Top Health Club Marketing Strategies to Boost Membership

They have less than 10 members left. 

An OrangeTheory Fitness franchise is struggling to survive.

“My studio is also struggling to bring in new members. I’m personal friends with a coach outside OTF and they confirmed what I suspected. They’re not sure what the problem is. And I feel bad because I can tell the employees are stressed out (even though they try to hide it). Coaches, SAs, managers. Everyone.”

This isn’t a local mom-and-pop health club.

This is a large fitness business franchise with 1,500 business locations across 23 countries. If you’re like me, you assumed low membership wouldn’t be a problem for a large franchise in the fitness industry with international brand recognition. 

Why Health Clubs Are Struggling to Keep Their Members

According to the IHRSA, health clubs lose 50% of their members within 6 months. When we break this down a bit further, we see that: 

• Most gym or fitness club memberships last an average of 4.7 years.
• About 8% of male gym-goers quit their membership after a year.
• About 14% of female gym-goers quit their membership after a year.

Looking at survey data from Statista, we see that half of these issues can be addressed by simply improving relationships. Only two of the issues mentioned were about price. 

Source: Statista.com

What does this mean?

Since health club churn rates are higher: 

1. Consistent marketing and advertising attract members. It brings new members into your health club and motivates them to try things out.  
2. Relationship and community building get members to stay. If your existing members feel like they’re part of a community and they have friends at the gym, they’re much more likely to stick around. 
3. Achieving and maintaining results requires training. All of your members started training for a reason. Helping them achieve results justifies the spending in their mind. It’s easier to justify paying for a membership you’re using vs. one you’re not.  

Did you catch the biggest part of all of this?  

It’s all relationships and community building. If existing gym members of your health club don’t have strong emotional and social bonds with each other, they’re much more likely to leave. 

What Your Health Club Marketing Plan Needs 

Your health club isn’t for everyone. At least, it shouldn’t be.  

At first, you’re targeting new members who meet the following criteria. 

1. They want your services.
2. They’re able to pay for your services. 
3. They’re willing to pay for your services. 

Your health club marketing needs new members who are both willing and able to buy. Take Planet Fitness, for example, which is all about casual health and fitness. They actively discourage “lunks,” the stereotypical gym bros who violate the social norms in their gyms. 

Source: Planet Fitness

They’re not looking to be all things to all people.

It’s the same for your health club. Your marketing, to be successful, needs to accomplish a few specific goals. 

1. Identify your target audience. You’re outlining the specific people you’re targeting—the demographics and psychographics. Their desires, goals, fears, frustrations, and problems. 
2. Segment your ideal member. Ideal members (profitable customers in your target audience) display the right behavioral markers (e.g., relationship, engagement, admiration) and outcome markers (e.g., repeat sales, purchase frequency, high product rates, profit margins, increased revenue and spending, etc.). 
3. Identify market and performance gaps. You’re looking for a blue ocean you can create to make your competition irrelevant. This could be an underserved member segment, an untapped market, or an unmet need. Just make sure these “gaps” are areas potential members value. 
4. Develop a strategy for competition. Identify gaps in your competitor’s offerings. Are there offers, incentives, or options members want that your competitors are unwilling or unable to provide? What are the best ways to make your competition irrelevant? Competition often turns into a race to the bottom; a few of the worst outcomes for your gym could be (a.) competing on price, features, or amenities (b.) an overreliance on discounts and lowball offers. 

Here’s the problem.

This upfront work is pretty boring; it’s front-loaded and research-heavy, but it’s something you absolutely need to boost membership and retention in your health club.

Here’s why. 

If you want your health club marketing to be productive, you must do the upfront work, as it gives you a distinct advantage. 

1. You’re clear on the customers/members you want.
2. You know which members will generate the most revenue at the lowest possible cost. 
3. The market research—demographics and psychographics, tell you where to find these members.
4. You know them well, their desires, goals, fears, frustrations, and problems. 
5. You’ve uncovered all of their objections and risk factors; you have answers for both. 
6. As a result of your work, it’s easy to find low cost advertising that generates maximum results. 
7. Greater Return On Ad Spend (ROAS)  and a lower cost-per-lead. 
8. It’s easy for you to create irresistible offers that motivate customers to sign up. 

Long story short, with this upfront work, you’ll be able to find profitable members at a low cost. That sounds great, but what happens when they find you? 

