The Gym Marketing Playbook: How 7 Owners Actually Built Their Membership (With Real Numbers)

You signed the lease. The build-out's underway. And you're staring at an empty room wondering how you're going to fill it with members.

Or maybe you've been open for a year. You've got 40 members, the bills are tight, and you're Googling "gym marketing strategies" at midnight between classes. 

Either way, you need a gym marketing playbook that actually works—not another list of generic advice from someone who's never run a gym.

So we talked to seven gym owners who've done it. Well, our CEO Alex did, on our Gymdesk Originals series.

These owners shared their passion, sure, but they also shared their numbers, their mistakes, and the specific moves that grew their memberships. 

No theory. No "top 10 tips." Just what worked, what didn't, and what they'd do differently.

You Didn't Open a Gym to Become a Marketer

We get it. You opened your gym to teach, to build a community, to share something you love. 

Marketing feels like a necessary evil—and most of the advice out there is written for big-box fitness chains with six-figure ad budgets.

But here's the thing: the owners in this article didn't have big budgets either. Some started with literally nothing. 

They stood on street corners. They hustled. They made a few smart moves at the right time.

Why This Matters Now

US gym memberships have risen to 68.9 million, a 3.7% year-over-year increase. 

More people want to train than ever. But more gyms are opening too, which means the window between signing your lease and filling your mat is getting more competitive.

A typical boutique studio needs 150–300 members at $100–$150/month to cover your bills and pay yourself. That's not a huge number—but getting there without a plan is where most owners stall.

We'll cover three things: pre-sale campaigns that filled gyms before they opened, guerrilla and grassroots marketing that cost almost nothing, and turning points where one small change created massive growth.

Pillar 1: Pre-Sale and Founder Pricing Campaigns

The single biggest mistake you can make is opening the doors and only then starting to market. The owners who grew fastest all did one thing: they started selling memberships before they had a gym.

The street corner that built a 300-member gym

Mike Jaramillo and his team at Renzo Gracie East Side NYC didn't wait for their space to be finished. 

They stood on the corner of 86th and Lexington in Manhattan—all winter—with an iPad showing 3D renderings of their unfinished gym. They'd hired someone on Fiverr to create a 3D walkthrough video of the space.

The result: Over 350 people signed up before the doors ever opened. Within nine months, they had 300+ active members.

"We had collected like over almost 350 people had signed up just from standing on the corner out there." — Mike Jaramillo, Renzo Gracie East Side NYC

And this wasn't Mike's first time. He'd previously signed up 800 pre-sale members for a Brooklyn gym using "a small trailer and a bunch of little signs."

His advice is blunt: "Get your ass on the street right away. Like the moment you sign that lease, that pre-sale starts."

Cold emails and founder rates that stick

Luke Boston at Forte BJJ in Phoenix came from a marketing background—data analytics and marketing science at agencies. But his pre-sale strategy was refreshingly simple.

He sent cold emails before opening. 

Twenty-five people showed up on day one. Ten signed up at a $100/month founder rate. That's a 40% conversion from a cold email list—no paid ads, no fancy website.

He capped the founder rate at 20 members total. Eighteen of those 20 founding members are still training with him.

"Hit your marketing really tough in the beginning, offer a real competitive price just to get numbers in." — Luke Boston, Forte BJJ Phoenix

Tiered pricing that creates urgency

Chai Sirisute at 10th Planet Long Beach took founder pricing a step further with a tiered approach:

• First 50 members: $79.99/month lifetime founder rate
• At 50 members: Price jumped to $100/month
• At ~80 members: $120/month
• At 100 members: $140/month

This created real urgency. 

When potential members saw the price going up at each milestone, they didn't sit on the fence. Chai replicated the exact same playbook at his second location in the Inland Empire—already at 100+ members, now charging $180/month.

💡 Gym owner tip: Pre-sale memberships typically begin 6–8 weeks before opening at a 20–30% discount. But the owners above started even earlier—the sooner you begin, the more runway you have.

If you're still figuring out your pricing strategy, look at competitor pricing in your area and set your founder rate 20–30% below that.

How to run your own pre-sale

Here's what these owners did, distilled into steps you can act on this week. (For a full walkthrough of launching from scratch, see our guide on how to start a BJJ academy.)

