Tried everything from offering top-notch classes to high-quality equipment?
And still not hitting the road to success?
It is high time to focus on the contributing aspect alongside. One of the main factors that many gym owners ignore is designing a gym referral program. Gym referral programs are essential as they foster loyalty and encourage community building. You can target current members’ retention. As well as attract new potential ones at the same time.
Implementing good gym referral programs is essential to boosting the success rate. Yet, it’s important to brainstorm unique gym referral program ideas to grab attention. Let’s explore some unique referral program ideas and a few tips and tricks to practice them. Integrate these ideas and boost your business growth.
5 benefits of the gym referral program
The following are the five impactful advantages of a gym referral program. Once you understand these benefits.
You will get to know how gym referral programs grow your business.
- Boost in membership rate
71% of the gym members can foster a meaningful connection with the help of the gym referral program. As per Hubspot’s research, a rewarding system can boost loyalty among gym members. Thus, if you want your gym to grow and attract new members, you can use various referral programs. It will increase your gym membership rates.
Giving members some rewards as referrals aid them in bringing their close ones to your gym. It helps them contribute to your business growth. So, implementing a referral program increases your membership rates for long-term success.
- Efficient yet cost-effective marketing
Research by Loudrumor.com clearly shows how impactful it can be for marketing. A business owner increases the chance of conversion by 3 to 5% compare to other marketing channels.
The target audience believes references aid in making a decision to buy a membership. Do you want to attract more members to your gym by spending less budget on marketing? The gym referral program is the best option.
- Higher member retention
Gym referring is a complete chain. Research by Invesp shows that referrals are 4% more likely to refer new members. Moreover, the retention rate of referrals by other members is around 37%. Thus, if you want to boost gym retention, integrating a gym referral program is one of the best ways.
A higher retention rate in your gym will help you fulfil your aim of achieving long-term success. It will also help you ensure the financial stability of your gym and aid you in becoming the market leader.
- Positive brand image
Research by Friendlybuy.com shows that 5 to 15% of new clients are the result of gym referral programs.
Thus, if you want your business to establish itself as a brand. It is important to add referral programs to your business.
As your members refer their family and friends based on the trust, that you earned. So, it enables you to become the market leader and also helps you get a competitive edge. This will allow you to stand in the fitness industry.
- Community building
According to Zinrelo’s research, 83% of people trust the opinions of their friends. So, implementing a referral program can help inspire your members to contribute.
Moreover, you can attract more new members to your gym, enabling you to build a strong community. This will help you grow your business for long-term success.
9 gym referral program ideas
The whole game revolves around finding unique yet attractive gym referral program ideas.
| Gym referral program ideas | Implementation | Reward |
| Offer membership discounts. | If one of your gym members is bringing a referral, you must offer them a good discount ratio. | Set a percentage off on the next membership renewal. |
| Referring to/sharing on social media handles. | Encourage your members to share their fitness journey on their social media handles. | Giveaway free merchandise to your gym members by posting their fitness journey. |
| Most membership referral contests. | Introduce a contest at your gym facility for the most number of referrals. After the required time, whoever brings in the most referrals will be the winner. | You can offer both goodies or discounts to the winners for bringing in the most number of gym members. |
| Referral through cards. | Hand over your gym cards to your current members. Ask them to give them away to their fellow members and friends. | On each referral call and conversion, you can give a small gift or a 5% discount to your current member referee. |
| Offer a workout buddy week. | Design a one-week program in which you must allow your members to bring in workout buddies. | If the participants convert as the members. Offer both the members discounts on their members. |
| Offer free gym class passes for a week. | Hold a variety of fitness classes at your gym for a week and offer free passes. This is a great way to convert members. | Offering free classes will increase attraction. Since you are already offering free courses, you can only offer a small discount. |
| Offer upgradation or enhanced membership. | Gyms usually have various packages depending on the requirements, and the prices vary. The packages are usually divided into three categories: basic, standard, and premium. Whoever brings in new members is usually offered a few privileges. | Let your members enjoy the upgraded features for a month on bringing leads. |
| Chain reward system. | Let your members collect reward points in a chain that they can use later. A few points add to bringing in many referrals. | Let them encash their rewards with anything they want. Whether discounts or other services. |
| Free consultations. | Almost all the good gyms are in a contract with fitness and nutritional clinics. Offer free consultation on bringing new members. | Whoever brings in new members will be getting a free consultation. |
Aspects to focus on when designing a gym referral program
| Offer appealing rewards | Simplified processes | Promotional campaigns | Referrers appreciation program |
| Making the offer more valuable and attractive is essential. Understanding what your members need is important to making the offer more reliable. | The crucial factor is to keep the referral ideas simple and easy to execute. The more difficult the program, the more tricky it becomes for the members to integrate. | Let your members collect reward points in a chain that they can use later. A few points add to bringing in many referrals. | Don’t forget to offer appreciation to referrers. You can offer them goodies, merchandise and free services. |
Steps to make your gym referral program successful
Designing a reliable gym referral program isn’t the only thing. Yet, to make a referral program successful, it is important to keep following aspects up front.
- Tracking the referrals and analyzing leads
Implementing gym referral programs is not enough to attract potential members. Gym owners need to pay attention to tracking progress and analysing shortcomings.
Once you identify the shortcomings, it becomes easy to recover the issues. Furthermore, by doing this you will be able to find whether the strategy is working or not.
- Bring something new
The only way to attract is to introduce new products and services to the market. Find unique gym referral program ideas to boost your success rate. Make potential leads your loyal members by offering them a customizable loyalty program.
Role of gym management software
Gymmanagement-software.com tracks referrals, rewards and interactions. Yet, to make it easy to run a successful gym referral program to get new members.
Conclusion
Most gym owners don’t understand the impact of referral programs. Since they consider them a marketing strategy. Yet, it is important to invest in your members to strengthen the bonds and foster loyalty among them.
By implementing a gym referral program, gym owners can build a great reputation in the market. It will begin your journey of success.Start your growth today by designing a referral and loyalty program. You can do it with the help of gym loyalty program software.