Although January is a common month for people to join the gym, the enthusiasm soon wears off.
In fact, it has been found that ‘more than 90% of [new members] will quit after three months of going to the gym’, emphasising how important it is for gym owners to find long-term solutions to attracting new members.
So, how do you attract new members to a gym as a gym owner?
There are multiple ways you can attract new members to a gym. These methods include, but are not limited to:
- Offer a joining discount
- Onboard personal trainers and health coaches
- Become a big part of your clients’ lives
- Offer virtual classes
1. Offer A Joining Discount
One of the easiest ways to attract new members to a gym is to offer a joining discount.
New members might feel unsure about joining the gym for a number of reasons, such as low confidence or the fact it’s a financial commitment.
Bearing this in mind, offering new members a joining discount can help to get them over the line if they’re deliberating whether to join the gym.
Discounts or promotions you might opt for include offering the first month free, or offering the first month for half price with no joining fee. That said, whatever discount you’re considering offering, make sure that you’ve forecast the impact this can have and that you can afford it as a business.
While offering a joining discount will entice them to join the gym in the first place, the positive change in their life will keep them coming back.
2. Onboard Personal Trainers & Health Coaches
Another good way to attract new members to a gym is to onboard a combination of both personal trainers and health coaches.
People have unique wants and needs, and might be looking for something different other than just a standard gym membership to switch up their lifestyle. As a result, offering enough variety at your gym in terms of health and fitness professionals should be a priority.
While it’s great to have personal trainers, more and more people are looking to make lifestyle changes with a health coach. In short, a health coach’s job is ‘to give patients the knowledge, skills, tools and confidence they need to participate fully in their own care and well-being’.
Going a step further by offering health coaches that can offer advice on various factors, such as nutrition to help supplement a workout regime, can provide clients with the right support to make sustainable lifestyle changes. In turn, this can help with client retention.
By diversifying the trainers and coaches that you offer at your gym, then, clients likely won’t feel as much of a need to go anywhere else to receive the results that they desire.
3. Become A Big Part Of Your Clients’ Lives
Another option to attract new customers to the gym is to become a big part of your current clients’ lives.
Perhaps you could run a breakfast club inside the gym once every month, or maybe you could offer a quiz night that would encourage people to bring along a friend to share the experience with.
When marketed and executed well, events like these that involve the community will not only travel through word of mouth but will also encourage new people to join.
These are just a few of the ways in which you can build a community feel in your gym and become a bigger part of your clients’ lives that goes beyond just being a place they come to exercise.
Additionally, you can consider offering a referral programme which subsequently rewards your current clients for referring their friends to sign up for gym memberships.
Not only will this help you to retain clients, but it will also encourage new members to join your gym.
4. Offer Virtual Classes
Another way to attract new members to the gym is to offer virtual classes.
Since 2020, the demand for online classes has increased. In fact, a recent report found that 60% of people ‘enjoyed their home workouts so much, they didn’t plan on going back to a physical gym’, emphasising just how big the demand for online classes is.
Whether a client is struggling with confidence, or simply doesn’t have the time to go to the gym in-person, offering virtual classes as part of your gym memberships is a huge drawing factor for new members.
By offering virtual classes, then, you can remain competitive with online apps that only offer online content exclusively, while also providing clients the flexibility to fit high quality workouts into their day without needing to physically visit your gym.
Additionally, the more people attending online classes, the more capacity you have to hold new clients within the gym itself.