1. Lock in your location and timeline. You don't need a finished space—you need a lease and a date.
2. Create something visual. Mike used a $50 Fiverr rendering. Luke used emails. Chai used social media. Give people something to see.
3. Set a founder rate with a hard cap. Twenty to 50 spots. Once they're gone, the price goes up. This is real scarcity, not manufactured urgency.
4. Get in front of people physically. Street corners, farmers markets, community events. Digital is great, but handshakes convert.
5. Capture info and follow up. Every signup needs a name, email, and phone number—and you need a system to stay in touch between now and opening day.

If you're managing pre-sale signups across spreadsheets, sticky notes, and your phone, you're going to lose people.

Gymdesk lets you track who signed up when, set up automated recurring billing from day one, and manage payment plans—so you're not manually chasing payments while the mats are getting installed.

Pillar 2: Guerrilla and Grassroots Marketing

Not every gym owner has a pre-sale window. 

Maybe you're already open. Maybe you don't have a marketing budget. These owners grew their memberships with creativity, community presence, and zero ad spend.

The gym that started under a bridge

Justin, James, and Dylan—the three founders of Two Bridges Muay Thai in NYC—didn't plan to open a gym at all. 

When the pandemic shut down every training facility in Manhattan, they started holding pads for each other under bridges. Their personal training clients saw them training and asked to join.

Then more people showed up. Then more.

"Too many people showed up one day and then we were like, let's make it a thing." — Two Bridges Muay Thai founders

Five years later, they're still bootstrapped—no investors, no loans—with a target of 500 members. Their primary marketing channels? Google and Instagram.

They don't run Facebook ads. They don't do elaborate campaigns. Their approach: be so good and so welcoming that people tell their friends.

They call it the three-friend rule: every new visitor meets three people—someone at the front desk, a coach in class, and a student who makes them feel welcome.

It works better than any ad.

Pre-launch open mats as a marketing engine

William Watts and Vince Barbosa at East Austin Jiu-Jitsu Parlor didn't wait for their grand opening to build community. 

They hosted open mats before officially opening—and 20 to 40 people showed up each time.

By opening day, they were full. They've since been voted best gym in Austin by the Austin Chronicle—not best martial arts gym, best gym overall. They were featured on Flo Grappling. And their anti-traditional approach became their marketing differentiator.

"So many places you go, it's like bow to your sensei. We wanted to disintegrate that." — East Austin Jiu-Jitsu Parlor

Their founding members got locked-in pricing forever as a thank-you—a move that built fierce loyalty and turned early supporters into evangelists.

If you're running grassroots campaigns—street fairs, open mats, community events—you need a way to capture leads on the spot.

Gymdesk's lead capture forms work on any phone or tablet. Collect contact info at a farmers market and have those leads automatically in your system, ready for follow-up.

Pillar 3: The Turning Points That Changed Everything

Sometimes growing your gym doesn't require more marketing. It requires one smart change.

These are the moments where owners went from stuck to growing.

The beginner class that tripled membership

Chai Sirisute at 10th Planet Long Beach was stuck. His classes fluctuated between six and 20 students. Some nights felt electric. Others felt awkward.

Then his coach, Casey Halstead from 10th Planet Las Vegas, gave him simple advice: start a beginner class.

Chai did—and his numbers jumped from a low of six students to a steady 35–40. By year three, total membership grew to 90.

"Packed rooms attract more people than empty rooms." — Chai Sirisute, 10th Planet Long Beach

This is one of the most common turning points in gym owner advice: a dedicated beginner program removes the intimidation barrier that keeps people from walking in.

If you're only offering advanced or all-levels classes, you're telling beginners they need to figure it out themselves. Most won't.

Grant Bogdanove at Alma Fight Gym in Tokyo learned the same lesson the hard way. He launched with classes every day—and most of them were nearly empty. 

"When somebody new comes in and it's like two people in here, it's kind of awkward." 

If he could do it over, he'd have started with three days a week so every class felt full. Packed rooms attract people. Empty rooms push them away.

Broadening your market beyond competitors

Mario at Cornerstone MMA near Chicago had a realization that changed everything. He was marketing to fighters—people who wanted to compete in MMA. Then he did the math.

"Less than 1% of people ever get into an MMA cage. So that's a pretty poor market to go after." — Mario, Cornerstone MMA

He shifted focus to hobbyists, families, and kids. He added a formal gi jiu-jitsu program alongside his no-gi offerings. The result was a broader, more sustainable member base.

