Scale Your Fitness Franchise with Hyperlocal Marketing
Partnership
Sponsored By JL Marketing
JL Marketing swaps cookie-cutter campaigns for community-centric, data-driven storytelling
Scaling a fitness franchise isn’t just about opening new doors; it’s about opening the right ones, in the right neighborhoods, with the right message. That’s where JL Marketing comes in.
Founded by longtime industry entrepreneur Justin Lyons, JL Marketing is a boutique agency helping fitness and wellness franchises grow by going hyperlocal. Rather than pushing templated campaigns, relying on AI ad copy and imagery, or automated ad systems that treat every location the same, JL builds tailored, community-centric strategies for each individual location because that’s where the real growth happens.
It’s a strategy grounded in experience.
Lyons’ journey in the fitness industry began over a decade ago on a Crunch Fitness project. At the time, a multi-location franchise owner was spending $20K a month on print flyers. “I asked how they were tracking the results (ROI), and no one really knew,” he says.
So, he tracked it himself. The outcome?
“Less than three of those flyers made it into the facility. I said, ‘let’s try putting some of that budget toward digital ads in the local market.’”
That digital campaign sold 130 memberships in one month. It was proof that a sharper, personalized, localized digital approach worked. “From there, the concept grew,” says Lyons. “I started a company and then partnered with other franchise owners, then Xponential Fitness, focusing on Club Pilates first and eventually venturing into CycleBar, YogaSix, StretchLab, Lindora and the other XPO brands. From there, we were introduced to F45 Training, Alpha Fit Club, Bodyrok, BODYBAR Pilates, Shoot 360, barre3, and more. Today, JL supports hundreds of fitness and wellness franchisees nationwide across 50+ brands and has worked with thousands of individual locations across the U.S. and internationally.
Location, Location, Location
JL Marketing’s localized philosophy underpins every client engagement. Even for large enterprise businesses, instead of executing brand-wide campaigns that he says can “flatten nuance,” JL Marketing takes the time to onboard each franchise location individually — treating it like a standalone business with its own identity, challenges, competition and community context.
That means developing ad creative and messaging tailored specifically to the market. A Club Pilates location next to a popular pickleball complex in one city might get a completely different strategy than one tucked into an upscale retail district. “We can run a campaign for F45 Training that looks totally different in New York than it does in Detroit or Kansas,” Lyons explains.
This hyperlocal focus is more than aesthetic; it’s sound strategy. “We find that most facilities’ biggest hindrance to growth is that they don’t have direction around who they’re going after,” says Lyons. “Maybe their niche isn’t defined enough, or they haven’t truly understood their market demographics. That lack of clarity makes it hard to grow.”
Obsessive Service
The JL team obsesses over helping clients solve that challenge. They work to uncover each location’s unique value proposition and understand the neighborhood’s makeup inside and out to build messaging that speaks directly to the people who live, work and move through that area every day. It’s a deeply personalized process that’s baked into their onboarding and kept fresh in ongoing campaigns.
Why this approach? Lyons says it boils down to three reasons:
- It shows prospects what your facility actually looks like, setting expectations for what they’ll experience.
- It diversifies you from competitors.
- It gives your ads an organic feel and keeps content engaging.
“Being part of a national brand brings you strength, while your local presence is your chance to speak directly to your community,” Lyons explains.
That message stands in stark contrast to national campaigns that try to scale a one-size-fits-all playbook across dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of franchise locations. Those efforts often fail to resonate locally, and worse, Lyons says they rob franchisees of their insight and creativity. JL’s model flips that script, empowering operators to be hands-on partners in the marketing process.
“Meta and digital platforms give us the ability to be incredibly precise,” says Lyons. “When we enter a franchise market in a unique localized way, it helps differentiate the brand and give the location a true voice.”
People-Powered Partnerships
Just as JL Marketing prioritizes local communities in their campaigns, they take a similarly personal approach to working with clients.
“When you hire JL Marketing, you’re not hiring a vendor,” says Lyons. “You’re hiring a team that treats your business like their own.” The company hires selectively, focusing on passion and communication skills as much as technical expertise. “Our team’s job is to care. That’s the number one qualification.”
The result is an experience that feels more like an internal marketing department than an outside agency. Clients get real-time communication, ongoing collaboration and a team that listens.
“The term ‘partnership’ is overused,” Lyons admits. “We don’t throw it around lightly. We treat every client like they’re our only one. We’re accessible, transparent, and if we miss something, we own it.”
They also don’t believe in set-it-and-forget-it marketing. “We’re relentless about figuring out why a campaign works so we can get better every day,” says Lyons. Every campaign is backed by performance data, tracked and measured in real time, and optimized for results.
And unlike most firms, JL doesn’t require clients to sign long-term contracts. Everything is month-to-month. “If a client is unhappy, they can walk away at any time,” he says.
The results speak for themselves. The firm also regularly delivers industry-leading cost-per-lead numbers for brands like StretchLab, YogaSix, Pure Barre, Shoot 360 and Bodyrok. They are also seeing consistent strong growth by referrals alone.
But for Lyons, it’s not just about the metrics.
“Performance and success are byproducts of a great relationship,” he says. “The focus is on collaborating and executing well. If we deliver that, the results will follow.”
In a world where personalization and community drive consumer engagement, JL Marketing has brought that same ethos to franchise growth. With an approach rooted in human connection, hyperlocal insight and genuine care, they’re helping brands grow not just fast, but smart.
“We’re not here to win awards,” Lyons says. “We’re here to win customers for our clients.”