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Back-to-school season often brings a welcomed sense of routine for parents after the nonstop pace of summer. For gym owners, it brings a welcomed sense of relief and much-needed opportunity to get a significant segment of clients back through your doors. Mapping out your strategy to target or re-engage parents should happen now so that you can fully capitalize on the opportunity to fill your funnel and convert your leads.
People Without Kids:
🏋🏼♂️ “Today is gym day. If I head there now, I’ll have time to stop for an iced coffee on my way into work.”
People With kids:
🤯 “Today is gym day. If I wake up early, I can fit in a quick workout before the kids wake up. Oh, actually I’ll have to work out during my lunch break — the kids have an early drop off for summer camp and I’ve got an 8 a.m. meeting. Shoot, lunch won’t work because I blocked off my calendar to prep for that 3 p.m. presentation. After work I will have to…nevermind(!)...I forgot that I volunteered to help at tonight’s PTA fundraiser!” (and on and on it goes).
Even When You Love Working Out, It’s Hard to Make the Time
I work in fitness and I love the gym—but I also love and manage two kids aged 12 and 13. I know summer is a great time to work out but anytime I’m not working, my time is consumed by the kids. With work and parenting being two very separate but necessary priorities, I find very little time leftover to dedicate to myself. But knowing that I am a better colleague and a better parent when I work out, I’ve already made the commitment to get back in the gym when school is back in session.
Start Strategizing to Get Parents Back to the Gym Now
Don’t delay, your time is now. Many parents haven’t taken action and gotten back in the gym yet, but they are likely already thinking about it and may have even set a deadline for themselves (like when the kids go back to school). You want to start planting the seeds now so that when they are ready to take action, they already have you in mind. Personally, I already know that when mid-August arrives (kids go back to school early in my state), I’ll be back to yoga and will be looking into memberships for a HIIT gym.
1. Parents Who Have Cancelled Their Membership
They were members in spring but cancelled for summer. Pull the report and email them now. A nudge goes a long way. Trust me, some of them will come back (I’m one of them) and you’ve already got a lead list of people who engaged with and worked out with your gym. This is low-hanging fruit.
Simplify the process by creating an email template and then add a touch of AI magic, courtesy of Wodify’s AI email assistant for the messaging. Then segment your list by filtering members who canceled in April, May and June. A three-email drip campaign scheduled throughout the month will ensure you hit your segment effectively. P.S. if you’re worried three emails is too much, did you know salespeople are told to contact a lead at least 11 times?
And if you’re worried about using technology to build an automated email campaign, now is the time to learn! At Wodify, we’ll not only give you the software for email marketing, we’ll also teach you how to use it.
2. Parents Who Have Frozen Their Membership
Membership pauses are a major disruptor to revenue. However, these members are people who plan to return — they just may need a nudge or an incentive to do so. Pull a list of members who froze their membership in May or June. You should also mail them three times—just create a different segment and a slightly tweaked message for this group. Wodify email marketing software makes it easy to segment groups and send different emails to different gym members.
For example, offer a free class to use while their membership is on hold. This offer helps make members feel valued and missed as people, and not like you just miss having their business.
Send an email offer: “We miss seeing you! Here’s a class on us so you can get back in the swing of things as summer comes to an end.” As a parent, this would work to get me to resume my membership.
3. Parents Who Haven’t Used Their Membership
Pull a report on the people who are still paying but haven’t been in recently. They’re paying in full because they think it’ll motivate them to come back—but it doesn’t. I know because I’ve been there too!
Send a simple note: “We feel you, we know life’s been full, and we can’t wait to see you again after [insert your school district’s back-to-school date].”
Remind them about what they wanted when they initially signed up with you: a healthy life. They want this as much as you do (and hopefully more!), so a gentle nudge might be exactly what they need.
If you’re not pulling reports on the people who are paying you and not showing up, you should. Wodify makes reports like these easy. Identifying low utilization members is how you become proactive to membership cancellations rather than reactive.
Back-to-school is a great time for client acquisition beyond engaging parents who are existing members or former members. If you have lots of parents in the neighborhood or within commuting distance of your gym, think about ways to reach them—and start now!
1. Direct Mail Works
Gyms can use direct mail very successfully. Use a service that can target zip codes and households with kids. Make it fun and parent-relatable. An example of a company that does this can be found [here].
2. Partner with Schools
Partner with your local schools and ask them to promote you in their newsletter in return for donating a percentage of new member sign-ups back to the school.
Example 1: To incentivize the parents, offer a reward like a free first class and 15% off their first three months, plus a 10% donation to the school. You’ll be promoting Black Friday deals just as aggressive in a few months, so testing a discounted offer like this can provide future learnings.
Example 2: Or if you prefer to offer a free class, consider donating $500 to the school in return for promotion in their back-to-school newsletters. If you’re already thinking of spending money on paid social ads (see below), you’ll probably >$500 on Facebook—so why not try this too?
3. Parents Refer Other Parents to Gyms
When kids are young, our friends are our kids’ friends' parents—plus the moms and dads we like to chat with at school drop-off and pick-up. Capitalize on these networks and offer the parent who makes the referral a 10% discount on next month’s membership. Repeat for every friend who signs up.
You probably already offer one free class to new clients—so promote this to your parent members too. Create a poster and flyers and make sure they’re in a prominent place at your gym. Market it to the parents who maintained their summer routine and let them pull others back in.
4. Paid Facebook and Instagram Ads
As a gym, consider working with a paid digital agency or local independent consultant to target local parents using Facebook’s lookalike audiences. Finding a good paid ad agency is hard so ask other local businesses for referrals.
When you create your ads for Instagram and Facebook, don’t just make pleasant-looking graphics. Produce a homemade video of you in the gym talking about back-to-school offers. Better yet, include a client from your gym in the ads who’s up for being filmed. User-generated content with fun graphics, subtitling, and light editing looks great and tends to perform best.
September at your gym can be just as powerful as your January. If you wait until the chaos calms down, you’ll miss the moment. Parents who go to the gym aren’t lazy—they’re overwhelmed. Remind them that your gym is their space to breathe again. To catch the back to school wave, start marketing your gym to the parents now! See how.
