8 Tips to Increase Gym Membership Sales Fast

The survival of a gym is entirely dependent on memberships. More memberships translate to more revenue. And with more revenue coming in, you've got more profits. And with more profits, you'll have enough funds to keep your fitness business growing.

Hence, regardless of the type of gym that you run, you need to be constantly working towards increasing gym membership sales. The good news is, there are numerous strategies that you can implement, to increase gym membership sales.

The problem is, most of the strategies that you will come across out there, will take months to deliver results. And, you may not have the luxury of waiting that long. So, what should you do if you are looking to grow your gym membership quickly?

Well, we’ve got you covered. In this guide, we will take you through 8 tested and tried strategies, which you can implement to attract more gym clients fast and boost your bottom line.

1. Start a Gym Membership Referral Program

One of the most effective gym membership sales strategies that can deliver results quickly is through referrals. Your gym members already have a first-hand experience of your gym. They know the benefits of being members.

And chances are, they have been raving about your gym to their friends and family. As a result, you may have ended up with one or two new referral clients. However, you can get even more referral clients by offering compelling incentives both to the referrer and the new fitness leads.

For the referrer, you can offer free fitness gear, free private personal training sessions or discounted membership. Other incentives that you can offer to the referrers include customized meal plans created by professional nutritionists or even money.

As for the new leads that come in through referrals, you can offer them a one-month free membership or a one-on-one personal training session. And if it’s not possible to offer free membership, then you can offer them a heavily discounted trial.

By offering compelling incentives, your gym members will be more motivated than ever, to promote your gym to their friends and family. At the same time, you will be giving their friends and family more reasons to try out your gym. Consequently, you will end up with more gym members, without spending too much.

2. Maintain a Strong Social Media Presence

Maintaining a strong social media presence is yet another actionable strategy that can help to boost fitness club membership sales. Considering there are billions of active social media users, these platforms provide a great opportunity for marketing your fitness business and generating more gym membership sales.

So, how can you use social media to promote your gym and attract more members? First, you need to be posting valuable and informative content to your target audience regularly. Second, you need to engage and interact with your audience at every turn.

However, coming up with valuable and relevant content to post on your social media platforms regularly can prove to be a challenge. Here are some ideas to get you started:

2.1 Know the Coach

If you have employed some personal trainers in your gym, you can feature them on your social media channels and share their backgrounds, struggles, and passions. And by sharing such stories, you will make them more approachable to prospects who may have been feeling as if the gym environment is too intimidating.

2.2 Achievements and Milestones

Do you have a gym member who has unlocked a certain milestone? If so, you can feature them on your social media channels. Featuring them on your social media channels will show prospective fitness clients that your gym delivers results. And you may end up convincing some of them to give your gym a try. Besides, recognizing personal achievements will also help to boost your retention rates.

2.3 Facility Photos and Videos

Posting photos and videos of your facility on social media will go a long way in encouraging prospective clients to come to check it out and enquire about membership. For instance, if you’ve recently purchased some state-of-the-art fitness equipment, you should post them on social media. Posting them will help to bring some prospective fitness clients through the door. And once they come for a visit, it will be easier to convince them to sign up for a membership

2.4 Photos of Your Gym Community Having Fun

Most people are attracted to close-knit and fun communities. Therefore, showing your gym community having fun during a retreat or an outdoor workout session can go a long way in making your gym appear like the place to be. Also, this will help to make your gym environment appear less intimidating and more inviting.

3. Distribute Leaflets in the Neighborhood

Some people will tell you that print advertising is dead. But, this is not the case. In fact, it remains one of the most effective gym marketing methods, which can help to increase fitness center sales. And one cost-effective print advertising method that you can use to spread the word about your fitness business is distributing leaflets.

When designing your leaflets, make sure you include photos of your facility, location, contact information, value proposition and a specific offer. Once you’ve finished designing them, you simply need to print a hundred or so and then distribute them.