How to Develop a Winning Health Club Marketing Strategy 

All marketing is content marketing, according to TechCruch. 

All customers want two types of content from you—information and education. You’re probably wondering, what’s the difference? 

1. Education attracts customers. Blog posts, podcasts, whitepapers, checklists, videos, and guides are all examples of educational content. This type of content marketing is attractive because it teaches customers about their problems and shows them how to solve them by teaching. 
2. Information converts customers. Sales pages (e.g., opt-in, offer, and product pages) and Utility pages (about, values, expectations, policies, contact, FAQs, etc.) create psychological safety, motivating people to buy. They relieve fears, eliminate risk, and answer objections. 

A winning health club marketing strategy starts with understanding the connection between information and educational content. Let’s start with information. 

Building a Powerful Value Proposition

Your prospects have an unspoken question. 

Why should I train at this health club? 

What makes your team and your organization so special? This is the question a compelling value proposition has to answer. 

What’s a value proposition? 

A value proposition is a unique (one-of-a-kind) promise to customers, one that’s implicit or explicit. This is one of the most common mistakes health clubs make. They talk about services, pricing, and programs, but they ignore the value they provide. There’s no value proposition or poor value propositions.  

A strong value proposition has four elements:

1. Appeal. Members (really) want your offer. 
2. Exclusivity. Members can’t get your offer anywhere else.
3. Credibility. Members believe in you. They believe your claims.
4. Clarity. Members understand you.

A strong value proposition is carefully crafted, compelling, and believable. If you’re racking your brain, trying to find your value proposition, you’re doing it wrong. Your value proposition isn’t inside your business; it’s made for your business. 

It comes from your future. 

Here are three legendary examples from other industries. 

• M&Ms: Melts in your mouth, not in your hand.
• Dominos Pizza: You get a fresh, hot pizza in 30 minutes or it’s free. 
• FedEx: When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight

These companies literally made their value proposition up. Then they got to work, figuring out how to make their crazy ideas a reality. 

Value propositions can be created at the business, product, and service levels. They work best when they’re paired with irresistible offers. 

What are Irresistible Offers? 

An irresistible offer solves a major problem for members, reducing their risk dramatically. Properly crafted, these offers create openings for prospective members to say Yes to your offer. An irresistible offer works best when (a.) you’re targeting the right members, (b.) you’ve done the work to reduce your customer’s risk and (c.) you’ve placed those risks on your business (where appropriate).

These are exclusive, well-structured offers that are designed for a specific segment of your target audience. 

• The first 25 people to respond train 45 days free! Text GoTime to 762929.
• Get 97% off your first month! Text Flex to 762929.
• The first 10 members that pass this test get ####. Text Prize to 762929

If you’ve done your homework, you’ll know which offers work best for your marketing. All you’ll need to cover is the timing. This brings us to urgency triggers.

How Urgency Triggers Create Action

Here’s a common problem.

Potential members have visited your pages several times. They’re interested in your irresistible offer, but they haven’t decided to sign up yet. Is there a way to motivate them to take action?

Why yes, there is. 

As it turns out, there are many ways to get customers to act immediately. Urgency triggers are tactical options you can use to incentivize action. If the value you provide appears suddenly and it’s time-sensitive, potential members will learn to pay close attention to avoid missing out.

Here are a few ways to instill a (legitimate) sense of urgency in your customers.

• Bonuses. Order by [date] and you’ll receive [free membership, discount, etc.]
• Takeaways. Only [#3] left in this year’s batch. Get your [product] now before it’s gone
• Loss aversion timer. This bonus is free until [date] or price increases in [2 days, 12 hrs, 41 min.]
• Contest. The first [50] members to pass this test win a [list prize here]
• Invite/vip only. This is exclusive to members of [fitness group]. Sign up to receive [products, bonuses, freebies] with your membership.
• Join the waitlist. Purchase this [service] today, and you’ll be added to the waitlist for our [desirable bonus or incentive]
• Bundled opt-in. Take our quiz, and you’ll receive this [product, service, or bonus] free when you sign up.

Here’s the great thing about these urgency triggers. 

You can customize, change, and combine them. Running consistent tests helps you to identify what works best in your business. With tools like VWO and Optimizely, your tests will produce meaningful data you can actually trust. You’ll know what works, why it works, and how to improve your marketing plan in the future.  

Now we’re ready to look at your main attractor—education. 

