Here are the Top 4 ways to increase member registration rates at your gym
- Offer Free Gym Membership Trials
- Improve the Customer Experience
- Incentivise Personal Referrals
- Promote Limited-time Offers
Start getting new members to sign-up at your fitness center with these tips
One of the largest challenges for gym owners, whether operating a small independent fitness center or a large chain of franchised clubs – is new membership registrations. This requires the creation of an involved sales process that utilises different motivations to not only obtain new members, but retain them as well.
The first thing that needs to be realised is that the fitness industry is amongst the most highly saturated and intensely competitive business markets around today, so creating a competitive edge through a proactive approach to gym management is vital.
So, in a new fitness era that is redefining what the traditional ‘gym’ used to be, how do you differentiate enough to increase member registrations at your fitness club? Well, here are four great solutions to cut-through traffic and increase your chances of attracting new members.
Offer a Free Gym Membership Trial
One of the biggest obstacles preventing new membership registrations at your gym location simply comes down to the customer mindset and any perceived ‘risk’ associated with locking themselves in to a new contract. Signing up for a gym is a major commitment and can often be quite a personal choice so, anything you can do to reduce discomfort is a major advantage. This is why the ‘free trial’ is not dead. In fact, as long as the gym staff can correctly manage free trials – they never will be. So, reduce the risk of committing to your fitness services and registrations will tend to follow.
It just so happens that one of the most common way of reducing risk is by offering a free gym membership trial at your location. This allows potential members to scope out the gym and allows you to personally win them over through value-added experiences. Additionally, you gain access to personal details that are incredibly useful for future promotional activity. Regardless, once a customer has interacted with your gym, they are significantly more likely to register if all other elements align.
Many tend to see free trials as a counter-intuitive approach when trying to increase gym revenue, however, free gym membership trials not only push potential members toward the registration process but they also provide unique opportunities from a business perspective. Once you have a foot in the door, speak to them about no-cost group classes and support networks. Start building the community around them from the start as it’s an investment that not many gym’s make in a growing digital age. This is a surefire way to differentiate from local competitors as at the end of the day, customers care about getting the best experience possible, even if it is more-expensive across the long-term.
Incentivise Personal Referrals
Once again, potential members tend to act in accordance with how they feel – meaning familiarity is an incredibly valuable tool. No method creates more impact on a potential members perception of a gym than a personal recommendation or a friendly referral. The more you can incentivise your local gym community to share their experiences and encourage friends – the more membership registrations you are sure to encounter.
There is a wealth of ways which leading clubs choose to promote personal referrals, however, monetary-based incentives tend to be the most efficient. Great ideas can typically include things such as:
- Mates Rates – Cheaper gym membership when you sign up a friend
- Free Membership – Gain a free week or month with every new friend you sign-up
- No-Cost Sessions – Personal training sessions at no-cost with a new friend
Tactics such as this can be an effective method to not only encourage new membership registrations at your gym, but also enhance retention rates of existing members through an added sense of interaction with your brand.
Promote Limited-Time Offers
Joining the gym is something that most people these days plan on doing but, sometimes they just need a friendly nudge in the right direction. Limited-time offers help turn interested customers into new membership registrations by enforcing a time restriction that encourages action.
There are multiple ways to introduce such offers, however, most come in the form of membership discounts, no-cost joining fees, and the free inclusion of 24/7 access tags throughout a particular promotional period. The key here is that these offers should be unique each time so that potential customers do not gain confidence that your gym services will constantly be ‘on sale’.
New gym membership registrations are typically the hardest part of operation as member retention is more easily managed, requiring less up-front costs than new member acquisition. This translates to increased revenue, yielding a larger profit share for your gym. The sooner you can convert a member from the ‘acquire’ phase into the ‘retain’ phase, the better. Limited-time offers are a great tactic for doing this, enforcing time restrictions as a key motivator.
Improve the Customer Experience
Two words you may have heard throughout are ‘customer’ and ‘experience’. This is essentially the pinnacle of all new membership registrations and the reason why people will not only sign up to your gym, but pay more for membership and added extras too. So, how do you improve the customer experience?
The first thing which needs to be understood is the stage which your potential member is currently in. Enhancing the customer experience at the membership registration stage will inevitably be different when compared to membership retention efforts, for example. The premise, however, remains the same. Customer experience is king!
The key is to add as much ‘no-cost’ value to potential members to give them a reason to choose your gym over a local competitor. This can be done by providing free health and fitness resources such as ‘workout plans’ to generate a positive relationship with the customer. Small steps such as this helps to greatly improve member experiences, drive more registrations, and overall build a more successful gym.
Still not sure where to start? Here’s what to do first when driving membership registrations
This article may seem like a lot of information but when actually implemented into your gym business, it can provide great results. If you’re still not sure where to start, the easiest thing you can do to drive membership registrations is… Be good at what you do…
Members can feel the atmosphere of a gym and will typically be able to see an established sense of community from the moment they walk through the door. So, before you implement a member registration strategy be sure to refine your processes or gym management software to best create an integrated and seamless experience for everyone.
When you make an effort to include gym members in your ‘everyday’ people will talk naturally without being prompted. When you deliver great customer service, people will be inclined to register without a free trial. Membership registration starts with what the gym values, using the above advice as highly effective tools to ‘sell’ an already great service. Enhance your customer experience and the rest should follow.
Generate new gym membership registrations with the help of VIGYR
While enhancing the customer experience can put a burden on front-line staff, technology can play a huge part in streamlining processes to make the gym experience one to remember. Gym management systems such VIGYR provide powerful tools to reach members in the most effective ways with full-integration and a new innovative feature list that’s unmatched by other management software in the industry.
Want to know more about how VIGYR can help drive membership registrations to delivering leading business results?
Contact us today on 1300 362 561
