When you work in fitness, you know how important it is to stay connected to people who share your passion—both in and out of the studio. And if you’re a marketer, you understand that one of the best ways to stay connected to existing and future studio clients is through email and social media. While both are important for any successful business, email is especially critical because getting someone’s email address is the first step towards figuring out who your customer is and establishing a long-term relationship.
Email is one of the most direct ways to communicate with your customers, connect them with your brand and drive sales. It’s also a great tool to understand what your subscribers will respond to, from subject lines to content. One of the biggest challenges for any business is to continue to grow email subscribers. If done well, growing your list is one of the best ways to grow your business. That’s why good old-fashioned organic growth is so important. You want subscribers who will open your emails and engage with you because they love your studio’s mission.
From social media promotion to contests, here are five ways to grow your newsletter subscriber list:
Try a Scroll Triggered Box
Instead of a pop-up box asking users for an email before they’ve actually engaged with your website, try embedding a scroll-triggered box. A scroll-triggered box is a plugin that adds a call to action that slides in after a user has spent time on your site.
The main benefit of a scroll-triggered box is that a user won’t see it until he or she has scrolled down more than half the page—sometimes as much as 70 or 80 percent. So by the time a user sees it, he or she has already read a bunch of content on the page. Make sure to establish a rule so that the box only shows up on certain pages and not so often that it will feel like spam.
Host a Contest
Think about what current and potential studio members would really love—maybe it’s a free month of classes or a bag full of fitness goodies? Once you identify a great prize, offer it up as a giveaway that requires an email address to enter and promote it via social media, on your site and in your newsletter.
If you want to give away fitness swag, ask a company to donate a prize in exchange for social media promotion. In order for a giveaway to be successful, you need to offer a prize that is relevant to your niche audience, whether they are loyal to pilates or cycling. Everyone loves cash or an iPad but by offering a prize that is relevant to the kinds of members you want to attract, you’ll be ensuring you get email addresses from people who love fitness.
“Just like people are willing to provide their email for valuable, relevant content, they’re VERY willing to provide their email for the opportunity to win a fantastic prize,” says Colby Cavanaugh, senior vice president of marketing for Emma. “Whether it’s their first month free or a stylish t-shirt with your brand’s logo on it, giveaways are an easy way to quickly attract new members and grow your email audience.”
Run a Facebook Ad
Chances are you’ve tried Facebook ads to promote special offers on memberships and classes but have you tried it to boost email signups? The beauty of Facebook advertising is that there are so many options that you can tailor your ad to your needs. It also allows you to target your ad to the right audience and enables you to track views, clicks, likes and comments.
Liberty Jane Clothing, an online retailer, added more than 2,000 email addresses to their list in a month thanks to Facebook advertising, according to the Constant Contact. “This year we decided to give Facebook Ads a try. But instead of driving people directly to our page, we used the ad to drive people to our email sign-up form,” owner Jason Miles explains on the Constant Contact blog. “We added 2,395 contacts in January alone. For us it was worth the investment.”
Partner Up!
Think about companies or studios that have a similar audience with similar goals and work together to create an offer that will bring in more emails. Looking for ideas? For starters, make a list of the businesses in your neighborhood. If you have a coffee shop or smoothie spot nearby, consider collaborating on an exclusive offer or giveaway that combines your resources.
By offering something awesome with a partner, you’re widening your reach since it can be promoted to two email lists and two social media pages. It’s one of the easiest and most effective ways to collect email addresses from a new audience. Another idea: Host a co-branded offer with a partner. For example, promote an exclusive discount from a nearby sporting goods store in exchange for the store promoting your classes. Or stick with content and partner with a brand or company that will run a guest post written by you about fitness. The benefit? You can drive people to your site and email signup from your post.
Take Advantage of Your Social Media Platforms
Make sure you include a prominent email signup across all social media platforms you use. Start by crafting short, punchy email sign-up language. Then promote it in a way that makes sense for each of the social platforms you play in.
On Instagram:
Post a gorgeous fitness image that promotes your studio and its mission and tell followers to sign up for your email list to be the first to know about deals on class packs. Post a friendly short URL in the caption (this won’t be clickable but if it’s short, followers will remember it) or add a link in your bio. You can also create an Instagram story with text that drives people to your friendly URL. Instagram is currently testing allowing more users to add links to Instagram stories by swiping up. This feature has only been rolled out to verified accounts so be sure to follow Instagram support for updates.
On Facebook:
Using a Facebook call to action button is one of the easiest ways to get more signups from your profile page. You can also try boosting a post (for as little as $5 to $10) that teases a great deal on classes or talks about a trending workout that you offer at your studio. In that post, be sure to tease your newsletter and let followers know they need to sign up to learn more about the deal or class.
On Pinterest:
Create a custom graphic with a vibrant image and three reasons to sign up for email from your studio. Make sure the reasons are content-based and not promotional (like you’ll get a new tip to get more out of your workout every week) and pin this to one of your boards. Infographics with steps that illustrate good form are also effective on Pinterest and a smart hook into getting followers to sign up for your newsletter.