Marketing New Fitness Classes To Your Members

Are you thinking of adding a new group fitness class to your gym? Maybe you would like to offer disciplines like Pilates or Barre classes to complement your existing classes. One of the challenges many gym owners face when adding new classes is getting existing clients to step outside of their comfort zones and try it out. Clients often get attached to certain teachers, certain class formats, and specific time slots, and they get upset when that changes. Follow these tips to introduce new classes with success.

1. Don’t change your existing schedule…yet. If a client shows up for her usual 6pm all-levels flow class, and finds it has been changed to step, she’ll be understandably upset! Before making any changes to your schedule, have your teachers announce the change in class, send out a mass email, and post it to your website and social media.

2. Hold a launch. Make it a party! Ask your instructors to come and participate, have refreshments and hold a special introduction to the new class.

3. Run a workshop. If it is a class that is very different from what you already offer, hold a fundamentals workshop to introduce interested participants. If it is a discipline like Pilates or Barre use the workshop format to familiarize clients to the alignment, breath, and principles associated with it.

4. Offer incentives to attend. If the class is slow to build support, offer incentives to your clients, like a free class with the purchase of their next package if they attend the new class twice in a month.

It’s difficult to predict what classes will be popular and which ones won’t. If you believe a new class is a valuable addition to your gym then be patient. Sometimes new takes longer to catch on then we expect! Need help marketing your schedule and gym? Please contact us today!

Jim Thomas is the founder and president of Fitness Management USA Inc., a management consulting and turnaround firm specializing in the fitness and health club industry. With more than 25 years of experience owning, operating and managing clubs of all sizes, Thomas lectures and delivers seminars and workshops across the country on the practical skills required to successfully build teamwork and market fitness programs and products. Visit his Web site at: www.fmconsulting.net or www.jimthomsondemand.com