Contributed ClubReady partner, Verb
Is the summer slowdown ruining your gym’s vibes–and worse, your bottom line?
You’re not alone. June and July come around and we all start getting those emails and calls.
“We’ll be outside with the kids.”
“We have some travel in August.”
“I never use the gym that much in the summer.”
“Can you pause me?”
Sound familiar?
A 10–20% drop in summer utilization isn’t just frustrating—it can gut your annual profit, demoralize your team, and absolutely kill the energy inside your four walls. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
After 12 years in the fitness industry—as both a gym owner and a habit expert—I’ve seen what works. The key is proactive retention and creative engagement. Here are three proven strategies to keep your members coming through the door and your revenue on track:
- Keep your clients engaged leading up to the summer. We work hard for those summer bods and want to enjoy them. One or two months of neglect can send you way back. Start the summer strong by staying top-of-mind in a positive way: Throw a summer BBQ, incentivize check-ins, organize some spontaneous outdoor workouts as a community. For the bigger gyms where community might not be achievable, think about check-in bonuses, or highlighting how moving the workout from an hour to twenty minutes might make all the difference in the world to their quality of life/fitness ratio.
- Stay connected beyond the gym. Did you know that about 20% of your members are paying someone or something else to talk to them outside your walls? You don’t need a massive campaign. Just intentional, personalized communication that reminds them you’re a part of their journey. At Verb, we have found that even one or two check-ins per month – about ANY aspect of their health and wellness – will dramatically increase their attendance and lifetime value. For brands that are looking to jump on the AI bandwagon, adding a complementary or add-on remote coaching option will do the trick.
- Challenges. No, not those 6-week challenges we all got swindled into running years ago. These are small, quick, and effective ways to challenge your members to be a little better each week during the summer. Do a healthy food submission challenge, a running challenge, a fitness with the kids’ challenge, and stack a certain number of workouts leading up to weekend BBQs and event challenges. You know your members better than anyone. Tailor a few small quick things to keep them on track, thinking of you and your brand, and coming into your business.
At the end of the day, we’re in this to help people live healthier lives—but to do that, our businesses need to thrive too. Use one or all of these strategies to keep your summer strong and your fall booming.
If you need some assistance with coming up with ideas tailored to your gym, Verb would love to help. Creating and facilitating these initiatives is what Verb does best.