Fitness Membership Website

Create a Membership Site in 5 Steps to Scale Your Fitness Biz

August 12, 2021

August 12, 2021

It’s fairly common knowledge by this point that it’s way easier to retain customers rather than continuously trying to acquire new ones. Not only are you more likely to make a sale to a previous customer, but more importantly, you’re able to create stronger relationships with those clients, provide more value, and therefore are more likely to organically receive new referrals. For these reasons it’s no wonder subscription-based or membership business models have become so popular. 

Boutique fitness studios have been following this model since their inception, but now individual fitness professionals are using it to scale their income as well. When it comes to fitness memberships, there’s a whole world of potential in what you can offer. So I wanted to walk you through how to go about creating a fitness membership and building that scalable monthly income. 

01 Brainstorm

The first step in creating a membership program is pretty clear: figure out what you’re going to offer. Sometimes it can be tough to recognize the unique knowledge we have that other people want access to. One way to figure this out is to consider any questions you commonly get asked. Are you revered for the 15 marathons you’ve run and able to create training programs specific to that? Or are you specially trained in pre/postpartum fitness and get tons of questions specifically regarding that? Or maybe people come to your classes specifically for your style of teaching and would subscribe to an on-demand workout membership of all your classes. 

There is likely so much potential for membership concepts in your business, but it’ll be even more likely to succeed if you find what you have to offer that is unique to you. Check out my post all about niching to help you narrow in on this.

02 Structure

Once you’ve figured out what you’ll be providing in your membership, you have to figure out how to structure it. 

  • How many new videos, posts, or groups calls are going to do every week/month/year? 
  • What will the pricing structure look like? 
  • Will there be different tiers for access to different content? 
  • Will you have monthly and yearly payment options? 
  • Do you want to offer a free trial period? 

The structure can be as simple or complex as you’d like, but it’s so important that it’s determined before you can start building it and promoting it clearly.  

03 Create Your Website

Once you’ve done the legwork of creating your membership concept, it will be much easier to start building your website. I always recommend using Showit to build a customized site like you’ll need for a membership platform. Not only does Showit provide complete freedom to customize the design and content, but it also integrates with WordPress which allows you to use membership plugins. 

I’ve used Showit and a WordPress membership plugin for multiple clients, including Maggie Umberger, Kate DeGennaro, Milly Grey Movement. For Maggie, we created an on-demand workout membership for her clients. Similarly, Kate offers a variety of ways to move with on-demand classes, live workouts, and 1:1 sessions for her members. On top of an on-demand platform, Milly Grey Movement’s second membership unlocks access to pre/post-partum information and weekly group calls. 

Another option for creating a membership site is integrating a platform, like Sutra or Indifit, that can be embedded onto your Showit site. I have page layouts for both in the Eunoia template in the site shop.

Website Launch Checklist

04 Build Your List

While I’m not always as gung-ho about email lists as every marketing podcast you might listen to, I do think it can become a key piece when creating a membership program. Through your email list you’re able to communicate to your members (and potential members) when new content is added or about any announcements you may have. My platform of choice is Flodesk for it’s aesthetically pleasing layouts and ease of use. 

05 Promote

The “build it and they will come” method has disproved it’s merit time and time again, so once you’ve created your membership platform (and even before it’s fully built), you have to promote it. Whether that’s on instagram, facebook, pinterest, or your email list, you have to talk about it A LOT. It often takes hearing about something numerous times before taking action. If you’ve spent the rest of the time serving your audience with free content or advice it won’t appear salesy when you start to promote your offer. They’ll probably be excited to have a chance to learn even more from you. 

A membership site can be an amazing piece of your business as a fitness professional, but can feel a little overwhelming if you can’t see all the pieces of the puzzle. Hopefully this helps break down the process a bit. 

If you’d prefer sticking to your zone of genius and outsourcing the website, I’d love to work with you. Just contact me here and we can chat all about your vision and goals for the membership.

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