Attracting Members to Your Health Club with Education Marketing

If you’ve done the upfront work of (a.) identifying your target audience and (b.) defining your ideal member, you know several things: 

1. Who you’re speaking to
2. Their wants (e.g., desires, goals, fears, frustrations, problems)
3. Where they spend their time (online/offline)
4. The amount of money they’re willing and able to spend to solve their problems
5. Their covert and overt expectations of you

You also know: 

6. How much you can afford to spend to get their attention
7. Whether your marketing cost is inflated or a bargain
8. Which marketing channels perform best (based on analytics)
9. Which messages and offers work best
10. The lifetime value of each member

Armed with this data, you’ll have a deeper understanding of the kind of content marketing you’ll need to attract member attention. Content marketing ideas include: 

• Case stories and testimonials
• Online reviews
• Workshops, instructionals, and courses
• Relevant topics—nutrition, exercise, and recovery advice
• Pro-Tips—how to use the machines in your facility, avoid injury, set up weights, etc. 
• Event recaps
• Community outreach highlights
• Support programs

Let’s look at a few of the marketing channels, strategies, and tactics you can use to do just that. 

Strategy #1: Use Paid Ads and 60-30-10 to Attract and Retain Members

Perry Marshall popularized an advertising approach called 60/30/10. If done right, you can create an infinite return—a situation where you’re actually paid to advertise your products and services.

Here’s how it works.

You buy paid advertising on the channel that fits with your research (e.g., paid social, pay-per-click, display, remainder, remarketing, etc.). Then, you divide your marketing budget as follows:  

• Spend 10% of your marketing budget on Cold traffic. These potential members have never heard of you. They don’t know you, like you, or trust you (yet). It’s no surprise they’re not all that eager to work with you. 
• Spend 30% of your marketing budget on Warm traffic. These prospects are familiar with you. They’ve expressed some interest in your product or service (e.g., an opt-in, they’ve clicked through, etc.). They’re slightly more warm and interested in your product or service. 
• Spend 60% of your marketing budget on Hot traffic. These customers are actively considering your product or service. Either they’re interested in your product or service, or they’re already customers. 

Why divide your budget like this? 

Doing it this way maximizes the value you can generate from your marketing efforts regardless of the amount you’re spending. If you spend $10 a day, you can still generate results.

Why? 

Your potential members self-identify. Those who are most interested rise to the top naturally.

Want to make it better?

1. Send your ad traffic to an opt-in landing page where you offer something of value (free). 
2. Add a tripwire offer, a low cost product or service you sell, to your confirmation page.

Prospective members are much more likely to make a purchase after opting in. If they make that purchase, they’ve self-identified as a hot lead.

Here’s the best part.

They’ve paid you to advertise to them; this lead is basically free. You break even at a minimum, or you make a profit. It’s a win/win situation all around. Yes!

This strategy works with any platform—Google Ads, Meta Ads, Display advertising, Email advertising, etc. If you can set a budget, you can make this work. 

Strategy #2: Use SMS Campaigns to Attract and Retain Health Club Members

SMS is an excellent marketing channel for several reasons. Here’s why: 

• 98% of mobile users will read a branded or business-based SMS message
• 90% of SMS messages are read within 3 minutes
• Response rates are as high as 45% to 98% (compared to email’s 2 to 20 percent)

A recent report outlined the reasons behind consumers opting into SMS messages:

1. Incentives (e.g., discounts, coupons, and deals)
2. Personal alerts (e.g. expired card, account updates, notifications, etc.)
3. Being in the loop 
4. More meaningful content marketing
5. Don’t want to visit the brand website/app for information
6. Quick access to information
7. Invites to premium content and events

You can use SMS campaigns to ask questions, invite members (and potential members) to events, ask for feedback, or chat with them. You can use SMS to build a direct, one-to-one relationship with each of your customers. 

Here’s a short list of templates you can use in your SMS campaigns. 

• “On a scale of 0 – 10, 10 being great, how was your visit today?”
• “What can we do to make your visit better?”
• “We’re happy that you’re happy!” 
• “Looks like we dropped the ball. What can we do to make this right?”
• “It’s always a pleasure having you drop in.” 
• “Where are yoooouuuu? We haven’t seen you in a while, and we miss you.”
• “Hey Name, we’ve got a [party] coming up, and you’re on the invite list. You in?” 
• “We’re looking for ## rockstars to lead out at Tough Mudder this weekend. Are you free?”
• “What did you think of [event]?
• “Name, you absolutely smashed through your goals for the month. Let’s celebrate?”
• “Hey Name, have you read your email?” 

