Holiday Marketing for Gyms & Studios: Hit Your Revenue Targets
Nathan Corliss
In this article
The holiday season is the busiest stretch of the year for gyms, clubs, and studios. New members show up with New Year goals, current members want to keep their routine through travel and parties, and your team has fewer hours to cover it all. Holiday marketing for gyms works when the plan covers both sides: more demand coming in, and fewer hands free to answer it. Get both right, and you close the year ahead of your revenue target.
This playbook is for owners, operators, and sales leaders running one location or several hundred. It starts with where holiday leads get lost, shows how ABC AI Agents and the right gym management software cover that gap, then walks through five steps to finish before Black Friday. Each step has a note for single locations and one for multi-location teams.
In this Marketing Guide for Gyms
- Why holiday leads go cold before anyone calls back
- Start with AI agents to cover holiday calls, texts, and follow-up
- Step 1: Plan Black Friday and holiday gym promotions
- Step 2: Staff and schedule for peak holiday demand
- Step 3: Capture early-intent leads before January
- Step 4: Tighten gym sales and member retention for the New Year rush
- Step 5: Prepare operations and systems for the holiday surge
- Put your holiday plan on one page
- Holiday marketing for gyms: common questions
Why Gym Leads Go Cold Before Anyone Calls Back
Most gyms lose holiday prospects after the inquiry arrives. When Replify, now ABC AI Agents, secret shopped 105 gyms during open hours, only 12% followed up to sell or close the caller. That was an ordinary month. December brings more calls to a busier desk.
Operators who chose ABC AI Agents describe the same problem. In an October 2026 ABC Fitness review of sales calls with 23 gym, studio and club operators, 70% named slow or inconsistent lead follow-up as the reason they went looking for help. Missed calls came second at 43%, and after-hours coverage third at 26%.
Timing is what makes it costly. Jodi Donoghue, Regional Sales Director at Gold's Gym Idaho, says only about 20% of her website trial leads walked through the door, and she knows why.
When that lead comes in, that's when the person is motivated, right then and there. They aren't a few hours or a day or two later. They're not in that same headspace.
Jodi Donoghue, Regional Sales Director, Gold's Gym Idaho, ABC AI Agents Case Study
Everything below is built around that window. Offers and ads create the inquiry, and fast, consistent follow-up turns it into a tour.
Start with AI Agents to Cover Holiday Calls, Texts, and Follow-up
ABC AI Agents is an AI receptionist and sales agent built for gyms, clubs, and studios. Over the holidays, it handles the work a busy desk can't get to in real time:
- Answering calls, texts, web chat, and social messages at any hour, including holiday closures
- Calling or texting back missed calls so no prospect falls through the cracks
- Qualifying new leads and booking tours, trials, and class spots into your calendar
- Running outbound campaigns: Black Friday offers to past guests, win-back calls to former members, billing reminders before January
- Transferring a caller to a staff member when the conversation needs a person
Holiday hours questions alone can fill a phone line.
Anybody that's been in the fitness industry, whether it's holiday hours, weather, something like that, any change in business, you're going to get bombarded with phone calls.
Chris Prevatte, VP of Sales and Operations, Gold's Gym DC Metro
When a snowstorm forced Gold's Gym DC Metro to close about half its clubs last winter, Chris updated one shared knowledge base, sometimes hourly, so every caller heard which clubs were open and where to go instead. The same update works for Christmas Eve hours.
Skye Marton owns four F45 Training studios and two FS8 studios in the Northeast, serving more than 2,000 members and visitors a month with a four-person office team. Her AI agent calls every new lead as soon as it arrives.
My AI Agent calls them immediately, whereas sometimes our team can't get to it until later in the day. So there'll be hours between, which is the lead killer.
Skye Marton, owner, F45 Training and FS8, AI Agents Case Study
Treat setup like onboarding a new hire. Chris's advice to other operators:
It's not a set it and forget it. When you implement something, look at the call logs, learn from it, tweak the knowledge... It's no different than an employee, and you should look at it that way.
