How to Engage Your Clients with a Fitness Challenge

Keeping your clients active with your business is the ultimate goal—frequent visits, glowing reviews, and a strong community will help cultivate a loyal following. But how do you keep your clients motivated when their internal motivation starts to wane?

Statistics show that 73% of people who set New Year’s resolutions give them up. By April, a lot of the New Year’s members start to cancel their memberships and it’s not because they don’t like what you are offering. It’s often that they’ve lost their drive. This is where fitness challenges can come into play. They help keep your clients motivated and accountable. Fitness challenges can also help you achieve a variety of other objectives, including generating leads, encouraging referrals, driving sales, and of course, engaging your community.

Challenges can be set up in a variety of ways. If you’re more of a fitness space, offer a physical challenge (i.e. pushups, squats, etc.) where they focus on their own improvements. By making it a community effort, you’ll keep the client’s interest and also keep them motivated to stick it out. Clients want to feel like they are progressing, whether that’s finding more strength and flexibility in a yoga class or having more endurance in a ride. By offering a specific challenge you’re not only helping them reach their goals, you’re also helping them tap into that need to feel like they are moving forward. And who doesn’t want to feel like they are improving?

Any kind of studio can offer a class attendance challenge, which is probably the most common challenge gyms and boutique fitness studios offer. Setting a goal for the number of visits during a set period of time encourages clients to not only visit more frequently, but also to try more classes and offerings as they try to meet their goals.

Finally, you can tap into more altruistic efforts by hosting a challenge for a specific charity (or a charity of the client’s choice). For example, by either meeting a class attendance challenge or a physical challenge, the winning client (or team) will receive funds to donate to their charity of choice.  Alternatively, you can make a charity challenge a community effort. For instance, for every class attended during the month of April, the studio will donate a certain amount to that charity. Yes, you’ll be spending some money on this option but you’re also encouraging clients to visit more, use their punch passes, and bring new members in, too.

So, how do you set up the ideal challenge? Here are 8 tips to keep in mind.

1. Challenge doesn’t mean competition.

A successful challenge is realistic for your members and can be accessible for all abilities. In some instances, having them compete will work well, but in a lot of other circumstances you want them to feel like they are challenging themselves but not up against everyone else.

2.  Create clear start and end dates.

Be sure to have an end date set for the challenge to keep clients interested and motivated. Nobody goes on a detox without an end in sight, your fitness challenge should be the same way!

3. Track their progress.

Use a variety of tools to track progress. And make the progress visible within your studio with charts, stickers, or leaderboards. Stickers are still motivating—even past elementary school.

4. Create a goal.

Depending on your challenge and your clientele, you may want the goal to be achievable by most, or you might want to really try to push them out of their comfort zone. Only you know what will speak to your clients.

5.  Keep it consistent.

Set up challenges annually so clients know it is a regular event. It will give them something to look forward to each year, and something for the community to talk about with new members.

6. Utilize social media.

Get your clients involved on social media. For instance, reward them for sharing post-workout selfies on their Instagram feed or Stories (Facebook counts too). A single post tagging your business can lead to a conversation between friends, new clients rolling in, and even new memberships.

7. Encourage clients to bring a friend.

Encourage students to bring friends... With energy especially high during the challenge, it’s the perfect time to encourage clients to invite friends and family. Challenges really showcase the community aspect of your business and make it easier for new clients to get a feel for your space, quickly.

8. Don’t forget rewards!

Give shout-outs on social media, host a party to celebrate all participants at the end, and of course don’t forget the swag! It doesn’t have to be expensive. Branded gear is always a good bet.

Ready to add a fitness challenge to your event calendar? Here are a few fitness marketing ideas to get you started.

1. Plank challenge

Set a goal of holding a plank for 4 minutes by the end of a month or 6 weeks. Time it out each week with set exercises in each of your classes designed to increase their strength and confidence in their plank!

2. Bingo

Create a bingo board, encouraging your clients to try a variety of different classes, teachers, bring a friend, engage on social media, etc. When they complete their Bingo they can be entered to win a particular prize.

3. Landmark challenge

Perfect for cycling or tread-class studios. Choose a landmark, and have your clients cumulatively add up their class miles to try and get there.

4. Hydration challenge

Who drinks enough water on a daily basis? Umm.. Not many of us. Why not challenge your community to drink more? Give them a discounted water bottle and set a goal over 3 or 4 weeks. It’s easy-to-do and will help them better recover from their workouts, too!

5. Mindfulness Challenge

If your studio and client base are more inclined to want a mental challenge, kick off a mindfulness challenge. Start the challenge with a short workshop on mindfulness meditation and journaling, encouraging them to journal daily for a set period of time. Wrap up the challenge with prizes and a community event where they can share their successes and any transformation that may have occurred.

6. The Classic: AMRAP

On the flip-side if you’re more of a fitness studio, give your clients the classic AMRAP challenge (As Many Reps As Possible). Pushups, burpees, squats, TRX pushups. You name it. There are tons of exercises to choose from. Start with a simple test at the beginning of the challenge and then have all of your classes incorporate movements to help increase strength, specifically to increase their AMRAP goals by the end of the challenge. Do frequent check-ins to keep clients motivated and on track.

Telomere Consulting provides business consulting and marketing services to studio owners in the boutique fitness and yoga space. The Telomere team helps you navigate business strategy from conception to implementation. We provide end-to-end marketing support and would love to hear from you. Click here to book your free intro call. We want you to treat your business the way you treat your body – making the right choices now to optimize its potential for a long and healthy life. Visit us here to learn more.