Presume that you are a gym owner who has started a new gym in a nearby place, and you have made a detailed analysis of the client’s demographics, gender, and age bracket. Moreover, your gym also offers services like HIIT training, strength training, dance, yoga, and Zumba for people from nearby places. But, still, as a gym owner, you are facing the issue of attracting new clients to your gym. You are offering all the services your clients require. Still, you are struggling as an owner to sell your gym memberships to your clients and lack to convince them to stay committed to their fitness pilgrimage.
After struggling with the issue of convincing your clients to use your gym service, a question might arise in your mind: “How can you convince someone to get a gym membership?” As per Statista’s report, there are around 184.9 million gym memberships worldwide. The global fitness industry is expected to grow at a rate of 7.5% annually and is projected to reach a revenue of $125.23 billion by 2030. So, to grow your gym business and increase your gym sales profitability, it is essential for you to learn the art of convincing your clients to buy your gym memberships.
But how will you learn the art of convincing someone to get your gym membership? It doesn’t seem as easy as it looks. The art of convincing people requires a lot of practice. Here, we will discuss the psychological principles that enable you to convince someone to get your gym memberships.
Psychological principles for convincing your clients
As a gym owner, you need to understand the psychological principles that enable you to attract new clients by convincing them to go to your gym. These principles also enable you to understand the behavior of your clients and help them define marketing strategies accordingly. In 1984, Robert Cialdini, a famous American psychologist, wrote a book named Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. In this book, he wrote about the psychological principles that are applicable to date. Here are the psychological principles that can help you convince someone to buy your gym membership and convert him into a potential customer.
Reciprocity
Suppose you are going to travel to a far-off place, and your car tire bursts during the journey. You don’t have a spare tire with you. At the same instant, a car stands in front of you and asks about the issue you are facing. The driver gave you the spare tire and flew towards its journey. After some time, you meet the same person and return the favor by giving him dinner at a fancy restaurant or giving him tickets to movies. This psychological behavior is called reciprocity. In which people tend to return the favor you give to them.
You can use this behavior to convince your clients to use your gym and start their journey of achieving fitness goals. For example, Whenever a new client signs up for a free membership trial with your gym, you can offer them a free consultation with a nutritionist. This free consultation triggers the behavior of reciprocity among the client, which leads him to take your gym membership.
Commitment and consistency
If you want people in your town to connect with your gym and be convinced to buy your gym membership, you have to use the psychological behavior of commitment and consistency. With your commitment to fitness, your clients will feel motivated and inspired and be able to join your gym to achieve their fitness goals. This behavior triggers the part of self-image, and breaking this image is considered wrong.
For example, in your gym, whenever a new client joins, when you first meet the client for orientation, you can ask them about their fitness goals and what they want to achieve. Then, share the same goals you have regarding fitness. In this way, your clients’ goals align with yours, and they start to feel comfortable in your gym. If you reward them for sharing these goals on social media, you can trigger the psychological behavior of reciprocity and commitment combined.
Social proof
As per GlobelWebIndex’s report, around 54% of social media users scroll social media to research products and services. Meanwhile, 71% of users are more likely to buy a product or a service based on social media referrals. So, to convince more people to buy your gym memberships, you have to present them with solid social proof regarding your gym. By seeing your gym services on different social media platforms, more and more clients get interested in joining your gym and enhancing your gym sales.
For example, to improve your gym’s operational efficiency, you ask your current clients to give you feedback and testimonials. In these testimonials, exciting clients state how your commitment and consistency enable them to stay on the fitness track. After that, you post all those testimonials on different social media platforms. Potential customers around the globe see these testimonials and get interested in joining your gym. Thus, triggering the element of social proof by showcasing the testimonials enables you to convince a larger segment of the audience towards your gym.
Scarcity
If you want your client to make up their minds related to your gym on the spot, you have to use the psychological trick of scarcity. To trigger this behavior, you have to announce limited offers such as discounts, a chance of getting free merchandise, or a free event ticket on fitness in your gym. By announcing the limited availability of the product or service, your clients start to feel that the product or service is essential for them and develop a feeling of urgency. As per meta-analysis, the scarcity affects the purchase decision by 0.2776, with a 95% confidence interval of 0.2243 and 0.3209.
For example, in your gym, you announce that you will give a free diet plan to the first 10 members who join at the start of the new month. This limited offer triggers scarcity among clients, leading to an increase in the sales of your gym memberships.
