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Business Management

The Secret to Selling Out Your Fitness Classes

Buzz-worthy fitness and wellness businesses don’t happen by accident. Here’s how to create magic that sets you apart.

February 13, 2020

You’ve got the credentials, and the quality of your instruction is top-notch. Your customers get results from your classes. Your passes and memberships are priced right. So why aren’t you packing ‘em in? Consistently selling out classes is about more than providing a great workout. To stand out from the crowd, you must create an exceptional experience.

Buzz-worthy fitness and wellness businesses don’t happen by accident. Here’s how to create the magic that will set you apart:

Connect on a personal level with each and every person who walks through the door. 

Group fitness is special because it gives people the opportunity to interact with others. Your customers seek you out to feel supported on their health and wellness journey. They want to be seen and cared about — otherwise they’d be sweating it out alone in the weight room at the gym. One of the easiest – and most effective – ways to create a loyal following is to make sure you know every student’s name when they sign in for class, and say it at least once during the class. Say their name again as you give them a hug or a high five on the way out of class. If you need to, hide a little sticky note with new students’ names on it at the front or back of the room or on your water bottle.

By using a member management software tool like Punchpass, you can add personalized notes that go beyond the typical injury alerts, into each client’s profile. Before and after class, you can use this information to go deeper in your conversations with your students.

Always make yourself available to your students after class so that it’s clear they can approach you with questions, or for encouragement. 

Provide even more value outside the classroom. 

Stay connected with the students who attended your class by sending an after-class email. Punchpass makes it easy to send emails to specific groups of students. Include an encouraging message along with links to any information you shared during class, such as how-to videos, healthy recipes, your blog, an interesting quote or motivational song. Include links to your social media accounts.

Consider creating a Facebook Group for your students and encouraging them to interact with you there outside the classroom. Provide healthy lifestyle tips, motivational quotes and links to your favorite fitness content.

Create memorable moments in each class. 

Sometimes these happen spontaneously, but you can plan ahead in generating these totally unexpected experiences that delight your students and have them talking about it for days. Sharing stories about yourself and your fitness journey during particularly challenging moments – especially humorous ones – is a great way to break the ice and generate connection. Speaking of which: throwing a special high intensity, feel-the-burn type of activity or pose into your class is a proven way to get everyone out of their heads and sharing after (maybe even) surprising themselves by doing something they didn’t think they could.

Remember to mix it up in each and every class so that your students know they’ll never by bored with you. Word of your memorable moments will get out, and generate FOMO — fear of missing out — for students who haven’t been to class. The ones who do attend will feel special and “in the know.”

Give a preview of coming attractions. 

Another proven secret to building class sizes, and a loyal following, is to create a theme that will carry across multiple classes, and announce what you’ll be working on in your next class. Again this generates some fear of missing out, or missing a critical piece of the training puzzle, encouraging students to stick with you. It also generates a feeling of working together as a group in a targeted way.

Students will tend to talk with each other about the classes, plan to attend the series together, and share with other community members about what you’re offering. 

Keep your playlist fresh. 

There’s nothing worse for a student than knowing their instructor’s playlist by heart. You don’t want to be known as the “that teacher who always plays “You Shook Me All Night Long.” Use an app like Spotify to research and share awesome music playlists with fitness and yoga instructors from all over the world.

If you’re looking for some inspiration, check out the results of Spotify’s recent review of more than 54 million workout-themed playlists. The songs exercisers listen to the most? Number one was Eminem’s “‘Till I Collapse.” Also on the list: “Dance Monkey” by the powerhouse Australian singer-songwriter Tones and I. Here’s Spotify’s most-followed workout playlist.

What are some ways you’ve found to sell out your classes? We’d love to hear from you! Your suggestions might be featured in an upcoming blog 😀. Share the love at hello@punchpass.com.