There are so many moving parts to creating, launching and marketing your fitness business’s workshops, special events and training that it can feel overwhelming. If you miss one critical element, it can throw off the timing of your event or result in less than optimal participation.
At Punchpass, we’re committed to helping fitness studio owners and instructors like you plan ahead and get organized with simple, powerful processes that set your business up for success – just like our software.
That’s why we’re sharing with you the 10 Essential Steps to Launching Special Events & Programs at Your Fitness Studio.
1. Build your campaign graphics
To optimize your special event or program, you want beautiful, professional-looking marketing pieces. It can take some time to create them yourself (using a DIY design program like Canva) or to have an outside graphic designer create them for you. This is a critical step in the planning process because you’ll need your graphics to build the rest of your marketing program – like social media banners, event posts, online ads, and email announcements. Plan 1-2 weeks for getting these assets ready.
The marketing assets you might consider creating are:
- Printed Fliers for In-Studio or Around Town
- Postcards for Mail or Hand Distribution
- Social Media Posts & Ads
- Facebook or YouTube Banner Art
- Website Image(s)
- Email Header Image
2. Enter the event or series into Punchpass
To create a place for participants to register and pay for your special program and set up attendance tracking, you’ll need to set it up in Punchpass. Make sure you have your event’s catchy title and compelling description, along with an enticing image ready to go.
First, determine whether your program should be set up as either:
- a single ticketed event (such as a one-day workshop) or
- a multi-day series, where you’ll want to take attendance over multiple days (such as a teacher training or 8-week program which has meetings, classes or training scheduled one a week)
Either option will get you ready to accept payment and registration in advance so that you don’t need to worry about it later.
3. Update your website
Once your event is set up in Punchpass, you can post that link with information about the event and a call to action to register on your website. You can promote the event on your site’s homepage or on a special events and workshops page if you have one.
You may want to use the webpage where you present your event as the link you share on social media or in any promotional emails that you send to contacts. Or, you can simply link directly to your event in Punchpass.
4. Create a Facebook event and “boost” it
On your fitness business’s Facebook page, you can use an image you’ve created for your event and your registration link – either to your website or directly to the event in your Punchpass software – to create an event listing. Once you’ve created the event in Facebook, you can post it to your page’s feed and pay to boost the post. With a boost, Facebook will show it to more people and make sure it’s shown prominently in users’ feeds.
Be sure to include a message with a link to your event registration in Punchpass. This will drive customers to sign up and pay rather than just tell you they’re planning on attending on Facebook.
An added bonus of featuring your program as an event on your fitness business’s Facebook page is that users can easily browse all your events right from your Facebook profile.
To drive even more interest in your event, change up your Facebook profile image to include an eye-catching photo with text announcing your event.
5. Create and send an email announcement
A great way to make sure everyone knows about your program and registers in advance is to send out an email with an enticing invitation. Don’t forget to include a link to your website or Punchpass event too. Be sure to encourage your contacts to share the email and the link with their friends, co-workers and family.
You can email a list of current customers or regular attendees of specific classes directly through Punchpass. Use a custom email template to design a beautiful custom-branded email for your event.
6. Create social media ads
Reach an extended audience of potential new customers by using the beautiful graphics you’ve created for your event to create a paid ad campaign on Facebook and Instagram. The easiest way to get started is to create a square sized image or video clip for your ad since that format works on both platforms. Online DIY graphics programs like Canva have templates and auto-sizing for social media to help make sure your images are ad-ready no matter where you choose to place them.
When setting up your ad campaign, you can choose to advertise to friends of the customers who already follow your page, or you can set demographic parameters such as age, geo-location, interests like health and fitness, and if you’ve done this before, set up custom audiences based on who’s visited specific pages on your website or is on your customer email list.
7. Announce the event before or after classes
If your fitness business has a policy of making announcements about special events and programs before or after class, make sure that you provide all the details about your next event to your instructors. Ensure everyone knows when registration opens, how much the program costs, the registration deadline and the dates and details of the program.
8. Email your staff and encourage them to share event details
It’s important that everyone on your team is up to the minute on all the special events going on at your studio. Make sure to reach out to your teachers and staff with an email that includes all the dates and details so that they’re prepared to enroll interested students and outside contacts.
If you’re promoting your event on social media, ask your instructors and staff to promote it on their accounts along with your customized images, text, and links.
9. Personally invite current customers
It’s great to promote your event or program though all the appropriate marketing channels. But at the end of the day, nothing beats a good old fashioned personal invitation to your community members.
Taking the time to invite students one-on-one — whether in-person or virtually — is worth it. It makes them feel remembered and special. So do reach out to your most loyal customers and let them know you’re thinking of them!
10. Track enrollment & sales
Stay on top of program registration and make sure you’ve got enough time to hit your revenue and participation goals by tracking activity in Punchpass. Use your fitness business software’s easy and convenient “reports” feature to get up-to-the-minute stats on sign-ups and total sales.
That way, if you need a little extra effort to boost enrollment you have time to send out an additional email and post a few more times on social media.
Events & Workshops are a great way to attract new customers & bring in extra revenue. They can also be a welcome diversion for you and your regulars, so have some fun with them!
