Categories
Retention Top Stories

How One Studio Achieved a 2% Churn Rate (And What You Need to Do to Get Results)

You want to see results in your studio as soon as possible. But things just aren’t going along as fast as they should. And opportunities get missed constantly.

Such issues are usually the result of a lack of organisation. 

One of our clients was in this very situation. They struggled to get more traffic, gather leads, and raise engagement in their studio. The client’s membership was down by 150 people and their visits were only twice on average. 

When we started working with this studio, it turned out that all they needed was some structure and better organisation. That’s why from the moment our client became more organised, things took a turn for the better. 

In fact, the results were astounding.

Their membership started growing despite the disruption that was going on due to the global pandemic. The visits jumped up to 4.8 and the engagement soared.

And none of that happened by accident.

See, our client took action to remove one of the main causes that prevent studios from taking advantage of opportunities and getting results:

They got rid of the drama and the disorganisation it brought. 

You can do the same.

This article will show you how to make your studio more organised, approach your business with a clear head, and start reaching your goals.

Drama Makes You Miss Opportunities

New studios struggle with a particular issue that ends up keeping them down:

They spend most of their time on the urgent rather than the important.

Worst of all, that situation tends to carry on as people get accustomed to living in a world of urgency. At that point, there’s so much focus on the drama that studios miss key periods of the month and even the entire year.

In other words, you’re so caught up in urgent matters that you don’t think about tackling the important moments. This reduces your overall impact and causes you to make less money.

Drama can also cause you to neglect crucial aspects of business, such as getting more flow in your studio and making your team more organised and effective. As a result, nobody, including the owner, understands their role.

Of course, all these changes when the studio gains clarity on its goals and what needs to be done to achieve them. 

And getting your calendar on point is the first step toward that clarity.

The Calendar Is Your Friend

Much can be said about your cash flow from the way your calendar looks. But ultimately, if you don’t apply time blocking, that usually means bad news for your studio.

Now, the main benefit of time blocking is that it helps you single out the most important things that will generate wealth and cash flow and build up your assets. It’s the time you book for yourself to do all of the things that will drive your bottom line.

To put it simply, your calendar isn’t only for marking meetings. In a sense, it can become a logbook for your success.

The problem is that many studio owners don’t view their calendars as the powerful tools that they are. They don’t really understand that the point of a well-organised calendar isn’t only to keep track of your daily activities. It’s also to stay focused on the quality of tasks that take priority in your day, month, and year.

Seeing the calendar as your ally will allow you to carve out the time you need to improve your studio. And focusing on the right tasks might turn out to be just the boost your business needs.

Creating Your Own Luck

Tying in with time blocking, another critical aspect of your studio business is to be prepared and plan your actions.

Truth is, the most important things in business happen by design and intention, rather than mere luck. You might even say that relying on luck is often the worst choice a studio owner might make.

But luck in business is a bit more of a complex notion. In fact, we could talk about two distinct types of luck: dumb luck and the other kind.

Dumb luck is something like when you find $50 under your seat at a cafe. It’s something good that happens to you without any input or direction on your part.

However, the other kind of luck doesn’t work like that. Instead, it’s the luck that you create for yourself.

Imagine doing all of the necessary preparations for your studio. You come up with a formula, and you might’ve seen it play out with success all around you. Then, you see an opportunity appear. Finally, you take action.

Suppose you’re successful. 

In that case, it would be easy to attribute your success to business luck. After all, you’ve come across a perfect opportunity. And when you acted upon it, you actually got the results.

Now, most people would describe that as the “right place at the right time” type of luck. But the truth behind it is different.

What people call business luck actually consists of three key factors:

  • Thorough preparation
  • Spotting the opportunity
  • Taking massive action

Your team needs to be trained and your systems in place. Furthermore, you must be prepared mentally to jump at an opportunity. Then, when the time comes to act, you know precisely what to do and have all the mechanisms in place and ready to go. Finally, once you start acting, you have to do it consistently and with great scope. 

When all of these factors come into place, great results become possible for your studio. 

