Marketing campaigns constitute a significant element in any business’s development and promotion. Whether a company has only opened or has existed for several years or decades, it is crucial to keep potential customers aware of its services and products. As for the effect on current customers, marketing campaigns allow them to find out what is new and what benefits they can obtain for their loyalty. In the past decades, the most popular types of promoting one’s business included TV and radio advertisements and print ads. However, with the rapid technological development and the ample opportunities offered by social media, these means have become the most popular both with entrepreneurs and customers.
Company Background
Bad Hombre Elite Fitness is the company covering all the ‘fitness as a sport’ needs of its clients. The gym specializes in powerlifting, CrossFit, functional bodybuilding, and military athlete needs. The company has opened recently, so it needs to increase its client base by making people aware of the services it has to offer. There are three large gyms with new equipment, two shower rooms, lockers, and an administrator’s stand. There is no division into male and female rooms: everyone can use the equipment they need and do the exercises their program involves. Bad Hombre Elite Fitness employs seven highly professional trainers who have won in national and international competitions on bodybuilding and powerlifting.
The location of the gym is not the most convenient one since the closest subway is two kilometers away, and there is no free parking. However, taking into consideration the unique training opportunities and the possibility of professional development in sports, it is expected that customers will not allow these obstacles to interfere with their passion for sport. Bad Hombre Elite Fitness is open every day from 8.30 a.m. till 11 p.m., which is highly convenient for people working on different schedules and those who have to commute from different parts of the city.
The Target Audience
Taking into consideration the services offered by Bad Hombre Elite Fitness, the target audience can be described as follows. First of all, these are people aged between twenty and fifty who are pursuing a career in sports or have retired from one but want to keep themselves in good shape. No students or girls who love taking selfies in the gym mirror will find this place suitable for their needs. The target audience is composed of determined and strong-willed individuals who are not afraid of difficulties and cannot imagine their lives without keeping their bodies in great shape. Both men and women belong to the target population group.
Typically, these are people working in the sphere of military or sport. However, the target audience may also include individuals who have retired or changed their profession but still want to continue working on their physical condition. These are people who respect others, do not engage in unnecessary small talk, and spend most of their gym time working out rather than spending time exchanging news or taking photographs.
Marketing Campaign Goals
The marketing campaign pursues two major aims: increasing the awareness of people about the sports center and raising the number of individuals joining the gym. These two goals are closely interrelated, the second being in direct dependence on the first. By making more people aware of Bad Hombre Elite Fitness, it will become possible to expand the number of services offered. The more people know about the center, the more diverse opportunities will appear. Additionally, in the long run, it will be possible to open one or several more gyms, making it a chain.
Increasing the number of members has a direct positive impact on the company’s financial development. The more members the fitness center has, the less time it will be non-engaged. Eventually, it may even become possible to decrease prices if more and more customers pay their fees, which will cover the rent and facility bills. Additionally, with more clients, it will be easier to promote the center’s activities, hire more specialists, and purchase more equipment.
Ways of Reaching Out to the Target Audience
The most productive way of reaching out to the target audience in the present-day fast-paced environment is social media marketing (SMM). This type of marketing is favored by many businesses due to the excellent communication opportunities it offers (Felix, Rauschnabel, & Hinsch, 2017). The number of social media networks is increasing all the time, so the possibilities to contact the necessary audience become more numerous every day. SMM incorporates such crucial factors as social and functional value, referrals and recommendations, and social trust (Algharabat, Rana, Alalwan, & Baabdullah, 2020). With the help of SMM, business owners can learn about their potential customers’ interests and offer them the services or products that they need or might be interested in trying.
The following ways of reaching out to the target audience are the most suitable for Bad Hombre Elite Fitness:
- Creating Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages (for sharing data and updates, publishing photographs, reporting about achievements, and introducing new services);
- Asking people to participate in surveys aimed at finding out their opinions about the company’s service and their suggestions on its improvement;
- Participating in blogs and forums for bodybuilders, military athletes, and other professional sportspeople (Quesenberry, 2019) (for engaging in a conversation with them and increasing their awareness of training opportunities offered by Bad Hombre Elite Fitness);
- A combination of SMM and traditional advertising: attaching leaflets/adverts with the information about the center to professional magazines on military sports and bodybuilding (to reach out to those individuals who prefer traditional means of communication but still are interested in working out).
Evaluating the Marketing Campaign’s Success
Within six months since the implementation of the marketing campaign, it will be necessary to perform the assessment of its success. The first measure of evaluation will be the number of regular and irregular members of the gym. If the number of regular attendees increases by 40-50%, and the number of irregular attendees increases by 60-70%, the program may be considered as successful. The second evaluation means will be the number of people following social network pages belonging to the company. The expected number of subscribers to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages is 10,000 users. Finally, it will also be possible to compare the profit of the company before and after the marketing campaign. If it increases by 30% within the first six months, the company will be viewed as having had a beneficial impact.
Conclusion
Marketing campaigns constitute an integrated part of any modern business. Without appropriately arranged advertising, entrepreneurs cannot reach out to the target audience and encourage people to buy their products or services. The suggested campaign aims at increasing the awareness of people about Bad Hombre Elite Fitness, as well as encouraging more individuals to join the sports center. With the most innovative SMM approaches, it will become possible to bring the gym’s popularity and success to an entirely new level.
References
Algharabat, R. S., Rana, N. P., Alalwan, A. A., & Baabdullah, A. M. (2020). Investigating the impact of social media commerce constructs on social trust and customer value co-creation: A theoretical analysis. In N. P. Rana et al. (Eds.), Digital and social media marketing: Emerging applications and theoretical development (pp. 41-55). Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
Felix, R., Rauschnabel, P. A., & Hinsch, C. (2017). Elements of strategic social media marketing: A holistic framework. Journal of Business Research, 70, 118–126. Web.
Quesenberry, K. A. (2019). Social media strategy: Marketing, advertising, and public relations in the consumer revolution (2nd ed.). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.