At a glance

If you don’t already have a “bring a friend” day established, you’re missing out on one of the easiest promotion tools for building a membership base. Not only is this one of the easiest ways to promote your business, it's also one of the most cost-effective ways to get new members into your gym by utilizing your existing members and the love they already have for your facility. 

Members are your best promoters and want to share the love to get their friends, family and colleagues to enjoy the same perks they do through fitness. 

5 Ways to Gain New Gym Members

Here’s what to consider to make sure you have a successful strategy for gaining new members.

Schedule a "Bring a Friend" Day 

Having a “bring a friend” day is easily to implement and won’t cost you a dime. Whether you have a weekly “bring a friend day” or only do once a month, you can schedule in time to have new prospect clients come in, try out a class, and see if it’s a good fit for them. 

Some facilities have every Friday as their day to bring someone in, while others do the first Friday of the month. Determine a frequency that works best for you and your coaching staff to be prepared to help newer athletes move well and get the top-notch quality customer service that leads to new memberships.

Make Workouts Friendly to All Levels

We know you want to make sure that new prospects get a great workout, push themselves, have fun and get a taste of what you have to offer - but we don’t want to set them up for failure on day one. We would never recommend that new athletes perform more advanced exercises like squat snatches on day one, so there are certain things  to leave off the program for these scheduled “bring a friend” days, unless your targeted demographic is advanced athletes. 

Making these workouts friendly to anyone who walks into the door is your best bet for gaining a new member as well as ensuring your coaching staff isn’t overwhelmed into providing only one new athlete with all of their attention in class.    

Consider Staffing needs

Depending on the workout, is more than one coach required? While it might be unlikely, what if 10 new athletes came in who have never worked out in their life but are excited to try? Would your coach be prepared to help all of them effectively? 

It can be helpful to have a second coach on standby to ensure that all of these new prospects receive the assistance and service you’d like to provide them, which ultimately means higher conversion rates to membership.

Touch Base After Class

Follow through is everything and your coaches are your best business partners! So before they leave, make sure a coach is connecting with them one-on-one to see how they enjoyed the workout and discuss any concerns they may have about joining. It’s a great time to discuss membership options as well as the process to get started. 

This is also a great time to make sure they feel welcome and talk about their bigger goals to see how your facility can best help them on their journey. It’s about providing an entire experience, rather than just a workout.

Encourage Existing Members to share their experience 

Remind your athletes regularly to bring anyone who might be interested in a free workout. We know that consistency is key in workouts, and the same is true for promoting offerings such as “bring a friend” days. Your members love the workouts and are obsessed with your coaching staff, so encourage them to share that love with their friends, colleagues, and family. 

You can even encourage them to post about your gym on social media if that avenue works best for your promotion. We all know that fitness and embracing the suck is the most fun when we share it with others, so remind your athletes how they play a vital role in building that community. 

Grow your Fitness Business

Keep these tips in mind when implementing your own "Bring a Friend" Day can help you grow your gym in no time, but if you need a little more guidance or inspiration for your business then sign up for a FREE affiliate account with us and gain access to marketing materials and more!