Boost Growth in 2025 with These 5 Essential Marketing Rules

The new year marks a good time to look back and review the health of your business, but also to plan for the year ahead.

Next week we'll focus on smart promotions to run in 2025 to bring in as many new leads and members as possible.

But today, I’ll share rock-solid marketing rules to make the new year your best year yet.

Ad platforms and tactics change but sound marketing principles remain no matter the trends or technology.

Apply these rules for more leads, more members, and more revenue.

1. A confused mind doesn’t buy.

Prospects wont convert when they don’t have a clear understanding of the offer and the value they will receive.

Confusion can come in many forms, like too many offers at once, a complicated offer with too many moving parts, or an unorganized website.

I’ve worked with BJJ gyms who had too many pricing options, like unlimited, 3x/week, 2x/week, plus punch cards. This made for complicated pricing, billing, and an award sales pitch.

We slimmed it down to one pricing offer with incentives for longer commitments.

I’ve also worked with gyms who made complicated front end offers, like 30 day challenges with specific requirements to get your money back and a 2 week trial period included in the 30 days.

It was clunky, so we cut it to a simple 30 day challenge that tied the benefits directly to the challenge.

Make your pricing, offers, and website simple and easy to understand.

2. Sell the benefits, not the features.

This is a huge mistake that many businesses make. Prospects are coming to you to receive value, and that should be the backbone of your messaging and advertising.

Benefits are the value, features are the things that help deliver that value.

The benefits of jiu-jitsu are fitness, confidence, and community. The features are the huge mat space, the extensive schedule, and the 3x world champion black belt instructor.

Too often BJJ gyms sell the features, while people are more interested in what value their gym is going to deliver.

Remember this in your social and sales copy, and your landing pages.

3. Speed to lead.

Simply put, respond to your leads ASAP. The motivation to try your gym is highest the moment a lead submits a form or calls your gym.

You must capitalize on that by responding as fast as possible. 

The longer the lead has to search for other gyms, think about trying BJJ, and compare options, like another martial arts or fitness method, the less likely they are to respond or come in to your gym.

Try to respond to your leads within 30 minutes, if not sooner.

There is software that will calculate your average response time, but the best method is to respond instantly. 

The same concept goes for getting leads in the door. If you do make contact, schedule them as soon as possible to try a class.

The longer you delay, the less likely they convert.

4. Retention matters more than new leads.

There is a common misconception by gym owners that new leads are the key to business success. While leads are certainly important, there is nothing more important than people who are actually giving your business money to operate.

You should track your retention rate like a hawk.

Every lost member means lost money in 2 ways - first, their monthly dues, second, the ad costs to replace them. 

Growth starts with keeping what you have.

Do everything you can to improve your product so people want to stay as long as possible.

5. The data doesn’t lie, know your numbers.

The best advice I ever got from a manager was when I worked as the Content Marketer at Flo Grappling. He told me the “data doesn’t lie” and to always back up my beliefs and instincts with the numbers.

The same goes for any business.

Without knowing your numbers you may think your gym is humming along fine, but in reality, you’ve been slowly bleeding members, leads, or revenue without realizing it.

Was the dip just seasonality, a one-time thing, or is it a trend that tells a bigger story?

All businesses come down to numbers.

Know yours and review them daily.

Final Thoughts

The new year marks a fresh start and a great time to refocus on your gym.

These are just a few marketing principles to apply in 2025 for more business success. 

They also cover the most important parts of any business - marketing, sales and retention. 

If you commit to these rules, the most important parts of growing a sustainable business are covered.

These are the exact rules that have helped me grow dozens of BJJ gyms in wildly different markets.

If you need help growing yours this year, book a call.