Q&A with Anytime Fitness Multi-Franchise Owners Jess

Jessica Peake owns and operates multiple Anytime Fitness locations across Australia, growing them to the thriving businesses they are today. Having worked with her over the past few years, we chat to her about what makes a successful franchise and how marketing plays an important role in growing her businesses.

How did you get started in the fitness industry?

I found my passion for fitness when I was 16. I absolutely loved learning about the body, nutrition and loved everything fitness related. As soon as I left school I followed my passion and became a personal trainer. I was lucky enough to work with some of the best Personal Trainers in New Zealand. I’ve now been in the fitness industry for 17 years and still love it just as much.

Recently, one of your clubs came 2nd in the country for generating the most amount of prospects and sales within the Anytime network. What were the key factors that led you to this achievement?

One of the major keys to our success is that we are always marketing. Some offers are better than others but we are always out there marketing the brand. Since taking over our newest club 12-months ago it has been in the top 10% in the country for sales and leads. The team running the club is the same, we have just added strong marketing to get this result.

Why do you believe digital marketing is so important for your gyms, and what results have you seen with digital marketing?

In this day and age we are always on our phones. I believe you need to be seen on the platforms your customers hang out on. Which is obviously Facebook, Instagram and Google. We have seen a massive increase in sales and leads by adding digital marketing.

The fitness market has seen exponential growth in competition over the years. What practical steps do you take to stand out?

As I mentioned earlier, you need to be in your customers' awareness all the time. Your future customers may not be ready to start today. But if you are front of mind, you’re the person they are going to when they are ready to make that decision to get started.

What is your advice for other franchisees who may be struggling with their digital marketing?

If you are not an expert at digital marketing give it to an agency. As a business owner you need to focus on your strengths. So unless digital marking is your strength… give it to someone else to do.

Throughout COVID-19, you kept advertising online despite your doors being shut. What motivated you to do this, and what benefits did you see on the other side?

We were very active on social media during lockdown. Our team still turned up to work with the mission of connection. We normally connect with members face to face. But now our team had to turn to social media and phone calls. Every day they were connecting with members and potential members to keep everyone in our ecosystem. We still had a small marketing budget to keep our brand awareness up. I feel this helped us with sales when we re-opened.

What’s next for you?

We have a few more gyms in the pipeline, but my next chapter is starting my family. It will be a change of gear for me as I am such a workaholic haha. But I am very excited about the next chapter!