1. Word of mouth is your only form of lead generation
I've talked to thousands of gym owners, and every single one of them has one thing in common. Word of mouth is their only form of lead generation. And don't get me wrong, word of mouth IS AMAZING. But how far can it really take you?
“If you make customers happy in the physical world, they might each tell six friends. If you make customers happy on the internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.” - Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon.
That quote explains why the internet is so powerful, it has the capability of reaching thousands of people who, previously, would never have discovered your business.
2. You use your website as resource for more information, not a tool to generate and capture new leads.
Every day I see Gym's making this HUGE mistake. Their website is just a web page with all of their information of the programs and services they offer (Which is normally outdated). Instead of making sure your website GENERATES leads, and CAPTURES them.
The difference between a Lead GENERATING website, and a Lead CAPTURING website is that a lead generating website actually gets people to land on your website, it creates traffic. A lead capturing website gets the visitor to give you their information (Name, Email, Phone number, what they're interest in.) so you can call them and sign them up.
If your website does neither of these things, what's the point of having a website? If your website was an employee, would you fire it?
3. You don't use Social Media Properly (Or at all.....)
To many Gym-owners, Social Media is their biggest nemesis. They see it as a waste of time, and/or confusing. When in reality, social media can REALLY drive traffic to your website, and be used to promote every single event you have.
On search engines (Google), people only discover your content when they’re searching for a relevant keyword (Gymnastics, Recreational Activity, After school) But on social media, you’ll be getting your content in front of people who didn’t even realize that they needed your content.
To win at Social Media, the goal is to be consistent. Post every single day on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and any other platform! The more exposure your club gets, the better.
4. You're not using Google to your advantage (big mistake)
As a business, you need to appear when people search for your services. If you don't, there is a big chance that people will never discover your awesome gym. In fact, they will end up discovering someone else's gym instead, because they ranked higher on Google than yours.
Search Engine Optimization, and Google My Business. These two could ultimately change how you get leads forever.
"Google My Business is a free and easy-to-use tool for businesses and organizations to manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Maps. To help customers find your business, and to tell them your story, you can verify your business and edit your business information."
If you haven't already, go into your Google My Business profile and optimize your account. To rank higher on Google, you need to have someone perform advanced SEO on your website to ensure Google recognizes your club as a valid result for the keywords searched that are relevant to your services.
5. You have no sales system.
No matter who you are, every single club relies on SALES. And almost every single club I talk to doesn't have a systematic way to make more sales.
Most of the time, the front desk staff is in charge of answering emails and taking calls, but does your admin staff have any sales responsibility? I would recommend that you create a sales system for your front desk staff to follow. This means following up with new leads, responding to people on Social Media who have questions, calling previous interests.
The best way to keep track of all of this is to have a sales database which every single lead gets put into. I am not talking about your class management software, these have two completely different purposes. Use the sales database to keep track of who's been contacted, and who is in the sales cycle.