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Tag: fitness

4 Event Ideas for Fitness Classes

  1. Master Meet-Ups

 A wonderful way to boost your brand is by partnering with another brand. Celebrity trainers and influencers often meet up with their followers, be it for a Bootcamp or just to engage with their audience. Many of these influencers are eager to partner with a fitness event or venue planner to streamline their event, someone who can get their equipment, space, and safety accommodations set up long in advance. For example, Brandon Carter often runs Bootcamp meetups from his youtube followers in parks and outdoor venues, where getting fitness materials and permits can be tricky. This is where you come in. Reach out to local influencers you know host meetups and propose a partnership. You can also offer them exposure, help teaching, and even some free materials. Partnering on influencer meetups will not only boost your class’s reputation, but it will draw fans of the guest to your class, improving your visibility and attendance.

Hosting fitness supply meetups is also a great avenue to take advantage of another brand in your niche. Many sporting goods and fitness merchandising stores like Sports Basement organize community events with various fitness-geared activities, sometimes even fitness classes. Offering to teach a guest class at these events is a great way to introduce yourself to an audience of fitness enthusiasts while increasing your visibility via the sporting goods stores advertising and promotions. 

  1. Meal Prep Masterclass

Diet is as, if not more important than exercise. Odds are that your class attendees are just as eager to learn about clean meal prep as they are exercises. Consider hosting a class on preparing healthy, easy to make foods, either taught by yourself from what foods have worked for you, or by partnering with a cooking or nutrition instructor. Partnering with a nutritionist could not only boost attendance but could introduce your class to the nutritionists’ clientele.

  1. Bring it with Bootcamps! 

Hosting a Bootcamp is a great supplement for your fitness class, improve awareness, and even raise some extra funds for your class. Bootcamp group exercises, separate from your class, can offer an opportunity for attendees who may have missed some classes to catch up, and for those who’ve never attended a class but may be interested in a sample. 

Bootcamps are also incredibly high yield for the amount of energy put in, both for planners and participants. All you need to start a Bootcamp is a logo, access to the web, and a park. Advertise your Bootcamp online, and walla, you have yourself a proper Bootcamp. You don’t even really need permits if attendance is low, depending on your city that could be 20 people or less. Consider pulling the old ‘We’re just a group of friends working out in the park, officer!’ if anyone asks. Point being, Bootcamps cost almost nothing to plan but can bring in significant income for your fitness business. But the buck doesn’t stop there. No, Bootcamps are incredible for attendees as well, a rare opportunity to experience both one-on-one attention on their exercise form and regime while being pushed to their limits.  A great way to encourage a commitment from attendees is via theme. For example, New Years Bootcamps are extremely popular because they empower attendees with the exercises and routines they’ll need to achieve their fitness resolutions, whether with a trainer or by themselves. You could also focus on imparting information at your Bootcamp, attendees leaving with key nutritional and exercise knowledge rather than just muscle burn. Goals are born at Bootcamp. One taste of proper exercise, of pushing themselves past perceived limitations, and Bootcamp attendees will be sure to be signing themselves up for more classes and more programs. If nothing else, they’ll have learned low-maintenance exercise techniques they can do themselves, anytime, with almost no equipment. It really is a win-win.

But what software will you use to sell tickets to the Bootcamp, or even sell tickets for your class? As a fitness event planner, you’re looking for a free way to sell as many class tickets as possible and keep as much revenue as you can. However, most ticket sales software like Eventbrite or Ticketmaster take huge portions of sales, cost too much, promote competing events, and eclipse your own brand. You can use Sparxo to post your event and sell tickets for your event anywhere, letting you sell tickets online with no redirects – all for free!

  • Import your guest lists and sales lists from other systems
  • Aggregate all of your customer data in one place
  • Keep 100% of your ticket sales
  • White Label, greatly improves SEO and Brand

 

  1. Run a Fun Run

A fun run is exactly that – fun. Even if your class isn’t explicitly about cardio workouts, helping to host a fun run, an informal run for charitable purposes, is a great way to go the extra mile in raising awareness for your fitness class. 