And that’s the luck that you create yourself, not a game of chance.

Let Go of the Drama, Organise, and Jump Into Action

Being prepared and focusing on the important aspects of your business are, without a doubt, the crucial aspects of your business. 

If you can learn to let go of the drama around urgent matters and pay attention to the key points, everything will start to fall into place. You’ll create a sound foundation for a well-organised studio that works like clockwork and reaches goals without issues.

Categories
Operations Top Stories

Two Things You Can Do Right Now to Generate a Healthier Bottom Line

If you went around and ask studio owners one of the worst feelings they can experience, many would probably give the same answer:

Missed opportunities.

Studio owners share this pain point with other businesses, and it’s particularly pronounced with new studios. 

But that doesn’t mean more experienced studios don’t miss out on an opportunity every now and then. In fact, you’d struggle to find a studio immune to the issue.

However, new studios have a more challenging time when they can’t seize opportunities promptly. This is because missed opportunities hinder growth, which is the primary goal of every new studio.

Luckily, there’s a way to resolve the issue. And it comes down to executing key tasks every month.

This article will break down two vital components to make that happen. These components will help you run a successful studio and never miss an opportunity again.

The Captain’s Checklist

This checklist serves to keep your crew, i.e., your team organised and functional.

The captain’s checklist is entirely focused on what happens within your business weekly. And this person-oriented aspect sorts out the crucial tasks your team members have every week.

Essentially, this checklist serves to avoid the constant “Did you remember to do that?” questions. That’s because forgotten tasks can pile up quickly if you don’t have a system to organise them.

That said, coming up with a functional checklist will require some careful consideration on your part.

First, you’ll need to break down everything that has to happen during the week. Then, you’ll need to split all of the crucial tasks into different days. Finally, you’ll have to outline which team member is responsible for which task.

Clearly, the captain’s checklist is an excellent organisational tool. But it provides another great benefit: 

At the end of each week, you can take the checklist and check for any problematic entries. And once the month is over, you can compare all checklists to spot potential issues with specific tasks.

Essentially, the captain’s checklist doesn’t only tell your team who should do what and when. It also tells you how well your team is handling particular aspects of your business. As a result, you can tweak certain processes and establish better work habits that the team can stick to consistently. 

You can make your checklist even more effective by marking key performance indicators or KPIs. Finally, if you want to get into the details, you could create multiple checklists to handle the finer aspects of complex tasks.

At the end of the day, the captain’s checklist will be your best friend when it comes to organising your studio for maximum efficiency.

Start Harvesting Correctly

When we talk about harvest, we’re referring to the last three days of the month. These three days are a critical part of your calendar when specific actions will be necessary. 

In particular, you’ll need to do three things during these days:

First, you’ll send out a new offer to all of your lead lists. 

When sending offers to your newest leads and people who haven’t bought anything from you yet, you’ll give them the exact same offer that they received the last time. The purpose of this is to freshen up these leads with the same message but with a new wrapper around it.

For example, if you had a Valentine’s Day or spring head-start offer, you’ll send out the same content. The only difference will be that you’ll rephrase the offer to make it fresh.

The reason behind this approach is to take away the monthly operational drag that can happen when you need to come up with new service promotions every time.

Doing this regularly will create an atmosphere in which people will automatically raise their hands when the end of the month comes. Then, you’ll have an easier time bringing those people out and making sales.

In essence, this task will set your studio up for the upcoming month while closing the current one.

Second, you’ll do blitz rollovers. 

In other words, you’ll dedicate a day to focusing on anyone who hasn’t rolled over so far during the month. This even includes people who have just arrived.

The vital point here is to gather everything that worked previously and go all out to try and get everyone on board using it. After all, there’s no point in keeping things in the drawer at the end of the month. 

So, don’t hesitate to offer every incentive you can to get people to roll over. Take note of all the freebies, giveaways, vouchers, and every other resource at your disposal and use them to your advantage.

Finally, the third thing you’ll need to do at the end of the month is to take care of the bulk stuff.

