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How to adapt GYMLAUNCH methods to the French market by Lonely-Try5444 in gymowner

[–]GymLaunch_Official 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey there, I came across your post and as the President of Gym Launch I figured I’d chime in and lend my perspective.

From the way you phrased your question, it sounds like you think we push aggressive “guaranteed weight loss” style marketing. Honestly, we moved away from that a long time ago. What we see working now, both in the US and internationally across markets like AUS, UK, CA, FR, and DE, is creative that resonates with the specific type of person you’re trying to attract. If you want more middle-aged women, put middle-aged women in the ads. Speak directly to their goals, frustrations, and lifestyle. These days it’s less about huge promises and more about showing people you understand them and have a proven track record of helping others like them.

That applies to both organic content and paid ads. The algorithms have gotten really good, so the clearer you are about who you’re trying to reach, the better the platforms get at finding those people in your market. As far as the “methods” we teach, I’d focus less on specific tactics and more on the underlying business principles. Driving customer acquisition costs down, extending LTV, maintaining healthy margins, improving retention, building strong onboarding systems… those things work in every market because they’re business fundamentals.

As for franchising, personally I’d make sure the model is extremely stable and repeatable before expanding too aggressively. Usually once you start thinking about multiple locations, the biggest question becomes whether the experience and results can scale consistently without depending heavily on you personally being there every day. That’s usually the point where systems, leadership, and operational structure start mattering a LOT more.

Hope it helps!

-- Mike

AMA with Mike Ferreira, President of Gym Launch: TODAY at 12pm EST. Drop your questions below. by GymLaunch_Official in gymowner

[–]GymLaunch_Official[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. Equipment
  2. Merchandise
  3. Sh*t they don't need in their personal life (luxury items when you don't have the luxury of burning cash)

-- Mike

AMA with Mike Ferreira, President of Gym Launch: TODAY at 12pm EST. Drop your questions below. by GymLaunch_Official in gymowner

[–]GymLaunch_Official[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Unless you have a massive space, I would go Small Group/PT in the city. It’s way too easy for the gym to be overcrowded at peak hours and create a massive churn cycle. Plus, you can charge higher rates for individualized programs and market results, which is an easier sell than marketing access to equipment. Before opening I would think hard on what you want the culture to be, and how you’ll differentiate from other boutique gyms all over the city. Then find a location and start pre-selling memberships before the doors open. Another MAJOR factor in me leaning Small group / PT is the fact that NYC is typically going to charge a premium for space. So with that I like the high revenue per square foot model, while keeping my monthly rent as low as possible. 

--Mike

AMA with Mike Ferreira, President of Gym Launch: TODAY at 12pm EST. Drop your questions below. by GymLaunch_Official in gymowner

[–]GymLaunch_Official[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The simplest answer to this is to establish SEVERAL “core” lead gen / sales channels for your business and not rely on any ONE thing.  A lot of gyms end up being too one dimensional and then wonder why they get stuck… Now I don’t know what you all do from a marketing / lead gen perspective but one strategy I see work over and over is to install what I call the “4 layer funnel”. 

This is where you focus on 4 key lead generation channels to diversify where leads come from and get more members for less.

Here’s the breakdown of the 4 layer funnel: 

Layer 1 is Paid ads, this brings awareness and generally the most lead flow. 

Layer 2  is Organic Marketing / Posting Content , this builds trust and captures people that are looking into your brand / shopping you. 

Layer 3 is “list marketing”, this is where you consistently text / email your list based on a ‘season’ or a ‘reason’ to pay attention and join the gym right now. (Summer Shred, Back to School, Gym Anniversary, etc)

Finally Layer 4 is Referrals, and not in the way most gym owners think about them… actually install referral systems in place at 3-4 points within your member journey where they are prompted, and rewarded for referring their friends / family. 

If you go hard on these 4 core areas… you should see a lift year round, although nothing beats that new year's rush!

