7 Black Friday campaign ideas for your gym

November is one of the busiest months for retailers in any area. Black Friday campaigns have become a habit for consumers everywhere, and more and more stores and companies have decided to roll out special deals. Even if most BLACK FRIDAY discounts concern products, that doesn't mean you can't carry out such a campaign for your gym.

There are many reasons why it's recommended to try a Black Friday campaign, from the fact that people are accustomed and prepared to buy in that time period, to the fact that these campaigns benefit from major publicity and therefore your club's offers will have a bigger impact.

The most important aspect of Black Friday campaigns is to offer members and potential clients a very simple and quick way to take advantage of your deal. If they need to arrive at your club to buy a membership on sale from the front desk, the chances of them making that effort are very slim.

On the other hand, if you offer them the option to register their membership online at a reasonable price as well as pay it online via credit/debit card, then the chances of conversion will experience exponential growth.

Also, no matter when, for how long, and what kind of campaign you roll out, it is imperative to promote it at least a week in advance, especially if members in your club are not used to Black Friday campaigns.

For more information on the benefits and the necessities of a Black Friday campaign for your gym, click here >>>

Once you've worked out your BLACK FRIDAY strategy, you need to create the campaigns. You can choose to go with a general discount on all memberships and services or create various custom campaigns that will catch the eye faster.

There are a multitude of possible combinations you can devise, depending on what services you wish to offer, for your Black Friday offer not to be necessarily cheaper.

Free extra days for memberships.

This is one of the simplest Black Friday campaigns that you can carry out. Give out extra days, weeks, or even months on your campaign-acquired memberships. This way, depending on the duration of the membership, you can break down the deal. For instance, for any 6 or 12 month-long membership, members get a free extra month, and for a 3-month membership, they get an additional three weeks.

Also, you have the option to reduce the membership price by a month's worth and thus offer the last month for free. It is, however, better to focus on a period as long as possible because that way, you will benefit from more time to encourage members to use the membership as often as possible and enter a workout routine, thus being more inclined to renew their membership.

Free PT sessions

Choose one or two types of memberships that have the highest price and include a few PT sessions for free. And I'm not talking about one or two sessions, but enough to convince the member to purchase the membership deal.

PT sessions are surely the most expensive services your club has to offer, and many members are not convinced of the worthiness of such an investment. However, if they are included in the membership, and they will use them, the trainer will have a unique opportunity to prove the benefits of these services. They will then be even more inclined to purchase such package deals once they get used to the trainer.

Free membership on PT package deals

If you have a large number of members that prefer to train only with a personal trainer and only purchase session packs, add to the offer a few months of membership. This can become even more appealing for some members if you organize group classes, and they would be unable to participate otherwise or if the memberships include access to additional services such as sauna, jacuzzi, or swimming pool.

Organize a special class

"Celebrate" Black Friday properly and give your members a new reason to join you at the gym during that day, besides the membership deals. Hold one or more open group classes to which even those without a membership have access. All those who participate in that class will have exclusive access to big membership discounts during that day. Promote those classes and the information regarding the discount such you have as many participants as possible. Offer a significant discount to those who show up at your open class, and make them aware they will not have access to this promotion after leaving the gym.

Since people are already at the club and attended a class, those present will be easier to convince to buy memberships, especially if they will lose the deal once they walk out of your club. In addition, to simplify the sales process and avoid queues, the front desk employees can register the memberships at a preferential price and send the customers a link via e-mail to finalize the payment process using a credit/debit card. That way, the registration process will be faster, and the clients will be more inclined to register if they don't need to pay on the spot.

Special referral program

A referral program in your club is extremely useful any time of the year. On Black Friday, you can increase the rewards for those who bring a friend that purchases a membership. You can offer an extra month on the membership to both of them, so it's in the member's interest to convince his friend to buy a membership.

At the same time, you can also offer 1+1 memberships, which allow two people to use the same membership.

Both campaigns are beneficial to attract new members, which, if you look after them, can quickly become loyal since they already have someone to come to the gym with.

Member exclusive discounts

Black Friday campaigns should also focus on your loyal members. You can create a campaign dedicated exclusively to the members of your club – through which they can purchase memberships or additional services such as PT packs at a low price or special deals for renewal. Accordingly, only those with an active membership can benefit from this deal. These campaigns will help you a lot in winning the trust and goodwill of your current members.

Flash deals

One of the main reasons people do so much shopping on Black Friday is the feeling of urgency. The discount is only available for one or more days, and there's a limited number of products in stock. This feeling of urgency or fear of missing out is a lot more convincing for any consumer. If the Black Friday deal is only available for one day or a few hours, or if the first 200 customers can benefit from this discount, the campaign will have much bigger success. That's because these restrictions persuade the member not to give it a second thought or delay the purchase.

To successfully carry out such a campaign, you will also need a direct marketing system to send a flash deal to the member directly through e-mail, SMS, or push notification on the app.

Thus, you can significantly reduce all your membership prices or even just a few types for a few hours. And all members who have consented to receive commercial messages from your club will receive e-mails, SMS, and push notifications about that particular deal. Don't forget to promote the fact that the deal is only available for a few hours in your message.

You can give out great discounts based on promo codes which can be used a certain number of times. Send the code via e-mail, SMS, and push notification and mention that only the first certain amount of members who use the promo code will be able to get the discount.

Using an integrated online payment system, the person to receive the message will be able to take advantage of your deal instantly and buy the discounted membership the moment they've read the message, no matter where they are.