There are always moving parts when you are running a gym or fitness center. You need to make sure you have top-notch equipment, collect your membership dues, and ensure things are functional, safe, and clean. In addition, you need to market your gym so that you have new business and new clients coming in the door.
Having an online listing in a directory can go a long way in helping your gym get discovered by people in your local area. However, knowing the best way to go about improving directory listings management for your gym is another story altogether. In this article, we’ll help you figure out what directory listings are, what they look like, and how you can use them to boost your marketing strategy and get more members in through the door.
What are Directory Listings?
To begin, let’s talk about what a directory listing is. A directory listing is commonly defined as a source that includes your name, address, phone number, and other important business listing. It can be used to help define what your business does, what services or classes are offered, and how you can be contacted and located.
While a traditional business listing would be found in the Yellow Pages or a phonebook, today’s directories are most commonly found online. An online listing has all the same information as a printed listing did, but also includes things like links to websites, map directions, and instant messaging features. These help make directory listings even more useful and beneficial to gym owners and operators.
Common Elements of a Directory Listing
Here are some of the most common elements that you will see show up in a directory listing. While not all directories have the same fields to populate, they will most likely include some or all of the following:
- Business name
- Address
- Phone number
- Website URL
- Map directions
- Photos
- Videos
- Business details
- Business description
- Services offered
- Hours of operation
- Reviews
- Questions and answers
- Promotions and deals
By having these details fully filled out on the business listing profile, you can make sure potential customers have everything they need to know about your business in order to make an informed decision on whether or not to become a member.
Benefits of Directory Listings
Directory listings offer many benefits to all businesses, including gyms and fitness centers. Here are some key benefits that you should keep in mind as you work on developing your directory listing strategy within your digital marketing program:
Increased Visibility
Directories are often found at the top of organic search results pages and are relied on by clients to find a gym in their area. When someone does a local search for a gym “near me” or “in [area]”, they will often look at the first few results. If you can get your business listed in those top results, you get more clicks, more conversions, and more customers.
Local Search
Directories are based on location. When you have your locations clearly listed in your directory and have your entire area of service highlighted, you can appear at the top of results for anyone in that area. That helps you get more qualified leads from potential clients and members who live directly in your area, rather than across the city or in a different neighborhood. Gyms are used locally, so local search results are all the more important for gym owners to target.
Online Credibility
Members can trust that you are a real and reputable gym when you have a complete directory listing. If your listing lacks fields, doesn’t have any images or reviews, or doesn’t have a website URL link, it can look inauthentic and fake. They may wonder if your gym is still in business. The more detailed and filled-out your directory listing is, the more credible and authentic you appear to searchers.
Direct Contact
The final major benefit of an online directory listing is that it gives your leads and potential members direct access to your business. They can message you directly, ask a question, get your address and phone number, or visit your website to get more information. These actions are only a click away when you have a strong online directory presence across different platforms.
How Directory Listings Help You Attract More Members
Now that you understand what a directory is and how they can benefit your gym or health club, let’s dive into ways you can utilize directory listings online to boost your digital marketing efforts and attract more members to your location.
Improves Your Online Presence
People are already looking for your services online when they search for a gym and get a directory listing. By boosting your presence with an online directory, you can improve your visibility to interested parties and get found easier. The more details you include in your listing, the easier it will be for potential members to make a decision and come join your gym over your competitors.
If you don’t have a directory listing, then it’s harder for people looking for a gym or health club online to find you. They have to avoid the suggestions in the Google Map Pack and scroll down the page to find your website. Or they have to guess what services you offer and when you are open rather than having that information easily provided. The more detailed your profiles are, the better luck you will have getting new members.
Strengthen Your Reputation
Directory listings are a trusted source of information. People rely on them and they help strengthen your reputation. Even if you are a new business with relatively few members, you can still get a positive reputation starting by having a complete directory listing on Google or other sources for business information.
You can boost your reputation even more by collecting and displaying reviews and star ratings on your directory profiles. The more high-quality and positive reviews you have, the stronger your reputation online will be. 5-star ratings, detailed reviews with clear descriptions, and photos and images uploaded with reviews all help you appear more trustworthy and authentic online.
Increase Brand Awareness
You gain a competitive advantage over your competitors who don’t appear in listings when you focus your efforts on crafting directory listings. Directory listings appear at the top of search results pages, and as a result, get more clicks than businesses that don’t have directories online. If you can get ahead of your competition and take up that valuable online real estate, they will have a more difficult time overcoming you and ranking above your gym.
Grow Your Local Visibility
Directory listings help you increase local visibility, so you can become more easily found on Google. When you use local keywords in your website pages, include specific locations and areas of service, and make sure to respond to reviews with local indicators, you can help define your gym location and get even more traffic from relevant sources looking for a gym.
The better you are at filling out your directory listings, the more likely you are to get discovered and appear in local search results. But if you have blank fields, outdated information, or no new updates or reviews, your profiles will fall behind those that are more complete and more active.
Get Discovered More Easily
Directory listings help your business get discovered in voice search. More and more people are going hands-free with their searches online. They use voice-activated assistants like Alexa or Siri to search for them or use Bluetooth capabilities in Smartwatches and vehicles to find businesses near them.
In these types of searches, directory listings are most commonly used to pull information from to read aloud to interested searchers. Your online directory listings can then be used to help capture a whole new audience than just a manual search.
Attend a Surefire Local Marketing Platform Demo
At Surefire Local, we want to help gym owners and fitness centers get more members, find new audiences, and get discovered locally. That’s why we’ve developed the Surefire Local Marketing Platform. Surefire Local helps you manage all of your important marketing activities within a single platform.
You can update directories, respond to reviews, and manage your information all within the Surefire Local platform. And Surefire Local is only a fraction of the cost of other tools and agencies, making it a great choice for gyms and health clubs. To learn more, get a demo of the Surefire Local marketing platform today.