Ultimate Lead Guide - Finding Gyms

Gyms are our 8th installment in our Ultimate Lead Guide series. Aside from our Winning With Marketing series, be sure to also check out:

The Introduction
Schools
Places of Worship
Medical Offices
Government
Office Buildings
Car Dealerships
Banks

How would you like to get swoll? Nah...not that. Stop flexing. I mean, swoll with revenue from gyms?! 

Gyms are great. It's a great place to go, to get buff, for social interaction, and to blow off some steam. But it's more. It solves a very big pain point for many. It helps in your health. It creates a lifestyle change. And it can save a life. Gyms are capitalizing on this. According to IBISWorld, there were 113,326 gyms, health clubs, and fitness centers in the US in 2023. Despite COVID, this total has increased 2.3% year over year from 2018 to 2023. Livestrong reports 76 million gym visitors with approximately half visiting 2 days or more per week. That's a lot of people, hair, dirt, dander, dust, and more.

For purposes of gyms, I'm including a broad range of facilities. There are gyms, health clubs, fitness centers, dance or gymnastic studios, niched gyms like CrossFit, spa facilities, and boutique facilities. The needs are similar among each and marketing tactics are the same.

It's a mixed bag in terms of cleaning needs. There are large chains or franchisees, like Lifetime Athletic or 24-Hour Fitness, who hire in-house (my wife worked at the former as a coach). But there are large gyms like DC-based VIDA Fitness, OneLife Fitness, or Golds Gym who do often outsource cleaning. Other smaller gyms and centers like YMCA, F45 Training, and similar do tend to outsource cleaning. In terms of needs, all the gyms we ever cleaned needed restrooms and lorckerrooms cleaned. All needed common areas cleaned. Some, and definitely not all, needed the machines cleaned (e.g. treadmills, weights, etc.). Some locations needed consumables, Most didn't. And not every location wanted a disinfecting program. Certainly ask these questions in discovering their pain points.

Cleaning frequency was mixed as well. We had large 50K sqft facilities that needed only one-time deep cleaning. We had small 2000 sqft boutique gyms that wanted 5X/week cleaning. They all need daily cleaning. You could be that solution to their needs.

Our top sources for new gym leads included, 1) Google, 2) Referrals, 3) Inbound Marketing, 4) Driving Around, 5) Aggregate Lists, 6) Social Media Marketing, and 7) Networking.

Google:

You know the drill. If the previous 7 Ultimate Lead Guide posts taught us anything, Google knows all. Simply Google "Gyms near me" and you've got it. Certainly replace words as needed in your search.

Referrals:

 "Who do you know who owns, manages, or works at a gym?" It's that simple. That's all we'd ask. The led to conversations and brought in clients. It's through this method we did pull in some gyms. We cleaned a small boutique gym in. Bethesda, MD that came about because their landlord was our biggest client at the time. Intro requested and relationship made. 

Inbound Marketing:

Inbound reigned supreme for us. We never did any direct marketing to gyms, and that's obvious with the absence of that method (e.g. calls, mail, email, etc.). But it works. But what also worked was inbound marketing tactics through SEO, blogging, etc. That led gym-decision-makers to our website and they'd see our page dedicated to gym cleaning and that led to new biz. We also had lead magnets for gyms to capture their info (see below). We pulled in clients and opportunities through this method including VIDA Fitness, F45 Training, Fitness Together, OneLife Fitness, Mayweather Boxing, and several independent boutique gyms. 

Driving Around:

Yup, it's as simple as that. If you get tired of staring at a computer screen looking at Google results and you just want to get out, go for a drive in your service area. You'll pass many as you drive around. If inclined to shop for a new gym, drop in and take a peek. Trade biz card info and now you have a new lead. 

Aggregate Lists:

Something simple like Yelp, Trip Advisor, or the many "Best Of" sites out there have comprehensive lists to find gym leads. Easy peasy. Google "best gyms in ____" and add your locality and you'll get links to local gyms and their contact info.

Social Media Marketing:

Absent in these Ultimate Lead Guides are leads from social media marketing. It's not that it doesn't work...it's that I don't spend a lot of time doing social media marketing. Our decision-makers in commercial aren't watching their latest Reels or giving a Like to a co-worker's vacation post while they're stuck at work. Just doesn't happen. Notable here too is that social media marketing is a marketing tactic. It's not a way to find leads (unless they find you). So I'm making an exception here. This probably should be in the inbound listed above, but I'll highlight this separately.

COVID hits. We niched in churches and schools and among the first to close were churches and schools (and gyms too really). But we had a calling on our heart to host a community fundraiser. Without diving into the details, we had a successful go at it and in May of 2020, we raised over $12,000 in one month for local food banks. We didn't make the effort about us, but about the community and people responded. We shared this on FB. One of my wife's classmates happened to see the post. She works at a dance studio (lumping this into gyms). She decided to switch cleaning companies and offered the opportunity to us because of the post my wife shared on our fundraising. You never know who sees what. 

Networking Lists:

I talk about Networking as a marketing tactic, but I'm adding it here because of the lists you can pull in. Go to your local chamber of commerce. They typically have a directory you can look at. Gyms join local chambers and this is a great way to meet gym decision-makers and grow that lead list.

Hope this guide helps in pulling in your next gym leads. Make Your Business Swoll Again.

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Next on Deck: 5 Levers To Pull to Get Quick Money in Your Cleaning Business (8-21-24)