Your instructors are the heartbeat of your classes — they bring the energy, build relationships, and keep members coming back. Allowing them to email class participants can be a powerful way to boost attendance, deepen connections, and even help grow memberships.
But there’s another side to the story. When instructors use these emails to build their own personal brand, it can introduce risks, from brand inconsistency to competing offers.
This blog breaks down both sides of the issue: the benefits of empowering instructors to connect directly with members, the potential pitfalls to watch out for, and how to set clear boundaries that protect your gym while still letting your team shine.
6 Pros of Letting Instructors Email Members & Build Their Brand
Gym instructors are the human side of your business. They lead the workouts, create the energy in the room, and are often the reason members feel connected to your space. That connection is what keeps people coming back, especially in group fitness settings.
Letting instructors build their brand and message members (with boundaries) can support the gym experience, not compete with it.
#1: Increased Engagement
Some members build real habits around certain instructors. When those instructors can send updates, tips, or follow-ups, it helps maintain momentum between sessions.
- Personalized tips, playlists, and class reminders feel more relevant than generic studio blasts
- It sparks real two-way interaction, DMs, replies, and feedback that a one-size-fits-all newsletter can’t generate
#2: Brand Amplification
Instructors with a strong presence, on social media or in person, can bring more visibility to your gym. Their content often travels further than your official posts. So when people look for a gym, you already have the upper hand. So in a sense, the more of a local fitness influencer your gym instructor is, the better for you.
- A well-known coach attracts new faces who then explore your other classes
- Your gym becomes the place “where all the cool trainers are”
#3: Better Member Retention
For members, a familiar face can mean less intimidation, more motivation, and more consistency. Building light relationships through casual check-ins or class emails supports that.
- Coaches who email about class drops, waitlists, or milestones improve member retention, keep people coming back
- When Coach X says, “See you Wednesday,” members actually show up
Read More: Everything You Need to Know About Member Retention
Staff Loyalty and Growth
Giving instructors some autonomy to grow their presence (within your gym’s system) can improve job satisfaction and reduce turnover. If they see a future at your gym, they’re less likely to build one elsewhere.
- Trainers with communication autonomy are more invested in your success
- Happy instructors stay longer, and often bring their audience with them
#5: New Revenue Streams
Letting instructors promote paid extras can unlock new income without adding to your ad budget.
- Trainers can market specialty workshops, 1:1 sessions, or merchandise directly
- You earn a cut of every upsell, they handle the sale, you just support it
#6: Lighter Marketing Workload
When instructors manage their own class communications, your team can stay focused on broader campaigns. Or vice versa, if instructions are the only team you’ve got, letting them handle your marketing and comms can actually work to your advantage.
Check Out: A Comprehensive Guide to Health and Fitness Staffing
4 Cons of Instructors Emailing Members Directly
Ambitious gym instructors don’t stay in one place forever, and it’s usually not hard to spot who they are. They go above and beyond with members. They follow up, solve problems, and offer extra help.
That’s great for member experience, but when they go, their most loyal members often follow. If they’ve had direct access to your member list, you might have handed them a potential client base.
This hits boutique studios harder than big gyms. And if that instructor acts more like a personal trainer than a group coach, expect them to keep pulling members with them.
Let’s break down each con of letting gym instructors build their brand and email members, with more context and examples so you can see exactly where the risks lie and how they show up in real life:
#1: Brand Dilution
Every instructor has their own style of instruction and even different communication model (which will go on to become their branding in the future if they decide to pursue it).
Moreover, one might be all about holistic wellness, while another pushes aggressive fat-loss programs. If they’re emailing members independently, it muddles your studio’s identity.
Members no longer know what the gym stands for; they just know their favorite coach. Over time, your brand becomes fragmented and forgettable.
Download Now: The Complete Online Branding Guide – eBook
#2: Poaching Risk
This may be the most significant long-term threat. When an instructor has direct access to client emails, they’re building personal relationships that don’t depend on your gym.
If they leave, whether to start their own studio, go entirely online, or move to a competitor, they can and might invite your members to follow. And many could.
#3: Inconsistent Quality & Frequency
Another side to this whole debate is whether instructors should handle off-gym communication at all — and act like part of your marketing and sales team. Some will write engaging, high-quality emails every week. Others might send more low-effort updates or send any.
This results in an inconsistent member experience that depends entirely on which instructor they follow. And that reflects poorly on your gym, not just the trainer.
In smaller studios, where staff wear multiple hats, this gets even trickier. Management needs to be aware of these gaps and set clear expectations before handing over the mic. We will talk about how to fix this shortly.
#4: Member Data Ownership
If an instructor builds their own list, you lose control. When they leave, the members often go with them.
This is dependent on whether this was discussed before, or if this is the case of you willfully letting your gym instructors handle off-gym communication.
⚠️ Other Risks to Watch Out For
- Email Fatigue & Deliverability Issues
- Members may get bombarded by multiple instructors in the same week, leading to increased subscriptions and spam reports
- Compliance & Legal Risk (GDPR, CAN-SPAM, etc.)
- If instructors send emails from personal accounts using exported member lists, lacking opt-in tracking, unsubscribe links, and data policies, it can lead to serious legal issues
- Operational Complexity
- You’ll need review systems, templates, opt-in tracking, dispute handling, and brand guardrails
Best Practices: Striking the Right Balance
Some gym instructors will absolutely want to grow their personal brand, and you can’t (and shouldn’t) block their ambition.
