“Friends don’t let friends work out alone.” Not only is that a catchy advertising slogan, but the same concept can work to your advantage when it comes to member retention.
NOTE: The purpose of this article is to show you how to keep the members you already have. For free articles on other health club marketing topics, please visit:http://www.cuecd.com/ or our blog:http://cuecd.blogspot.com/.
It’s a proven fact that members will work out more often, and will maintain their membership for longer, if they come to the gym with a friend or family member. Friends and family create a support network of sorts, reminding and encouraging one another to exercise. They have the ability to hold one another accountable in a way that you, the gym owner, never can. That’s why groups like TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) place such a huge emphasis on friendship and team building. That’s also why it’s easier to tour several friends as a group than it is to tour them individually; friends and/or family members on the same tour will pressure each other to join, making your sales job easier!
There are several tactics you can employ to get members’ friends and family enrolled:
1) Issue member referral cards in the Welcome Packet so the brand new (and excited!) fitness center member can give their friends and family a personal invitation to join. A Welcome Packet is something you give each new health club member on the day they join the gym. A member referral card is simply a business-size card that is made to look like a coupon. It should list the name of the gym, the offer (usually 50% off), and include a space for the member to write their name. New gym members are usually energized and eager to begin exercising. By giving them member referral cards, you’re allowing them to share that enthusiasm with their friends and family. Harnessing this excitement can be very rewarding for you, the gym owner!
2) Always have member referral cards available on the front desk. The member referral card is very inexpensive to produce, and quite effective at pulling in new members. With this in mind, you should also keep a stack of “Friends and Family Only” member referral cards available for your existing health club members to take. Make them special and unique, and they’ll be more likely to be used. For example, if the BEST offer you usually offer to the public is 50% off registration, then make the “Friends and Family Only” offer 60% off registration. This gives the member referral card real value, and thus makes it more likely that existing members will distribute them for you.
3) Feature a Mother’s Day sale where family can join for 1/2-price registration. For a women’s-only circuit training health club, Mother’s Day is a tremendous opportunity to boost membership numbers. The easiest promotion to run is “Mom & Daughter Join 2 for the price of 1″. Another variation is to offer 3-for-1 pricing when mom, daughter and granddaughter all join at the same time. The goal here is not only to gain new members, but also to lock in high member retention rates! When mom and daughter are exercising together and encouraging each other, they are simply not going to quit the health club!
4) Host frequent Friend Day promotions. At least once per month you should promote a special Friend Day. On that day, allow any member to bring any number of friends for a free workout. You may even want to award small prizes or thank you gifts for each member that brings a friend. Provide a free lunch, offer deep discounts for friends who join on that day, or do something else creative. Remember that if you can get Jane’s friend to join the gym, then you’ve also just made Jane 10x more likely to remain a happy (and paying) member.
5) Encourage gift certificate sales for birthdays, holidays, or just any occasion! Every single health club member gives gifts each year for Christmas, birthdays, etc. Why not encourage them to give gym gift certificates?
6) Utilize the Sponsorship Program or 72-Hour Sponsorship Program. A 72-Hour Sponsorship program is widely used by some health club chains, and can be effective if administered correctly. In a nutshell, it’s a referral plan for new members. When somebody joins the fitness center, AT THE TIME OF SIGNING, you provide them with a form on which to write down the names and phone numbers of their friends and family. You then call the names on the list and offer them a limited-time offer to join too. Of course, you must offer an incentive to get the names and phone numbers. One good idea is to give the new member 1 free month for each person who joins off their list. So, if the new gym member gives you a list of 20 friends and family, and 12 of those people also join the gym, then they get 12 free months. This plan really boosts member retention because eventually you’ll (hopefully) have large groups of friends exercising together and having a great time getting results. Who’d want to quit that?
So, a very effective way to increase member retention is to get member’s friends and family to join the health club too. This member retention strategy works because friends don’t let friends work out alone.