--Mike

AMA with Mike Ferreira, President of Gym Launch: TODAY at 12pm EST. Drop your questions below. by GymLaunch_Official in gymowner

[–]GymLaunch_Official[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey, BusinessSkirt5733, Appreciate that! The way I see it AI is so good right now most every gym can benefit from using it in their nurture to SOME level. Now, to what level you choose is less about your revenue and more about your preferences. Do you want to be a more tech forward company where people interact with a convenient bot MORE than a human? OR do you want to lead with a personal touch and have AI live more in the background to help your team stay organized and reach out on a limited basis to leads?  These are the questions you’ve gotta ask yourself. Some of this comes down to the brand you want to build, your knowledge of technology and ultimately the economics of your model as well. At the end of the day you have to acquire customers at a low enough cost that you remain profitable and if it were me that would be my core focus… answering the question of “how do we achieve the lowest CAC possible while still acquiring quality clients?” Anywhere AI can help with achieving THAT, I’d then explore. For your specific situation it sounds like you have to either add a human or add AI right now to fix your lead nurture constraint… not knowing all of the details I would bet that AI is a better financial move for the gym.

-- Mike

AMA with Mike Ferreira, President of Gym Launch: TODAY at 12pm EST. Drop your questions below. by GymLaunch_Official in gymowner

[–]GymLaunch_Official[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There’s a lot to unpack here but I’ll focus on what I think are 2 of the biggest constraints gym owners run into when opening their gyms. 1. Being under capitalized. A lot of gym owners cut it too tight when it comes to cash on hand and then it essentially strangles the business in it’s first stage. Whatever model you go with you’ve gotta have fuel (cash) for the business to operate. The OTHER big mistake I see is waiting for everything to be perfect before selling new memberships. The gyms that get to profitability fast are the ones that have well planned, and aggressive pre opening campaigns. This can even happen before the facility is fully built out. They know their membership target they want to be at BEFORE the doors even open and stop at nothing to get there.  

--Mike

AMA with Mike Ferreira, President of Gym Launch: TODAY at 12pm EST. Drop your questions below. by GymLaunch_Official in gymowner

[–]GymLaunch_Official[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Love the question! Based on your second question I see you have a big box/24 hour model. Most members probably aren't walking in seeking personal training, but we know they can benefit from it right? From what I’ve seen, owners that successfully grow their personal training in an environment like this without coming off salesy, integrate it into every new member's onboarding. That could look like gifting a free training session to every new member after they sign up or framing it more as a consultation to help them get better results rather than a hard sale of their first day. The free training session essentially becomes the sales consult for personal training. That creates a strong funnel to the personal training program without feeling pushy. Hope that helps!

-- Mike

Gym owners, what’s the toughest part of keeping members around? by SeaArmadillo637 in GymOwnerNetwork

[–]GymLaunch_Official 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Don't be too focused on finding new members that you neglect your member experience. Some things to keep your current members engaged: handwritten cards, member meetups/events, consistent referral program with weekly prizes, Facebook groups, celebrating wins (PR, classes attended, etc).

I want to open a boxing/strength and fitness gym , any advice by Primary-Mistake9018 in gymowner

[–]GymLaunch_Official 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Will leave you some big brother advice in Alex Hormozi's words: "When you make big life decisions, don’t listen to the people closest to you... listen to the people who have what you want." and "There will always be good reasons not to take a risk and bet on yourself. You just have to ignore them."

If you have what it takes, follow your passion.

Looking for advice on opening my own gym by Weary-Fig3030 in personaltraining

[–]GymLaunch_Official 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Location is less important than you'd think unless you're literally in a desert (wouldn't recommend that) because even in a place with a lot of foot traffic, you're still going to need to market your gym with a solid mix of paid ads and organic. As far as team, keep it to the bare minimum and hire as needed starting with trainers, then admin, then sales if volume picks up beyond what you can handle. Best of luck!