This mainly refers to nurturing your important business relationships. For example, you should reach out to your joint ventures, schools, sports teams, businesses, physios, and anyone else that you talk with.

Ideally, you’ll already have a tally of what you’ve done on that front during the month. This will make it easier to share relevant stories with them and let them know that everything’s working correctly.

Now, this task will be made more straightforward by getting it done in a single day. This way, you won’t have to take note of every contact you’ve talked to.

Remember, these three things are essential to wrap up your month. But there’s one bonus thing you should do come the end of the month:

Put the time aside to plan out the next month.

Once you get all of this done, the harvest period will be over, and your studio will be ready to take on the period ahead in full strength.

Learn to Organise and Wrap Up Every Month

The captain’s checklist can help you bring a high level of organisation into your business, with precise tasks for every team member.

In addition to that organisation, if you make sure not to miss harvesting on the last three days of the month, you’ll enter every period as prepared as you can be. With these aspects covered, you’ll give your studio the boost it needs to become as effective as possible. 

Careful organisation will be your best friend on the road to success.

Categories
Retention Top Stories

What Numbers Say About Your Studio – And the Secret Key to Growth

One of the greatest challenges for many studios is that they aren’t growing fast enough.

This problem leads to numerous hardships and additional complications for businesses, as well as plenty of frustration.

After all, you put in all of the effort and give it your best, but things still seem to move forward at a snail’s pace. Then, when you try to determine the cause of the slow growth, you realise that so many aspects of your business need attention.

So you start playing whack-a-mole, chasing after the source of your business issues. You try to cover every base, sending yourself and your team into a spin. But it’s not clear what works and what doesn’t.

In the end, the only things you’re left with are feelings of uncertainty and a lack of control. And it’s all because of a simple mistake in the approach:

You can’t afford to make reactive decisions in your business. 

By the time you start patching up the critical spots, it might become nearly impossible to control what happens. That’s why the best way to go is to make your decisions proactive and based on data. 

This article will explain how to leverage numbers to grow your business and avoid the common pitfalls of an unprepared studio owner.

The Four Futures Outcome

Imagine an aeroplane flying from San Francisco to New York. 

On a regular flight, getting from one city to the other would be pretty straightforward.

But imagine if the plane veered off course by only two degrees. In that case, the aircraft would end up in Baltimore instead of New York.

In other words, a small mistake can lead to significant consequences in the long run. 

The same principle applies to businesses, and it’s the basis of the Four Futures model.

Based on your metrics, your business might be looking at one of four possible outcomes: 

  • Good
  • Okay
  • Poor
  • Disaster

Furthermore, these outcomes can manifest over different periods, which is why monitoring your metrics on a three, six, nine-month, and yearly basis is crucial.

Naturally, you’ll want to gravitate more towards better outcomes, ideally reaching great every time. But to do this reliably, you’ll need to understand how metric tracking and measuring work and why it matters.

What You Need to Know About Measuring Your Metrics

When studios don’t understand their metrics, they might find themselves in a strange situation: 

They might be winning without even realising it. On the other hand, they could be on a downward spiral and not know it.

This is why understanding your studio’s metrics is crucial.

Now, the essential things you need to know about your metrics boil down to three key principles. The first one is simple:

Your numbers should never be a mystery.

The reality is that so many studios have no idea about how many leads they’re getting. Not to mention their conversion rates, rollovers, and other metrics.

It should go without saying that missing out on the crucial numbers can make you leave a lot of money on the table. Plus, your team likely won’t have a clear direction towards success. 

Next, you can’t keep making decisions based on emotions.

This isn’t because emotions are necessarily bad in business. Rather, if you allow your feelings and stress levels to dictate your decisions, your team will never know which version of you will show up. This will make the work process unclear.

Your decisions should be driven by data because that’s the most definitive and measurable way to go. 

Finally, understanding your metrics will allow you to get help whenever you get stuck.

If you don’t know where you are and what’s working and what’s not, nobody will be able to help you to their best ability.

Now, these principles require you to get familiar with at least some crucial metrics. Let’s look at them in more detail.

