Your Guide to Email Marketing for Gyms and Fitness Studios
Last Updated on 16 October, 2025
The competition in the health and wellness industry is fierce, so keeping yourself unique, relevant, and top of mind is key to your success. In the digital age, this means delivering your messaging and promotions to the right person, at the right time.
Gone are the days of mass texts and email blasts to your entire contact list; today’s gym goer wants to feel valued by their gym or fitness studio by receiving personalized content. Organizing a personalized email system could be a full-time job on its own, which is why most successful gyms use customized software options to automate the process.
Keep reading to learn how to create an email and SMS marketing plan that will keep your classes packed.
Building audience segments for fitness clients
Before you launch any campaign, it’s essential to know who you’re talking to. Different groups of people have different needs, motivations, and pain points. By segmenting your audience, you can tailor your messages so they feel personal and relevant instead of generic.
Start by grouping your members and leads into categories:
- New leads or prospects: People who signed up for a trial, downloaded a free pass, or joined your mailing list but haven’t converted.
- New members: Those within the first 30–60 days of joining.
- Active members: Regular gym-goers, class attendees, or personal training clients.
- At-risk or inactive members: People who haven’t checked in for 2+ weeks.
- Past members: Canceled or lapsed memberships.
- Interest-based segments: Weight loss, strength training, group fitness, yoga, etc.
Email campaign ideas for gyms and fitness studios
Email is one of the most versatile tools for nurturing relationships with members and prospects. Each segment of your audience should receive messages that address where they are in their fitness journey, from curious leads to long-time loyal members.
Here’s how you can tailor email campaigns for maximum engagement.
New Leads:
- Welcome sequence (3–5 emails): Introduce the gym, share success stories, explain membership options, and include a “first week free” or discount offer.
- Education emails: Tips for beginners, FAQs about gym etiquette, or how to get started.
New Members:
- Onboarding journey: Share a class schedule, trainer bios, and nutrition tips.
- Check-in email (week 2): “How’s it going so far? Book your next class here.”
Active Members:
- Progress check-in: Send monthly motivation emails with a reminder to track progress or schedule a trainer session.
- Upsell offers: Promote premium classes, personal training, or nutrition coaching.
At-Risk Members:
- Reactivation campaigns: Subject line like “We miss seeing you at the gym!” with an incentive to return (free guest pass, bonus class).
- Accountability content: Quick workout videos they can do at home, reminding them you’re here to help.
Past Members:
- Win-back email: Offer a discounted rejoin fee or “first month back free.”
- Highlight what’s new: New equipment, classes, or trainers since they left.
SMS campaign ideas for gyms and fitness studios
Text messaging is ideal for real-time engagement, reminders, and quick updates. Since SMS feels more personal than email, it’s best used for time-sensitive promotions, motivation, or booking nudges. Below are practical SMS strategies that align with your member segments.
- Class reminders: “Don’t forget your Spin class at 6:30 PM tonight 🚴 – see you soon!”
- Flash promotions: “Today only: Bring a friend for FREE yoga 🧘”
- Motivational nudges: “Halfway through the week! Come crush a workout today 💪”
- Reactivation nudges: “We haven’t seen you in a while. Come back this week for a free smoothie on us!”
- Upsell nudges: “Limited spots left in our Personal Training sessions. Reply YES to reserve.”
Pro Tip: Keep SMS messages short, action-oriented, and include a clear CTA (Call To Action) like: book now, reply for reservations, or links to click.
Best practices when marketing for the fitness industry
No matter how well you craft your campaigns, success depends on execution. Following best practices ensures your messages get delivered, opened, and acted on, while also keeping your audience happy and compliant with regulations.
- Personalize: Use first names, mention the last class attended, or their favorite trainer when possible.
- Timing matters: Send SMS mid-day or early evening; emails in the morning or mid-afternoon.
- A/B test: Try different subject lines, call-to-actions, or timing.
- Use tools: Use software to automate message sending, keep track of your audience segments and important dates, and run reports on your most valuable or most at-risk clients.
- Always add value: Mix promotional content with educational or motivational content so it doesn’t feel “salesy.”
- Compliance: Make sure to include opt-out links (for SMS, “Reply STOP to unsubscribe”).
- Don’t overwhelm: No matter how useful they find your promotions, if they get a new one every day, you’ll soon be on the block list.
Above all, your messaging should be targeted and interest-based. This is the part that will make your customers feel like you care about them as a person, not to mention save you time and effort by delivering your carefully crafted message only to people who will care.
Automatic special offers for their birthdays? Everyone loves a birthday present!
Half off on mats to your yogis who drop by 5 times a week for Bikram? They’ll most likely be interested!
Free protein shake on Mondays for your weight lifters? How could they resist!
Optimize your gym or fitness center’s marketing with WellnessLiving
With so many fitness and business software solutions out there, it can be challenging (and a bit intimidating!) to weigh the pros and cons of each. Many of them will offer similar features that allow you to craft email and SMS campaigns. However, most popular platforms in the fitness industry rely on integration with a variety of apps or add-ons to deliver all the functionality their clients need.
The downside is that this leaves fitness business owners with typically 3 or more monthly subscriptions in addition to their basic software, which obviously drives up costs, as well as providing a challenge when you want to view all of your data in one place.
Our advice? Invest in something that does everything natively. With software like WellnessLiving, you’ll get a more seamless way to view, group, and message your customers. Our visual reporting dashboards also make it easy for you to understand and track the progress of your customers and their messaging campaigns.
Not only will all of your customer data, messaging templates, and campaign results be in one place, but you will also be saving money every month in unnecessary application and technology add-on fees in the process.
To find out more about Wellness Living and our marketing automation solutions for fitness businesses, click here to get your free demo or contact us at 1-888-668-7728 today.
FAQs about email and SMS marketing for the fitness industry
It depends on the audience segment. For example, 1–2 marketing or content emails per week is a reasonable starting point, while SMS should be more sparing (1–2 messages per month is often enough). Always monitor engagement (opens, clickthroughs, opt-outs) and adjust.
You must get explicit opt-in consent (example: “Reply YES to receive class reminders and offers”) and provide a clear opt-out method. Consent must be documented and linked to the specific messaging purpose.
Key metrics include email open rate, click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate (signing up, class booking), SMS reply rate, opt-out rate, member retention/churn, and incremental revenue. Compare different campaigns and optimize based on results.
Best timing depends on your audience’s habits. In general, emails often perform well mid-morning or early afternoon; SMS tends to do better in late morning or early evening. Always A/B test timing with your audience to find what works best.
Absolutely! Top-performing gym management systems offer integration so your marketing platform, lists, messaging, and automation all sync seamlessly.
