As a gym owner, you’re always looking for innovative ways to engage your customers and make them feel more connected to their gym experience. Unfortunately, many promotional materials like emails and flyers are often overlooked or ignored.
But there are more effective options when it comes to communicating with your members. Specifically, digital signage is a highly engaging channel for capturing your customers’ attention at a point when they’re most connected with your club.
However, if you’re using your gym TVs for digital signage, it’s important to make sure you’re doing it in the most effective way possible. Take a look at our must-know tips for introducing digital signage to your gym or fitness club.
Location, Location, Location
When you’re setting up your TVs, make sure they’re installed in a location that will attract and maintain your members’ attention. It might seem like a good idea to put screens behind the front desk, but they can be easily tuned out as members quickly check in and out of the club.
Instead, your TVs should be positioned in places where people gather and have time to take in the information. Depending on the layout of your club, this could be on a wall near cardio machines like treadmills and ellipticals, or above sets of free weights. You may even want to have signage that is unique to each of these areas to optimize messaging - a practice called “zoning.”
Mix It Up
The key to keeping members engaged with your content is to provide a mix of information that’s relevant to them.
If you’re only showing advertising and promotions, they’ll tune out. Similarly, if you’re only broadcasting cable TV, your brand won’t benefit -- and you could potentially end up advertising for your competitors.
To get the right mix, think about what’s relevant to your guests. Most likely, it’s a mix of local news and updates, gym community information, and a few marketing promotions to keep them updated on what’s going on in your club.
Design Matters
Don’t shy away from digital signage just because you don’t have an in-house designer to make graphics. With a digital platform, you can easily create and update eye-catching animated signage to capture your members’ attention.
Your customers won’t engage with promotions that are overly crowded or confusing, so avoid overloading screens with too much information at once. People respond better to materials that are aesthetically pleasing, so make sure your signage is nicely organized, spatially balanced, and easy to read.
Get Members Involved
While you should have a good mix of your own content showing on your gym TVs, you can also highlight your members’ content too. Encourage them to submit workout selfies to be shown on screen, and have them tag your social media accounts.
Interactivity engages members and makes paying attention to the screen more fun. If they’re on the lookout for themselves or their friends in photos, they’ll increase the time they spend looking at the TV.
It’s also a great way to build community and make your members feel more strongly connected to your brand. They’ll get to know their fellow gym-goers and your staff and become more engaged at your club.
Want to wow with your digital signage? You can transform your TVs into your fitness club’s most powerful marketing tool with UPshow - the member engagement platform built to drive the outcomes that matter most to your club