The Numbers You Need to Know

At the bare minimum, every studio owner should know about one critical set of numbers: 

Leads.

To be precise, you should understand how many leads you’re getting weekly and monthly, as well as their sources.

Some of the leads will come from paid sources, while others will be from organic sources. Knowing how many leads either side brings will inform you about the cost-efficiency of your marketing. 

Then, you should view the number of leads in comparison to how many sales you’ve made. And if you express that ratio as a percentage, you’ll get your conversion rate.

Another crucial metric is your rollover rate. The magic number you want to reach in that regard is 80%, but getting there will require you to understand some other numbers. 

In particular, you’ll need to keep track of your overall number of members and whether your studio is at a weekly net growth or loss. This particular set of numbers brings us to one metric that will be the key to your studio’s growth.

The Key to Growth

To put it simply, growth is rollovers minus churn.

Now, this is simple in theory. If you want your studio to grow, you need to increase the number of rollovers and reduce the amount of churn. 

In practice, however, it can be a more complex matter.

To increase your rollover, you need to boost your leads, conversions, and sales. And to reduce churn, you have to improve engagement and your retention systems.

All of this work starts with tracking your numbers. If you do that correctly, you’ll be heading in the right direction.

Leverage Numbers to Bring Your Studio to the Top

Understanding the crucial metrics in your business is the very thing that makes or breaks a studio. In fact, it’s the main difference between the top studios and the rest. 

Remember, the studios that truly succeed have a clear grasp of their numbers and know how to tweak them to get optimal results.

If you devote enough time and effort to learning about your key metrics, you’ll be able to make your studio as efficient as possible, making it stand out from the competition.

Categories
Sales Top Stories

Increase Your Pickup Rate to Increase Your Studio’s Sales – The 6 Tips You Need to Know

Your studio looks amazing.

You’ve developed a polished retention strategy that you feel is effective. 

So, you’re ready to reap the rewards of your hard work. And you’re expecting hundreds of people to line up for your studio. 

However…

Your enthusiasm becomes short-lived because a huge problem soon arises:

Potential members aren’t interested to pickup the phone! 

You’ve generated a large number of leads, but there’s no way to convert them because you can’t even talk to them. 

Now, you may decide to do nothing about this issue and wait for it to resolve itself. 

But if you sit idle and fail to change your strategies… you’ll only waste time and money. Worse, you risk losing your clients to another studio and killing your chances of taking off. 

Unfortunately, there isn’t a magic wand that will make your prospects pick up the phone. You need to make it happen, and this article will help you do so. 

We’ll list six tips to help you get people on the phone and boost your pickup rate.

The 6 Tips to Increase Your Pickup Rate

Tip #1. Don’t Use Certain Words

The first step to improving your phone pickup rate is to adopt a different mindset. More specifically, you want to stop using certain words, such as “no one’s picking up.” 

What do I mean?

The situation might not be great, but there’s no reason to discourage yourself further. 

In fact, many studio owners think that no one’s picking up after dialling just one or two numbers. They set unrealistic expectations, hoping that each potential client will answer their call. 

But unless you’re doing 10 to 12 follow-ups per lead, stop thinking all your clients are refusing to answer you. 

The problem may lie in just one or two prospects. 

Tip #2. Do More Follow-Ups 

As previously discussed, doing more follow-ups is essential to converting your prospects. Lead generation keeps your sales funnel in motion, but your efforts will be in vain if you can’t convert them. 

But you can’t expect to land prospects with just one follow-up. In many cases, you’ll need to do at least two to three follow-ups to get your prospect to join your studio. 

Some prospects don’t require much convincing, allowing you to seal the deal after the initial contact. But keep in mind that these people already know their fitness goals and how your studio can help them achieve them. 

Such prospects are extremely rare. 

In fact, you’re much more likely to encounter prospects who require two to three follow-ups. 

Of course, getting them on board requires patience. But you also need to overcome your fear of rejection. 

You might think your prospects are indifferent to your studio, but that may not be the case at all. They could simply be waiting for you to make the first move and address certain pain points. 