Fun runs are typically geared toward a particular charity, with lots of attention and care put into their planning. This leaves you two options – reach out to a smaller fun run and offer to help them organize, usually by volunteering or by creating your own run. Assisting an existing run will be far less of a time commitment, and can still give you a great chance to engage with your class attendees, acquire new students, potentially establish a permanent partnership. If you can find a fun run that may be in need of your class supplies or expertise, you could greatly enhance your exposure by offering them a partnership, donating your time as a teacher and supplies in exchange for the run promoting your class to their attendees. Also, by encouraging your class attendees to attend an existing fun run, you’ll get exposure to their friends and plus-ones, many of whom will likely have a similar interest in fitness classes. 

Your other option is to create your own fun run. While this is a much larger time commitment, it can greatly enhance your visibility as a teacher. Like with most events, success will all depend on proper planning. Your first step will be to set a goal for the run, typically charitable. Then you’ll want to put together a capable team, ideally with event planners who’ve previously assisted with fun runs. With a team and a goal, you’ll then have to iron out the details, like venue, funding, and supplies. Here’s a great guide on how to handle all the logistics of hosting a fun run. 

One of the secrets to a successful fun run is your theme. As an event planner for this run, you want to narrow down your target audience to a specific niche, that way you’ll know how to make an event appeal to them. Is this going to be an epic professional race, with high tech times? A stroller-accessible run for families? An office-getaway for corporate employees? The better you understand your target attendees, the better equipped you’ll be to design your event and eventually market the event as something that these attendees actually want to go to. With this in mind, brainstorm a theme, a kind of overarching message and style to your event that aligns with your audience’s interest. Not only will this spice up attendee experience, but it will differentiate your fun run, standing out from what’s already a very large crowd. IIn the end, whether you choose to host or help out, market to families or pros, fun runs will help your brand and a good cause. 

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THE ULTIMATE EVENT PLANNING CHECKLIST

TOP 5 STEPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL POP-UP

HOW TO PLAN A FITNESS EVENT WITH NO MONEY

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4 EVENT BRANDING MISTAKES THAT KILL TICKET SALES

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HOW TO SELL OUT A FITNESS CLASS

WHY AFROTECH SELLS OUT TICKETS

Why Afrotech Sells Out Tickets

More than 4,000 techies attended last year’s groundbreaking Afrotech conference, a meeting of minds that aims to connect founders, techies, and employees with the fastest-growing startups. Tickets completely sold out. AfroTech features panels like “Being a Digital Brand.” Surprisingly, Afrotech is only 3 years old, founded in 2016. Since then attendance has nearly doubled each year. So how does Afrotech pull this off? How do they sell out tickets, creating a major movement in just 3 years?

  1. Superb Speakers

Afrotech’s 2018 conference featured a wide variety of amazing guest speakers, from Daymond John of Sharktank to rapper Common. Clearly, Afrotech doesn’t skimp on their speakers, bringing in speakers who are both passionate about African Americans in tech and well known in their field. Event producers are reminded of the difference passionate influencers and partners can make for marketing and brand. Not only can it boost attendance like it does for Afrotech, but it can also seriously improve your brand and lead to incredible new connections for your business.

  1. Excitement over effort

Afrotech understands the power of a good carrot, sticking a wide variety of activities for event-goers to choose to spend their time on. Just about everyone can remember a one-size-fits-all conference where time seems to pass at a snail’s pace, a conference where attendees shuffled from speech to speech en-masse with zero enthusiasm? Yeah, Afrotech is not that kind of conference. Afrotech advertises a diverse array of speakers in radically different sectors, from software to entrepreneurship to artists. Plus it encourages attendee interaction. Who knows, the group of brilliant techies shaking hands exchanging contact info in the corner could turn into the next tech giant. This attendee passion and interaction keeps the atmosphere electric, with attendees never feeling like spectators, always in control of the experience. Not to mention the free swag from company recruiters and the possibility of even snagging an interview at a major tech company. 

Afrotech strives to keep all their attendees engaged at all times, a major leg up in the conference world and an even bigger leg up in ticket sales. Event producers can make like Afrotech by checking in with attendees, providing them with enough choices to make them feel like they’re in control and taken care of.

  1. Incentive and Opportunity

Conferences like AfroTech encourages greater black representation and community in tech, tackling key social and economic issues that don’t get enough discussion in the corporate world. But beyond that, Afrotech offers individual attendees opportunity, a shot at pitching to investors and even big tech recruiters. Amazon, Stripe, Salesforce and other tech companies sent recruiters to the conference, interacting with attendees and actively recruiting black talent. With many companies struggling with pipelines and diverse hiring, conferences like AfroTech are an incredible resource to find diverse and talented individuals to strengthen their teams. But for attendees, the opportunity to network with big tech recruiters is often a big enough reason alone to attend, even without amazing hands-on panels and afterparties.

