Has your fitness business started to plateau? Are you struggling to attract new clients to your fitness studio? Do you feel that your revenue and bottom-line would be much better if you had more feet walking through your door every day? Finding new fitness studio members is one of the greatest challenges in the industry, but there are ways to get first-time students to funnel through your studio that don’t require a lot of energy and money.

1. Word of mouth – Word of mouth is by most accounts the best way to get first-timers into your studio. People tend to trust the activities and teachers that their friends love, so tap into your community and encourage them to invite their friends and family to class. Make sure that you are offering quality classes and encouraging connections within your community. Taking these steps will ensure greater retention once people come in for their initial workout. A stellar customer experience will also inspire your members to intuitively tell their loved ones about your studio, without you having to ask. Aside from having people bring their friends to class, you can also ask for online ratings from satisfied customers, and use tools that increase the likelihood of referrals. FitGrid’s Class App makes it easy for people to invite their friends with the simple click of a button and FitGrid’s Pro App helps strengthen the bond between instructor and client, cultivating loyalties that can lead to more authentic word of mouth referrals.
   
   
2. Offer livestream classes globally, and make them searchable – One benefit of offering digital classes is that you become unrestricted by local boundaries. With live-stream, you have the ability to offer your classes to anyone in the world. Make sure you are delivering quality classes and make the names catchy and unique to stand out from the thousands of other online workouts. Using a tool like the FitGrid Class App allows you to list your classes in a global calendar that is visible to people from all over the world. The FitGrid Class App further allows students to easily invite their friends to your digital class.
   
   
3. Host unique events – Host special events partnering with other highly regarded businesses in your community to reach a new local audience. Make sure the event is hosted at or near your studio. These events will help you reach the community of other local businesses as well as people who live in the area who are looking for a unique way to work out.
   
   
4. Hire a publicist – Just like with word of mouth, potential clients tend to trust earned media more than advertising messages. Hiring a local publicist to help get the word out about your fitness studio to the local news can help improve both your brand awareness and your class attendance. You could also pull this task in-house, dedicating some time and energy each week to building relationships with local journalists by inviting them to a class or event and sending out pitches with a compelling story about your fitness studio.
   
   
5. Reach out to past clients – One source of added foot traffic that often gets overlooked is your database of past clients. Research indicates that it can be much easier and more cost-effective to regain a past client than to find new clients. Seek out clients who were happy with their experience and might have left due to financial reasons or because they got busy at work and send them an email letting them know that you’d love to welcome them back into the community. FitGrid’s Win-back function makes this process simple and effective. You can also leverage your instructors by asking them to reach out to people who used to regularly visit their classes at your studio with FitGrid’s Pro App.

Finding new clients for your fitness studio doesn’t have to be time and energy intensive. Oftentimes making small tweaks or reaching out to people in specific ways can help boost attendance, membership, and revenue.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

FitGrid is a community management system designed for boutique fitness studios to engage clients on a personal level