The fitness industry is robust, it’s seen off many recessions and we’re currently going through some tough times. It’s during these times that we need to focus on the where and the what. Where can I get the biggest return and what can I do to maximise this return?

In trying times, it’s time to focus. One of the biggest challenges we face as an industry is that most people don’t believe having a gym membership is important and they don’t identify with gym goers.

For me, this starts with our marketing; take a look at the photos that we use to market our facilities and then walk into a gym and see if members reflect this. The public needs to move from “I’m not a gym kind of person” to “I am a gym kind of person” before they’ll contemplate joining a facility.

The This Girl Can campaign was a triumph and is a great example of successful marketing. Can we as an industry promote a national campaign to de-stigmatise the gym and make people feel they belong?

Our scatter-gun approach to marketing our facilities isn’t focused and our recent reports indicate this. The first one found that Active People believe that club membership is more important than non-active, and our second shows Ex-Members are nearly three times as likely to rate becoming a club member as important compared to Never Members.

This means it’s crucial that we don’t just focus on ex-members, we’ve got to attract our competitors' ex-members too.

In the current cost of living crisis, sales are going to be harder to come by and retaining our existing members has become even more important. However, it’s still easier to measure sales than it is retention, that’s why the accountants that own our clubs focus on sales.

Selling to the young is easy, with products like HIIT and Boutique offerings proving popular amongst this group. But, it's crucial to remember that the younger audience buys but they don’t stay.

Previous research shows that age is a strong predictor of longer retention. Yes, we want to make the UK fitter, healthier and engage with more people, but during tough times we need to focus on older, active people and recent ex-members of any club.

To find out more, grab a FREE copy of our Perceptions of Club Membership report here.