Afrotech’s networking possibilities can mirror event planners incentivizing event attendance, often with a free gift or one-on-one time with an influencer. For example, the Writer’s Digest Conference in NYC offers attendees the opportunity to pitch to agents, the conference providing both writing workshops and the opportunity to sing a book deal. This sort of opportunity and individual incentive can really mean the difference between good and great sales, and should not be neglected by event producers aiming to sell out tickets.

Photo Sources Cited:

  1. Afrotech. “Afrotech 2017.” Afrotech 2017, Sparxo, https://e.sparxo.com/Afrotech17?rn=instagram.
  2. Afrotech. “Afrotech 2018.” Afrotech 2018, Sparxo, 

https://e.sparxo.com/Afrotech18?rn=instagram.

  1. Afrotech. “Afrotech 2019.” Afrotech 2019, Sparxo, 

https://e.sparxo.com/Afrotech19?rn=instagram.

  1. “Videos – Afrotech.” Videos – Afrotech, Afrotech 2019, https://afrotech.com/videos, https://assets-jpcust.jwpsrv.com/thumbnails/saw4mwfp-720.jpg.
  2. “Experience – Afrotech, Oakland Convention Center.” Experience – Afrotech, Afrotech,

https://experience.afrotech.com/.

 

CHECK OUT OUR OTHER BLOG POST ARTICLES:

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SPARXO MAKES IT EASY TO ADD AN EVENT CALENDAR TO YOUR WEBSITE

LEARN MORE ABOUT YOUR AUDIENCE WITH ATTENDANCE BREAKDOWN

WHERE SHOULD YOU POST YOUR EVENT? EVENTBRITE, MEETUP, OR FACEBOOK?

5 SUREFIRE WAYS TO SELL OUT TICKETS

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A MEATING OF MINDS — HOW THIS COMPANY IS CHANGING THE WAY MEAT IS CONSUMED

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3 WAYS TO BUILD YOUR FOLLOWING

HOW CREATIVE STARTUP LABS COMPLETELY SOLD OUT THEIR SECRET UNDERGROUND POP-UP EVENT USING SPARXO

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QUIZ: WHAT’S YOUR EVENT PLANNER PERSONALITY TYPE?

HOW THE NIGHTWOOD SOCIETY TOOK CONTROL OF THEIR EVENT EXPERIENCE

THE ULTIMATE EVENT PLANNING CHECKLIST

TOP 5 STEPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL POP-UP

HOW TO PLAN A FITNESS EVENT WITH NO MONEY

6 SUPER FUN EVENT IDEAS FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS

NONPROFIT EVENTS: 5 REASONS YOU NEED MOBILE TICKETING

HOW THE HOLLAND DRAG SHOW SOLD OUT EVENT TICKETS DESPITE CRITICAL MAYOR

4 EVENT BRANDING MISTAKES THAT KILL TICKET SALES

HOW TO GET DONATIONS FOR YOUR NON-PROFIT EVENT

DATA SHOWS THESE NON-PROFIT EVENTS RASIE THE MOST MONEY

HOW TO SELL OUT A FITNESS CLASS

How to Sell Out Fitness Classes

1. Slay Sales with Software

Trying to sell tickets to your fitness classes? Your first stop is the web. Duh, you’re online now, aren’t you? And isn’t ‘use social media’ what everyone else preaches these days? Don’t worry, we’ll give you simple, practical steps you can take action on immediately. Right now, you have the potential to access millions of Facebook users, totally free. Invite all your Facebook friends to your class by creating a Facebook Event. Ask your friends to share the class’s Facebook event, and consider reaching out to influencers (especially those you already follow or interact with!) for a share. 

If you have the funds, consider running targeted Facebook advertisements for class. Target people in your area who have attended similar classes, limiting the scope of your ad to appear only to those who are very likely to potential sign up. While Facebook ads take a little bit of capital to run, they’re comparatively much cheaper than most advertising and publicizing freelancers, meaning you’ll get a good bit of bang for your buck. You also get to set the budget of the ad, meaning this is sort of paid advertising is likely more accessible than you think. We also recommend you not only utilize social media like Instagram and Twitter, but we recommend you interact on those platforms, personally liking and responding to comments. Over time this could build relationships that turn into signups.