5 practical tips to convince someone to get a gym membership
After analyzing the psychological principles to understand the client’s behavior, you have to implement these tips that can enable you to convince your clients to join your gym. Here are the best 5 tips in 2024 that can allow you to convince anyone to get your gym membership.
Partner with local businesses
One of the best ways to attract new clients and convince existing ones to join your gym is to partner with a local business. This partnership enables you to draw the attention of potential customers to beneficial opportunities. You can tie the partnership in such a way that you can give special discounts or special promotions to the clients referred by the local business. This partnership acts as an effective marketing strategy that enables both partners to attract an audience with similar interests.
As per reports, 80% of the businesses say that partnership with other businesses enables them to boost their revenue. Moreover, 75% of the businesses report that tie-ups with other partners enable them to increase their market share. So, partnering with local businesses allows you to increase your gym sales as well as enhance your market share. These ties not only strengthen your gym sales but also trigger the reciprocity behavior among your clients. In this way, they get an offer as a goodwill gesture in return for joining your gym.
For example, after making an analysis of the nearby location, you found that a coffee shop in the town covers the majority of the clients. You can go to that place and deal with them for a joint venture. In this venture, your gym gives a 10% discount to the clients if they get a special coupon from the coffee shop. In the same way, the coffee shop will give your clients a free coffee if they have your gym pass. So, in this way, you and your partner strengthen your business financially.
Offer a variety of classes
If you want your gym to attract a different segment of the audience from various age groups and genders, you have to make sure that your gym offers a variety of other classes. These different classes enable you to attract clients who want a different approach to reaching their fitness goals. Having different courses such as yoga, dance, and HIIT training under one roof enables your clients to get attracted to you and make you stand out among your competition.
Apart from offering various courses, you can also provide your clients the option to get free personal training sessions in one segment of your gym, such as yoga, dance, Zumba, etc. This free training session further attracts clients who want to learn new skills at the price of one. For example, your gym offers yoga, spin, boot camp, and strength training. These different segments enable you to target the audience that likes these workouts. Moreover, you can also offer them to try another segment with the niche they are enrolled in. This enables you to attract new clients and improve your gym sales.
Listen to feedback
If you want to improve your business model for client satisfaction, you have to make sure to take regular feedback from your existing clients. This feedback is the best insight that can give you the experience of being a client in your gym. Your clients are the ones who are using your services, and if they require any improvement, they can simply say it to you. Moreover, taking regular feedback from your clients also enables you to understand what your clients want and assists you in creating an environment where your clients can attain their fitness goals.
For example, you started a gym in a place where there is a lot of competition in the market. By offering a variety of classes, you attract different clients. You meet your clients daily and align your fitness goals with them, triggering commitment and consistent behavior. The factor that distinguishes your gym from other competitors is your feedback system. You take regular feedback from your clients and work on their suggestions. On the contrary, your clients ignore the feedback system and lack improvement. So, listening to the input of your clients enables you to attract new clients while retaining the older ones.
Offer personalized attention
To develop a sense of belonging among your clients and to convince them to join your gym, you have to make sure that you give them personalized attention in their workout sessions. Personalized attention enables you to attract new clients through word-of-mouth marketing. Your clients feel special because of your special treatment of personalized attention through various means, such as one-on-one consultations, individual coaching sessions, and customized workout plans.
Thus, it enables them to share their thought about your gym with other fitness freaks and enables you to attract new clients. So, offering personalized attention to your clients not only allows you to convince older clients to stay in your gym but also enables you to attract new clients. Moreover, this special treatment enables you to stand out among the competition with improved sales.
Organize events
If you want to inspire the town’s clients to embark on a fitness journey, you have to organize an event that attracts different fitness freaks. These events not only allow you to engage with the community but also showcase what your gym offers. Such events also enable you to showcase your gym expertise while demonstrating your commitment to fitness. You can host events such as workshops, fitness challenges, corporate challenges, and themed workout classes.
These events also enable you to communicate directly with your potential customers. These interactions allow your clients to clear their doubts related to fitness and also develop a sense of belonging that encourages them to buy your gym membership.
Bottom line
If you want to grow your gym business and stand out among your competition, you have to learn the skill of convincing your client to buy your gym membership. Here are the 5 tips that enable you to attract new clients to your gym and also foster a sense of belonging among them.