Chris Prevatte, VP of Sales and Operations, Gold's Gym DC Metro
Setting Up AI Agents for Gyms, Studios and Clubs
Before launch, confirm the AI connects to your member management, booking, and calendar systems so nobody re-enters data. Integration was the first question for 87% of operators in the ABC Fitness review, so ask which of your systems connect and how.
Give Your AI Agent Holiday & Promotion Knowledge
Build the knowledge base location by location: hours, holiday closures, offers and amenities. As Ryan Ensmann, Director of Marketing at Dynamic Fitness, puts it, the AI "can only do as much as you train it to do." Set hand-off rules for live transfer, then review three numbers every week: time to first response, tours booked and missed calls recovered.
Where to Start? Single vs. Multi-location
Single location: start with inbound calls and missed-call text-back. It is the fastest win and takes an afternoon to set up.
Multi-location: standardize hours, pricing and promotions in one shared knowledge base before December, with location-specific details layered on top, then add outbound campaigns club by club.
- List the holiday tasks AI can handle and the ones staff must own
- Confirm integrations with your member management, calendar and scheduling tools
- Set hand-off rules and a weekly results review
Want to hear it handle a holiday hours call? Book a demo of ABC AI Agents and test it against your own front desk.
Step 1: Plan Black Friday and holiday gym promotions
Decide your offers before November and keep the lineup small: one offer for new members, one for referrals, and a clear end date on each. A free trial week, a referral credit or a bring-a-friend class all work on a tight budget. Check that every discount still covers your costs before it goes out.
Build one calendar that shows when each offer goes out, starting with channels you already own: your email list, member texts, social posts and your Google Business Profile.
How AI Agents Capture Holiday Revenue
The Health & Fitness Association's 2026 Fitness Industry Benchmarking Report puts the median sales and marketing cost per new membership account at about $68 (HFA research). Owned channels cost nothing per send, so they come first.
Then take the offer to people who already know you. Club 24 Concept Gyms ran its 2025 Black Friday promotion, buy one year and get a second year free, as an outbound campaign to former members and guests. ABC AI Agents made more than 3,600 calls across seven locations in five days, according to Director of Operations Val Nepomuceno. His team sends calls in small batches and watches which hours get pickups.
Every time we run a campaign we do 30 calls at a time, just to control flow, just in case 10 calls get transferred immediately.
Val Nepomuceno, Director of Operations, Club 24 Concept Gyms
Where to Start? Single vs. Multi-location
Single location: two offers, four weeks, owned channels plus one outbound campaign to past trial guests.
Multi-location: set the offer centrally, load it into the shared knowledge base once so every club gives the same answer, and let each location pick send times around local hours. The guide to running fitness marketing across many clubs covers how to keep that consistent.
- Choose one or two offers and set their end dates
- Confirm pricing and margin for each offer
- Build a simple calendar using owned channels first
Step 2: Staff and schedule for peak holiday demand
Schedule for peak demand, not last month's average. Pull attendance and check-in data from the last two holiday seasons and look for the busiest days and hours. They usually fall in early mornings, at lunch, in the evenings, and through the first two weeks of January.
Add sessions only where waitlists form, since empty classes are expensive. Confirm who covers the front desk, floor, and cleaning, cross-train so no one is stretched thin, and set a date to freeze the holiday schedule so your team can plan time off around it.
How Your AI Phone Agent Fills Knowledge Gaps
Seasonal and part-time staff can't memorize everything. Four Seasons Health Club runs about 100 group fitness classes a week in a 260,000-square-foot club, so its team uses the AI agent as a reference for class and amenity questions, and the club reports front desk calls dropped by about half. Gold's Gym DC Metro goes a step further with a staff-facing agent loaded with its employee handbook, so a new hire can look up how to freeze an account without tracking down a manager.
