As the 21st century unfolds, fitness is the new buzzword. As lifestyles get more sedentary, and we become more used to life in front of a computer, the incidence of lifestyle diseases, also known as non-communicable diseases, have risen. As a result, more than fashion, fitness has become something we have to or must come to rely on, to save ourselves from the clutches of these maladies. And with that, have come the gyms and fitness agencies. Every fitness agency must attract the right customers and reach out to a large audience, need help to highlight the various specialties that they are offering. Thus, in fitness agencies, “public relations” is the word that can make or break them.
What is “public relations” or PR?
It essentially means a company or an agency maintaining a favorable image and reaching out to potential customers while highlighting their Unique Selling Propositions (USP), which help differentiate them from their competition in the market. Customers have many options, and so a company uses PR to make the customer understand the reason why that particular company is tailor-made to satisfy all his/ her needs. The PR is responsible for upholding the image of the agency in the market.
Social media: This is the easiest and most effective way to reach out to a huge number of people concurrently. Based on a person’s preferences, age, weight or a variety of information that is shared on a social platform, PR teams can focus on the type of customers they want to aim at. Here, segmentation and targeting of the customers along with their brand positioning becomes very easy and is used by all fitness agencies as a formidable tool.
Emphasizing health: Emphasis on health is a very good tactic. With the increase in non-communicable diseases, focus on such areas is important. Wherever possible, using statistics is a very good way to back up your claim. For example, a simple statistic that could be used is that in India, roughly 60 % of all deaths in 1 year, which equals 58 lakhs of people as of now, is attributable to non-communicable diseases. This helps create the platform for further discussion and gives a customer a reason to join a fitness agency.
Brand strength: A solid brand should be created by advertisement and word of mouth. Solid brand creation is not easy and requires time and effort. A superior brand will do its own PR. A superior brand is separated from its competition of various points like customer satisfaction, value for money, the perks allowed, the facilities provided, the flexibility of hours provided among others. Thus, a fitness agency should focus on what it offers extra and what kind of a better deal a customer is potentially looking at by joining that particular agency. Reaching out to the customers with respect to mottos, values, logos and symbols help create an intimate relationship between the customer and the brand and as a result, people who can relate to these aspects will never go for any other brand.
Use of intelligent keywords for internet search: Most people go for brands, and if they do not, they look for specific things that suit their criteria. These criteria could be according to cost, distance from the house availability of AC, availability of gym instructors etc. While advertising the agency, keywords that are most searched should be used, for example, “best”, “AC”, “easy commuting”, etc. Before that, a survey should be done on the criteria of the most recent and heavy searches and the advertisement could be done according to that. This can maximize search hits and thus, increase the chance of customer enrolment.
