Building a strong fitness community is one of the biggest challenges studio and gym owners face. Attracting new members isn’t enough; lasting success comes from keeping them engaged, connected, and excited to return.
In this article, we’ll share ten essential steps to help you strengthen retention and create a community people are proud to be part of. From understanding member needs and shaping your culture, to sparking participation, empowering ambassadors, and using technology wisely, you’ll find actionable strategies you can put to work right away.
Whether you’re opening your first studio or scaling a multi-site business, this guide gives you the tools to build a supportive, loyal community that grows with you.
Step #1: Understand Your Members Deeply
If you don’t truly know your members, you can’t build a community that feels like home. The surface-level view of age, gender, and attendance is no longer enough. You need to go deeper and learn more about their goals, obstacles, and interests both inside and outside your gym.
To do that, you can run short surveys, host Q&A sessions, or simply chat with members after class. Ask:
What motivates them most?
What challenges are they facing?
What formats or extras (nutrition, recovery, mobility) do they wish they had access to?
When you create space for these conversations, you can turn customers or clients into members and participants. Members discuss their pain points, share ideas, and reveal what they want next.
That feedback improves both the community and your business. Their voices can shape new programs, inspire add-on services, and even fuel your marketing through authentic testimonials and user-generated content.
Glofox can help you share these surveys, and then add the findings as Tags, for example, “Beginner Strength,” “Postpartum,” “Hybrid Member.” This will enable you to create tailored experiences for these groups.
Check Out: How to Build a Fitness Community With ABC Glofox
Step #2: Define & Express Your Unique Value & Culture
Branding can act as the spark for a community by telling a story people want to be part of.
But keeping and growing that community requires alignment between the brand narrative and the actual experience members have once they’re inside.
You can “curate” your identity, but you can’t fake it. Studios that lean into real aspects of their story, even if selectively emphasized, hold communities longer because the narrative matches the lived experience.
Make this culture visible everywhere:
In your welcome emails and onboarding flow
In the way coaches engage beginners vs. advanced athletes
In the look, feel, and voice of your ABC Glofox app
Inclusivity should also be central. Ask yourself: are new members introduced to friendly faces on day one? Do you feature a diverse range of body types, goals, and backgrounds in your content? Communities thrive when people see themselves reflected, not when they feel like outsiders.
When your unique value and culture are consistently expressed and authentically lived, you attract the right members, inspire loyalty among existing ones, and naturally create advocates who extend your reach.
Download Now: The Customer Engagement Playbook for Your Fitness Business
Step #3: Maintain Consistent Communication
Consistent communication scales belonging across the whole community. When members see updates, messages, or stories from others, it reinforces that they’re part of something bigger. Regular touchpoints also spark peer-to-peer interaction — the true marker of community, not just the founder broadcasting to everyone. Silence, on the other hand, signals abandonment.
A steady cadence is what keeps the community alive. That could look like:
Weekly updates: Highlight new classes, celebrate member milestones
Monthly Q&As: Livestream with a coach where members can submit questions
Daily prompts: Quick check-ins (“What was your best set today?”) to spark replies in a group
Even simple, repeated touchpoints compound into loyalty and familiarity. Members start to expect that rhythm and return because the space feels active.
On the ABC Glofox platform, you can automate welcome flows for new members, send push notifications to remind veterans of their streaks, and send targeted emails to groups such as “Beginner Strength” or “Yoga Enthusiasts.”
Remember, a single timely message that celebrates progress or nudges someone back after an absence can strengthen retention far more than a dozen generic updates.
Step #4: Host Hybrid & Virtual Social Events
Events create shared memories! They’re powerful when tied to your brand identity and followed up with ongoing touchpoints. But they’ll fall flat when they’re one-off hype, don’t match the vibe, or feel exclusive without reason.
And the good news is you can plan and throw even a hybrid or virtual event, blending physical and virtual spaces. For example, you might host an in-studio “Strength Saturday” class while livestreaming it for members training at home, or pair a nutrition workshop at the gym with a Zoom Q&A for those who can’t attend in person.
Even casual formats, such as a virtual coffee chat after a workout or a members-only Facebook group hangout, can extend the sense of connection.
Focus on:
Clear purpose: Awareness, loyalty, or launch
Integration: Weaves touchpoints before, during, and after
Connection over scale: Intimacy beats volume
Impact tracking: Measures more than attendance
You can host livestreams on ABC Glofox, as well as promote them in-app, and tag attendees for tailored follow-ups. When members see that your community exists beyond four walls, they’re more likely to stick around because it fits into their life, not the other way around.
Check Out: 8 Ideas For Adding Additional Revenue Streams to Your Online Fitness Business
Step #5: Encourage Member Participation & User-Generated Content
Communities thrive when members see themselves as contributors, not just consumers. Provide your members with opportunities to share their progress, ideas, and stories, and highlight these contributions so that others feel inspired to join in.
User-generated content, testimonials, and feedback provide authentic marketing material and can inspire new offers or campaigns. Here are some practical ways to spark participation:
Stories & reposts: Reshare members’ workout updates or progress wins
Challenges: Encourage participants to post results or tag the studio
Social media takeovers: Let a member share “a day in their life” on Instagram Stories
Member spotlights: Feature success stories in your Glofox app, newsletter, or social channels
There’s another side to this story, too! In communities, members share their problems and what they want next with one another. These peer-to-peer exchanges might reduce support costs, as members help each other before questions reach your team.
