Here’s an unbelievable low-cost marketing snowball for a coaching gym:
- You learn who your clients live and hang out with.
- You add two or three a bring-a-friend events to your annual plan.
- You use Goal Review Sessions to ask current clients to invite a contact to an event.
- You get five or seven people at the first event, and one signs up.
- You keep running events and asking clients to bring buddies.
- As you build deeper relationships with an increasing number of long-term clients, attendance improves.
- In the fourth year, you get 50 leads from every bring-a-friend campaign and add 12-15 new members.
- Your paid advertising costs drop to $0 because you acquire all the clients you need without paid ads.
This literally happened at Kôr Fitness and Performance in Minnesota, run by Braeden Cordts, who is also a doctor of chiropractic.
Cordts’ results are outstanding but not uncommon.
Over at CrossFit Alabaster in Alabama, Josh Pospy got 15 leads at his first bring-a-friend event back in July. He earned four new members.
At his second event, he got 12 leads and one new member—but he reported these numbers just 24 hours after the event and was still following up with leads.
Cordts has been running bring-a-friend events for four years, and he’s built precise systems to keep a monster marketing machine running smoothly. A key element: He burned bring-a-friend into his gym culture:
“We have a big-ass calendar at the front of our gym, and every year we have those dates prelisted. We have a huge annual plan, and our members are like, ‘OK, when’s the next bring-a-buddy event?’ And they have their list of people and they’re ready to go.”
One well-connected client recently supplied eight friends from a hockey group, and her husband added one more. That’s nine new leads from one family, and the people already know their friends love the gym. These are the warmest leads a gym owner will ever find.
At Kôr, Braeden has taken four years to create a detailed staffing, programming and sales plan that supports a multi-day bring-a-friend campaign.
You should not allocate several days to your bring-a-friend campaign. Create one short, fun event and use it to acquire leads and members.
Start small so you don’t overwhelm your staff and systems. The key to success is the sales conversation at the event, and if you don’t focus on that aspect—if you don’t follow up and sell—your event will flop.
Here’s a high-speed, low-drag, one-day plan that features a 30-60-minute event:
- Put two or three bring-a-friend events on the calendar every year.
- Promote these events on all internal and external channels.
- Tell all your clients about them and ask them to bring specific people they have mentioned.
- In goal reviews with happy clients, use specific names and prompt action: “You should bring your buddy Hockey Man Dan on Dec. 5! Can I call and invite him right now?”
- Make the event a short nutrition or habits seminar or a quick, fun workout.
- Get contact info as people sign up or sign in, and be sure to feed it into your CRM.
- Speak to every single attendee at the event with the goal of doing a No Sweat Intro (NSI) then and there. If you can’t perform an NSI on the spot, try to set it up within 48 hours. Speed matters!
- Follow up personally with every single lead and try to get them to book an NSI.
- Ensure anyone who doesn’t book is fed into your long-term lead-nurture sequences (Braeden had someone join after attending three bring-a-friend events).
Start Small
When Braeden was asked for his Top 3 tips for gym owners who want to run their first one-day event, he said this:
“One, make it very easy for people to sign up. I cannot stress that enough. Two, plan ahead: Put dates on the calendar a year ahead so people can look forward to it. Three, create a system for following up.”
That’s great advice:
- Remove barriers to entry.
- Schedule way in advance and promote everywhere.
- Use systems to sell (Braeden personally handles all bring-a-friend follow-up; it’s that important).
Over at Alabaster, Pospy offered his three tips:
1. Stop offering free trials so bring-a-friend events are more exclusive and coaches don’t get overwhelmed. (This is great advice, BTW. Free trials are not the best way to acquire new members.)
2. Master bring-a-friend day with systems. Josh’s plan: “ I want my coaches there to coach. I don’t want them to have to worry about ‘did this person fill out a waiver?’ I handle all that stuff on the back end before the actual event. … Once the workout is over, I go around and high-five everyone and make it a point to touch base with the ‘friends’ and make sure they know how great they did. My goal is to try and facilitate a conversation from there and ask if they’d like to sit down and see how we could help them. From there, we will go to our NSI area for an NSI.” (Systemized sales for the win!)
3. Follow Two-Brain’s exact bring-a-friend plan. (Josh is a client and has access to our Toolkit full of plug-and-play resources.)
Get My Guide!
I listed bring-a-friend events as one of my Top 5 ways to add revenue before the end of 2025. At Braeden’s gym, it’s No. 1 with a bullet.
And you still have time to get an event on the calendar for 2025.
To get more details on five sure-thing revenue-generating tactics, head to Gym Owners United and send me a DM. I’ll respond and send you “The Ultimate Guide to Year-End Revenue for Gym Owners.”
