In the Gymnastics industry, a common marketing tactic is to schedule special events to drive new traffic to your gym or increase involvement among current students. Several different kinds of events work to get people through the doors: a one-time program for holidays or other themed events, an open gym day at the start of summer break, or even a competition. The benefit of an event is that people can attend a one-day event with relatively low commitment. It allows them to see your gym and the environment for a low cost or for free and then decide if they want to return.
But even the best event idea won’t be any good if no one knows it’s happening. So how do you get the word out to a big enough group of people to make your event worthwhile? There are a few different ways, with various costs and difficulties, but one of the easiest, cheapest ways to get eyes on your event is right at your fingertips with Facebook Event Ads.
Why Facebook Event Ad?
Facebook Event Ads are like a public RSVP to any event and are simple to create. You log into your Facebook business account, create your event, and publish. That’s all the work on your end. You might think, “that’s just a normal event invitation,” but what Facebook does with that event is what does the trick.Â
Once one person responds to an event ad and clicks the “going” button, their friends will probably see in their feed that the person plans to attend your event. In the feed notification, that friend will also have a chance to respond to the ad, which means more eyes (and more clicks) from Facebook users you would never be able to reach yourself. This is what we call “organic advertising” – it’s like the social media equivalent of word-of-mouth advertising, where people hear about your gym from other people.
Additionally, anyone who has responded to the event ad will get a reminder of your event as it gets closer to event time. Reminder ads are an essential part of marketing, especially if your event is free, and Facebook does it for free once you make your ad.
People also feel safe responding to event ads. There’s no prompt to enter their phone numbers or email addresses, and there are no tickets or upfront costs that obligate them to attend the event. You might think you’ll see fewer attendees this way, but it’s actually the opposite: response rate tends to be better because of it, and you’ll likely get attendees who otherwise had no plans for that day.
Engagement-based and lead-based advertising are critical parts of marketing your business, but they cost money. Facebook Events are free and easy to make on your own, and they should be an essential component of any events you host at your gym. After all, people need to know something exists before they can plan to attend!
by Lee Callow
If you need help marketing your gym, you should talk to the gymnastics marketing agency (that’s us!). We certainly know what we’re doing when it comes to growing gyms and we’d love to have a chat with you about things you can do to improve your targeted digital marketing strategy. Click to book a call with our team!
