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

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.