Gym Email Marketing: A Complete Guide

Is your gym’s email marketing generating leads and sales for your fitness business? Welcome sequences, newsletters, and promo emails are great for driving revenue and keeping members loyal. So, how can you take full advantage of this marketing channel for your fitness club?

In this article – we share a practical guide to email marketing for gyms, fitness studios, and health clubs.

We’re a specialist fitness marketing agency with 15+ years of industry experience, so we know first-hand what works (and what doesn’t!). We’ve helped gyms, fitness studios, and personal trainers to successfully promote their businesses, so our digital marketing strategies are tried and tested.

• Benefits for gyms
• Types of email
• Email best practices
• Templates & resources

We offer email marketing services and DIY solutions for fitness businesses. You can hire us to create your email strategy, set up automated sequences, and write impactful email content (get in touch here). Or you can purchase our Email Marketing Kit which is packed with pre-written templates, guides, and done-for-you lead magnets.

Benefits of Email Marketing for Gyms

We love email – it’s one of the top marketing tactics for gyms for several reasons…

• Control Over the Marketing Channel – With email marketing, you have direct access to your subscribers’ inboxes, reducing reliance on unpredictable social media or search engine algorithms.
• Promote Your Own Offering – Share gym updates, special offers, or new products and services with your subscribers to drive engagement and conversions.
• Build and Nurture Relationships – Emails allow you to connect on a consistent basis with your audience, building trust and loyalty which can aid gym retention.
• Cost-effective – Email marketing is relatively inexpensive compared to traditional marketing methods like print advertising or direct mail, making it a budget-friendly option for gyms (especially for reaching a large audience).
• Highly targeted – You can easily segment your audience (e.g. by location, purchase history, or fitness goals) and then send personalised emails that’ll have higher conversion rates.

Let’s look at how gyms and fitness centres can use email to market their businesses…

Types of Gym Emails

Here’s an overview of the different types of emails that gyms can send to their customers or leads…

Welcome Emails

You can send welcome emails to new gym members or subscribers to your mailing list. These emails are designed to introduce your facility, brand, and provide valuable resources to newbies.

They set the tone for your relationship, educate subscribers about your business offering, and signpost them towards next steps, such as how to use the product they’ve purchased. A good welcome email should…

• Thank them for joining
• Reassure them that it was a good decision
• Tell them what the next step is that they should take
• Include info about anything they need to bring or wear
• Add links to practical info like opening times and class info
• Invite them to contact you with any questions

Check out our welcome email templates for a guide on exactly what to say (or get our email marketing kit which includes done-for-you content).

Gym Newsletters

Newsletters are regular communications sent to your subscribers or gym members, usually on a weekly or monthly basis. They provide a variety of valuable content, such as informative articles, tips, updates, and announcements.

The primary focus of newsletters is usually to build relationships, share expertise, and engage with your audience. Here are some gym newsletter ideas to get you started…

1. 5 Ways To Get Maximum Results From Quick Workouts
2. Top 10 Fitness Tips for a Healthy Body & Mind
3. What Does Personal Training Actually Involve?
4. Spotlight on Fitness Trends: What’s Hot In Health & Wellness
5. Inspiring Fitness Success Stories from Real People
6. Protein-Packed Breakfast Recipes for Busy People
7. How Accountability Improves Fitness Results
8. Workout Myths Debunked: Separating Fact from Fiction
9. The Benefits of Regular Exercise and Fun Workout Ideas
10. HIIT vs Steady-State Cardio – Which Is Better For Weightloss?

Get more health and fitness-themed newsletter topic ideas and inspiration.

Promo Emails

Promotional fitness emails are specifically focused on sales, offers, and promotions. They’re all about driving conversions, highlighting limited-time offers, and announcing discounts.

While newsletters and welcome sequences prioritise building relationships and providing value, promo emails encourage purchases. With some smart segmentation and personalised offers, you can generate really strong results from email promotions.

You might also like… The best types of emails for generating revenue or how Life Time Fitness made $600,000 using email marketing in its health clubs.

Member Announcements

Important announcements such as new class schedules, facility upgrades, or holiday hours can be effectively communicated through email, ensuring that all members are informed in a timely manner.

Feedback and Surveys

Emails can be used to gather feedback from members through surveys. Understanding member satisfaction levels and preferences can help gyms tailor their services to better meet the needs of their clientele.

Gym Email Marketing Best Practice

Here are some best practices that gyms should follow to get the best possible results from their email marketing…

Make The Most Of Preview Text

The header is extremely valuable real estate on an email, mainly because it’s shown as preview text in some email clients. Best practice would be to put an enticing sentence that encourages the recipient to open the email, as opposed to bland stuff like contact info. Try inserting your own exciting twist on ‘New services, special promotions, and exclusive news’.

Call To Action Buttons

Let’s get straight to it – brightly coloured buttons work better than neutrals (like gray). Bright red, blue, and green are all top choices and will be more effective in terms of click-throughs. Using highly contrasting colours in your email can have a huge effect on the number of people who take action as a result.

You might also like – How To Re-Engage Email Subscribers Or Non-Purchasers [5-Step Plan]

Begin With The End In Mind

Don’t send emails just for the sake of it or to tick a ‘marketing’ box. Think about what you’re trying to achieve and then build your emails around that. Create a sequence that turns strangers into people who understand the value of your fitness product or service.

Here’s an example of a simple email sequence, you can also access pre-written content in our fitness email marketing kit…

• A – Educate – answer the 3 most common questions that you get asked, or questions relating to a trending topic.
• B – Establish need – agitate a potential problem so that people feel inclined to take action (e.g. 3 signs you need XYZ)
• C – Offer – Send a promotional email, either related to #B or a current special offer.

Use Benefit-Focused Headlines

There are a million ways to make headlines more effective. But our absolute top tip is to make them benefits-focused. This ensures that subscribers have a good reason to open or keep reading. 

It’s easy to get carried away with talking about what you want to promote. But the truth is that people don’t care – they just want to know what’s in it for them. So, write your headlines with that in mind and you’ll see a substantial increase in email opens and click-throughs. 

You might also like… Effective Email Marketing Strategies for Personal Trainers or How We Grew Our Targeted Email List Of 15,000 Subscribers.

Keep The Design Simple

Keeping the design simple allows people to concentrate on the content. It also creates a more professional look which enhances your credibility and trustworthiness. An easy way to do this is to use just one or two colours in your design so that everything looks cohesive.

By incorporating these practical tips into your emails, you’ll increase opens and clickthroughs. This maximises website visits, sign-ups, and purchases so that you generate the best possible results.

Gym Email Marketing Templates & Services

We offer email marketing services and DIY solutions for fitness businesses. You can hire us to create your email strategy, set up automated sequences, and write impactful email content (get in touch here). Or you can purchase our Email Marketing Kit which is packed with pre-written templates, guides, and done-for-you lead magnets.

The fitness email marketing templates and resources make it easy to generate leads and sales revenue. They include a step-by-step playbook, done-for-you email templates, and resources to help you get results. From coming up with the perfect lead magnet and growing your list, to sending effective emails that help you sell more, this kit has it all.