Never underestimate the power of member retention for your gym or fitness business. The longer your members stay, the more consistent your revenue and profits will be.
Attracting new members to your gym is important, but retaining your members is what will drive long-term success. When members stick around longer, their lifetime value (LTV) increases, meaning you won’t have to keep spending on new sign-ups.
Let’s dive into why member retention is so important—and how you can boost it with simple, effective strategies
Why is Member Retention Important in the Fitness Industry?
Retaining members not only helps them see better results but also ensures a steady flow of income for your gym as they keep coming back.
With around 7,595 gyms and fitness clubs in Australia in 2024, competition is fierce. Focusing on retention helps your gym stand out and sets you up for long-term success.
Acquiring a new member can cost 5 to 25 times more than retaining an existing one. A 5% increase in retention can boost profits by 25-95%. By prioritising retention, you’ll reduce member loss and increase revenue, which means more profit for your gym.
So, if you reduce the number of members leaving (attrition) and increase the amount of time members stay (retention), you’ll increase member LTV. And reduce the constant spending required to bring in new members.
Plus, members who stay with you for longer and make use of their membership, are more likely to see the benefits of consistently working towards their fitness goals. So, you’ll have more happy members ready to take part in your gym member referral programme and promote your club for you!
What is the Key to Member Retention?
The secret to retention is simple: visits. The more often your members visit, the more likely they are to stay.
So how often should a member visit? Unfortunately, there is no magic answer to this. According to Canstar Blue, 44% of gym members visit three to five times per week, while 24% go once or twice weekly. The ideal frequency varies, but even one visit a week can help new members build a habit.
Encourage visits with automated milestone emails, personal check-ins, and incentives for attendance.
How to Positively Influence Member Retention
The importance of member retention for gyms is clear. By keeping an eye on length of stay, membership metrics, and visit tracking, you’ll have the insights to boost retention.
Monitor Length of Stay and Membership
- Length of stay = the time between a member joining and their last visit.
- Length of membership = the time between a member joining and cancelling.
IHRSA reports that 50% of new members leave within six months.
Track Visits and Engagement
When a member stops visiting regularly, it’s a red flag that a member might cancel soon. Reaching out and re-engaging members early, can help you win back at-risk members.
Without visit data it’s easier to lose members. It makes seeing when a member has stopped visiting impossible. And without full visibility, you’re flying blind.
How to Improve your visit tracking data:
- Using integrated access control systems
Make it easy for members to check-in and use access control equipment that integrates with your gym software. - Training staff on the importance of tracking
Help your team see the link between visit tracking and retention. When they understand its impact, they will be more motivated to help you boost member loyalty (and revenue). - Selecting gym management software with automated retention tools
Choose gym management software that includes gym retention features. It should automatically track each member’s visit habits and highlight any changes, so you can act quickly to re-engage them as their attendance patterns shift. Or better still, kick-off re-engagement comms automatically. - Rewarding members for attendance
Reward members in return for their loyalty using visit data for tracking. That could mean creating goals and rewarding members who hit them For example, bring a friend when you reach 25 visits, or get an exclusive t-shirt when you hit 150 visits.
“Members were forced to record or book every visit as we came out of lockdown. This provided very rich visit data, which had previously not always been that accurate. As restrictions have been relaxed, so has visit tracking at many clubs.
Although visit tracking has improved in general, there is still room to tighten up visit data further.
This comes down to education of staff and members to the benefits of checking in every visit (retention, rewards, tailoring the journey, service, products, etc.).
Most people are quite happy to let their supermarket know what they’re buying each week, or how often they’re ordering a coffee and what with. The gym experience should be just the same, with appropriate rewards (e.g., everyone loves a t-shirt!).”
~ Guy Griffiths, GGFit
11 Strategies to Increase Gym Member Retention
So how can you increase member retention rates for your gym business? Follow these 11 member retention strategies to boost gym member loyalty and profitability:
1. Improve Your Onboarding Process
63% of new members stop attending within three months. A structured onboarding journey helps build strong habits early.
Review your gym member onboarding process. Take new members on the optimal journey with you.
Look at the type of induction session (or sessions) you offer. And how you can make use of automated emails and SMS messages sent at the optimal time for each member.
Your goal should be to help members get on track to achieve their goals and build the habit of visiting regularly.
Looking for inspiration? Get your free copy of the Successful New Gym Member Onboarding Playbook for a guide of what to send and when. Plus 20+ ready-to-use message templates.
2. Seek Out and Act on Member Feedback
Member feedback is a valuable tool for retention—don’t underestimate its potential.
Starting early in your onboarding journey, create a feedback-focused culture. Encourage and welcome feedback, making it everyone’s role to seek it out.
When members provide feedback, show you’ve listened. Have empathy. Demonstrate the action you’re taking. And where you can’t make a request happen, get in touch with the member and show that you’ve heard. Publicly sharing feedback (and what you’ve done as a result) helps you make time for it. And shows members that providing feedback is worthwhile. Remember to celebrate good feedback. So, you’ll understand what’s going well, just as much as seeing where to make improvements.
“Call out where individual team members receive praise from members. When a team member is mentioned positively, team morale is boosted.
And it helps create positive change amongst the team. Others will seek and enjoy individualised feedback.”
~ Julie Allen, Active Insight
3. Reward Members for Visiting
Building a habit takes time, and small incentives can go a long way in keeping members engaged. From coffee shops to supermarkets, we’re becoming increasingly used to being rewarded for loyalty—so why not apply the same principle to gym visits?
Creating a rewards program that is linked to visits is a great way to encourage members to keep up the habit. Try these ideas to get started:
- Sending a celebratory email when a member achieves a visit milestone (e.g. 100 visits)
- Giving prizes for reaching visit milestones (e.g., a water bottle for 25 visits, a towel for 100 visits, an exclusive t-shirt for 250 visits, etc.)
