As we enter December, we have had more questions regarding that ever-important, ever-tricky period of the fitness industry’s calendar. The New Year rush. And as we here at the Gym Owner’s Forum like to base our work around what we are being asked and seeing discussed, we thought it was time to dive in and look at how to prepare for the seasonal ebbs and flows that everyone has come to expect.
Whether it is an influx of new members looking to change their ways after an indulgent festive period or a cadre of old members returning to their old haunt for much the same reason, the typical independent gym or fitness club can expect to take on new members.
But as the gym floor starts to fill up, spurred on by New Year’s resolutions, will many independent gym owners and management wish they had prepared more? Well that is what we will be looking at today, preparing in December so that the gym’s can hit the ground running in the New Year.
Because any mistakes are going to hurt the chances of retaining a demographic of famously volatile and easily deterred members, the New Year-Starters. The last thing any gym or fitness club management wants to be asking come February is “If we had done X differently, could we have held onto more members?”
“You only get one chance to make a First Impression”
How and why Independent Gyms should make their first impression count
And what better topic to start off our list than the first impressions?
A significant number of the new members that come through the doors of a given gym or fitness club in January are going to be seeing it for the first time. Whether it is due to a New Year sign-up deal or just the tangible ‘New Year, New Me’ effect that makes consumers try out new venues.
As such, there is no excuse for independent gyms and clubs not to be showing their A-game in January and February. Equipment under repair, facilities out of use, areas closed off for maintenance? None of these are going to do a good job of setting the tone required to keep retention rates high.
Many of these New Year Starters might not be around for more than the first month, and may only go two to three times a week within that time frame. That is only 8 to 12 chances to make an impression. If something is under repair for the entire time, or if an area is uncleaned or untidy for the duration, we won’t blame the member for being unimpressed.
There is only one chance at a first impression and many New Year Starters will require little encouragement to cancel their membership after one or two months.
However this also means there is the chance to make a striking impression. Many New Year Starters will be expecting to find parts of the gym not to their liking. If an independent gym can put on a strong showing early on, with everything friendly, clean and functional. This too will stand out in their minds.
When the people in their life ask ‘how is that new gym membership going’, every independent gym management team should aim to have that member talking about how much better it was than they expected from their first handful of impressions.
Preparing the New Year's Promotions, Deals and Codes
Just because a deal goes live on January 1st or 2nd, doesn’t mean that is the first time a gym or club should start advertising it. It has been proven time and time again that cumulative exposure to ads is more effective. Mid to late December is a perfect time to start pushing those special promotional membership deals.
Plant the seed early and when people start thinking about signing up for a new gym membership, there is every chance that the promotion they witnessed over the last week or two will stand out first and foremost in their mind.
Help set the tone for your promotional offers, classes and workshops during December and they will be fully functional by the time the New Year’s crunch period comes along. By utilising the usual channels such as Facebook, Tiktok and Instagram, an independent gym can funnel large numbers of prospective members during a busy traffic time frame onto their landing pages.
Beginner-Friendly Events:
We’ve talked in previous articles about holding Christmas events to mobilise members during the festive season, but that doesn’t mean we think the events should end on December 31st.
Many independent gym owners have found great success in boosting retention by holding New Year events either specifically aimed at or designed to endear to New Year Starters.
Many people, especially the kind that fall into the New Year membership pattern, suffer from ‘Gymtimidation’. To the uninitiated, a new Gym can be a daunting place, even if the staff are nice, the facility is clean and the equipment is well-maintained. It is still a place full of unknown entities, whether that is the noise, the people or the workout equipment itself.
Beginner friendly events can help to demystify and normalise the facility, the staff and some of the members in a fun and engaging way.
While these events don’t have to be explicitly induction or introduction sessions, they should be tailored to both appeal to new starters and with the expectations they will arrive.
It isn’t enough just to appeal to them, the event itself must appeal. This will be a key part of the retention journey and a disappointing or stressful event will be worse than no event at all.
But these events don’t need to be grand affairs, they don’t even necessarily need to involve that much working out. We have heard gym owners tell us of the effective coffee mornings they have been running during the dark winter months. We should not underestimate the power of these small moments when it comes to the retention rate. The more positive associations a gym can accrue in the mind of the member, the less likely the membership will be on the chopping block come March.
Stock Up!
New members means more secondary spend! Make sure there is enough in stock. There is nothing more frustrating for new and old members alike than an independent gym running out of vital stock during a busy period.
This is where Gym’s that have successfully integrated their secondary spend into their data-capture software will have an advantage. Being able to revisit the records from the previous years to see what was popular can be invaluable in planning ahead for the New Year rush.
Load-up the Christmas Calendar, steer the latter third towards New Year
The Christmas calendar isn’t just for Christmas, gyms and clubs should also be using it to promote New Year.
Keeping your social media and website calendar firing at all cylinders during the festive period is vital. It is a time of heavy social media usage and one where a message or campaign can travel far.
Not only will this keep members engaged during a period where they are less free to attend the facility, it will also help sustain a perfect audience for New Year messaging to come online during the latter third of the month. By the 20th of December, and especially after the 25th, a lot of people already have their eye on the New Year and the ‘sensible decisions’ that that will bring. Sensible decisions like joining a Gym!
By structuring the festive content calendar in such a way that it seamlessly leads in, it will be creating a natural transition from Christmas to New Year and guiding members and prospective members in the right direction to see your promotional offers.
Conclusion
And that concludes our look at how to prepare for the New Year while pushing through the festive period. Like many industries, there is a lot of gain to be made during these hectic few months.
While it is a period that happens every 12 months, not every gym and club we talk to is able to reflect on their performance over the last few festive periods and use it to inform the decisions and preparations they will make this year.
We think this is making life much harder than it needs to be. One of the most valuable things we as independent gym owners and management teams can do is learn from what did and didn’t work in the past.
But that is just our opinion, if you work in the fitness industry, either as an owner, manager or staff member, we want to hear yours! Either in the comments or via e-mail or direct message.
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