21 Proven Ways To Generate Members For Your Club

Your health club lives or dies on you being able to generate members for your club.

With so much competition in the health and fitness industry, it’s tougher than ever to stand out from the crowd as a unique health club and reliably appeal to customers in your local area.

But let that worry you no more, as over our 25 years working in the fitness industry, we’ve compiled our 21 golden rules that have proven time and time again to reliably increase memberships for fitness businesses all over the UK.

And now those same rules can have the same success and increase gym sales at your club.

 

21 Proven Ways To Increase Gym Memberships For Your Club

 

1) Shout (Loudly) About What Makes You Different

This is marketing at its most basic – find out what makes you different from another club and shout about it.
Emphasise your unique selling points (USPS) – whether you have the largest free weight section, Power Plates,
ladies only zone. free personal training etc. What makes you different and why should someonejoin you and hot
the other gym in t0wn.

2) Build A Great Website

Website display on apple computerYour marketing activity can either prosper or fail miserably because of your website. Your website is at the heart
of your online presence and, in 2019, it’s a digital extension of your Club (whether you like it or not) that has a huge impact on people’s view of you as a business. Having a great website for your club is no longer a choice — it’s a necessity. It’s directly responsible for prospectsI impressions of you as a brand and it’s ultimately
responsible for the number of enquiries coming into your club and the number of new members which you sign up each month. A website which looks poor and which is difficult to use doesn’t build the type of relationships you want. It paints a negative image of you as a club and it’ll drive people away from your site. And, guess what? That’s only great for your competitors.

 

3) Facebook Advertising & Social Media Advertising

If you’re not currently using Facebook Advertising to promote your club, you’re missing out on a big opportunity.
An opportunity to stand out from your competition and consistently generate new enquiries and sign—ups.

We live in a world where social media platforms are becoming ever more powerful and prominent. In the UK, we
spend almost 25% of our mobile ihternet usage time using Facebook. The sheer volume of people using
Facebook each and every day means that it’s a complete nosbrainer to use the platform as part of your overall
marketing strategy. It‘s where your prospects are ‘hanging out’ and, therefore, it’s most definitely where you
should be advertising.

social media on mobile

And it’s not just the vast number of users that makes the social media platform an essential Channel to include as
part of your strategy to attract new members. What makes Facebook Advertising so effective is the vast range of
targeting options available to businesses. These targeting options mean that you can be extremely focused and
precise with what audiences you target with your ads and what messages you use to engage with them. It’s these
targeting options which put Facebook Advertising up there as one of the most advanced and powerful platforms
for advertising your gym or club.

You can find out more about the benefits of Facebook Advertising for your club on our website.

 

4) Remarketing

Remarketing is a technique which allows you to show adverts to people who have already visited your website
but who didn’t convert into an enquiry or become a new member (companies like Amazon and A505, for
example, use remarketing really effectively and you’ll have no doubt seen this happen many times before — you
look at a product on their site and you’ll see ads for that product and other similar products across other sites
online once you leave their site. This isn’t by chance, this is remarketing in action). Implemented in the right way,
remarketing is a very effective method of generating more enquiries and bringing new members into your club.
New members who may well have ended up joining a different club.

More than 95% of users who Visit your website leave without taking any form of action‘ They don’t get in touch
with you, sign up or leave their contact details. More often than not. once they leave your site, they don’t come
back — you won’t ever see them again. Remarketing – which can be done through Facebook or Google – is a great
way to continue to engage with potential members and drive them back to your website and into your club.

 

5) Encourage Member Testimonials

Member testimonials are a big deal and their testimonials should never be underestimated. A huge proportion of
your potential members will use member reviews and testimonials as part of their research process when looking
for a new club and they are a great way to stand out from your competition The more you can get, the better!

 

6) Invite Feedback

losing motivation runner tired

Most club owners feel that they have the greatest club in town but it’s your members who really have the final
say in that respect. If you don’t listen to your members you won’t know if there are areas in need of
improvement. Create a lockable feedback box that only the gym owner has access to and allow your members to
post their comments anonymously. This box should be positioned in an area away from reception so that
members can post comments without the glare from staff (who they might be commenting about). If the member
has left their contact details, follow up immediately by thanking them for their feedback and stating that you will give the matter your immediate attention. And then ensure that you do!

