Advertising for gyms

A gym membership sold in January and cancelled in April produces perhaps £120 of revenue against an acquisition cost that is frequently higher.

The arithmetic that governs everything

Doubling retention doubles the budget you can afford to spend acquiring, which then lets you outspend competitors who have not fixed retention.

The first six weeks

Members who attend at least twice a week for six weeks mostly stay. Those who do not, leave.

That makes onboarding the highest-return marketing activity available: a booked induction, a written plan, a check-in call at week two, and an introduction to a class or a group.

None of it is advertising and all of it determines whether the advertising paid.

Advertise the specific thing you are

General fitness advertising competes with every gym and every budget chain. Specific positioning does not.

Workable specialisms: strength training with proper equipment and coaching; women-only; over-fifties and rehabilitation; a particular class discipline; small-group personal training; sport-specific conditioning.

Each addresses people for whom the budget chain is not an alternative.

What the advertising should show

Real members, at real ages and body types, in the actual facility. Stock imagery of athletic models is the category default and it deters exactly the people most likely to join.

The single most requested piece of information is what the place actually looks like inside, at a normal time of day, including how busy it is.

Trial and barrier reduction

The obstacle to joining is rarely price. It is the fear of not knowing what to do and being watched.

Offers that address that convert better than discounts: a guided first session, a two-week trial with a coach, or an off-peak introduction when the gym is quiet.

Contract terms are marketing

Long minimum terms and difficult cancellation generate the complaints that dominate reviews in this sector, and increasingly attract regulatory attention.

Flexible terms cost some revenue and win the members who refused to sign a twelve-month contract. In most markets that group is now larger than the one that will.

Corporate memberships

Local employers subsidising membership deliver members who join for reasons other than a New Year resolution and who consequently stay longer. It is a direct-sales channel and largely uncontested.