We also recommend you promote your classes by developing and using a Mailing List. This an excellent way to keep in touch with past attendees, while also pulling new students. Think about it. If you could get everyone who’s ever been to a class with you or your friends, and you could get them coming back, your attendance would be in great shape, right?

An email list is all about establishing a personal relationship with potential attendees. Often, a personal connection makes the difference between attending your class rather than a better-known chain class like Soulcylce or Equinox. A regular, friendly email is a great way to establish this relationship while seriously boosting retention. First, you’ll need to set up a newsletter system with a service like MailChimp is free up to 2,000 contacts and unlimited emails. This will help you craft personalized messages and allow anyone interested in your event to stay up to date. Then, reach out personally to friends and past students who you think may be interested. Then ask them if they’d like to join your email list, for regular updates and potential freebies. Even if they aren’t ready to commit to signing up for your class yet, getting regular emails with class updates could change that, while also spreading awareness.

You should also consider using a free website builder like Weebly or Strikingly to create a landing page for your class, where you can put key info and promotional pictures. A personal site will keep all your information in one place, plus you’ll get more eyes on your brand, a key advantage when selling tickets. This helps your overall SEO. 

But how will you sell class tickets? As a fitness event planner, you’re looking for a free way to sell as many class tickets as possible and keep as much revenue as you can. However, most ticket sales software like Eventbrite or Ticketmaster take huge portions of sales, cost too much, promote competing events, and eclipse your own brand. You can use Sparxo to post your event and sell tickets for your event anywhere, letting you sell tickets directly from your website with no redirects – all for free!

  • Import your guest lists and sales lists from other systems
  • aggregate all of your customer data in one place
  • Keep 100% of your ticket sales
  • White Label, greatly improves SEO and Brand

 

  1. Offer Value Upfront (Freebies!)

Free gets people in the door. Excellent quality of service keeps them coming. As a fitness event planner, a great way to get people into your class is to offer free ‘value’ upfronts. These are things like offering a free trial for a day or giving out branded water bottles. 

You could also stress something valuable they’ll gain in just one day or weak. Will they learn a skill? Become more flexible? Advertise these tangible, upfronts on your events page, and you’re sure to increase class signups.

  1. Partnerships

Leverage platforms like a Class Pass and Dabble get you new users and then convert them into members of your own gym. Using these sites as ‘partners’ will dramatically increase your sales. See, hundreds of thousands of potential attendees are on these websites, already searching for you. Rather than you actively seeking attendees, these platforms will allow you to connect with people actively seeking you, making things much easier. Leads coming from sites like Dabble will convert at much higher rates as you have the ability to screen for specific interests, like fitness and fitness classes. 

Another successful partnership strategy is inviting in influencer or even celebrity teachers. Can you find a fitness influencer in your city to teach a class? You can offer exposure and a stipend in exchange. Guest teachers will not only boost your class’s reputation, but it will draw fans of the guest to your class, improving your visibility and attendance.

Sponsorship could also be a route for your fitness classes. This doesn’t even necessarily have to be monetary sponsorship – a local company providing free health drinks, free fitness mats, or even just their logo could make your event considerably more attractive to attendees.  If you can find a company that will benefit from sponsoring your class, you could greatly enhance your budget for advertisements and form a long-lasting partnership that helps both parties. You’ll want to build a list of potential sponsors, businesses whose customers’ interests align with your class. These would be things like sporting goods stores, energy drink companies, or even clothing lines. Reach out to the companies on your list with a friendly email or call, explaining why this company would benefit from sponsoring your fitness class. These are usually things like increased exposure and brand awareness. You can find a sample event sponsorship request letter here.

  1. Rave Reviews

Great reviews will make a big difference in selling your fitness class. Not only will most potential attendees search for reviews, in 2019 many potential attendees will search for classes on reviews sites. Much of the traffic to your event page will come directly from sites like Yelp and FourSquare, attendees first impression of your class coming from reviews. And you want to make a good first impression, right? 

The key is to have as many high-quality reviews as possible. Create a Yelp page, a FitResever page, a Business.com page – as many review sites as you can. Then reach out to previous attendees of your classes and ask for reviews, as well as offering freebies or a discount for current attendees who write a review. Not only will this boost your visibility, but your credibility as well, which will seriously improve your sales.