When you think about marketing your gym, your focus immediately goes to attracting new clients. You want to get as many new members through the doors as you can. As you get more new members, your business can grow even more.
The year is ending, and the January rush will be here soon. You can act today to be ready for the influx of new clients and convert them into long-term members. But a lot of people who join in January drop off quickly. In fact, research shows that as early as the third Thursday in January, their enthusiasm begins to dip.
Why do new year members drop off?
There are a few reasons why people fall off the wagon when it comes to exercising in the New Year. While many people make those commitments in earnest, life gets in the way. Anyone who has started from scratch on their fitness plan knows how challenging it is to fit it into your schedule at the beginning.
It takes a lot of hard work to build muscle and lose fat, and the results aren’t immediately apparent for quite a while after starting. This discourages many people, leaving them to wonder if any of it is worth it after all.
When the going gets tough for them, how do you keep your members committed to their yearly fitness goals, and convert them into long-term members? Here are a few tips that should help you engage your members to stay on track.
1. Welcome new members with a personalized onboarding
Joining a new gym or any gym for the first time can be incredibly intimidating for anyone. But there are steps you can take to cultivate a much less intimidating, and more inclusive, environment at your gym.
Take new members on a tour of the facility and get to know them: What are their goals? What are they looking to gain from coming to your gym? When their first experience at your gym is seamless and provides value, they will feel more compelled to engage with the community.
Next, offer suggestions and tips to help them achieve those goals. From here, you can check in with them to see how they like the facility, and if there is anything you can do to help. Your meetings with new members don’t have to take very long, perhaps 10 minutes at the most. But taking a few minutes to check in with them shows you care and are committed to helping them achieve their fitness goals.
Pro tip: Even though you may have new members to manage, don’t forget to accommodate the needs of members who have visited your gym for a long time. You have built strong relationships with many year-round gym-goers, and you want to keep nurturing that bond even when things get hectic.
Download our e-book, Fuelling Growth: 3 easy ways to increase memberships by converting more leads, and learn three easy ways to fuel growth by improving conversions through thinking—and planning—ahead. Get your copy here!
2. Encourage members with challenges & prizes
Offering rewards and prizes for new year’s resolutions can help members stay on the right track. You can try a cash prize, gift cards, or even a free membership to engage members. It’s one small, but effective, method that will surely boost attendance at your gym.
Look online and in person to see how other gyms are implementing challenges in the wake of new year’s resolutions. You can analyze their campaigns to see what worked and what didn’t when you plan your own challenge.
Pro tip: Use Xplor Triib’s Challenge function to seamlessly host a challenge in-gym for everyone to participate in a healthy dose of competition. The competition could give prizes based on number of visits; hours spent at the gym; pounds lost; or highest weight to reps achieved. Now is a great time to plan this challenge and let members know so they can participate.
3. Make workouts a convenient option for your members
For many people, fitness can feel like a chore. It can take just one smallest inconvenience to derail their workout plans for the day. If they must wait too long for equipment, or can’t find the gear they want, they might leave and forget about coming back for a while.
Ask your members what changes they would love to see at your gym so you can make an action plan to be ready for the rush. Some of the most common complaints about gyms during the new year rush is that they are busy, crowded, and inefficient. If you have capacity, consider extending your hours, adding more trainers to your roster, or new services.
Pro tip: If your members aren’t loving how busy their gym is during January, appointment booking is a great way to keep the flow of members in and out manageable. Xplor Triib offers appointment scheduling for free on all plans! This feature allows everyone to book any appointment on their own schedule, whether it’s classes or consultations. Not just that, but it delivers value to your members and boosts your bottom line with new revenue streams, like personal training, intro sessions, 1-on-1 consultations, nutrition coaching.
Don’t forget to download our e-book, Fuelling Growth: 3 easy ways to increase memberships by converting more leads, and turn low to no commitment leads into engaged members.Get your copy here!
Xplor Triib is your secret retention tool
We designed Xplor Triib to effortlessly manage classes, workshops, personal training appointments and programming for your perfect balance. You can use all the features you need, and nothing you don’t, to make Xplor Triib your ultimate weapon in converting newcomers to regulars in no time.
Say hello to the gym management software that does the light work and the heavy lifting, and goodbye to confusing, disorganized business operations. Let’s book a time for an intro call and answer all your burning questions about this platform.
