The secret to boosting new member attendance 200% this January

As the most important month of the year, starting strongly in January can set clubs up for a stellar sales year. But once a sale is complete and that member starts hitting the gym floor, many clubs lack a solid strategy to set them up for success. Which is surprising when you consider that acquiring a new customer can cost five to seven times more (Forbes) than retaining a current one.

Industry figures suggest half of new joiners leave their facility within the first six months, and 52% of all cancellations are silent – meaning members pulled an upcoming payment without prior notice, or quit the gym without sharing a reason. So how can your club protect revenue and avoid being ghosted by new members? New research from the Les Mills Lab, in conjunction with Iowa State University, has identified pivotal touchpoints in the member journey that come before they even set foot in the gym. And once those habits are baked in, the results can be transformative.

The study saw 1,134 people – all new to exercise – split into eight groups. Each group was assigned varying interventions, including goal setting, motivational support, a preparation habit, and an instigation habit. At the end of the trial period, researchers found preparation and instigation to have the biggest impact on exercise adherence. The group assigned preparation and instigation habits, along with goal setting, had the strongest adherence to exercise – achieving 200% higher attendance than the group that had no interventions and 29% higher than the group that only did goal setting.

How your members can apply preparation and instigation

So what’s the key to strong preparation and instigation habits? And how can you help members to implement them? Preparation – everything needed to execute a new habit – is defined as an event regularly preceded by a consistent environmental or behavioral cue. For example, members might have time to pack their gym bag every evening after dinner, so “finishing dinner” can be the cue/context to trigger a habit of preparing the clothes, thereby starting the process of committing to exercise the next day.

When preparation is coupled with instigation, exercise adherence becomes even stronger. This combination promotes the idea we are better at starting a new behavior when we partner it with an existing one. This asks members to think about their daily schedules to identify good opportunities to exercise that are regularly preceded by another routine or behavior and occur on at least 3-5 days of the week. For example, they might have time to exercise every day during their lunch hour and are always in the same place before lunch. That place they are in, before the lunch hour, would be the context for exercise instigation —triggering the decision to go and exercise.

For advice on how to apply these learnings and others with your new members, download our new SMART START Guide. And as January edges closer, here are five crucial steps clubs can take to help members build unbreakable habits.

1. Onboarding

Going beyond the equipment tour and diving into what motivated your new member to show up is key to their success - and your chances of keeping them. This means understanding why they’ve chosen now to join, their goals, and any potential barriers they face. Many members know what they want to achieve, but think less about the hurdles that could derail their progress. Gaining a deeper understanding of their existing routines and the time they have available to exercise helps hatch a plan they can adhere to.

On the importance of good onboarding, Retention expert Dr. Paul Bedford notes: “The analogy I often use is that it’s like walking into a car showroom and giving the keys to a Bentley to someone who hasn't got a driving license. Can they even get it out of the showroom? It’s crucial to put the right support in place so that new joiners are being set up for success.”

2. Set achievable targets

Making it to the club at all is a major challenge for many new members, so setting goals that are realistic and achievable is vitally important to ensure they stay motivated to keep coming back and avoid being disheartened. Again, honest conversations around how much time they can comfortably dedicate to exercise will help to calibrate expectations around what realistically be achieved. A good goal for new joiners is one that feels attainable and comes with the expectation it can be improved upon over time.

Cate Majors, Fitness Supervisor at Brighton Recreation Center in Colorado recently grew group training attendance at the facility by 68%. Part of that sustained growth comes down to honest conversations with members suggesting a staggered approach to intensity. “I've learned it's really important to set attainable goals at the very start. When I talk to someone who hasn’t tried group fitness in the past and they're telling me they want to be here four days a week, I advise them to build a habit and then graduate to add in more options as they progress."

3. Accountability

Exercising in a supportive group is one of the most powerful forms of motivation. Studies show wellbeing increases 21% when working out with other people, so hosting a new member mixer or encouraging new members to bring a buddy to the gym is a great way to support this.

And it’s not just member wellbeing that increases when people move together – it’s also very healthy for a club’s bottom line. Members who attend group training classes visit their facility 4 times per week (compared to IHRSA’s industry average figure of 1.9 member visits per week). Meanwhile, those who do 3+ Les Mills classes per week stay members of their club 50% longer than those who don’t do classes – that’s an extra 9.8 months of dues per member.

Group training is the ideal place to start when it comes to building foundational habits that drive retention and friendships says Ish Cheyne, Head of Fitness at the 12-strong Les Mills New Zealand (LMNZ) chain of clubs, where group fitness typically accounts for 50 per cent of overall gym attendances. “Whether it’s allowing new members to bring a friend for free for a week, encouraging people to join as a group, or steering new members towards the ready-made community of the group exercise studio, do everything you can to help members develop friendships within the club.”

4. Timetable analysis

When it comes to driving good habits that are easy to adhere to, group training is a key part of the club offering – research shows 81% of fitness beginners are interested in group workouts. But making habits stick requires a timetable that supports members’ diverse needs. This means offering a broad range of timeslots and class types – augmented by in-club Virtual classes – to match the varying interests and routines of members.

Sophie Brown, Studio Co-ordinator at UK-based operator Gym64 says: “What I do is take a helicopter view of the week and design our timetable horizontally from there. So, if you come in at 6pm, you're getting something different every day. I do my research, and I’ve compared our offering with budget gyms in the area. Monday to Friday, all they do is strength, strength, and more strength. But to keep members coming back they need to see variety and providing that has definitely helped us.”

5. The power of your people

As the only element that rivals can’t replicate, people are a club’s most valuable asset and this is especially true at the start of the member journey. The ability of Instructors to boost self-esteem and offer timely encouragement can be crucial in the early weeks of habit formation. And these same Instructors play a key role in attracting them in the first place.

59% of club member prospects say the people who work there are a key factor in choosing a gym to join, while having contact with a great Instructor makes a member 2.5 times more likely to refer a club to their friends. Further proof that an investment in people pays handsome dividends.