ABC Glofox has great features to help with this part. You can track challenge participation, use Tags, and send push notifications to prompt sharing. Over time, these contributions create a cycle of visibility, innovation, and a sense of belonging.
Read More: A Quick Guide to Collecting Reviews and Testimonials
6 Keys to Building a Loyal Fitness Community
Discover moreStep #6: Build Brand Ambassadors & Advocacy Programs
Every community has their champions, the members who show up early, bring friends, and sing your praises online. Turning that natural enthusiasm into a structured advocacy program helps both retention and growth.
Ways to empower ambassadors:
Referral incentives, discounts, free classes, or exclusive perks for bringing in new members
Recognition: Highlight ambassadors in your app, on social, or at events
Exclusive roles: Invite them to help lead challenges, welcome newcomers, or test new offerings first
Advocacy programs don’t just drive referrals. They reinforce culture by showing what “living the brand” looks like in real life. Members see their peers celebrated, feel inspired to engage, and often step into leadership roles themselves.
With ABC Glofox, you can tag ambassadors, track referrals, and automate rewards. This creates a win-win loop: your most loyal members feel valued, and your business grows through authentic, word-of-mouth marketing.
Read More: A Quick Guide to Creating an Effective Gym Referral Program
Step #7: Leverage Technology & Tools for Engagement
Tech can be a powerful enabler of community when it keeps people connected without adding friction. It expands access, keeps engagement alive, and shows you what’s working. But if scattered across too many platforms, it can create problems.
How Tech Helps in Building a Fitness Community:
Access & scale: Anyone can join from anywhere (apps, forums, livestreams)
Convenience: Automation, push notifications, and AI tools keep the community active
Data: Analytics reveal what members value so you can adapt faster
Where Tech Often Goes Wrong”
Surface over depth: Relying on likes or quick hacks instead of real interaction
Fragmentation: Communities are split across multiple platforms
Authenticity gap: Bots or funnels that feel transactional, not communal
How ABC Glofox Helps You Avoid These Traps:
Everything lives in one place: classes, communication, challenges, and tracking
Notifications are purposeful nudges, shoutouts, or reminders that feel supportive, not spammy
Automation handles admin tasks (reminders, onboarding), while real coaches drive interaction, keeping it authentic
Step #8: Offer Tiered Experiences & Community Segments
Not every member has the same goals, fitness level, or availability. Segmenting your community ensures beginners, intermediates, and advanced members all feel equally seen and no one slips through the cracks.
Examples of Segmentation:
Beginner groups: Intro workshops, fundamentals classes, private chat channels
Advanced/VIP groups: Specialized programming, early access, exclusive events
Interest-based segments: Runners, yoga enthusiasts, parents, or postnatal groups
Tiered experiences don’t mean exclusion; they mean relevance. When members feel content and events are designed with them in mind, engagement naturally rises.
We’ve mentioned various ways to do this with ABC Glofox throughout this article, including using tags, custom groups, and notifications. However, you need to determine which segments work best for your studio or gym.
Step #9: Create Shared Goals & Challenges
Have you ever set a shared goal across all your memberships? Whether it’s a studio-wide step challenge, a month of consistent attendance, or training together for a 5K, challenges turn individual workouts into collective momentum.
Examples:
30-day mobility streak: Track attendance in-app and celebrate completions
Wellness challenge: Combine nutrition, sleep, and activity goals
Seasonal goal: Prep for a local race or community event together
Challenges work best when they’re clear, time-bound, and celebrated along the way. They give members a reason to show up, check in, and cheer for each other.
ABC Glofox allows you to set up leaderboards, track progress, send push notifications, and spotlight participants. This keeps energy high and ensures the challenge lives both in and outside the studio.
Step #10: Measure Engagement & Iterate
Strong communities don’t run on gut feel alone; they evolve based on data and feedback. Tracking what’s working helps you double down on the right strategies and adjust where energy is fading.
Key metrics to monitor:
Attendance & churn: Who’s showing up consistently, who’s slipping away
Engagement: Challenge participation, event turnout, in-app activity
Satisfaction: Net Promoter Score (NPS), surveys, or simple pulse checks
Referrals: How often members bring in friends
Pair the numbers with conversations. Ask members what they love, what feels missing, and what would encourage them to come back. Communities are never static; they need ongoing tuning.
With ABC Glofox, you can pull reports, segment by member tags, and track trends over time. Use those insights to refine your programming, communication, and events, so your community stays fresh and connected.
Want the Full Guide on How to Build a Fitness Community?
Final Takeaway
Building a fitness community isn’t a one-off campaign; it’s a cycle of listening, connecting, and improving.
Each of the ten steps works together: knowing your members, expressing your culture, communicating with relevance, hosting events, sparking participation, empowering ambassadors, using tech wisely, segmenting experiences, setting shared goals, and measuring progress.
Pick one or two new strategies to test this month, maybe a simple hybrid event, a member spotlight, or a tiered beginner group.
Over time, these incremental actions accumulate to form stronger bonds, higher retention, and a studio culture that people are proud to belong to.
See how ABC Glofox helps you build, manage, and measure a thriving fitness community across all your members. Request a demo today!
