Get customers through your gym’s doors
The fitness industry is big business.
Members of UK gyms and centres have reached all-time highs of over 10 million.
And there are more gyms than ever for them to choose from.
So it should be clear that while opportunity abounds, so does competition.
Finding innovative ways to grow your membership base can be the key to your success for the rest of 2026 and beyond.
This article will look at 6 different ways you can attract more members and retain them too.
Explore your local community
Make sure you truly understand who your possible members are. What people live near your gym? What do they do, what do they like, and how do they exercise?
Building up customer profiles will allow you to make more informed decisions based on specific customer types you’re targeting.
You may also find that opportunities for partnerships can increase exposure to your business. Is there a much loved bakery whose treats you could stock in your café?
Or perhaps there’s a large local corporation who’s looking for ways to engage their own employees. Could you offer them a discounted corporate rate in return for the extra footfall that will generate?
Offer discounts to underserved demographics
As well as understanding who’s currently coming in through your doors, it’s important to look at who isn’t. Are there certain groups within the local community that don’t feel like they can join your gym for whatever reason?
Perhaps you don’t have many senior citizens among your clientele. Your member base largely caps out around 50 years of age. What could you being doing differently?
Older people might be looking for lower intensity activities, like yoga, stretching sessions, more accessible or low impact classes, or even simply social events.
Equally, if your members are predominantly male, you might be missing out on significant numbers of potential female recruits. Is the atmosphere in your gym too masculine or threatening? You might love that giant boxing poster, but is it putting people off?
Extend your hours
It may well be the case that you are attracting the right people but something else is letting you down: the hours your gym is open. Extreme example, but if you close at 6pm, you’re missing all the professionals who want a two-hour workout after they’ve finished their 9-5.
If you only open at 9am, you’re missing the pre-work rush as well. While 24/7 coverage like the big box gyms might not be feasible, you could be able to offer more than you expect.
A flexible rota using a smart scheduling solution like Findmyshift could be the perfect way to experiment with longer hours and seeing what brings people in.
Host other events in your space
It’s also important to consider that you can attract people to your establishment for non-fitness events. As mentioned above, local seniors are often looking for places to meet others and socialise. Other clubs, societies, and interest groups might also be interested in spaces where they can meet and hold events.
If your business has spaces, like a café, sports hall, or studio they can be put to multiple uses, explore different offerings that you could host there to attract new demographics.
Maybe your sports hall is underused because no one is booking mid-morning badminton games. Why not see if local schools want to come have their gym classes there, or if dance classes might be more popular?
Encourage feedback
It’s essential in any industry to take feedback on board and adopt a mindset of continually looking to improve. Make it easy for existing customers to make suggestions and offer advice, as well as asking anyone interested who doesn’t sign up what stopped them.
You may well find that you can get more members by addressing simple concerns, or you might spot trends that are costing you money, allowing you to make changes.
Reward loyalty
As well as attracting new customers, it’s important to keep your existing ones. Rewarding loyalty is a great way to do that. You don’t want to be standing still when it comes to serving your current members.
Engage them with offers, discounts over time, reward schemes, recognition of their visits, hard work, and milestones. Satisfied customers are likely to tell their friends about you, and word of mouth marketing is a powerful free source of publicity.
Keep your customers happy and you may find you generate even more traffic than you expect