 

7) Allow For Online Gym Sign Ups

You‘ve created a great looking website and attracted plenty of visitors but now what? Make sure you attach an
onlinejoining facility so that prospects can turn into members at the touch of a button. Ensure you are able to
take an immediate payment and then set up a rolling payment option. Ensure this page is professionally produced
and is a seCure page for taking payments. Ashbourne’s Online Joining Module allows you to do exactly that – you
can find out more about it by visiting our website.

 

8) Build A Great Blog

cup-mug-desk-officeDaily exercise tips, diet and nutrition tips, wellness, weightlifting, sports – comment regularly online about ANYTHINGl A blog/newsfeed update keeps people up-to-date with what’s going on at your club. But more importantly, it builds a community link between your members and your staff and trainers. This develops further your customer loyalty. Spread the writing of material amongst your team. Get your personal trainers to write about their particular areas of knowledge and expertise plus their case study success stories in relation to results gained by particular members. All this is likely to lead to more training enrolments. Encourage PTs to send out this into by email, even on twitter and Facebook. This will lead to more referrals, which all leads to more
business.

 

9) Produce A Great Club Newsletter

Produce a newsletter to communicate with your members about latest developments in and out of the club +
info about the members such as success stories, charity initiatives, notable birthdays etc. People always like to
see their name published and again this increases retention.

 

 

10) Set A Competitive Price (Keep an eye on your competitors)

Don’t ignore what your competitors are doing price-wise. Your pricing decisions should be based on real market
analysis, so keep an eye on what they’re charging for various membership types.

 

11) Implement A Referral Programme

beach-beautiful-enjoyment-1671217The best source of new leads for your club is your existing members. Getting your current members to sell your facility to their friends means that the hard work of selling is done for you and best of all, it’s cheap! Referral programmes get you new members AND your current members now have training partners and a sense of
ownership, therefore increasing retention.

Of course, members are more likely to make a referral if there is something in it for them. You can find out more
about implementing an effective referral campaign on the Ashbourne Membership Management blog.

 

12) Aim For Professionalism & Excellence In Customer Service

This will significantly increase your customer loyalty. Members are demanding more from their health clubs
today. They expect to be able to talk to qualified individuals that are willing to listen and help. Customers are
most satisfied when they interact with self—aware people who have the ability to show empathy and optimism.
Most members will appreciate a gym that offers staff that listens to complaints instead of a gym that offers 100
treadmills.

 

13) Google Display Advertising

Google Display Advertising works on the EGoogle Display Network’ which although sounds technical= is actually
something that most internet users see on a daily basis. The Google Display Network is made up of millions of
websites where advertisers can place adverts in many different formats. These ads can be targeted to very
specific audiences based on segments such as location, age and browsing interests.

adwords
According to Google the Display Network covers over 90% of all the internet’s users! so it’s a fantastic way to get in front of people on a large scale. Obviously, getting in front of someone is one thing, but for your marketing to make a good return on investment, you need to be talking to the right people, and that‘s where the Display
Network really comes into its own.

The list of targeting features that are available to be segmented and filtered are only riyalled by that of Facebook Ads. There are a variety of ways that you can target potential members who have expressed an interest in a new
club or gym and who have interests in what you have to offer.

 

14) Stay In Touch

Undoubtedly, there will be members who fall off the wagon a little bit. Do your best to try and capture these
members early on. If you track attendance, it’s easy to run a report of last visits and call the members you havent
seen in a while. Monthly newsletters, e-mail campaigns, postcards, and regular Facebook or blog posts are other
ways that you can keep your gym fresh in members” minds and even recapture those you may have lost.

 

15) Lead Magnets

A Lead Magnet is simply a piece of content or an item of value that’s used strategically on your website to get
peoplels contact information. Its an item that offers value to website visitors, something that they are going to be
willing to exchange their details for (their first name and email address, and possibly their phone number).

