More members,
fewer no-shows.

Ask a gym owner where members come from and the honest answer is usually 'a bit of everything'. That's true, but some sources are far cheaper than others. Here's the typical mix for an independent gym or studio, roughly from warmest to coldest. Ask every new member where they heard about you, and write it down, so you know your own order.

Interest fades quickly. The Harvard research reported by SmartCompany sent test leads to 2,241 US companies, and found only 37% responded within an hour, and the average response took 42 hours. In a separate analysis of 1.25 million leads, contact inside the first hour made a lead close to 7 times more likely to qualify than contact an hour later.

That research is US, from 2011, and not about gyms. But the pattern matches what most gyms see: someone who enquires at 8pm has usually booked somewhere by the next afternoon. Treat enquiries like phone calls. An automatic reply with the booking link straight away, then a real person within the hour during staffed times, is the cheapest lead generation there is.

Keep follow-up messages within the rules. A reply to someone who asked a question is what they asked for. Adding them to a promotions list is marketing, and the Spam Act needs consent, your business name and contact details, and an unsubscribe that works within 5 working days.

Put in last month's numbers from your booking or membership software. The tool finds the stage losing the most people and what fixing it is worth. The starting numbers are made up.

Most trials fail at the end, not the start. The person comes twice, enjoys it, and then the trial just stops. Nobody asks how it went, so they drift back to their old routine. A trial needs three things: a welcome that sets a plan, a check-in halfway, and a booked conversation on the last day with the full price and terms in front of them.

In NSW, the Government's guide for fitness businesses suggests offering a cooling-off period or an obligation-free trial, and not pressuring people to sign on the spot. Both make the end-of-trial chat easier, not harder. People join more readily when they know they can leave.

Where a trial turns into a paid membership, the ad, the booking page and a message before the last day should all say so. New national laws will require notices when introductory or discounted periods end. Doing it now builds trust, and stops the angry call in week five.

Members' friends are often the best leads a gym gets. The risky way to run it is a form where the member types in a friend's mobile number and the gym's system texts them an offer. The Spam Act needs the person receiving a marketing message to have consented, and a friend handing over a number isn't the friend's consent.

Australia's communications regulator has made this point before. In 2012 the ACMA warned McDonald's that by providing a 'send to friends' tool, it had caused the messages to be sent, without the recipients' consent or an unsubscribe. A gym's referral form works the same way.

The safer way: give each member a code or a pass to hand over themselves, by text from their own phone, in person or on social media. The friend books if they want to. Reward the member when the friend joins, and keep the reward to referrals. Never tie it to reviews.

Reviews are part of lead generation because they're what people read before booking. Google's rules don't allow incentives such as discounts or free services for reviews, or selectively asking for positive reviews. So no free week for a five-star rating, and no asking only the regulars who love you.

Ask every new member at the same point, say their 30-day check-in, with the same message. You'll get a fair spread, and recent reviews that mention the things buyers ask about: beginners, cleanliness, how busy it gets.

People who cancelled already know where you are and what you're like. Some left for reasons that change: a new job, an injury, a move that didn't happen. A short message a few months later, with a reason to come back, often does better than any ad to strangers.

Check the consent first. The ACMA says inferred consent rests on an ongoing relationship with your business, and once someone has cancelled, that's harder to rely on. If they ticked a box to hear from you, you're fine. Either way, include your name and an unsubscribe, and honour it.