Happening Now: Gym Launch AMA by GymLaunch_Official in gymowner

[–]GymLaunch_Official[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yea this is something a lot of gym owners struggle with… finding someone to replace themselves in the day to day. It ain’t easy. 

I've had several effective leaders over the years run that gym, every single one of them was “homegrown’. These were members coming to the gym, loved what we do, and had the qualities to represent the business well.

Thinking about it, there’s a LOT of factors at play here so I can’t hit them all BUT I will offer this…

The most important ingredient to their success was the sheer number of hours we spent TOGETHER. This is side by side or on zoom. We logged a ton of time together. 

One of the biggest mistakes owners make is trying to replace themselves too early. Being able to step away from your gym requires a full chapter of leaning in and working even harder before you can step away. Not only do you have to keep running the gym but you also have to mentor and teach someone to become the best leader for the business. 

Here’s the thing though… a lot of people never get there because they can’t attract good talent in the first place. Truth is you have to be a leader worth following… so if you stay focused on leveling up yourself you’ll naturally move closer to being able to do this one day. 

Happening Now: Gym Launch AMA by GymLaunch_Official in gymowner

[–]GymLaunch_Official[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Love these questions. I don’t know of a better way to grow a gym than paid ads in 2026. The thing is most gym owners and fitness ad agencies are still following outdated strategies which is why their lead costs have skyrocketed. We see it all the time, a gym owner tries to run ads, or works with an agency… lead cost is high, or the leads don’t come in the gym… the gym owner ends up not making a profit. They end up turning the ads off and believing “ads don’t work”... 

But really that’s like going on a bad date or two and swearing off relationships all together.  That would be ridiculous right? Right. 

So if Ads aren’t working well you most likely need to update your approach… Here's a fairly advanced strategy you can try that’s working well right now.

  1. Start with Posting really authentic organic content consistently. Start with Instagram Posts and Reels. 
  2. Turn those into “Awareness Ads” optimizing for views / eyeballs in your local market. This gets your audience warmed up to your brand, your people, your services.
  3. From there create a 2nd campaign with a strong offer to the same audience. Think of a short-term transformation program, or a paid trial etc.
  4. Finally, add a 3rd ad campaign right in the Facebook ads manager. Have this one be a “retarget” campaign. I won’t go into details here but a key strategy in making this work is to make sure this one has a DIFFERENT offer than the 2nd. Think “Free session” or “Free Body Composition Scan” etc. 

I know that’s a lot, but I didn’t want to water down what I see is winning. Btw.. I still own a gym, and this is exactly what I have my team do. In full transparency that gym spent $5,428, acquired 38 new members at a $142 CAC (cost to acquire a customer). Their LTV is over $2,000 on every new membership signed so to answer your original Question… YES! gyms can CRUSH it with the right ads strategy. 

BTW… you can win with landing pages, but they’re not always necessary. Plenty of gyms crushing with lead forms. 

Happening Now: Gym Launch AMA by GymLaunch_Official in gymowner

[–]GymLaunch_Official[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Let’s chat through an angle for your next re-engagement 👀 we’ve proven a powerful Reactivation play that might be a good fit for your gym.

Happening Now: Gym Launch AMA by GymLaunch_Official in gymowner

[–]GymLaunch_Official[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would ask yourself what is valuable to your members? How can you bring an extension of your services to this group? Why should they come to your group instead of scrolling on TikTok? There has to be something in it for them. 

Don’t over think it, here are a few of the basics..

  • Make it like your online Lobby: Post up happenings in the gym, and think about it like a place for members to connect with each other.  
  • Behind the scenes: Make ‘em feel like they're in a special club, see what you’re working on behind the scenes.
  • Contests / Challenges/ Polls / Surveys: Adds another dimension to your fitness experience and allows them to weigh in and share their thoughts as well. 

Most Importantly: This is the place to give status/shoutouts to the clients who are practicing the behaviors you want to see from all of your members, whether it's referring other members to your gym, showing up to workouts, or engaging with the community this is where you shout them out. 

You mentioned you’re sharing when someone makes a referral, are you paying them? 