If so, being persistent with your follow-ups will let you sell your studio’s services and convince them that yours is the right studio for them. 

Tip #3. Switching Phone Numbers 

Another thing you can try to improve your lead conversion is to use a different phone number. By this, I mean if your primary number is receiving no attention, switch to your secondary number. 

This tactic can work great with many potential members, especially those who are hesitant to join a studio. They don’t know who you are yet, which is why they’re timid and reluctant to answer your calls. 

But as previously discussed, persistence pays off. 

Using a different phone number ties perfectly into this point. Since they don’t know that it’s you calling using your secondary number, chances are they’re more likely to pick up.

Tip #4. Do the Double Tap

Don’t feel disheartened if your prospect doesn’t answer the first time. I know many studio owners call it quits at this point, but that’s not what you should do. 

Instead, do the double tap – redial your potential client’s number immediately after your first attempt. 

It’s because they might not have heard your first call or think you got the wrong number. But once they see you’re redialing, they’ll be more likely to pick up the phone. 

Now, the double tap strategy doesn’t hold for phone pickup only. It also applies to other types of communication. 

For example, if your prospect doesn’t respond to your initial email, follow it up with another message. This increases the chances of a response. 

Tip #5. Don’t Call at Your Convenience

One of the biggest mistakes studio owners make is calling at their convenience. That is, they dial their prospect’s numbers at the same time every day because it’s convenient for them. 

For example, you might call in-between doing some pickups or after lunch. You might have free time at this point, so you decide to ring your potential client up. 

It’s convenient for you…

But is it convenient for your prospects?

The easiest solution to this problem is to call your prospects at a different time. This way, you’ll rule out the possibility that they’re too busy to answer you. 

Tip #6. Identify and Use the Ideal Time Slots 

Identifying the ideal time slots to call is directly connected to the previous point. These windows have to do with when your prospects are more likely to pick up the phone. 

Here are the three best time slots for dialling your prospect’s number: 

  • Five minutes after the initial lead drop 
  • Between 9 and 11 AM
  • Between 4:30 and 6:30 AM (after work hours) 

The first option might be your best bet since this is when the lead is still fresh. At that point, the prospect expects you to reach out, so use this opportunity while it’s open. 

Adopt the Winner’s Mindset

The best studio owners are resolute. 

Their pickup rate might not have been great when they first launched their studio, but this didn’t discourage them. Instead, they identified and solved the issue to improve their lead conversion. 

You can do the same with these tips. 

The key thing to remember is to not be discouraged by a few unanswered phone calls. Redialing your prospects and doing several follow-ups usually do the trick. 

If not, understand that your customers are busy and choose a better time slot. You’ll be surprised by the improvements to your pickup rate. 

Categories
Sales Top Stories

The 3 Secrets to Getting More Sales in Your Studio

Confidence is really key to running a successful studio

To understand what I mean, take Haley, one of Geron1mo’s most accomplished clients, as an example. She’s an expert saleswoman, effortlessly closing dozens of deals for her studio every week. 

But things weren’t always like this for her. 

At first, Haley was shy and hesitant to take real action. 

She didn’t know how to interact with potential clients and attract them to her studio. As a result, her sales plummeted, so there was no way to grow her business. 

But Haley didn’t give up. 

She took a long, hard look at herself. That’s why she identified a lack of confidence as her biggest weakness. 

Her prospects also recognised this lack of confidence, too. See, Haley didn’t sound excited about her services, and her potential clients heard it. 

She understood her timidness would be her downfall, so she decided to change this. 

Haley made it clear to her prospects that her studio was perfect for body transformations and achieving a healthy routine. 

Soon, she became more confident than ever. And she turned into a sales beast, setting a 50-sales week record. 

If Haley turned things around in her studio, so can you. 

Keep reading because you’ll discover the three secrets for getting more sales in your studio. 

The 3 Secrets

Secret #1. Get Real on the Phone

One of the most important steps to increasing sales is to polish your phone game. You need to establish a rapport with your members by asking the right questions such as: 

  • Why do you want to be here?
  • What do you want to achieve with this program? 
  • Do you want to lose weight or gain muscle? 

