One of the best things you can do to grow your business is to have a strong new customer offer. Unfortunately, we often see fitness studios create a compelling new customer offer, but then fail to effectively promote it. This guide is designed to help you think through what makes a good new customer offer, how you should promote it, and why it should be considered just the first step in bringing your new customers into your business.
We’ll show you some examples of what we consider to be best practices that you can use to create or improve your offers. Every business needs new customers – including yours! Here’s how to make them an offer they can’t refuse.
Why You Should Have A New Customer Offer
It seems obvious, but we still see lots of yoga, dance, and fitness studios who don’t have a good compelling new customer offer. There are two main reasons we think they are important – they both have to do with reducing the commitment required to try your business out.
First, they reduce the financial commitment. New customers might have a feeling that your classes will help them, but they aren’t completely sure. Helping reduce the financial burden moves the decision to more of a ‘why not’ – you want your prospective customers to feel like even if it doesn’t work out, it just wasn’t that big of a deal. Almost every new customer offer is a deal.
Second is the mental commitment, which is just as important as the financial. Signing up for a new studio can be intimidating. Where do you park, when should you get there, what do you need to bring, what’s the studio vibe like, etc. LOTS of questions….and any one of them can cause a prospective customer to delay in purchasing your offer. We’ll go into more detail below, but you want to make sure your new customer offer puts them at ease, and makes it easy for them to try you out.
Where Should You Display and Promote Your New Customer Offer?
Sometimes we see clients create a nice compelling offer….and then don’t do much to promote it. You’re proud of your studio and how you help your customers….so make it easy for new ones to find you! Here are a few places we recommend you promote your offer.
1 – On a banner at the top of your website.
This is pretty common – just a simple banner that new customers can click on for more details. We show a few great examples of this down below.
2 – Other callouts on your website
Put a link in your footer, maybe have a section partway through your homepage with the offer. While you don’t want to go overboard, you should make sure it’s promoted in a few different spots.
3 – In a pop-up on your website (maybe)
Some businesses will recommend you create a pop-up with the new customer offer. While a pop-up does grab the viewers attention, it can also be seen as annoying. If your regular customers frequently come to your website for any reason, then bombarding them with a new customer pop-up won’t be appreciated. So this is something to maybe try and test, and check in with some of your current customers so see if they’re put off by it.
4- In your LinkTree or other social media links page
If you use any of the social media link programs like Linktree, we recommend creating a separate section (near the top) with your new customer offer.
5 – On a flyer (with a QR code!) outside your facility and/or on pin-up flyers
You do have a flyer to promote your studio to any walk by’s, right? Have your new customer offer front and center! If you promote your studio by putting up flyers, you should definitely be promoting your new customer offer loud and proud.
6 – In your email newsletter
Some clients are hesitant to promote their offer in their email newsletter because they presume most of the readers are current customers. Don’t be shy! Maybe encourage your current customers to forward it on to their friends. Or have a ‘bring a friend to class for free’ week….and then be sure to let those visitors know about your new customer offer.
You should always make a point to ask new customers – “Where did you hear about us or learn about the new customer offer?” That’s the best way to figure out what is actually working for your specific business!
How Should Your New Customer Offer Work?
The first question is – What should the offer be? A certain # of classes, or unlimited? How long should the pass or offer be good for? This is all going to depend on the type of classes you teach, how many classes you think it takes for someone to see results and want more, and how much you are willing to give up or invest (financially) in order to win a new client. You’ll also want to consider the new customer offer pricing in relation to your existing passes – you want to offer an obvious discount but also not make your ‘regular’ pricing seem outrageous.
Remember that not everyone who buys your new client special will actually become a new client – some will just do the trial classes and never come back. So you need to think through what you are willing to give up per new customer. It can also help to review what other local studios are offering – if everyone offers an unlimited number of classes then you might want to be sure to match that.
The Details of How It Works Matter….
We think a more interesting question is the mechanics of the offer. What is the workflow a prospect should go through in order to claim the offer? We’ve primarily seen two different approaches.
The first is to send the customer right to the new customer pass purchase page. For example – if they click on the banner on your website you would send them directly to the pass purchase page. This has some obvious advantages – the purchase form is right there so it’s easy to buy. This option has the least amount of friction or steps for the customer to take. But the downside is that most pass purchase pages have limited customization options. If your prospect isn’t quite ready to buy, sending them right to purchase might not be the best idea. They still need to be sold that your studio is potentially the right fit for them, and they should take the chance and find out.