See what I mean? 

You can use your SMS broadcast and autoresponder messages to build a one-to-one relationship with your members and prospects. 

Strategy #3: Attracting and Retain New Health Club Members with Social Media 

Here’s the problem with social media marketing. 

Those who are inexperienced use this marketing channel to spam their target audience with pitches and offers. As a result, potential members tune out. They see the social media posts put out by these health clubs for what they are. 

A cash grab. 

That’s the problem. A direct approach can work, but it’s the exception, not the rule. If you want to sell memberships through social media, you’ll find that the majority of your work is indirect. It’s important that you focus on outcomes—show, don’t tell. 

• Newsjacking
• Trolling conmen, shysters, and snake oil salesmen (e.g., exposing V-Shred)
• Killing sacred cows (e.g., calories in, calories out is a lie)
• Share member wins (e.g., She lost 150 lbs. in 1 year)
• Share personal training failures (e.g., How my ego tore my AC joint) 
• What to look for when you shop for a… 
• Content snippets (reels, shorts, excerpts, etc.) 
• Outcomes of community events, get-togethers, and social activities
• How to _____ properly

This isn’t a comprehensive list. 

It’s a short list outlining the types of content marketing you can create and post on your social media profiles. Remember our upfront research? You can take the desires, goals, fears, frustrations, and problems you’ve uncovered and turn them into content.

It’s easier than brainstorming or thinking of your own ideas. 

It’s also more effective—when you approach social media this way, your ideas are oriented around what your potential members already want.

Just one problem. 

It’s common for health clubs to share the same content across all of their social media profiles. 

Here’s why that’s a problem. 

Let’s say your health club has profiles on X, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram. Your health club shares all of the same content across your profiles. You want your target audience to follow all of your business profiles. If you share the same content across all of your profiles, your audience really only needs to follow one of your social media profiles. 

See what I mean? 

If you’re going to share valuable content on your social media profiles, make sure you’re sharing unique, platform-specific content. If you share member success stories on Instagram, share events on Facebook. Decide to troll fitness industry con men on YouTube? Share exposés on X.

The content mix is up to you.

Just make sure your content isn’t redundant. 

Strategy #4: Use Email Marketing to Boost Health Club Memberships and Retention

Email continues to grow.

As a marketing channel, email marketing continues to perform well—prospects continue to respond to the offers in messages. You can use broadcast (one-time) or autoresponder (automated) messages to communicate with customers. What’s not so easy is identifying which emails will produce the best results. Generating leads is an uphill battle if you’re unsure what to say. 

Here’s a data-driven method you can use to find the right message. 

1. List your target audience’s desires, goals, fears, frustrations, and problems. 
2. Write broadcast (one-time) emails and send them out. 
3. Use your email provider’s analytics and A/B split-testing tools to see which subject lines, body, and marketing emails perform best. 
4. Make a list of the winners. 
5. Create an autoresponder sequence with your winning emails—these are messages that are proven to work and consistently generate leads. 

You’ll want to repeat this process consistently over time. Use your broadcast emails as the proving ground to identify the messages that perform best. If your broadcast emails are terrible, it’s a one-time thing. You never have to use that message ever again.

On the other hand, if it works, you’ll have the messaging and data you need to create a high-performing autoresponder sequence. Use your emails to stay in touch, build relationships, pitch, and support your members. 

Have these membership-getting and retention channels in place? 

Strategy #5: Build Relationships to Increase Member Retention

Relationship is the glue that holds your retention plan together. 

As a general rule, relationships are built around values (expressed as culture). Group activities grease the wheels of relationships, keeping the group together. These activities could be: 

• Mission-oriented work: Fitness challenges, competitions, events, get-togethers, or goal-oriented tasks. 
• Online events: Webinars, meet-ups, seminars, communities, engagement triggers (e.g., hashtags), etc. 
• In-person events: Fitness challenges, workshops, seminars, social gatherings, meet-ups, meet-and-greets, etc.
• Community work: This includes charity events, volunteering, sponsorships, and donation drives. 

Your values and culture will dictate which activities mesh well with your health club. How do I know? It’s science, baby! Researchers at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor discovered there are four types of organizational cultures.