As the conversation flows, your prospects are more likely to open up if you also insert some emotion. You can ask emotional questions like: 

“What would it mean to you to achieve your fitness goals?” 

This tells the customer you’re interested in their well-being. And that you want to find out how you can help them. 

It also makes them more comfortable and eager to share their feelings. 

Once you’ve built a rapport, your potential members will realise they can trust you. 

Remember, you’re not a salesperson who only needs people’s credit card details. Instead, you’re building a strong relationship with that potential member and increasing your chances of closing the sale. 

Getting real with them and setting the foundation of that relationship is key.

Secret #2. Be a Better Listener 

The best salespeople are always great listeners. They want to hear about their client’s troubles so they can provide the best solutions, so they remain attentive throughout the conversation. 

You need to do the same.

Rather than listening passively, you need to be an active listener and empathise with your customers. After all, you can’t hope to solve their problem without listening to them. 

Establish a rapport by asking relevant questions, but don’t stop there. 

Take in the answers before jumping to the next part of your script. Otherwise, your prospect may feel you’re not listening to them, and it will put them off your studio. 

Now, the best way to avoid this scenario is to acknowledge their concern. 

Whether they want to lose weight to feel better or gain muscle to be more confident about their body, show your prospect that you understand them. 

This way, you’ll create an even better rapport, and your clients will be more likely to confide in you. 

Secret #3. Don’t Focus on Your Gym or Membership

If you want to be a prosperous studio owner, you need to understand one thing: 

Nobody cares about your gym or your gym membership!

Your customers aren’t interested in your battle ropes, sleds, and other equipment. They only want to hear about the outcome. 

The sooner you realise this, the better you’ll be at making sales. 

Now, to help you understand this point, picture yourself going on a holiday. 

There are some things you never think about, right? 

For example, you won’t really care that the plane takes 16 hours to reach the destination And that there are only two centimetres of leg space. The jet engine and lunch aren’t on your mind, either. 

Instead, the only thing on your mind is what happens at the end of the flight. 

You think about the beaches, palm trees, bikinis, drinks, memories in your photo feed, and other fascinating parts of your holiday. Everything else is irrelevant. 

Your customers take the same route when considering your studio. 

Rather than visualising the equipment and challenges, they think about what their body will look like three months from now. 

They dream about losing 15 kilograms and becoming their best self. 

Ultimately, the journey to their destination isn’t on their mind. But it’s your job to show them how to reach it. By contrast, their only job is to show up at your studio three or four times per week.

Keep this in mind whenever you’re talking to your customers. 

If you feel the conversation is going in the wrong direction, get back on track by reminding the client of the outcome. 

That said, you’ll know your sales call is fruitful if you move past the client’s wish to lose 5-10 kilograms and you start hearing about other motivations. 

For instance, they may tell you that they aim to improve their mental health or want their family to see them differently. Alternatively, their main goal might be to become a good role model for their children. 

If the customer displays this emotional drive, know that your gym membership and equipment are no longer relevant. 

Instead, only the customer’s drive is relevant. And doubling down on it will help you seal the deal. 

Master Your Sales Strategy 

Following a generic approach to client conversations will get you nowhere. While your script is important, you can’t rely on it blindly. 

Instead, you should strive for a powerful rapport with your potential customers. Asking appropriate questions and listening to their problems will help you do so. 

In addition, don’t forget to move past your gym because your prospects don’t care about it. The only way to strike a chord with them is to emphasise the outcomes they want to have. 

As they get excited about the results, making sales for your studio will be much easier. 

Categories
Retention Top Stories

How to Understand the F45 Studio Member Curve

Your studio community consists of different groups, and not all members are motivated the same. Here’s a breakdown of the member curve and what it means for your studio.

Member management is a crucial part of running a studio. In particular, every studio needs to have a foolproof retention system to keep clients and become successful. That said, one of the most important points is to show the members that you care about them. 