The second option is to send the customer to a page on your marketing website that specifically promotes your new customer offer. This page can be crafted to help your prospective customer understand the vibe of your studio, what you are (and are not!), what they can expect when taking classes. If possible we think this is the best option. It gives customers who are intrigued, but unsure, more opportunity to decide if your studio is right for them. It’s also a great option if you are posting the link on a flyer, online, or outside your business. It can be off-putting to click on a link and just be immediately asked to pay money with little context – instead sending those people to your website will let you convince them why they should take you up on your offer. We’ve got a great example of this below!
Send Them To Purchase, or Just Collect an Email?
Now we’re getting into the nitty gritty! But that’s how you make sure your offer is a good one. Once a customer has decided they want to take advantage of your offer, there are two ways you can have them proceed. The first is to have them purchase the new offer pass. The second would be to have them simply provide their email address. You’d then reach out to them (manually or this could be automated) with more information about the new customer offer.
Send ‘Em Right To Purchase!
The advantage of this one is clear – you get paid! It also reduces some of the friction in the process, which can be helpful if the customer really does just want to purchase the pass and get on with things. The downside is what we mentioned earlier – most purchase pages have limited formatting, so you don’t get as much of an opportunity to ‘sell’ the offer and explain the vibe of your studio.
Just The Email or Phone Number To Start
Just asking for an email address to start the process has a few advantages. First, it’s the simplest and the lowest ‘commitment’ from the prospect. Second, it gives you an opportunity to personally follow up with information about the offer AND because you have their email, you can continue to market to them should they fail to respond or purchase the offer. (But be sure to remove them from that campaign if the DO purchase the offer!) This gives the prospect the opportunity to ask more questions before committing.
Similar to collecting an email address, you could ask for their phone # or WhatsApp number and message them that way. That’s faster than email and allows for more of a back-and-forth conversation.
Visit The Studio To Claim
This is the easiest of all the options – no web/tech to configure. Just tell the customer to come into the studio and see you to learn about and claim the offer. The downside here is that you don’t have any information about the customer until they actually visit. There is no spontaneity here – the customer has to plan on a time to visit. And we all know how that works….the studio visit continues to get pushed to the next week, and the next week, etc. until the enthusiasm has died. For this reason we don’t recommend this approach, though we DO recommend a red carpet process for your new customers. More information on that below!
Your Offer Doesn’t Have To Remain The Same
Often you’ll want to modify your new customer offer for seasonal trends – back-to-school, beginning of the new year, the start of the summer, or holiday specials. Do you have a season that is particularly slow? Are you in a college town where there is a new influx of potential customers every fall? Think about how you might be able to target a specific group of people with an offer.
The New Customer Journey Doesn’t End With The Offer Purchase
It’s important to remember your long term goal here – it’s NOT to have the customer purchase the new customer offer. It’s to have them convert into a long term customer!! So purchasing your new customer offer is just the first step in a 30-45 day process where you work with the new customer to help them find success with your services.
Make sure you contact them with details about what they should expect!!
Make their first visit a smooth one. If they need to show up early to fill out paperwork, tell them that. Where do they park? Is there a Google/Apple maps link? Are there showers? Do they need to bring their own mat? You want to make sure you provide them all the information they need to make their visit easy. This doesn’t have to be difficult – for example you could setup a Punchpass automation after the new customer offer pass purchase to send a nice templated welcome email.
Tell Them Twice
It’s true – people don’t read your emails. 🙂 So make sure you tell them the same thing in a follow-up reminder email. And be patient when they arrive and STILL haven’t filled out the online waiver you sent them earlier.
Book Their Next Class Before They Leave
You should know who the new customer is in your class, because of course you want to personally welcome them and thank them for trying your studio classes. It’s also important to follow up with them AFTER the class is over. They may not know anyone, so it can be easy for them to sometimes slip out while you are chatting with your regulars. Make a point to get their feedback and find out how it went. The ideal situation is to make sure they have booked their next class before they leave.
Do You Know What Success Means to THEM?
