This is a question that I am quite often asked and the reality is the scheme is not necessarily the key. To have an ongoing successful member referral campaign in the health & fitness industry, the message needs to change and your members need to know about it!

Let’s look at a couple of examples; these are not listed in an order of priority or success:

• A Gift
  This is the most popular referral campaign in the industry, whereby the member refers someone and receives a gift for doing so. This could be anything from a free month, personal training session, healthy food hamper, gym bag and many other examples.

• Referral Prize Draw
  The member refers someone to the club and both the member and referral receive an entry into a prize draw for a grand prize! Depending on how long you run the campaign and how much you budget on referral campaigns will dictate what that prize would be. Please note that a prize draw should always have more of an incentive than a standard referral.

• Point of Sale Referral
  Members are the most excited about their club when they join, so this is a great time to ask them to refer someone, especially as they may not have any training partners at the gym yet. Offer a guest pass for any referrals when they sign up. This is seen as a nice gift to the new member. Do not give out passes though – ask for contact details to send the passes out and only when the new member signs up. If it is left for weeks then the impact is lost.

These are just some of the many examples of referral campaigns that are detailed in our courses. Remember, the key is to change the offer and promote it. Sticking up a poster around the club is not enough marketing. Members need to be told about the offers face to face, by email, phone and via marketing around the club and on social media.