You're not watering down what you teach. You're recognizing that someone who trains three times a week to get in shape and learn self-defense is a better long-term member than someone training for a fight card next month.

For a deeper look at how other owners have navigated this, check out these real growth numbers from eight gym owners.

The trial automation that runs itself

Joe Guarino at Unlimited BJJ in Las Vegas built something elegant. Here's his exact flow:

1. Someone fills out a free trial form on his website
2. An automated email goes out immediately with instructions
3. That email leads them to a digital waiver
4. They complete the waiver
5. Joe has all their information—without doing anything

"People fill out for a free trial. I then have an automation that automatically emails them back and lets them know what they need to do. That then leads them to the waiver. They complete the waiver. At that point, I haven't done anything, but I've captured all their information." — Joe Guarino, Unlimited BJJ Las Vegas

And if they don't show up? Another automated message fires after a few days: "Hey, where are you at?"

Joe was doing all of this manually before. He described it as "a lot of effort to continuously do that."

This is the kind of flow that saves you hours every week. With Gymdesk, your website's lead form captures the inquiry. 

An automated email sends instructions and the waiver link. The prospect signs the waiver—and all their info flows into your database, tagged with the source so you know what's working.

No manual data entry. No leads falling through cracks. If someone doesn't show up, automated follow-ups keep the conversation going.

Joe also runs open self-defense classes for the general public to bring in new members, and uses a referral program with bill credits to turn current members into recruiters.

"It doesn't cost anything to give someone a trial. If you have a really good product on the mat, they'll stay." — Joe Guarino, Unlimited BJJ Las Vegas

🥋 Gym owner tip: If you're not tracking where your leads come from, you're marketing blind. Every one of these owners eventually learned this lesson. Whether it's street fairs, Instagram, Google, or referrals—you need to know what's actually filling your gym so you can do more of it and less of what isn't working. 

Gymdesk's lead source tracking does this automatically, showing you exactly which channels bring in your members—so you can focus on what's working and cut what isn't.

Common Mistakes These Owners Made (So You Don't Have To)

Every owner we talked to had regrets. Here are the ones that came up most:

1. Starting with too many classes. Chai at 10th Planet wishes he'd started with just three days a week. When you spread your schedule thin, you get two people in a Tuesday night class and 15 on Thursday. The empty rooms kill momentum. Start small, pack your classes, then expand.

2. Skipping the pre-sale. Multiple owners told us they wished they'd started marketing earlier. The moment you sign your lease, your pre-sale begins—not when the paint dries.

3. Taking cash without contracts. Chai learned this the hard way: "It hurt me in the long run." Without proper billing agreements, you have no predictable revenue, no ability to forecast, and no protection when someone ghosts.

4. Marketing only to competitors. Mario's lesson applies everywhere. If you're a martial arts gym marketing only to people who already train, you're ignoring 99% of your potential members.

5. Not tracking lead sources. If you don't know whether your members found you on Google, Instagram, or through a friend, you can't make smart decisions about where to spend your time and money.

It's five times more expensive to acquire a new member than to keep one you already have. 

While this playbook focuses on growth, don't forget that your best retention strategies are just as important as your marketing strategies.

The Bottom Line

Seven owners. Different cities. Different disciplines. But the patterns are clear:

• Start your pre-sale the day you sign your lease. Get a visual, get a founder rate, get on the street. The owners who opened to full rooms all started selling before they had a gym.
• Grassroots beats ad spend—especially early on. Street corners, open mats, community events, and referrals built more gyms in this article than paid ads.
• One smart change can be your turning point. A beginner class. A broader market. An automated trial flow. Sometimes growth isn't about doing more—it's about doing one thing differently.
• Track everything. If you don't know where your members are coming from, you can't double down on what works.
• Your product on the mat is your best marketing. Every owner in this article said some version of the same thing: deliver a great experience, and your members will tell their friends.

If you're building your gym marketing playbook from scratch—or looking to level up what you're already doing—Gymdesk gives you the tools to manage pre-sale campaigns, capture leads from anywhere, automate your trial-to-member flow, and track which channels actually bring in members. Start a free trial and see how it works for your gym.

For more on the journeys behind these numbers, watch the full stories on Gymdesk Originals—including episodes featuring Nova Jiu-Jitsu, Shogun West BJJ, and Academia BJJ.