- Calling out members as they reach visit milestones and reach their goals via your social media channels
4. Help Members Set SMART Goals
Many gyms set their members goals during onboarding, but keeping your members engaged over time is just as crucial – if not more so. Encourage them to track their progress and regularly revisit their goals to stay motivated.
Make sure goals are SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. It should be easy for members to record and track progress using your gym member app. And even offer programmes and workouts tailored to goals via your app.
5. Hire & Retain the Right Team
The gym staff you hire will have a direct influence on retention. By hiring, motivating, and retaining the right people, you’ll build stronger relationships with your members and improve the member experience.
Research from IHRSA and The Retention People (TRP) showcased the impact that staff can have on members and retention:
- 90% of club members value communication from staff members
- Every 2 interactions fitness staff have with a member in a month, results in 1 extra visit the next month
- Those classified as promoters in Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys frequently mention staff in responses
6. Offer Personal Training (PT) & Programs
Working with a personal trainer can increase how often a member visits, influence progress, and improve retention.
In a study, TRP found that members who had 4+ PT sessions in the last 3 months:
- Visited the gym more often (83.5% visited 1+ times a week vs. 72.3% of those who had no PT sessions)
- Reported more progress toward fitness and weight loss goals, making new friends and visiting as frequently as planned compared to those who had no PT sessions
- Cancel at a lower rate (15.2% cancellation rate per 1,000 members per month vs. 21.4% for those who had no PT sessions)
Help your personal trainers to effectively coach members with the right tools to increase retention.
The gym management software that you choose should let your trainers create goals, build custom workouts and training programs, stay connected with members, and easily track their progress.
7. Encourage Your Members to Socialise & Connect
In a world where people are working remotely and socialising online, visiting the gym helps members meet new people IRL. If members feel part of a community, they are less likely to quit the gym.
Look for ways that you can encourage members to interact and get to know each other.
Group exercise is a great place to start. Why? Because group exercisers who visit once a week are 20% more likely to be loyal members than those who visit 3 times a week and only workout on the gym floor.
Other ideas to create community at your gym and make it a social place to be a part of include:
- Events like quizzes and DJ nights
- Fitness challenges
- Refer a friend promotions
- Free guest passes
8. Review Membership Options & Pricing
While attrition research found that some cancellations are for cost or financial reasons, it’s worth regularly reviewing your gym contracts and gym pricing strategy.
Have the right options available and let members switch packages to reduce cancellations. Make sure you are competitive. And that members understand the value a membership holds.
If cost is an issue for a member:
- Suggest a value package that might suit their needs based on usage patterns (e.g., if their membership includes classes that they don’t use, suggest a gym-only membership)
- Let your members choose which perks they want with a basic gym-only option. Add bolt-on extras for classes, personal training sessions, coffees or shakes from your café, etc.
- Supply a promotional offer for a fixed period
- Offer a temporary freeze, free of cost in certain circumstances (staying in regular contact to keep top of mind and prepare them for returning)
Rolling monthly memberships and casual pay-as-you-go access can help you win members who don’t want to or can’t commit to a longer term contract.
“A freeze or suspension may be an option for members who aren’t visiting right now, especially if injured or finding it difficult to visit.
Limiting the freeze term and communicating constantly during a freeze (encouraging an early return and maintaining engagement) is critical to get members back after a freeze, otherwise, you’re just delaying the cancellation.”
~ Guy Griffiths, GGFit
9. Keep Your Offerings Fresh
Keeping workouts fresh and exciting is key to keeping members engaged. Regularly introducing new options and variations helps maintain motivation and prevents routine from becoming stale.
Offer new classes. Add small group PT training. Invest in new equipment. So, members know they’ll find something new and exciting to try at your gym.
Your gym member mobile app can help you engage members with workouts and programmes. Create fully or partially customised workouts and programmes. And then choose to let members pick the ones that suit their goals and needs.
10. Stay in Touch with Personalised Communications
Gym email marketing can help you capture member attention, even when they are not with you in person.
Send emails that offer real value and are tailored to each member’s needs. When your content is relevant and timely, you’ll keep them engaged and coming back for more.
Staying relevant to your members is all about showing them that you understand them. Use the data in your gym CRM group your members based on shared interests, traits and fitness goals. Then, using these groups, personalise your communications accordingly.
Your gym marketing software should make it easy to create, send and schedule marketing emails. Personalise these messages for emails that resonate and drive retention.
11. Identify & Re-Engage At-Risk Members
Most gyms will have a percentage of members who are ‘sleeping’. That means they’ve not visited in the last 30 days.
Minimising inactive members, or ‘sleepers’ is key to member retention. The sooner you intervene, the better. Providing continuous support and motivation can help members stick with their routine and get back on track before they start drifting away.
It starts with choosing a software solution, like Xplor Gym. One that makes it easy to see when a member’s visit habits change and they become at-risk of cancelling. Then choose the right approach to re-engage high risk gym members before it’s too late.
The Wrap-Up
The importance of member retention for gyms is clear. If you can keep more members for longer, you’ll increase member LTV. And that will allow your gym business to become more profitable.
Regular visits are essential for boosting member retention. Help your members build the habit of visiting frequently so they’re more likely to stay with your gym. Focus on setting a realistic visit goal – even if it’s just once a week for some members.
Want to increase retention? Start by keeping an eye on member visits and how long they stay. The more you understand their habits, the better you can keep them engaged. Use the tips from this article to help build consistency and keep your members coming back.
Work hard to keep those members!
Discover why incorporating wellness offerings is crucial for your gym by reading why your gym needs a wellness offering.
by Xplor Gym
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First published: 31 March 2025
Written by: Xplor Gym