At franchise scale, SWEAT440 runs ABC AI Agents across 25 locations and about 3,500 calls a month so instructors stay on the floor. Read how SWEAT440 built a scalable system for franchise growth.
Where to Start? Single vs. Multi-location
Single location: freeze the schedule by Nov. 15 and publish it to staff.
Multi-location: compare peak hours across clubs and move floating staff to where waitlists form.
- Pull attendance data from your booking system
- Identify peak days, hours and waitlisted classes
- Freeze the holiday schedule and publish it to staff
Step 3: Capture early-intent leads before January
Reach people while New Year goals are top of mind. Run one small paid test aimed at local, early-intent audiences, send clicks to a landing page with one call to action, and cut any ad that does not bring in real trials. Work your owned channels harder at the same time: ask happy members for referrals, post weekly to your Google Business Profile and invite reviews.
24/7 Phone Coverage with AI Agents
A lead that arrives at 9 p.m. on a Tuesday in December is worth as much as one that walks in at noon, as long as someone responds. Gold's Gym DC Metro now calls new web leads within three minutes, where the old standard for a human callback was 24 hours. Across 20 locations, phone leads grew from 150 to 200 a month to more than 1,000, and the sales cycle shortened from 30 days to three to five. Read why Gold's Gym DC Metro chose ABC AI Agents.
Gold's Gym Idaho's three clubs use an AI sales agent to answer and call back every missed call. In one quarter, that produced 410 qualified leads, and the team closes 75% of the prospects it tours. Read how Gold's Gym Idaho saves every missed call.
Dynamic Fitness saw telephone inquiry leads rise fivefold across its three Houston clubs after its AI agent started answering. Ryan Ensmann connects that directly to the ad budget.
It's all inquiries that are driven from our paid marketing. So just knowing that those dollars aren't getting wasted, and are now getting captured and converted, that's been the biggest thing.
Ryan Ensmann, Director of Marketing, Dynamic Fitness
Where to Start? Single vs. Multi-location
Single location: one paid test at a modest daily budget, plus retargeting for people who engaged with your posts.
Multi-location: run the paid test in two or three markets first, compare cost per booked tour, then roll out the winner.
- Run one small paid test for early-intent audiences
- Set up retargeting for organic engagers
- Write a four-week nurture sequence and a same-day response standard
Step 4: Tighten gym sales and member retention for the New Year rush
Make joining simple and staying easy. Give your team a short script for tours and trials, a follow-up sequence and a clear close. Offer monthly billing, a pay-in-full discount and a membership pause for busy weeks. If a caller is ready to buy, have the AI send your online join link so they can sign up on the spot.
AI Member Retention
Retention is where the holidays bite. The HFA 2026 benchmarking report puts median member retention at 66.5% (HFA research), and the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year are when visits slip and cards expire. Jodi Donoghue has watched it happen with billing.
They forget to update their card and it's three months later... They're ticked and they cancel. If we can catch more of those people in their first 30 days, then we're going to have less of them go more delinquent and cancel.
Jodi Donoghue, Regional Sales Director, Gold's Gym Idaho
AI Past Due Campaigns & Live Transfers to Staff
Club 24 Concept Gyms runs past-due campaigns through its AI agent during business hours, with live transfer to billing staff whenever a member picks up. Use your software's activity reports the same way: flag members whose visits are slipping and let the AI make the first check-in call or text.
UFC Gym deployed ABC AI Agents to guarantee speed to lead and automated more than 4,000 calls in its first 30 days, freeing sales staff for tours and members. Read how UFC Gym deployed AI to guarantee speed to lead.
Where to Start? Single vs. Multi-location
Single location: one check-in list, reviewed every Friday.
Multi-location: set a visit-frequency trigger in your platform and run check-in and billing campaigns centrally, with live transfer to the local club.
- Document the tour and trial sales process
- Set up payment options, including pause and pay-in-full
- Create a check-in list for members with fewer visits
See how an AI sales agent handles tour booking and member check-ins on a live call. Book a demo.
