Let’s face it. Fitness options are plentiful in your area. You’re competing for your target audience’s health and wellness dollars—that could be spent with a competitor… or worse a home fitness center they end up never using. So, how do you make the case that your gym is a better option for staying motivated and gaining muscle?
With nearly 100% of people turning to online reviews to decide where to work out or who to trust with their fitness goals, your business’s reputation is largely shaped by what people say about you online.
Those reviews don’t just impact your reputation; they also play a critical role in your local search visibility at a time when standing out as a gym owner, fitness center, or personal trainer has never been more important.
Potential new members in your community are out there right now. They’re asking things like “best gym near me” or “top personal training in [city]”. With a localized online presence, you can capture the traffic created by these queries and showcase the engagement, reviews, and testimonials of members to build instant trust and interest in your fitness experience. Using proven local reputation management strategies for gyms is crucial to achieving this.
The Power of Online Reviews
Online reviews are more than feedback—they are modern-day word-of-mouth marketing. Potential members are scouring the Internet right now to learn more about your fitness business. Reviews can make or break how they perceive you.
And it’s not just what those reviews say. They care about how authentic, recent, and plentiful they appear. A solid review profile represents a thriving business. These real reviews provide a sneak peek into what this stranger can expect if they choose to sign up.
But the power of reviews doesn’t end there. For local businesses, reviews also generate local signals that help your websites and business profiles (like Google Business) rank higher in searches, potentially achieving position 1 in search and on the coveted Google Map Pack. More reviews (especially positive ones) make more signals, continually bumping you up to prominent visibility in the locals’ searches.
Google cares about local signals because they localize your brand, confirming the community you’re a part of. When people in your community search for gyms, Google doesn’t deliver up the Gold’s Gym an hour away. It delivers up gyms that are in the searcher’s area, which could be—no, should be—yours, with the right local reputation management strategies for gyms.
Local Reputation Management Strategies for Gyms (Key Steps)
1. Generate Good Vibes
Build a strong foundation of positive reviews from real people who love your brand. Here’s how you can make this happen.
First, encourage satisfied members to leave reviews. New members will often be the most excited to join, so be sure to ask early after that time review requests for transformation success, membership milestones, or even after a great boot camp when endorphins peak. Ask members to share their experiences, personal challenges, and how you’ve helped.
Make the process seamless by providing links to Yelp, Google, and Facebook. Utilize small business marketing software to automate this process.
Next, respond to both positive and negative reviews professionally and promptly. Personalize your reply and include local details. “We’re thrilled to hear you enjoyed our boot camp at [Gym Name] in [City].
Engage with members on review platforms and encourage them to upload pics and videos.
You can even coach people—just a little—by saying things like “Don’t forget to mention our [something a lot of locals are searching for]. You can find out what locals are looking for in a fitness center through keyword research using a local SEO research tool.
2. Incorporate Other Local SEO Strategies for Fitness Professionals
Applying local SEO strategies to your reputation management plan is a great way to turn reviews into localized online visibility. Some of the most effective techniques you can use here are:
- Location-based keyword – Mention your city, landmarks, local businesses, neighborhoods, and local festivals, the term that locals call themselves, to solidify your profile as distinctly local.
- Optimize your business profiles – Make sure you have consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone) and other information across review sites so no one has questions about whether a profile is yours. These are just some of the local signals Google and other search engines use to confirm your location.
- Keep profiles active – This may seem like a lot of work. But keep in mind, you can create content once and post it on all platforms. You can run review campaigns that target a specific platform that isn’t getting as many reviews as the others or focus on growing all of them at once. It’s your choice. Do what works for you.
3. Get the Most Out of Review Platforms
Claim your profiles. Google Business, Yelp, and Facebook are good places for most fitness businesses to start. Having these profiles filled out completely provides a sense of legitimacy to your brand. Make them helpful, visual, and inviting.
Let clients choose which platform they want to engage with you on, increasing the likelihood they’ll leave a review. And highlight recent reviews and responses on your profile, social media and website to demonstrate that you’re actively engaging with your members online.
4. Invite User-Generated Content
What if you could get your members to do all of your marketing for you? Probably not going to happen. But they can help you generate greater awareness, trust, and new signups by posting photos and videos of themselves working out, before/afters, and other related content. This becomes social proof, powerful motivators that can dramatically increase your conversion rates. When people see others like them engaging with a local brand, they want to see what’s up and find out how to join.
Have a boot camp scheduled. Encourage participants to invite a friend to record their workout and post and tag your gym on social media. Share that video to give it extra visibility. Not only do you have user-generated content, but that friend might just sign up today. You can even incentivize participation with monthly giveaways or discounts for those who share their story online.
These types of reputation-building strategies add authenticity. They demonstrate that others like what you’re doing and want to tell others about it. That sure beats having to proclaim your own virtues all of the time. It sounds better when you let someone else say how great you are.
This not only helps to build a sense of community but also adds authentic, localized content to your online presence. Google favors fresh, user-generated content, so the more your business fosters this type of interaction, the better it is for your local SEO.
5. Monitor and Analyze Online Reviews
Actively monitor your reviews in real-time using reputation management software that helps you see and manage reviews in one place. Track metrics like:
- Number of new reviews
- Review sentiment
- Specific concerns, requests, or benefits that reviewers point out
Take time to regularly review the feedback you receive. If multiple clients are praising the same personal trainer or fitness class, you know that’s an area of strength. On the flip side, if you’re consistently receiving complaints about a particular aspect of your gym, such as outdated equipment or long wait times, it’s time to make improvements. By listening to your customers, you can better tailor your services to meet their needs and preferences.
With the right tools, you can even set up alerts so you can respond quickly. If that review isn’t favorable, this gives you the opportunity to quickly resolve the issues. This might result in them adding a star or four. But even if you can’t make it right with the person, simply responding professionally shows others you’re listening. You do care about member experience.
Local Reputation Management Strategies for Gyms Made Simple
Online reviews are one of the most effective ways to enhance your gym’s reputation and generate new memberships. But a review is more than a review. When you apply these strategies, you turn reviews into local search visibility and trust. By encouraging clients to leave reviews, responding promptly, and incorporating local SEO strategies, you create more opportunities to connect with local clients and improve your standing in search results. Additionally, leveraging user-generated content and monitoring reviews in real time allows you to maintain a dynamic, community-driven online presence.
Let’s face it. Trying to manage your reputation across platforms is daunting. But it doesn’t have to be. Surefire Local’s all-in-one marketing platform gives you small business tools to manage and localize your online presence efficiently. From sending review requests to creating the most locally relevant content, our tools are built with small fitness businesses like yours in mind. Automate and streamline your marketing so you can focus on growing your business.
Ready to take control of your gym’s online reputation? We invite you to learn more about how the #1 marketing platform for small businesses can help you. Attend a Surefire Local Demo to see these tools in action.