Why Every Gym Needs a Referral Program

Your happiest members are your best ambassadors. Word-of-mouth remains one of the most powerful ways to attract new gym-goers, and a well-designed referral program can turn your loyal members into your top recruiters. By offering rewards or incentives for bringing in friends, family, or colleagues, you not only grow your gym community but also show appreciation for the members who already love your space. It’s a win-win—your members get perks, and your business sees steady, organic growth. Let’s explore how a simple referral program can boost your gym’s membership and keep your community thriving.

Gym and health club owners, operators, and managers must continuously attract new members. Competition is fierce: there are 7,850 gyms and fitness centers in Australia and 1,149 in New Zealand. Your fitness business needs to stand out.

There are many ways to market your business to reach new members – from social media campaigns, to advertising in local publications, and everything in between. But there’s one powerful option that you should consider early on. That option is word of mouth. Research shows that 83% of consumers say they either completely or somewhat trust word-of-mouth recommendations from family, colleagues, and friends about products and services. Additionally, 88% of people trust online reviews written by other consumers as much as they trust recommendations from personal contacts,

Turn your members into brand advocates who will promote your club for you. Take advantage of word-of-mouth marketing through a gym referral programme.

Your refer-a-friend offer should benefit everyone involved. So, you get new members and your members – the referrers and referees – are rewarded too.

How do you set up a successful programme that drives referrals?

Your newest members can be your biggest advocates – include your referral offer in your onboarding communications. Get the Successful Gym Member Onboarding Playbook to find out how.

What is a gym member referral program?

A gym member referral programme, or refer-a-friend programme, is a way to reward your existing members for attracting new ones. It’s a systematic way of growing your business by taking advantage of conversations your members are likely already having with their friends and family.

Why do you need a referral program?

A strong referral programme will benefit all those involved. The referrer and new member are incentivised to take part. And your business gets a new member.

Taking advantage of the power of word-of-mouth marketing, refer-a-friend offers can help your business grow with minimal workload for your team. Set your offer up and share it with your members, then let them do the rest for you.

Additionally, strong member engagement and effective member communication. play a key role in a referral program’s success. When members feel valued and connected, they’re more likely to recommend your gym to others.

What is word-of-mouth marketing? Word-of-mouth is a type of earned advertising that can net you more new members than paid advertising. A word-of-mouth mention can drive as much as 5x more sales than 1 paid advert view.

Plus, it can attract higher value members – Word of Mouth results in 200% more spending than other forms.

You’ll also take advantage of the benefits of members working out together. Gym member motivation can be positively affected by having a workout buddy to act as an accountability partner to motivate, encourage and keep them working towards their goals.

How do you create an attractive referral offer?

First, it’s important to understand why people choose to share products and services with others around them. Marketing professor and author, Jonah Berger, identified 6 key principles that drive people to share in his book Contagious:

6 steps to a high performing gym member referral program

With these ideas in mind, you can create your gym referral programme.

1. Choose what you want to incentivise

The first step when creating your referral programme is to decide what to incentivise. Choose what you’re asking your members (the referrers) and new members (the referees) to do to qualify for an incentive/reward.

You may want to limit your programme to reward referrers and referees when the new member signs up to a full annual membership. Or keep it open to sign-ups of all-membership lengths and types. Perhaps you want to keep it simple and offer members an incentive for supplying a referral lead.

Knowing what you want to reward will help you understand what incentive is financially workable to offer.

2. Pick your incentive

Make your refer-a-friend incentive appealing to encourage members to recommend your gym or health club to their friends and family.

Your biggest fans will recommend your business without the need for any incentive. Yet most members will want a reward. Think about what will appeal to your members. New members should also benefit too – so they’re more likely to sign up.

When choosing an incentive, consider what aligns best with your gym’s brand and what will excite your members the most. Also remember to make sure the incentive you offer will work for your business financially, consider the value of what you’re incentivising, against the reward you’re providing. If you’re looking for more creative promotion ideas to attract and retain members, check out this guide on effective gym promotions.

These are the type of incentives to consider:

3. Set your offer up in your software

To make running your referral programme easier and less time-consuming, you need to be able to run it within your gym management software.

Your software should let you track the success of your programme and make sure members get their rewards. And, you should be able to easily access the data you need to make improvements to refer-a-friend offers.

Xplor Gym lets you provide members with a referral code they can access within the member area online. So, you can see when a code is used during the online joining process and reward your referrer and referee.

4. Clearly explain your referral offer

For a successful gym member referral programme, you need to make sure your members understand it.

Create a landing page and/or an email explaining your offer. Focus on making sure your copy is well-written, using easy to understand language that grabs the reader’s attention. Aim to explain the benefit of making a referral in one sentence.

Make sure your potential brand advocates are clear about the referral process. So, think about the sorts of questions members may have. Include a frequently asked questions (FAQs) section to answer these. This will make it easier for members to scan the page or email without having to read large chunks of text.

Include a simple set of terms and conditions to highlight any criteria that need to be met to qualify for the offer.

