5 Ways to Increase Attendance with Minimal Effort
You’ve built a beautiful studio. You’ve hired some rockstar teachers. You’ve set up your business management software, advertised your studio, and fine-tuned your methods. But, how do you increase attendance?
Even the world’s best studios need to rely on data and automations to help their studio succeed. If you’re not carefully keeping an eye on performance, payments and attendance, you could be losing members without even realizing — and that’s ultimately going to affect your bottom line. Stop driving yourself crazy with manual reporting or painstaking marketing tactics. We’ve broken down how you can get more members to class without adding tons of extra work to your plate.
#1: Look At Attendance Reports
This may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s worth mentioning. If you want to increase attendance to your classes, you have to know what current attendance patterns look like. Which classes are most popular? Which have slowly been losing members? Taking the time to look over attendance reports (which can be automatically collected and viewed with a software like WellnessLiving) can help you stay informed.
If a class is consistently popular, that’s a good indication you may be able to offer that class more often during the day or week. Or if a class is consistently low, you may want to rethink that type of class or timing.
#2: Find Rockstar Instructors
Another important thing attendance reports can tell you is which of your team members are bringing in the most people. It could be the trainer just happens to run one of your most popular classes during peak hours, but if a specific trainer consistently sees high attendance at different times of day, consider leveraging them even more. Getting more people to class could be as easy as giving them more opportunities to work out with their favorite instructor.
With other softwares, you could add up and average class attendance for specific trainers. But with WellnessLiving, you can pull a customized report that shows you average attendance for each instructor’s classes.
#3: Offer a Deal
Every studio has off-peak hours where attendance is generally lower. Bump up those numbers with a deal! You can offer a lower price on classes with less attendance or highlight “happy hour” prices on in-studio food and drinks during slower times. You can even integrate your Daily Deal or Groupon offers right into your WellnessLiving software — which makes it easier on your team to redeem offers and track their success.
Or, you can leverage your current WellnessLiving subscription to offer deals via email or text message. Does your studio typically have lower attendance on the weekends? Shoot members a message Friday afternoon offering 10% any classes booked for the next 48 hours. A direct, urgent message can motivate members to act fast and try out a class they may not otherwise have attended.
#4: Leverage Social Media
Leveraging social media shouldn’t just be about posting class times and special events to keep members informed. You can also use a little social media magic to shine classes in a different light and get people excited about checking them out. Try adding a live video from a new class to showcase what it’s all about, or posting a photo of happy members after a great yoga session can get members interested in coming next time. Short social media updates are the best way, studies have shown, for brands to interact with their consumers.
#5: Make it Easier for Members to Sign Up
It stands to reason that if you make it easy for members to sign up for your class, they’re more likely to show up. And your members want to be able to reserve appointments or classes online. Roughly 34% of appointments are booked online outside of office hours for certain industries, so make sure your studio allows for booking through your website and mobile app to attract more sign-ups.
Allowing a member to reserve their spot within your studio’s app or even with a simple Google search will increase the likelihood they’ll show up to class. If they haven’t made a commitment to attend class – i.e. making a reservation ahead of time – they may change their mind at the last minute.
With the right software, all of these tweaks will help you increase attendance at your business without creating hours of extra work for yourself. If your software doesn’t allow you to do all these things quickly and easily, it may be time to consider switching companies. Book a demo today with WellnessLiving, and we’ll show you why our software is the best option for your wellness business.