But you still need to protect your gym, no matter how big you are, how great your location is, or how many amenities you offer. Those things don’t shield you from the long-term damage of trainer poaching.
Let’s be clear:
- Poaching is real. When instructors build relationships without oversight, they will take clients with them. Maybe not today, perhaps not next month, but eventually.
- What hurts just as much is not owning your member base. If your client data lives in spreadsheets, DMs, or your trainers’ Gmail accounts, you’ve already lost control.
- And in an industry where loyalty is weak and most people choose gyms based on convenience, control over your member list is everything. It’s how you retain, upsell, and recover churn.
Here’s how to make sure you’re protecting your business and your work:
#1: Use a Centralized CRM, No Exceptions
All member data and communication must be processed through the system. Whether it’s ABC Glofox or another CRM, it should:
- Store consent and contact info
- Track email activity and unsubscribes
- Let you throttle or schedule instructor emails
- Prevent trainers from building off-platform lists
With ABC Glofox Automations, you can:
- Create and automate the communication with your clients
- Use an approved theme and branding in all your communication
- Track communication engagement
With just this one feature, you eliminate all the significant downsides: brand dilution, inconsistent messaging, and more. And because it’s automated, you set it up once, and it runs on its own. From there, all you have to do is tweak the text and keep improving key metrics like member retention, engagement, and satisfaction.
#2: Build Brand Guidelines and Templates
Once you’ve centralized communication, the next step is ensuring that communication actually looks, feels, and sounds like your gym. Without clear guardrails, even well-meaning instructors can dilute your brand just by being inconsistent, or worse, off-brand entirely.
That doesn’t mean you need to micromanage every message. Instead, set up brand guidelines and easy-to-use templates that make consistency second nature:
- Provide a tone-of-voice guide that reflects your gym’s personality
- Share branded templates for class updates, event promos, and milestone check-ins
- Use branded signatures, headers, and color palettes across platforms
You can also create a lightweight approval workflow if needed, something as simple as instructors submitting a form before emails go out.
But be careful not to over-police. You’re not trying to crush creativity or motivation. Instructors should absolutely show personality. Just not independence. Make sure every message still connects back to your brand. For example, sign-offs like “Coach Sam at [Your Gym Name]” reinforce affiliation.
This isn’t just about optics, it’s about strategy. When you use shared templates and tracking tools, you can monitor what’s working (and who’s driving the most clicks and replies) without stepping on anyone’s toes.
Read More: The Fundamentals of a Great Fitness Email Marketing Strategy
#3: Be Transparent About Your Rules
Once you’ve got the system and branding infrastructure in place, you need to get everyone aligned, and that means setting expectations early and clearly.
Transparency is key. Don’t wait until there’s friction to bring this up. Have the conversation upfront during onboarding, and then formalize it in your contracts. Make sure instructors know:
- Who owns the member list
- What they are and aren’t allowed to promote
- Whether off-platform communication (personal emails, DMs, texts) is permitted, and under what conditions
If it’s not explicitly discussed and documented, it’s almost guaranteed to become a problem later. What seems like a small detail now (a trainer DM’ing a client about a workshop) can easily escalate into poaching, brand confusion, or legal gray areas.
Being upfront protects both sides. It builds trust, avoids resentment, and gives your instructors the clarity they need to grow, without crossing the line.
#4: Give Them a Growth Path Inside Your System
You’re not trying to stop your instructors from growing their brand or income; you’re just putting systems in place so that growth happens in a way that still benefits your gym.
If you don’t give instructors opportunities to grow inside your gym, they’ll eventually build something outside of it. As a business owner or manager, it’s your job to channel motivation, talent, ambition, and passion so that they serve your goals.
The best gyms build pathways that reward instructors for growing their brand inside the business, not outside of it. That might look like:
- Running specialty workshops or seasonal events
- Offering premium upsells like 1:1 sessions or small-group training
- Selling branded merch and getting a cut of revenue
- Being featured in your marketing or given a “Top Coach” status
So at the end, it all comes down to learning, finding, and building the way to tie this growth to your infrastructure. They get visibility, autonomy, and a bigger piece of the pie without needing to develop a separate business on the side.
ABC Glofox’s Recommendations for Gym Owners
If you’re serious about growing your gym or studio, you’ll want to hire the best. The instructors who keep your members engaged, showing up, and spreading the word.
But when you hire the best, you also hire ambition. And that’s not a threat, it’s a signal.
You don’t block that energy. You build with it. You create a system where that same drive feeds your business instead of pulling away from it. You partner with it.
Here’s how to set that up from day one:
Make your CRM non-negotiable: All member data and communication lives in your system. No personal emails, no exported lists, no DMs you can’t track.
Define boundaries early: Be clear about how instructors are allowed to communicate, what they can promote, and what your gym stands for.
Keep great instructors happy inside your ecosystem. Give them opportunities to shine, grow, and get visibility, without having to build something outside of you to feel seen.
Create branded instructor profiles within your platform. Make it easy for members to follow their favorite coach, without ever leaving your brand.
Conclusion
There’s no one-size-fits-all policy when it comes to instructor branding and member communication. But one thing is clear: without structure, you’re putting your business at risk, from data loss to poaching to brand confusion.
The solution isn’t to block ambition. It’s to channel it through clear boundaries, shared systems, and tools that keep your gym in control while allowing your instructors to grow inside your brand.
Want to streamline instructor communication and member engagement?
See how ABC Glofox helps you manage it all in one place, while keeping your brand front and center.
