The most crucial source of a gym's revenue is membership sales. It is recurring which makes it dependable and important to cover operational costs. Growing memberships is always on the gym owner's agenda and to help you, we have discussed 5 proven techniques for reaching out to your audience and attracting new leads.
As the fitness industry is becoming increasingly competitive, gaining new members and retaining your existing ones has become the main goal of all businesses. Gyms are now going towards a more personalized approach to attract new members. Not all of your members need to lift weights or run on a treadmill for 30 mins, so providing the same program to all your members is not something that works well anymore.
Offering membership programs tailored to the members’ requirements can make a great impression on them. They would prefer a gym that focuses on each individual's specific goals. So if you can offer more personalized programs, you can increase the current number of members and earn higher revenue.
Business partnerships are a great way to increase your membership sales. Partnerships or collaborations are not only beneficial to your business but to the other business as well. You just need to make sure that the business that you are partnering with is not a direct competitor.
Let’s suppose you are a fitness club. There is a probability that there would be a yoga studio near you. You can set up a partnership with them where your members can avail three free yoga sessions every month and in exchange, their members avail three free cardio sessions at your fitness studio each month.
Whether you are a multifunctional fitness club or a medium-sized fitness studio, providing your members a space where they can utilize the equipment is not enough. Your members should not think of your fitness club as just another place to exercise. If you want to keep your members engaged as well as attract new members, you need to provide them with a range of services.
For example, you can provide daycare services to your members who have children and need to bring them along. You can also provide meal plans to members who have premium memberships. Or you can even provide online classes to members who prefer working out at home.
Read more in our previous blog, How to Enhance Your Existing Gym Facility to Boost Gym Revenue.
Your website is a great tool that tells a lot about your brand to your audience. You need to make sure your website is user-friendly and up-to-date so that your audience may be aware of what is currently happening at your gym. Providing adequate information about memberships and their pricing is important so that your members can easily make the decision on whether to sign-up or not.
Just providing services is not enough. You need to advertise your business as well as your offers. Facebook and Instagram provide great reach and their ads are relatively easy to set up. Google Map Ads are a great way to promote your gym to potential members who live nearby and are looking for a local gym.
Using referral programs or referral rewards is an effective strategy to not only gain new gym members but retain existing ones as well. You need to design the entire referral system carefully, in a way that is irresistible for your members and benefits the referrer, referee and the gym.
As for the rewards, you can give gym merchandise, free membership for a month, or even cash prizes. You can read more in our previous blog, Increase Your Member Numbers with a Gym Referral Program.
If you rely on your current memberships and don’t market your business to potential members, you won’t be able to get far in the competition.
To attract new members, you need to understand the needs of your prospects and what offers might grab their attention. Then you can implement the strategies we've discussed and analyze which ones are working best for your gym business.