Member Conversion Is a Big Pain Point for Fitness Brands, Survey Finds
While engagement and retention numbers are trending up, many fitness brands still struggle to acquire and convert new members
In-person fitness is back and better than ever following the pandemic, but many gyms and studios still struggle with a familiar foe: acquiring and converting new members.
This is according to a recent fitness industry revenue survey conducted by Promotion Vault, a customer rewards and retention firm that works with some of the biggest brands in fitness.
For its “2025 Fitness Revenue Pulse Survey,” Promotion Vault collaborated with Integrity Square and REX Roundtables to send a survey to over 400 fitness brands, ranging from boutique studios to large gym and club operators across the United States and Canada. The firm says its database consists primarily of C-suite executives. The survey revealed that many fitness brands struggle the most with member acquisition and member conversion.
Asked the question, “What were the key challenges in 2024 that impacted your revenue?” survey respondents identified these issues as the most pressing:
- Low guest-to-member conversation rate: 37%
- Low percentage of initial personal training consultations: 26%
- Low lead-to-guest ratio: 16%
Other factors like employee engagement (6%), inactive members (5%) and employee turnover (3%) were less of a concern for fitness businesses in 2024, according to the survey.
The survey findings suggest that many fitness brands struggle to convert people’s initial interest into long-term memberships. Despite that, the majority of brands surveyed plan to concentrate on increasing new member visits in 2025 rather than focusing specifically on improving their guest-to-member conversion rate.
Asked “What are the 2-3 actions you plan on focusing on in 2025 to increase your revenue?” brands identified these as strategic priorities:
- Increase new member visits: 56%
- Increase lead-to-guest conversion rate: 12%
- Improve guest-to-member conversion rate: 11%
When it comes to putting these strategic goals into practice, many fitness brands are concerned about getting their employees to buy in.
Asked “What factors are most likely to hinder your ability to take these actions in 2025?” brands responded:
- Buy-in from the team: 37%
- Technical challenges: 33%
- Lack of resources: 21%
Fitness Brands Score High on Member Engagement
While member acquisition clearly remains a challenge for operators across North America, there’s reason to believe brands are doing better on the member engagement front.
According to location intelligence firm Placer.ai, the fitness industry experienced a 6.6% increase in quarterly visits in Q3 of 2024, far outpacing other industries such as discount and dollar stores (2.0%), groceries (1.6%) and overall retail (0.3%).
“This is one of the few categories when we look at it, compared to the pre-pandemic levels, we’re actually ahead of where we were,” Placer.ai’s head of analytical research R.J. Hottovy said during Athletech News’ 2025 CEO Summit earlier this year. “There’s not many retail categories right now that can say that.”
High-value low-price (HVLP) gym brands like Crunch Fitness, EōS Fitness and Chuze Fitness saw big increases in year-over-year visitation numbers in early 2024, while premium brands like Life Time continue to score high on the member engagement and retention front.