In our 2025 annual plan, we recommend gym owners audit their marketing funnels.
As a fitness entrepreneur you need a steady flow of leads, and you can generate them by operating up to four marketing funnels at once.
I say “up to” because it’s better to create and operate one A+ funnel than four D- funnels. Once you get one funnel running well, add more—but don’t let any of them break down. That’s where the audit comes in.
Here are the funnels that support a great gym business:
Top gym owners:
- Feed the funnels every single day, even if it’s just for 30 minutes.
- Track how well their funnels are working.
- Fix leaks, remove clogs and optimize their funnels.
The last part is uncommon. It’s easy to set up a funnel and ignore it. That’s when a broken URL sends all your leads to an error page and your lead flow dries up.
In our “Essential 12-Month Gym-Building Plan for 2025”—get it here—we recommend gym owners audit their marketing funnels in January.
Two-Brain clients have access to a gigantic pile of resources to optimize their funnels, but I’ll give you the high-speed overview here.
Track Your Metrics
First, it’s important to determine where people are dropping out of any funnel. Like this:
- Is your funnel producing leads?
- Are leads booking appointments?
- Are they showing up for them?
- Are they buying something?
Now, I’ll give you a quick point of focus for each of the four funnels.
Referrals Funnel
Key Question: Do you know exactly when and how you will ask clients for referrals?
Two-Brain clients use the Prescriptive Model with clients, and happy members are asked for referrals during Goal Review Sessions that occur every 90 days.
If you are waiting for referrals or just randomly—and perhaps awkwardly—asking for them, your referrals funnel is not optimized.
Social Media Funnel
Key Question: Are you telling people what to do next and engaging members of your audience?
Your social-media platforms should not be art projects or “look at me!” thirst traps that boost your ego. If you’re trying to optimize your social-media funnel, you need to tell people who see your posts how to take the next step. Like this: “Want to talk about getting strong in 2025? Send me a DM!”
As with the referrals funnel, you can’t wait here, either. You should be reaching out to the people who like your posts, comment on your content and follow your accounts. Like this: “Thx for following! What are your fitness goals right now?”
If you post and walk, leads won’t flow through your social funnel and into your gym.
Content Funnel
Key Question: Are you publishing content regularly?
Most content funnels are killed by sporadic attention. If you publish three blogs, podcasts or videos one week and then nothing for the rest of the month, you’re starting conversations and then walking away. You need to keep the dialogue going to build trust and establish expertise.
What should you produce? When in doubt, tell stories about your clients.
Remember, quantity is more important than quality. Publish regularly! (Two-Brain clients: Be sure to use the massive pile of done-for-you resources in the Content Vault to make publishing a breeze.)
Paid Ads
Key Question: Are you tracking your metrics?
Paid ads can be complicated. Are you getting leads? Are you spending too much? Are you generating front-end revenue? What about recurring revenue?
If you track your metrics—we have courses and spreadsheets—you’ll always know if your ads are “working.” For example, a gym owner who doesn’t track metrics might turn off ads if it costs $100 to acquire a client. A gym owner who tracks metrics wouldn’t bat an eye at that cost if their lifetime client value is $2,500.
In the ad world, you’re flying blind if you don’t have data.
Got a Plan for 2025?
Auditing your funnels will produce measurable results.
Example: We’ve seen great ad campaigns derailed by broken links. Interested people clicked on an engaging ad in hopes of getting help with their goals but instead got a 404 page. When the link was fixed, leads starting booking appointments and buying memberships.
Funnel audits can produce huge ROI.
This is just one critical task in my new ebook “The Essential 12-Month Gym-Building Plan for 2025.”
If you’re a Two-Brain client, your mentor is already deep into an annual plan for your unique business. But if you don’t work with us yet, I still want to help. Send me a DM on Facebook to request my new guide or head to gymownersunited.com to find out more.
