to show potential students what they are missing than displaying success stories and testimonials from satisfied customers? Grab quotes, get before and after photos, or use the power of online reviews.

Connect reviews directly from Google using the Google Reviews app for digital signage.

Promote special offers and discounts

Running special offers or promotions? Use your in-house digital signage to push those unique offers directly to your members. Best of all, if you already use digital signage, this is a low or no cost option, allowing you to save money on advertising.

Promote upcoming events

There are often so many things happening at the average gym that regular users can easily miss things.

Fitness challenges, special workshops, free classes, and nutrition seminars – if you’re planning to host it in your space, let people know about it through digital signage. 

Why use digital signage to promote fitness classes?

Digital signage is fast becoming a standard fixture at gyms and fitness centers, making it perfect for promotions.

If you have a digital signage network, or if you're considering installing a display system in your gym, these are some of the main reasons to use it for promotions.

Upselling opportunities

As any PT will tell you, it can be difficult to land a client on the gym floor, and upselling them could be just as challenging. This is why you really need to be deferring to digital signage. 

You can load up your screen with all the information people need, from class benefits to answers to objections, and let it play. Think of it as a salesperson who never tires. And the best part? People love looking at screens so your messaging will get even more exposure!

Local advertising

Digital signage can also help bring in some extra revenue for your business. You could collaborate with complimentary services, like a nutritionist, physiotherapist or a massage therapist.

These businesses could pay for some real estate on your digital signage, or you could even work out some collaborative agreement that benefits both your businesses. 

Increased visibility

Digital signage gives you a dynamic and eye-catching way to grab the attention of passersby and potential clients. Are you looking to get more sales for your business’ merch? Or planning to launch a new service and want to see how many people will be interested.

Use the increased visibility of digital signage to push and watch the magic happen.

Real time updates 

Unlike traditional printed signage, digital signage allows for quick and easy updates to class schedules, promotions, and other relevant information in real time. This flexibility ensures that your messaging is always up-to-date and relevant to your audience.

Grow your fitness business with ScreenCloud

As you can see, promoting classes is just the beginning of what digital signage can do for your business. Combine it with a software solution like ScreenCloud, and you can take your fitness business to the next level. 

ScreenCloud lets you schedule playlists for different classes, promote new programs and classes on cue, connect your social feed to the screens, and so much more.

You can find out digital signage can engage more potential customers and get the message out in your gym for free.

Simply sign up for a 14-day trial and see how you can transform your business with digital signage and ScreenCloud.