Small Gym Help!

[SJUcheer_2015]

I'm coaching for a team that turns 3 in March! It started out prep and now is going to be both prep and full next season. However in an effort to make the gym continue to grow we need some good marketing strategies. Although we have come up with some I just wanted to exhaust all resources. If anyone has ideas on how to promote a fairly new and small program please help!

 

[Sandie P H]

I suggest sponsoring events at your gym, such as stunting classes for high school and jr high school kids, open gym time for all ages (good on Friday evenings... sell pizza and drinks too) or go outside your gym out in your community and sponsor a fun run or something that makes you money and gives you a presence in your community. Use all the social media avenues to make your gym a household name. Work with your local chamber of commerce... offer your gym as a location for a chamber meet n greet, set up a booth at the next chamber-sponsored community event. Encourage your current athletes to bring a friend to practice on a specific day and plan some special activities. There are tons of possible marketing strategies out there! Good luck.

 

[tumbleyoda]

Inbox me and I can put some people in touch with you that work specifically with small gyms and marketing.

 

[AngelsMum24]

I'm coaching for a team that turns 3 in March! It started out prep and now is going to be both prep and full next season. However in an effort to make the gym continue to grow we need some good marketing strategies. Although we have come up with some I just wanted to exhaust all resources. If anyone has ideas on how to promote a fairly new and small program please help!

Parades and community festivals - get out there and get seen! Pass out free trial passes (with an expiration date to keep track of their effectiveness).

Talk with your local pizzerias and ask if you can attach a flyer to the top of their delivery boxes to advertise classes, a free trial, or special clinics.

 

[caitlyn_the_camille]

Appeal to the school cheerleaders in every way you can. They make a big difference. We offered tryout prep clinics/classes, and even tumbling classes exclusive for middle school and junior high teams that we let the coach oversee. If you do that though, remind the coach who is in charge in your gym Bc we had boundary issues in the past.
Another cool thing is to offer "toddler" classes (if you can handle that; it can get rough honestly). We did a class before school got out for the big kids and it made the babies (and their parents, who you can invite to join in and make it a "mommy and me" class) feel very special to get to use the big floor.
Also, have "bring a friend" practices. Everyone on the team brings a friend and they get to play around in the gym and see how a practice is run. Maybe even offer an incentive for the current members to get new girls there. (Our gym actually offers a small discount off your monthly bill if someone new registers using your name.)
Lastly, and this one seems obvious, but we did a summer day camp that we advertised for almost solely through social media and made a lot of money and got many new girls (one of which ended up having to step in on one of our teams at the start of the season due to injury; you never know who will walk in your door!)
Good luck to you! I know all about the small gym struggle, but it sounds like you know what you're doing!

 

[JCAcheermom]

our current gym is in its second season. My daughters J2 squad had 8 girls last year. Our tiny squad had 6, and our youth 1 had 13. Being a small gym is hard! This year is looking better though. I love all of these ideas!

 

[CheerGirl13]

Make friends with local high school coaches. Work out a way for kids to do both :)

 

[Roni]

Hi, so I come from a small gym according to american standerds, but german wise we are average. Since cheerleading is a very unknown sport in Germany we also have struggles. What my gym does to put ourselves out there is, we host an open gym every year, we have a facebook page and we update it reguraly (then our coaches aksed us invite all our friends to like it), we also have performances at local american football games and basketball games and pretty much anywhere we can get one. We also have parents who work for the newspaper that is always a helpful advantage, so if you can get an artikal in or maybe even two that could help all lot. These are just some things we do, but as a teenager I can't even begin to describe the type of platform you can build with social media and it's always a good place to start. Hope this helps :)

 

[Heather Fox]

Sadly, my small gym didn't make it