An effective Lead Magnet might be a brochure. a fitness or diet guide or it might be a download which
highlights the core reasons to choose your club over anyone else. As long as it has enough perceived value that
someone is willing to give their details, it really doesn’t matter. but it will help if the information really hits the
spot with your prospects’ problem/need. Once you have a prospect’s details. you can follow up via email or on
the phone to help nurture them into paying members.

 

16) Email

Email is crucial to the marketing efforts of your business (and always will be). Various studies have shown that
over 70% of people would rather receive marketing and promotional material via email than from any other
source of communication. In an industry where consumerjourneys can be long and properly thought out, and
where competition is growing all the time, email provides a platform to continuously engage with members and
potential members alike in order to ensure that they receive personalised content which strengthens
relationships; educates and which inspires.

We‘d recommend using email for three main purposes; nurturing prospects, building relationships and engaging
with your current members and, thirdly, as a way to communicate and encourage lost members to come back to
your club.

 

17) Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

seoSearch Engine Optimisation (SEQ) is the strategy of increasing a website’s visibility within search engines (Le.
Google, Bing, Yahoo). An SEO Strategy is designed to increase the volume and quality of organic traffic (not to be
confused with paid activity) a website receives by achieving higher Search Engine Result Page (SERP) rankings.
The implementation of an SEO strategy is crucial to the visibility of the your club online and ensuring that
potential members are finding you through relevant searches.

When it comes to SEO, it’s important to ensure that you are carrying out ongoing technical, on—site and oftsite
SEC) tasks. Your business is unique and your SEO plan needs to reflect that. Your SEO strategy should ultimately
be built around keyword research and what it is that your prospects are actually searching for. There are lots of
great blogs online which will help you to better understand what you need to do to help increase your website’s
visibility in search engines which will all help to ensure more people are finding you.

 

18) Give Your Staff An Incentive

Most club owners just expect their trainers to sell memberships and carry out sales tours as
part of their job description. This is fine up to a point. If you want your staff to go the extra
mile, the simplest way to get them selling in a more professional manner is to give them a
commission on every membership they sell. You will notice that the number of conversions
from prospect to member increases dramatically. Structure your sales commission to reward
trainers for selling the highest grossing membership.

 

19) Create A Loyalty Programme / Premium Product

personal training weightsLooking after your current members is of course just as important as finding new ones. A loyalty programme is more important than any other marketing programme you have. If you treat the top 10% of your customer’s right. they will take care of most of your other marketing for you. Keep the people who love you in love with you. Come up with loyalty programmes to make them feel appreciated…

0 Free Gold Member t—shirts for members that have been with you for an extended period.

0 If you have extra services at your club like massage therapists, supplements or a juice bar, give them a coupon
for one of them.

0 Small touches can make them feel special , reward your members with free tea and coffee/ protein shakes etc.
“I’ll get this protein shake for you John as a thanks for being such a loyal member.”

 

20) Offer Free Passes / Varied Promotions

Otfering free passes to your current members is a great way to make them teel more valued and to generate new
enquiries in a very cost-eftective way. Your valued member gets the chance to bring a friend to use your club’s
facilities completely free of charge and you get a new prospect who gets to experience your facilities and who
you can nurture and build a relationship with over the coming weeks and months with the objective of
converting them into a paying member.

 

21) Maintain A High Google Review

Member testimonials are a big deal and their testimonials should never be underestimated. A huge proportion of
your potential members will use member reviews and testimonials as part of their research process when looking
for a new club and they are a great way to stand out from your competition The more you can get, the better!

Get your club in shape.

Want to discover how? Let us show you.

Simply select your preferred timeslot and we’ll be in touch to have a chat about your health club,
the goals you want to achieve, and how our system can help you.

Get your club in shape.

Want to discover how? Let us show you.

Simply select your preferred timeslot and we’ll be in touch to have a chat about your health club, the goals you want to achieve, and how our system can help you.

Get your club in shape.

Want to discover how? Let us show you.

Simply select your preferred timeslot and we’ll be in touch to have a chat about your health club, the goals you want to achieve, and how our system can help you.

Member of a gym? Simply text "HELP" to 60777 and we'll help you.

Member of a gym? Simply text "HELP" to 60777 and we'll help you.

Member of a gym? Simply text "HELP" to 60777 and we'll help you.

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