5. Market your gym referral programme

You’ve set your referral programme up and you can describe it clearly. Next up you need to spread the word and let your members know about it.

Your members are key to the success of your referral programme. They need to know about it, understand it and want to take advantage of it. Having a strong marketing foundation in place will help ensure your message lands effectively and encourages engagement. Get started with the Ultimate Marketing Bundle for Gym Owners. It’s packed with strategies and resources to help you attract more members and grow your fitness business.

Start by thinking where you can reach your members – online and offline. Remember, your exact approach will depend on your unique membership base.

These are some of the ways you can spread the word:

Onboarding communications Your newest members are usually your biggest advocates. So, make details of your referral programme a part of your new gym member onboarding process communications and get new members working out with a friend.

Tip

The free Successful New Gym Member Onboarding Playbook includes templates you can use to promote your referral offer to new members.

Get your free copy

Social media

This is a really easy way to quickly spread the news of your referral programme – especially if you have a large following. Write a simple post telling your members about the offer and how to take advantage of it.

You could pin this post to keep it top of your feeds and consider investing in a paid campaign to increase your reach.

Social can give you feedback fast, so keep an eye on the engagements you are getting (likes, shares, comments) to see if you can make improvements.

Your website

We’ve already covered setting up a landing page for your refer-a-friend offer, you should also consider putting this in a prominent place on your website.

The homepage or even a pop-up banner or box will help you reach more members and prospective members when they visit your business online.

In-person

Take advantage of members visiting you in-person to promote your refer-a-friend offer. Create posters to put up around your club – include a QR code members can scan to get to your landing page with all the details they need to take up the offer. Plus, you could supply leaflets for members to take away.

Don’t forget to talk about the offer to your members when they are with you.

Make sure your fitness team know about the offer and are ready to mention it when appropriate as part of their everyday conversations with members. Pick the right timing though – after a good workout, after asking the member how they are getting on, after a successful group fitness class, etc.

Email

Email offers a highly effective way to promote your offer. Directly reach members who want to hear from you using a channel you’re in control of.

Your gym management software should make it easy to send personalised, targeted emails to your members without switching platforms.

Follow these tips to reach as many members as possible:

Address your member by name and personalise your message further to boost open rates by 11 to 55%

Personalisation could also result in 5.7 times higher campaign revenue – more new members for you!

Send your message around 9-10am – in New Zealand, the most popular time to open an email is 10am

Software like Xplor Gym will help you create, personalise and schedule emails promoting your referral programme to targeted groups of members.

Need inspiration? Here’s an example email:

Subject line: {Member First Name} refer a friend

Hi {Member First Name},

Having a training partner can help motivate you to reach your goals faster (and keep you on track).

Refer a friend and you’ll both get an extra month on us when they join.

Just give them your referral code which can be found in the member area online. When they use it to sign up for a membership, an extra month will be added to the end of both your memberships automatically.

Our referral programme is always running. So, the more referrals you make, the more months you’ll get!

Happy training,

{Your Club Name}

Text / SMS Marketing

For members who have opted in, a text message campaign can be a powerful way to boost your referral program. Nearly 50% of customers consider taking action after receiving a promotional text, and 90% read their messages within 30 minutes. As of 2024, SMS campaigns boast an average open rate of 98%—far higher than email’s 28.6%.

To keep engagement high, use text messages sparingly, reserving them for important campaigns like your referral program.

Remember to keep your message within 160 characters, include a link to your landing page, and always provide an opt-out option.

Need inspiration? Here’s an example text message:

Get 1 month on us when you successfully refer a friend who signs up for a membership. Get referring: [add link here]. Reply STOP to opt out

6. Measure success and refine your referral programme

Once you’ve started marketing your gym member referral programme, the next step is to see how well it performs.

By using your gym management software to provide each member with referral codes they can use, you’ll be able to see exactly who has successfully referred a friend. Plus, you’ll be able to see that everyone who should have received the incentive has – delivering on your promise and avoiding errors.

This will also make it easy to track how well your programme is performing. Think about measuring:

Use the metrics you’re tracking to evaluate and adjust your referral programme. Make optimisations to improve return on investment.

As your referral programme gains traction, don’t stop there—consistent marketing is key to long-term growth. A well-planned strategy ensures you’re always engaging your members and attracting new ones. If you’re looking for more ways to market your gym effectively, this Fitness Marketing Campaign Planner can help you map out your promotions for the year ahead.

Wrap Up: Building a Thriving Gym Community Through Referrals

A well-structured gym referral programme is more than just a marketing tool—it’s a powerful way to grow your fitness business while strengthening your community. By setting clear goals, choosing the right incentives, and effectively promoting your programme, you create a seamless system that rewards both loyal members and new joiners.

However, the real key to long-term success isn’t just bringing in new members—it’s keeping them engaged and invested in your gym for the long haul. A referral programme works best when paired with strong retention efforts and member engagement strategies that keep your community active, motivated, and eager to spread the word about your gym. To help you do just that, check out this Improving Member Engagement for Your Gym resource. The more valued and connected your members feel, the more likely they are to stay, refer others, and contribute to a thriving gym culture.