By distributing leaflets in nearby apartment buildings, homes, local businesses and transportation hubs, you will be reaching more potential clients, who may have never heard about your fitness center.

For instance, if someone has recently moved into your neighborhood, they may be scouting for a new gym to join. Once they come across your leaflets, they may call to inquire about your gym. And if your offer is compelling enough, they may end up signing up for your gym membership.

4. Launch Paid Ads

Another effective means of increasing gym membership sales is through paid advertising. And with paid advertising, you have several platforms that you can use, the main ones being social media advertising and Google ads. You can use either of the methods or both.

When setting up your ads, make sure you include fitness-related and location-based keywords. By including relevant keywords, your gym will be coming up in the search results whenever a prospect searches for gyms in your area. And if it looks like the right fit for them, they will get in touch to inquire more.

It’s worth mentioning that paid ads may cost you hundreds of dollars per month. But, with the right implementation, the results will be worth it. If your ads manage to bring you a couple of clients, the revenue you will earn from these clients in the long term will cover the cost of those ads.

5. Touch Base with Inactive Leads

Some of the leads that you collect during your marketing campaigns may become inactive with time. After some time, you may notice that some are no longer interacting with your nurturing emails.

But just because they have stopped interacting with your emails or replying to your messages doesn’t mean they have completely given up on starting their fitness journey. They may have stopped due to some unavoidable situations. For instance, someone may have stopped interacting with your emails, since they were not ready to start their fitness journey at that time due to financial constraints or other reasons.

And after some time, their financial position may have improved and they may now be ready to start their fitness journey. Therefore, it’s highly advisable to continue keeping in touch with them, in order to warm them back up. By doing so, you will increase the chances of them signing up with your gym, once their situation improves.

6. Offer Prospective Clients Something Compelling

If you want to attract more gym members and increase gym membership sales, you need to offer prospective fitness clients a compelling offer. Most fitness centers usually offer free gym memberships for several days, discounted membership or something along those lines.

And you can also use the same approach. But before doing so, you should look around and see what the competition is offering. You should then find ways of offering something better or more attractive. For instance, if your competitors are offering a seven-day free, you can instead offer 14 days free. If the competition is offering a 30% discount on signing up, you can instead go for a 50% discount.

You can also throw in something on top of the discounted or free memberships such as gym merchandise or even a one-on-one free personal training session. At the end of the day, it’s all about making your gym the go-to fitness center for all prospective fitness clients in your area.

7. Start a Fitness Challenge

Another gym marketing idea that can help you to increase gym membership sales is through fitness challenges. Launching a fitness challenge will help your fitness brand to reach more potential clients, who may have never heard about you.

For the challenge, you need to set the goals, choose a reasonable duration and select a compelling prize. For instance, you can run a weight loss challenge, running for three to four months. As for the prize, the winner gets to walk away with a monetary reward.

Once you set up this challenge, you just need to launch and promote it on social media platforms. Instagram will be a great fit for this challenge. You should also encourage participants to be using a certain hashtag, whenever they are posting their progress.

After the competition or fitness challenge is over, some of the participants who are non-members may decide to continue being members of your community by signing up for a long-term membership.

8. Make it Easy for Prospects to Sign Up

Whether potential clients land on your sign-up page from social media, organic traffic, paid ads or any other gym membership sales strategies that you may be using, they should be able to sign up quickly.

No one likes spending their valuable time trying to navigate through a complex sign-up process. If potential clients realize they have to spend several minutes trying to complete the sign-up process, they may end up abandoning it altogether.

So, ensure you remove all the obstacles on the sign-up page, to make the process fast and effortless.

9. Wrapping It Up

Whether it’s using gym referrals or social media marketing, paid ads or distributing leaflets, offering free memberships or running fitness challenges, all the tips we’ve shared here can help to increase gym membership sales fast and boost your revenues. So, feel free to implement any of them and you can rest assured you will end up with a couple of new faces in your gym.