There are several methods to achieve this effect, including proactive and reactive approaches. And studios that master these methods have a significantly increased chance of retaining existing members and attracting new ones. Even better, they create engagement among clients and remind them why they joined in the first place. 

Understanding the studio member curve and the role it plays in community management is critical in that regard. 

This article will explain what the member curve means for your studio and point out the proactive and reactive methods you can use to influence that curve in a positive way.


The Membership Curve

This depicts the level of engagement your members have with the studio. It usually follows the pattern of the so-called “normal” distribution curve, which means that it starts low, rises into a single peak in the middle, and goes back down. 

At the start of the curve are the members with the most sessions. And the number of sessions falls as you go further along the curve. That means when you get to the end of the curve, the members there have zero sessions.

Based on this curve, we’ve classified the type of studio clients into five groups, from the most to the least sessions:

  • Super
  • Selfies
  • The Fringe
  • Red Flags 
  • Bin Chickens

“Super” members are those extremely engaged people who turn out to your parties and openings and follow you on Instagram. The “Selfies” are self-motivated members who want to do their thing and don’t engage in most activities that go beyond the training, while the “Red Flags” are people who show a reduced interest. “Bin Chickens” are that handful of people you don’t need in your studio.

In terms of numbers, you’ll likely have a similarly small number of “Super” and “Bin Chickens” members and a bit more of “Selfies” and “Red Flags.” 

But the majority of your members that form the peak of the curve will fall into “The Fringe,” which will be the group you’ll want to focus on the most.


Targeting the Fringe Group within the Members

“The Fringe” group is the biggest group in your studio and consists of people who do just one to three sessions per week. This group requires special attention not only because it’s the largest but also because of one particular reason:

We’ve found that most cancellations originate from The Fringe. 

In other words, this group needs to be managed much more actively than others because it represents the bulk of your community. More importantly, it can considerably impact your client retention rate. 

Many studios take a passive approach to community management and simply go with the flow. But this approach can be counterproductive, especially when it comes to The Fringe. 

Remember, people in this group are on the borderline between cancelling and converting into full-price clients. And the only way they’ll stay with the studio is if they feel the extra attention coming their way.

Particularly, offering them one more session weekly is the single most significant conversion method for The Fringe. But it needs to be a proactive move. If a member starts considering cancellation, it’s usually too late to react to their decision.

In terms of specific ways of member re-engagement, there’s a four-step blueprint that will help you target The Fringe. You can use it to move the group’s members down the curve and move to the group of satisfied and loyal clients.


Four Ways to Re-Engage Members

The blueprint of reaching out to The Fringe members consists of the following steps:

  • Attendance report
  • Sending a “You Rock” message
  • Celebrating with a video
  • Keeping notes


Here’s how it works:

First, do attendance reports every week as they are extremely useful for analysing the situation in your membership curve. These reports should show every session that every single member had in the previous week. Using those statistics, you can find the people who did between one and three sessions – The Fringe – that requires your focus.

Once you have that group defined, choose a number of people to send a “You Rock” message to every day. It would be best to use every opportunity you find to send that message. For example, when they nailed their previous session, are nearing a milestone, hitting their personal bests, or showing amazing results. 

You can leverage video to share these messages of celebration and encouragement. Videos are incredibly effective and don’t take too much time to create and send. Messaging your members this way will create a great impact while requiring minimal effort. In fact, for many Fringe members, receiving personal video messages was a key reason that made them decide to stay with their studio instead of cancelling.

Finally, ensure to keep notes on all these activities. These notes will help you organise the outreach better and avoid repetitions, which is a real risk if you manage everything without writing it down. This way, you can keep track of who you sent messages to and how they responded to them.


Boost Members’ Engagement Where It Counts

A thorough understanding of the membership curve and the groups it consists of will give you an excellent foundation for activities that will boost client engagement in your studio. 

If you focus on the right groups and reach out appropriately, you’ll start to see much better retention rates. At the same time, your clients will become more motivated and satisfied, ultimately leading to better results both for them and your studio.