You know that content marketing is crucial for your gym to survive and thrive. But what content ideas for your gym marketing strategy are best? 

Engaging Content Ideas to Captivate Active Agers

It’s crucial to have content ideas for your gym marketing strategy. When you have a good strategy, you can almost put it on auto-pilot to attract your target audience through blogs, social media, emails, newsletters, and more. This helps you to promote your gym or fitness club to reach out to new customers and retain members.

To achieve maximum impact, your content must be relevant, original, useful, and engaging. This is especially true when you are marketing to active agers. They don’t want material for 20-somethings, and they can smell BS a mile away.

So, the question now is, what content ideas will keep your active aging audience engaged and involved?

Three steps to create content ideas for your gym marketing strategy

Many gym owners get stuck when it comes to creating content for marketing. It’s not your specialty, and if you don’t know the ropes it can be more difficult than completing a one-arm push-up with your partner balancing on your back.

Taking a systematic approach, the creation of content ideas can be described in three steps:

Step #1: Outline your goals and objectives

One of the most important things you need to do in your marketing strategy is to understand your goals and objectives. Once you know what you want your marketing strategy to achieve, then you can plan accordingly.

Elements to consider when defining your goals include:

• Budget

How much money do I have for this marketing campaign? 

• Target audience

What are my target markets? Who am I trying to reach? Okay, if you aren’t reaching out to active agers, you’re ignoring a huge opportunity.

• Competitors

What are other companies in this industry doing for their marketing strategy? Who are they marketing to? (I’ll give you a clue here: the active ager market is the most underserved market in the fitness club and gym industry.)

• Objectives

It’s important to set goals and objectives before you start content marketing. Ultimately, the goal of the marketing strategy is to increase gym membership. Therefore, the objectives of your marketing should include to:

• Increase awareness about fitness and health benefits of going to the gym
• Attract new clients
• Generate referrals from current members
• Get more people into a healthier lifestyle

Step #2: Know your target audience and what matters most to them

One of the most important aspects is knowing what matters to your target audience. This will then help you identify what kinds of messages they are most likely to respond to. It’s the starting point for creating a successful marketing strategy.

In my last article, ‘Gym Marketing Ideas – Know Your Ideal Customer Profile’, I discussed the customer profile of active agers, highlighting a few characteristics that will help you in step three:

• They don’t feel they have achieved all they can
• They want to spend time with their family and friends
• They are likely to live longer with more money to spend
• They are more concerned about their health than ever before

Step #3: Develop content that’s relevant, original, useful, and engaging

To attract and retain active agers, you need to create relevant, original, useful, and engaging content.

The challenge with marketing to this demographic is that they are not always interested in the same things that the ‘traditional’ (young) gym member is. Relevancy and originality are key for this audience. 

Create content that’s never been seen by your target audience before, and make it informative and written in a way that appeals. You should also be sure your content is fresh, so your audience always feels like they’re getting something new on each visit.

Remember, people over 50 have varied interests — but those interests generaly don’t include getting “beach body ready” or losing weight after pregnancy.

Four content themes that resonate with active agers

Okay, so let’s get to the business end of this article. What type of content should you be creating and publishing for your active aging audience?

There are four broad content ideas for your gym marketing strategy that really resonate with this demographic:

1. Healthy lifestyle 

Healthy lifestyle content promotes wellness and healthy living, like meditation, mindfulness, exercise, daily routines, and diet.

2. Healthy eating recipes

Obesity is an issue for around 40% of those in the active aging demographic. Eating right takes a little more care. So it’s no surprise that some of the most popular content for active agers is healthy eating recipes.

3. Active lifestyle

As active agers mature, they might notice new challenges like arthritis, muscle deterioration, or diminishing hearing or vision. 

Active lifestyle content can be very motivational. It can also be educational and informative. It should provide perspective about how staying fit helps you lead the active life you want for as long as possible.

Active agers want to enjoy their lives. They want to make the most of their grandchildren, and their time with friends, family, hobbies and sports.

4. ‘Bucket list’ content

As people age, you’ll find their priorities change. Their house is paid for. Their children have grown and flown. They aren’t working as hard as they used to. People in their 50s and older are more likely to have a bucket list (and act on it). Their life isn’t done yet, and they intend to make the most of it.

Learn what it is that active agers are most keen to do. You’ll find that this includes travel, learning new skills, and taking up new hobbies.

Avoid the mistake that most gyms make with content for their gym marketing strategy

The major mistake that gym owners make in their content marketing to active agers is focusing on the gym rather than what the audience really wants. You won’t engage your audience by going all out on selling. 

Instead, focus on the needs and wants of active agers. Show that you understand them, and provide content that is not only informative but also entertaining. Use language that is pertinent, not patronizing. 

Show how more exercise and time in the gym can help them achieve their aim – to live their life to its fullest – but keep your content firmly focused on the hero of each story. That hero isn’t you; it’s the reader.

As a fitness business owner, you understand how exercise can be rewarding for our brains as well as our bodies. Studies show that when people exercise, they release endorphins (natural feel-good chemicals) which make them feel happier, less stressed, more confident, and more motivated. Great content can do the same.

Each slice of your content can promote the benefits of staying healthy. It has the potential to build trust through storytelling. It can prompt people to want to learn more. In short, it can make them feel good, and motivate them to remain healthy – and guess who they will turn to for the help and advice they need?

Yep, that’s right. The fitness business that gave them motivation through its content marketing.