As is the case in the Internet Age, a good-looking and effective website will need to be up and ready to attract customers. A poor website, full of spelling errors and confusing in its message, can do more to turn customers off of the gym than almost anything else, initially. Once we realize that, the important role a site can play should then become obvious.

What is meant by the words "effective website?" Well, it first should be optimized for smooth performance. Optimization, in Internet language, means that the site is easy for Web search engines to find, and also for customers to find, for starters. Remember, there are a ton of gyms out in the world, all competing for business. So, then: It just makes sense to make the website easy to navigate around and free of mechanical problems. Ask someone who knows about optimization to look it over, at least when first starting out.

After the site's been optimized, begin posting good fitness-related articles to it and also to several of the big Internet article directories. Article writing and posting can be a good way to attract visits to the site and to the real gym, if done properly. Just get someone who knows how to write and submit them, if unsure of how this works.

All of marketing is a conceptual activity, so gyms should figure out its own well-defined marketing campaign and what its targets are. In the case, it's usually people who want to get fit, so look at Internet and traditional advertising as ways to market the gym mission (getting and keeping people in shape) to the masses. Costs for Internet-related activities are generally lower in comparison to newspaper ads and the like, so keep that in mind. Emailings also work well. Attach something valuable to the email (a list can be bought from an email list seller), though. Free reports are always a good item, and they help increase receptivity to a sales pitch later in the email.

Successful gyms are noted for also including real-world items like flyers and brochures in their arsenal of marketing activities. And business cards can be liberally spread around, too. All of these components of the campaign help to increase the recognition factor, as do complimentary visit coupons sent out in mass postal mailings.

All of the above items, though, need to be professional in content and in looks. They also need to address the personal concerns people have about their fitness and what the gym will do to help them correct those concerns. And a gym should examine on a regular basis what their campaigns are doing and what needs to be done to improve them.

Processes for the marketing of gyms combines the best of the Internet and the traditional forms of marketing to create an effective campaign centered on the gym's mission.