Exploring the Industry

The Fitness industry is made up of a very wide spectrum of businesses, and many have a measure of overlap into other commercial sectors. Some of the main fitness business categories include:


There are a number of fitness businesses only present within the commercial sector, such as athletic machine suppliers, climbing wall suppliers, shoes and gym equipment distributors, specialized clubs and the full service health clubs. Martial arts can also be categorized within the sports sector, while hot tubs and spas also belong in the home improvement category and alternative medicine suppliers could be termed pharmaceutical. Weight loss consulting deals primarily with dieting, while nutritional consulting can also be seen as a service for the malnourished or undernourished. Yoga is also contained within the fitness industry and completely outside of it, as yoga can be categorized as a religious or faith-based pursuit.

Some fitness categories better lend themselves to the implementation of an email marketing newsletter campaign better than others. Fitness businesses that deal in bicycling, camps, hot tubs and spas as well as massage appeal to a horizontal demographic, as the audience for services like purchasing a Jacuzzi hot tub spa or getting a massage is universal. However, fitness businesses dealing more with audience-specific topics, such as personal trainers, yoga and Pilates, martial arts, as well as specialized aerobics, sports and weightlifting clubs, are targeting a more vertical demographic. Only very specific individuals are interested in personal training, or wish to learn and practice the dynamics of martial arts or weightlifting.

Even within the vertical categories, an understanding of customer profiles must be gained to properly configure email newsletter campaigns for ultimate success. For example, wellness consulting and wellness product suppliers may not necessarily appeal to all individuals interested in conventional physical fitness. Similarly, alternative medicine suppliers do not necessarily only appeal to physically fit individuals. Boot camps can cater to people who wish to become more physically fit, or they may be set up to provide drug and alcohol rehab services, or even instill discipline among young offenders to keep them from committing more crimes.

Fine tuning an email marketing campaign to the specific readership is a keystone of success for any fitness business: everyone wears shoes, but not everyone is in the market for an expensive specialized training shoe or basketball shoe. Therefore, it is imperative for every fitness business owner or manager to segment their audience into sections and then approach each group with offerings specifically designed to appeal to them. Pitching the wrong product at a segment is not only a waste of time and effort, it can alienate the subscriber to your email campaign when it seems missives are missing vital engagement through relevance - which is at the heart of every successful online promotional strategy. Once you understand your customer profiles, then you can launch a targeted marketing campaign.

So how can fitness business managers and owners obtain new email addresses in the first place? Some of the locations where fitness businesses historically gather email addresses include:


Each email address needs to be collected in conjunction with explicit permission from the prospect to be placed on your email subscription list. As long as you collect subscribers ethically and legally, your list will continue to grow and provide new opportunities for critical segmentation, which in turn will drive sales, memberships and overall profitability.