How To Turn Email Marketing Into Real Revenue

You already know that marketing is essential, but only some marketing tactics are keepers. Every studio is unique; what works for one studio may not always work for another. But there is one exception—and that is email marketing. 

Email marketing is the one tool I recommend every studio owner keep in their marketing toolkit for a very simple reason: it works! Email marketing delivers the best return on investment of any other marketing tactic. Period. Research shows that email marketing delivers a hefty 3600% ROI (yes,  you read that right!). 

This is partially because the people you send emails to have chosen to be on your list. They already qualify as a lead and want to hear from your business. Leverage this to inform, educate and inspire, and your studio will see the benefits!

No matter a studio's size, client base, location, or movement method, implementing smart and intentional email marketing campaigns is supportive of growth.

Here are the answers to all your burning questions about how to optimize your email marketing:

1. How Often Should I Send An Email?

‍If you want to build relationships with potential new clients and engage current clients, then it’s time to make creating regular email campaigns a priority! If you send random emails once in a while, your subscribers won’t know what to expect from your business and will come to see you as unreliable. Not a good look! Sometimes, they may even forget who you are. Marketing is all about building relationships with both current and potential clients. And email is a great tool to nurture all the relationships you’ve already established.

A question many studio owners ask is, “how often should I send emails?” How regular is regular enough? The answer is simple—it’s about consistently sending out emails on a cadence that works well for your business versus sending a particular number each week or each month. That being said, aiming for an email a week is a solid target to stay top of mind and build brand awareness.

2. What Should My Emails Say?

‍Your overall goal in email marketing is to connect with the people on your list in a meaningful way. Yes, you need to promote particular programs and sell your services via your email list, but try to avoid selling in every email you send. The 80/20 rule is a great guideline here.

Aim to have 80% of your content be useful information, educational tips, insight into your studio, and other value-added communications. The remaining 20% should be directly tied to revenue generation. Inviting your readers into memberships and services, enrolling in challenges, or promoting special offers via a direct call-to-action.

Here are a few best practices to keep in mind:

• Write clear and compelling subject lines. This is how you get your emails actually read!
• KISS: Keep it short and sweet. No life story here!
• Pick one thing to promote—and one single call to action (CTA).
• Note: you can place several CTA links inside the email, but they should all go to the same place or be promoting the same thing.

3. How Can I Avoid Spending Hours On My Email Marketing?

‍Email marketing campaigns reach peak effectiveness when your business sends the right message to the right person at the right time. Seems obvious, right? However, we all know that it’s impossible to keep up with this level of targeted communication without some support. Thankfully, your studio management software can help! Through integrations or built-in email marketing functionality, your studio management software can help you get the most out of your email marketing. 

Recent research from HubSpot shows that the three most effective strategies for email marketing campaigns include:

• Subscriber segmentation
• Message personalization
• Email automation

How would these apply to your studio business? These functions help you send the right message to the right person at the right time. They make it possible to send a welcome series to clients who just joined, win back emails to clients who haven’t been in the studio for a while, and nurture emails to those who are regulars. 

And best of all? Once you have it all set up, those email campaigns will fire on their own without you having to even think about it - doing all the heavy lifting for you. This saves you a tremendous amount of time, expense, and energy so you can focus on what you love to do! Win-Win!

4. How Do I Know If It’s Working?

‍The answer is always in the numbers, so check the data! Analytics are an essential component of your email marketing campaign. Those numbers give you valuable information that will guide your activities moving forward.

Take a look at how many people you have on your list. How many of them are opening the emails you send? And how many are clicking links in your emails? What is the average amount of people that unsubscribe each month? You can use these numbers to begin testing different email strategies. As you check each strategy, look at how these numbers are affected. You will start seeing positive or negative patterns that can help you understand what works best for the people on your list. If you see more engagement and lower unsubscribes, then you know that strategy is a keeper!

Marketing can be time-consuming and expensive, so it’s vital that you implement only those activities that drive revenue inside your fitness studio business. Email marketing delivers real results, and I see this first-hand amongst the most successful studios in the industry. 

Follow these email marketing tips to keep your studio top of mind with your clients and potential clients, position yourself as the expert, and ultimately, boost revenue growth! Remember, the people on your list gave you their email because they want to hear from you. It’s a golden ticket to increasing revenue and creating lasting relationships with clients.