Step 5: Prepare operations and systems for the holiday surge
Make sure the building and your systems can take peak traffic. Schedule equipment repairs before December, when local vendors book up. Stock cleaning supplies and add cleaning rounds for changing rooms and high-traffic areas. Test booking, payment processing and point of sale with peak volume in mind, and post holiday hours early on your website, social channels and Google Business Profile.
Giving Your In-Person Team Time Back
Then move routine calls off the desk so staff can greet the people in front of them.
A phone call is going to be what, maybe two minutes. So how many people can check in in two minutes that aren't even going to get acknowledged because my front desk associate is on the phone?
Jodi Donoghue, Regional Sales Director, Gold's Gym Idaho
Since Gold's Gym Idaho moved inbound calls to its AI agent, friendliness scores on its member surveys have improved. Load your holiday schedule into the AI's knowledge base the day you publish it, so questions about Christmas Day and New Year's Day hours get the same answer every time.
Where to Start? Single vs. Multi-location
Single location: one equipment walk-through before Thanksgiving.
Multi-location: keep one holiday-hours sheet that feeds both your website and the AI knowledge base, so no club publishes different hours in different places.
- Schedule equipment inspections and repairs before December
- Restock supplies and set extra cleaning rounds
- Test booking, payments and POS, then post holiday hours
Put your holiday plan on one page
Pick two or three priorities from this playbook, give each an owner, and review progress every Friday through November. Start where your team is weakest, which is how Jodi Donoghue approached it.
I looked at where my holes were and then saw where AI could help fill the gaps that my employees weren't.
Jodi Donoghue, Regional Sales Director, Gold's Gym Idaho
Val Nepomuceno at Club 24 puts the goal plainly.
Consistency beats hero employees. [ABC AI Agents] doesn't replace my team. It's just protecting them.
Val Nepomuceno, Director of Operations, Club 24 Concept Gyms
The wider industry is moving the same way. The HFA's 2026 benchmarking report notes that operators "are also investing in technology, marketing, and the experiences that attract and retain members" (HFA research).
Do Now: Connect with the ABC AI Agents Team
If follow-up is the gap in your plan, close it first: book a demo of ABC AI Agents and hear it handle a holiday inquiry before the season starts.
Holiday marketing for gyms: frequently asked questions (FAQ)
Start planning in October and have offers, schedule, and staffing locked by mid-November. Black Friday is the first big send, and early January is the peak for new joins, so you have about six weeks to prepare.
Keep it to one new-member offer and one referral offer, each with an end date. A free trial week, a bring-a-friend class or a referral credit cost little and are easy to explain. Confirm the margin on any discount before it goes out.
Within minutes. Operators who switched to AI follow-up told ABC Fitness that leads were waiting hours for a first call. In ABC Fitness's review of 23 operators, 70% named slow or inconsistent follow-up as the reason they went looking for help.
Inbound calls, texts, web chat, and social messages at any hour, missed-call text-back, lead qualification, tour and trial booking into your calendar, outbound holiday and win-back campaigns, and billing follow-ups. It hands off to a staff member by live transfer when a conversation needs a person.
ABC AI Agents runs alongside ABC Fitness platforms such as ABC Ignite and ABC Glofox. Ask which of your systems connect and how before you sign, and confirm that leads, bookings and notes sync so your team does not re-enter data.
No. It takes the repetitive calls and after-hours messages so your team can be present with members on the floor. Operators describe the change as fewer interruptions at the desk and a better day for the people who used to answer the same questions over and over.
Set the offer, hours and FAQ centrally, load them into one shared knowledge base, and let each club adjust send dates around local events. ABC Fitness's guide to running fitness marketing across many clubs covers the rest.
Track three numbers against your October baseline: time to first response, tours booked and missed calls recovered. Review them weekly through the season and drop anything that is not moving them.
Ready to explore ABC AI Agents for your gym, club, or studio? Schedule an ABC AI Agents demo.