5 Tips to Protect Your Affiliate Gym Brandb

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As an affiliate gym owner, you work hard to establish and maintain your brand. Even with such effort, sometimes it’s the little things that damage brands and cause businesses to lose their edge. With that in mind, let’s explore these five tips to help protect your affiliate gym’s brand. 

Be Positive

Your athletes are always listening to you and your staff, even when you don’t think they are. For that reason, it is never appropriate to gossip or speak negatively about your athletes, coaches, staff members or competition. While this sounds like common sense, it’s all too easy to forget it. We’ve all been in a business and overheard an irritated employee speaking poorly of a colleague or customer, and when it happens, it leaves a lasting negative impression. Things will go wrong, but how you and your staff respond to those challenges truly matters. Your athletes will feed off of your energy, whether it’s good or bad.

Be Intentional with Discounting

As we’ve highlighted year after year in our Benchmark Report, successful affiliate gyms charge what they are worth. This doesn’t mean they don’t discount at all, but they are certainly intentional about discounting and generally charge a premium price. Discounts impact your revenue but may also devalue your brand by sending a message that your services are only worth the discounted amount. Moreover, by offering frequent discounts, you’re training your athletes to wait for a discount before buying. Eventually, fewer and fewer athletes will want to pay full price for their membership. Remember, your members remain loyal because of the results you generate and the community you’ve built, not the discounts or deals you offer.

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Maintain a Professional Environment

It’s easy to become comfortable in a space and become too casual to the point it could become unprofessional. Examples of this are when coaches eat on the gym floor, or when your coaches are on their phones instead of working with athletes. Keep it professional while also staying true to yourself and the gym’s culture. For affiliates like Backcountry Crossfit membership software is important to keep things running smoothly and professionally.

Keep Private Business Information Private

The best affiliate gyms have communities that feel like a family. For that reason, it’s often easy to blur the lines between friends and paying customers. Sure, some of your athletes will genuinely be your friends inside and outside of the gym. But it’s usually a good policy to limit detailed conversations about your business finances. Venting about your overhead costs or talking about your profits with your athletes is a quick way to decrease credibility. Unless they are involved in the business side of things, it is best practice to not reveal too much about the state of your affiliate gym business, good or bad.

Use Consistent Graphics and Messaging

Lastly, it’s essential to be strategic with your marketing creative and messaging. While falling short on this one won’t impact your community or athlete experience necessarily, it will hinder brand recognition and lead generation. But, if you maintain consistent graphics and messaging, you’ll drive increased awareness and convert leads quicker simply by giving people something to associate your brand with.

Your brand is what people think of your affiliate gym. So, it’s critical that you protect it by maintaining professionalism, limiting discounts and using the right creative and messaging.


Learn how the top affiliate gyms protect their brand.
Download the Affiliate Gym Benchmark Report today.

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About the Author: Kelli Sweeting

I'm Coach Kelli, a devoted CrossFit gym owner with 15 years of experience managing my facility, along with owning yoga studios and wellness centers. Beyond the fitness world, I have a passion for cooking, cherish moments with my children and family, and find joy in spending time outside. Having experienced the highs and lows, I'm dedicated to leveraging my expertise to help you grow and succeed on your fitness journey.