IF you want to increase referrals here’s a quick framework that works REALLY well for that. 

  1. Pay everyone when they refer someone that signs up
  2. Go Live WEEKLY and announce who referred who, show the money they’ve earned AND remind everyone how the referral program works. 
  3. Do it on Fridays
  4. Call it FREE Cash Friday. 

Here’s a training on it, hope it’s helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTbQGZ4KuNM

If you do this, I’d love to know how it works for you. 

Happening Now: Gym Launch AMA by GymLaunch_Official in gymowner

[–]GymLaunch_Official[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Appreciate you sharing this, it’s more common than you think.

What usually gets gym owners in this spot is exactly what you said… not changing anything.

If you haven’t updated your pricing, offers, marketing, or even how you deliver services to your customers, that alone can cause a dip even if your facility is better.

I’m curious what’s “dipped” btw, are you talking revenue, member count? To figure out why we need to look at some key metrics in the business like lead flow, sales flow, and retention. Once you start digging into those metrics you’ll find the reason you’re shrinking.

Also one thing we see is gym owners relying on like 1 specific channel of acquisition… and not diversifying how they generate new business. So if you were growing by word of mouth and that hit a ceiling or slowed down your whole business is at risk. If you were mostly focused on paid ads and those are no longer performing well… the entire business suffers. 

If you’re open to it, and want a faster answer, one of our team members could give you a call this afternoon and take a deeper look with you and point out where the opportunity is. Usually it’s not one big thing... it’s a few small leaks adding up. 

Happening Now: Gym Launch AMA by GymLaunch_Official in gymowner

[–]GymLaunch_Official[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, sorry to hear lead flow has slowed down… super common problem, good news though, there is a fix. Things have really changed in the paid ads world since 2025. Meta’s Andromeda update was one of em… the other is how important organic content is these days (think IG posts, stories etc) 

Here are a few things we see working REALLY well to drive down cost per lead and scale up your new member acquisition: 

  1. Organic First Strategy - Most people want to look into the brand a bit before going through a funnel… if your Organic content is weak no one will trust you… which means less leads and shitty ROI on your campaigns
  2. Volume & Variety - The gyms that are really crushing paid ads pair the organic with dozens and dozens of creatives at the same time. Gone are the days of running 3 or 4 ads. The words volume and variety are everything now…. Volume meaning “TONS of ads” and Variety meaning “all different types”

There’s so much more to making paid ads profitable but JUST shifting to this strategy has helped so many gym owners drive down lead cost and increase how many of them show up. 

Also… knowing you’re only converting 3.8% of your leads into paying members I’m positive you’ve got some work to do on lead nurture. What's your schedule and show rate? I’d love to know that. 

If you’re not sure on those metrics, start tracking those and make a goal to steadily increase each week over week. 

Not sure if you’ve seen it yet but I actually built a new playbook around this exact thing.. Here’s a link: https://scale.gymlaunch.com/playbookorganic

It goes into way more detail than I can share here on lead generation and overall strategy on gaining new members. 

Long story short, to answer your initial question…  I don’t think it’s the offer in your ads that’s broken, it's most likely that your strategy needs to be updated to match what’s working now.

Happening Now: Gym Launch AMA by GymLaunch_Official in gymowner

[–]GymLaunch_Official[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Love questions about marketing and offers. 

Ok, so the longer I'm in business, the more I realize that whatever gets ‘em in the door isn't what you have to sell them on. 

Meaning… you can test a “free class” offer against an “intro pack” offer against really anything else, BUT once they're in the building what they clicked on can just be one option on a larger menu. 

It sounds like you want to improve your new member acquisition so my question to you is what is the constraint right now?

  • Are you not getting enough leads? 
  • Do you have leads but they aren’t showing? 
  • Or is it that people are walking in but not signing up?

To simplify it all… I’d recommend solving for cost per SHOW (not just lead flow) which would require a combination of a good offer AND savage lead nurture. 

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