Key strategies to convert gym leads into members

What’s the secret to turning all those “maybe” members into “show-up-twice-a-week” members? In short, how do you convert leads into paying customers?

Lead conversion plays a fundamental role in sales and marketing. Get it right, and you’ll have a consistent flow of new members signing up to your gym. Get it wrong, and your future forecasts will look a little lean. 

Here, we explore the role of gym lead nurturing, and how automation can help.

Gym leads need nurturing

Did you know it takes around seven interactions to turn a prospect into an actual customer? Just like you need to feed your body after a big workout, you need to keep feeding or nurturing all the leads you generate in your business.

Essentially, the goal of lead nurturing is to move a prospect further down the sales funnel. You want to get them to that critical, pointy end of the journey where they’re (almost) ready to sign up. 

Let’s say you run a martial arts studio, and you want to implement some strategies to help move more potential members from the “awareness” phase of the sales funnel to the “conversion” phase. The prospect has already done some preliminary research, and they know that martial arts is for them. They’ve probably gotten pricing from you and your closest competitors. They might have popped their head in to check out your facilities. They may have chatted with your Sensei or asked about your coaching credentials. 

So far, you and your competitor are neck and neck across all of the above criteria. Similar pricing, great facilities, awesome instructors. 

What can you do to show them that your business is The One? Let's dive into what you could do.

Ways to convert more leads into members

Promote your culture

Share stories or testimonials that showcase your studio’s culture and atmosphere. Use a tool that makes it easy for members to provide feedback or add testimonials about how your studio is a place where all ranks – regardless of belt colour – treat each other with respect.

Turn trials into paying members with guest passes

Your existing members can be your biggest advocates. Give them the ability to send guest passes to friends, so they can come and experience the classes before committing.

Turn abandoned carts into opportunities

Set up your system so that, if a prospect enters their name and email address on your website, their details are captured and automatically added to a lead nurture program.

Set up automated email nurture campaigns

Once you’ve captured a lead, follow up with an automated email workflow across a couple of weeks. The content of these emails could include health and wellness tips, updates about your classes, lessons from martial arts disciplines you teach, and more.

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Sweeten the deal

Offer incentives like introductory offers, discounts or bundled packages to encourage them to join. Create a sense of urgency with your offer by putting a time limit on it (e.g., “50% off your first month of membership, expires in 24 hours”).

Offer support

Proactively address any final concerns or hesitations by offering personalised support. Having a centralized system that manages all leads can help your team deliver the right support at the right time.

Simplify sign-up

Make the sign-up process as easy as possible, from securing the agreement to processing the payment. To grab that 50% off deal, for example, they don’t want to have to fill out a 10-page application form. At initial sign-up, just grab the essentials.

Strategies like these can help nurture your leads and (hopefully) get more prospects across the line. And they work whether you’re running a martial arts studio, a chain of gyms, a boutique pilates studio, or any other type of fitness business.

Optimize lead conversion rates with automation

When you’re flat out running your gym, building and refining your sales and marketing strategy can feel like a big ask. The good news? Marketing automation really does help to lighten the load.

With Hapana, for example, you can easily set up automated email workflows to nurture your leads with personalized messages that are sent at just the right time. And you can manage all your prospects via one central platform, giving everyone in your business a clear view of where members are at in their journey. 

To see how Hapana can help you convert more members, with less effort, take a tour of our gym management software today.