Most of us didn’t get into this business because we love marketing. But if we want to stay full, stay premium, and stay ahead, we need more than a couple of ads and some nice Insta posts: we need a system.
At Foundry, we’ve built our marketing system to drive predictable leads, showcase the brand, and support every site – not just with visibility, but with conversion.
Here’s what we’ve learned:
1. Start with a clear offer
Before you throw money at Meta ads or SEO, nail your core offer. At Foundry, our entry point is the 21-Day Challenge. It’s time-bound, high value, and no-strings-attached – which makes it a no-brainer for people on the fence.
What’s your equivalent? Make sure it’s:
- Easy to understand
- Easy to buy
- Easy to sell
- Easy to experience
If it’s confusing, expensive, or vague, your funnel won’t work – no matter how good your ads are.
2. Define your target clients
Think beyond age and postcode. We target three core groups:
- Professionals in their 30s–50s: Time-poor, financially secure, want structure and results without the chaos of a big-box gym.
- Aspirational locals: People who walk past your site every day but don’t think of themselves as “gym people.”
- Referrals: Members’ friends, family, and colleagues – people already halfway sold.
Build campaigns that speak directly to each of these.
3. Set one conversion goal
It doesn’t matter how many views or likes you get on your Insta posts. If you can’t get people to walk into your gym, they won’t join.
Every part of your marketing – website, ads, signage, email – should funnel people towards your low-barrier offer. Ours is the 21-Day Challenge, which suits our London-based market. Yours might be different (a 30-day trial, a 6-week accelerator, 12-week programme), but it has to be:
- Low friction
- High value
- Time-limited
- Easy to deliver at scale
4. Pick your channels + own them
Don’t try to do everything. We focus on:
- Google Ads for intent-driven leads
- Meta Ads for awareness and retargeting
- SEO for local search visibility
- Email for nurture and reactivation
- Social for brand, community, and staff presence
If you’re a single-site gym, you don’t need 12 platforms. Do 2–3 things properly and consistently. Treat every post and email as a chance to convert, not just perform.
5. Use monthly campaigns
Every month, we run a themed campaign centred around a certain message. It keeps the creative fresh and gives our team something to rally behind. It also lets us hit different angles – physical health, mental resilience, community, performance – throughout the year.
Map out your campaign ideas a few months in advance. Build around seasonality, events, or causes you care about. Then plan the content, promotions, and ads that go with each one.
6. Make members your marketing team
Your members are your best channel for bringing in warm leads. We pay £100 for referrals that sign up for full membership. We feature member stories in social content. And we encourage staff to act as local ambassadors.
The goal: make every happy member feel like they’re part of the mission. Then give them the tools (and incentives) to share it.
7. Integrate sales and marketing
Leads are useless if your follow-up is patchy. Align your lead gen with a proper sales rhythm – calls, texts, check-ins, CRM tagging, and structured conversion.
We use KEAP to segment and track lead types (cold, warm, trialist, member) and make sure everyone gets followed up properly.
If you don’t have that in place, your first job isn’t better marketing. It’s fixing your sales system so the leads you do generate are converted.
8. Track the right numbers
Obvious, but often overlooked. Here’s what matters:
- Number of leads (ideally broken down per channel, with respective cost per lead)
- Lead to contact rate
- Contact to sale rate
- Low barrier offer to full membership rate
- Churn / retention
- Referral rate
- Revenue per member
Don’t just track them. Act on them.
TL;DR: Marketing isn’t about doing more
It’s about doing the right things, consistently, with the right offer and follow-up. That’s how we gain over a hundred new trialists every month – and how you can build a marketing engine that doesn’t rely on luck, trends, or last-minute panic posts.
Want help building your marketing and sales strategy?
Book a call with me here to thrash out roadblocks and make a plan for growth.
Or drop me an email on jc@jcv.consulting to join the waitlist for the Gym Owner’s Collective — our private group for ambitious owner-operators ready to build something great.