• Clan cultures are family-like. There’s a focus or special emphasis placed on mentoring, nurturing and investing in the growth of those in the clan. It’s all about doing and accomplishing together. Think Orangetheory Fitness.
• Adhocracy cultures are always in a state of flux. There’s a reason these clubs are seen as “tents rather than palaces.” Think Planet Fitness. 
• Hierarchy cultures follow rules and traditions. These health clubs are focused on perfection, efficiency, stability and doing things the right way. Think Equinox. 
• Market cultures can be highly competitive, cut-throat, and obsessed with results. The internal environment in market cultures is competitive, achievement-focused, and driven by outcomes and prestige. Think Gold’s Gym. 

Here’s the thing. 

You can’t build a relationship alone. This isn’t something you can simply force into place. You’ll need to work with the various roles in your group to build a cohesive community. 

Every group has three distinct member roles.

• Essentials refers to those with power. This could be health club management, celebrity clientele, power brokers, big spenders, etc. If you’re considered an ‘essential,’ you’re a decision-maker whose actions align closely with the wants and needs of their influencers.
• Influencers bend the tribe or member community to their will and make decisions. These members have the clout, power and control to establish essentials. These influencers are often powerful enough to replace or dethrone the essentials that displease them (e.g., an influential member who gets an employee fired).
• Interchangeable refers to the majority. These are your average members; they provide most of the value, revenue, and benefits influencers and essentials enjoy, but they have the least amount of clout or power. 

This is Selectorate Theory in a nutshell.

A strong community has a mix of formal and informal activities. If you want to boost retention rates and minimize churn, focus on building relationships and addressing the internal and external issues I mentioned in the chart at the beginning of this post. 

How to Measure and Adjust Your Marketing Efforts

How do you know your marketing works?

If you’re investing in your marketing and you’re doing the work to improve membership and retention rates, you need to know if it’s working or not. Are you using marketing analytics and testing tools to track your results? You should be; if you are, you’ll be able to identify important patterns in your marketing and advertising.

With the right metrics and KPIs, you can:

• Adjust your marketing strategy and tactics based on the results you achieve.
• Scale your marketing budget, volume of impressions, campaigns, and more.
• Use automation efficiently so you can do more with less.

Key Performance Indicators for Gym Advertising

Here are five key performance indicators (KPIs) you can use to measure the effectiveness of your gym advertising. 

1. Membership Growth Rate: This tracks new memberships over a specific period of time, tying new sign-ups to specific ad campaigns or messaging. 
2. Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR): This metric tracks revenue activity over time. There are various types of MRR you can track, including churn, expansion, reactivation, upgrade, and new MRR. Here’s a formula you can use to track MRR in your health club:
   Number of customers * average billed amount= MRR
3. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): How much does it cost to earn a new customer? This formula calculates the cost of acquiring a new gym member via advertising. Here’s the formula you can use to calculate this:
   Total ad expenses /  New members gained = CAC
4. Engagement rate:  your engagement rate measures activity— likes, clicks, shares,  and comments on your ads.  Higher engagement means lower ad costs,  making it easier to attract potential members.
5. Renewal rate: Your retention rate is a reflection of the people who’ve decided to renew/continue their membership. This KPI is directly tied to your churn rate and is an indication of the health of your business. To find your renewal rate:
   # of Renewals / Total eligible members  = Renewal rate
6. Membership Churn rate: The number of people who’ve stopped doing business with your health club over a specific period of time. Here’s the formula you can use to calculate your membership churn rate: 
   Total number of customers / Clients lost (this month) = Churn rate
7. Conversion rate: This measures the people who saw your offer and decided to take action (convert). Here’s the formula for that:
   # of Conversions / Total number of visitors x 100 = Conversion rate

When you track these KPIs, you gain actionable insight into your club’s performance. You know which ads are working and why. You’ll be able to identify the patterns behind your advertising and the details you’ll need to change. 

Relationship is the key to membership growth and retention

The research shows health clubs lose 50% of their members within 6 months. As we’ve seen, half of the reasons members leave are directly tied to their relationships with your health club. You can attract potential members and keep them with you indefinitely if you focus your attention on improving your relationship with them. 

While price is a concern, it’s not the most important issue. 

When potential members join, they want to achieve their goals at a place that’s welcoming and accepting. They want to build strong relationships and feel they fit into the bigger community.

They want to belong. 

Shift your focus to relationship and community building. If members of your health club don’t have strong emotional and social bonds with each other, they’re much more likely to leave. Keep potential members engaged and you’ll find lifelong members become the norm.