You may think you know what success looks like for your customers, but have you actually asked them? It can be a big mistake to assume they want to lose weight or get trim, when actually they want to strengthen their upper back because of neck issues. Find out what success looks like for them, so you can then help plan out a way to help them achieve (or at least see progress) success during the 30-45 day window.
What’s Your Next Offer?
Yup – you need another one! Now that your customer has seen success after a few classes, it’s time to make them another offer they can’t refuse. Help them transition into a longer term relationship. Ideally that is to get them onto a recurring membership plan. Offer them a discount for the first month to make it an easier decision. If you don’t have the ability to offer memberships (and you really should!) then discounting your 10 visit pass or some other longer term pass will be your best option.
Is Your Offer Working?
Once you have created your offer, you should invest just a bit more time and effort to track the results. There are many different ways you can do this, but honestly often a simple spreadsheet is the easiest. You’ll want to track…
- How many people purchased your new customer offer
- How many of those people went on to purchase a second pass or membership?
- How many classes did they attend before they purchased their next pass? This can help with modifying or improving your offer.
Usually we see clients tracking things monthly, but if your studio is larger you may want to track things weekly. One important tip! Have a section of the spreadsheet where you jot down any changes or improvements you have made to your marketing efforts. For example – let’s say in March you decide to start advertising in the local newspaper. Jot that down in the spreadsheet, along with the date the ads started. That way when you are reviewing your stats later in the year, you’ll be able to see if any marketing efforts had an impact on the new customer offer.
Your New Customer Offer is the First Step In Growing Your Business
Spend the time to create a compelling new customer offer, and plan out their journey to becoming a successful long-term customer. Investing that time and effort now will pay off in the future as your business begins to grow! Check out the examples below for inspiration and ideas on how to make your offer shine.
New Customer Offer Examples
These are some great new customer offers created by Punchpass clients. These are the sort of best practices you should be looking to emulate as you craft your own unique offer.
Pilates Room NZ
This is a nice clean offer banner at the top of their website. They’re sending the customer right to the purchase page.
Vital Beat
https://www.vitalbeat.com.au/newclient
This is an interesting one where they don’t link to their Punchpass pass purchase page. Instead they have a nice webpage that clearly gives the studio vibe with a form to request the purchase link. They don’t list the new client offer on their pass purchase list. They sell it online but you have to request the link. This is a really nice setup! Bonus – their new customer offer also allows a customer to participate in both pilates AND yoga classes to see which is the best fit.
Local Yoga Studio
This is a nice banner that integrates well with their website. I really like the pass description where they are very clear about what the new student special entails.
Portland Integrative Fitness
https://portlandintegrativefitness.com/schedule
This is a different way of handling new customers, but it’s very clever! They do a free consult call first and their schedule page has a form that, once completed, pulls up a customized view of their Punchpass schedule that has been filtered for the options selected. Very slick! Having a consult call first really lets you get to know the customer before they even visit.
Soul Sprite
Instead of a banner, SoulSprite has their ‘Intro Deal’ right on the homepage next to the schedule button. They send the customer right to the pass purchase page, and have a great pass description so the new customer is clear on next steps (including which location to go to!)
Aktivate Yoga
https://aktivateyogawellbeing.com.au
Aktivate has two different strategies – first there is a pop up with a link to their blog for newbies who might be nervous to commit. Then on their homepage there are two different ways for a new customer to start – an intro pass and special series for beginners. This is a nice option – if you have a new customer who is really interested, getting them to join a series (where there are other newcomers!) is a great way to create a longer term relationship and commitment.
Yoga Heartsong Center
This is a good example of a banner AND a popup.
Rebel Studio
https://www.rebelstudio.co.nz/
Rebel Studio is a great example of a studio paying attention to the seasonality of their business. Their normal new customer offer is 4 reformer classes for $40 (in the image below.) But for January 2025 they have a different offer – unlimited classes for 1 month to start the new year off right. And instead of a pop-up which you have to close to get rid of, their subtle ‘overlay’ hero image means existing customers who are just coming to see the schedule aren’t hassled. Notice the ‘Grab Intro Offer’ button in the upper right! 💪
Serpentine Studios
https://serpentinestudiosllc.com
This is a nice offer from Serpentine Studios – they have a clear callout telling new students where to start.
