334. What to do if your classes are not full

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Welcome to Pilates Elephants, I'm Raphael Bender. What to do if your classes are not full?

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All right, so this one's going to be for both studio owners and instructors,

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and I'm going to run you through the checklist that I use and the troubleshooting

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process I use when I work with studio owners and their classes are not full.

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And this checklist is not just something I made up, it's based on the data I've

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seen, 100 plus financials for studio owners.

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I currently work with over three dozen studio owners on a regular basis,

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and I see all of their numbers. I talk with them all on a regular basis.

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And so the studios that are doing the best amongst all of those ones, that's what these.

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Checklist is made up of, this is what I see those studios doing.

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All right. So if you want to be in the most successful studio group,

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these are the numbers you hit.

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All right. So first visits, 40 plus per month. Now, 40 first visits, what's a first visit?

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It's just the number of people who stepped foot into your studio for the first

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ever time in that month. Now, they could come in on your intro offer.

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They could come in on a drop-in, casual drop-in visit.

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They could come in as a referral as a visitor with an existing client,

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first class free, doesn't matter how they come in.

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It's people who stepped foot into studio for the first time in a month.

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And consistently, the most successful studios all do 40 plus first visits per month.

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And if your studio is not doing that, almost certainly you're either not running

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paid ads, or if you are running paid ads, you're not running enough paid ads.

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So if you're not running paid ads, well, there's your problem right there because

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all of the most successful studios run paid ads.

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Now, is it possible to get 40 first visits per month without paid ads?

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Sure, it's possible. But if you're a regular studio and you want more first

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visits, what the absolute easiest, most high probability,

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most consistent, repeatable way to get new clients into the studio every month

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is paid ads. Are there other ways? Yes.

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Are they as easy as paid ads? No, they're not.

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So you've got to run paid ads. Now, if you're running paid ads and you're not

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getting 40 first visits, it's almost certainly because you're not running enough paid ads.

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How do you know if you're running enough paid ads? Very, very simple.

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And this is the same way you know your ads are working or not as well. It's very simple math.

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The cost to acquire one first visit,

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is less than the cost that that person pays you for the first visit.

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Let me give you an example.

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Just say people come to you typically on a $49 intro offer.

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Just say your intro offer is $49.

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Well, if you spend $49 or less in ad spend to get that person to buy a $49 intro

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offer, your ads are working.

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How do you know how much you're spending per intro offer? Well, very, very simple.

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Let's just make your intro offer $50 to make the math nice and simple.

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If you spend $100 on ads and you sold two intro offers, each intro offer cost you $50 in ad spend.

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So it's just your total ad spend divided by the number of intro offers that you sold.

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Now, if you only sold two intro offers and you spend $100 on ads,

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well, congratulations, that's why you're not selling 40.

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So how much do you need to spend on ads to sell 40? Well, if it costs you $50

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in ad spend to sell one intro offer and you want to sell 40, you just got to do $50,

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how much it costs you to buy one customer, times 40, how many customers you want, equals $2,000.

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So you need to spend $2,000 a month on ads if it costs you $50 per first visit,

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which is about what it usually costs.

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So if you're spending less than $2,000 and you're not getting 40 first visits, that's why.

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And if your ads if you're spending more on ads to get that first visit so just

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say you're spending a hundred dollars to get someone to buy a fifty dollar intro

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offer well your ads are not working you need to fix your ads,

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before you spend more. All right. So that's the first thing.

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You're going to have 40 first visits coming into your studio.

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Now, instructors, I know that's not in your control.

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And even if you're in a studio that has less than 40 first visits per month,

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your classes, your individual classes as an instructor can still be full. So keep listening.

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All right. So the next thing after you're getting your 40 first visits is your

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conversion of those first visits into long-term members.

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So whether it's either a subscription or whether they buy a 10-pack,

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20-pack, whatever it might be, should be 50%.

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So half of those people within the intro period, so just say you sell an intro

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offer that's a two-week intro offer,

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within the two weeks, 50% or more of those people should convert to either a

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subscription or a long-term pack, which I define as a 10-plus pack.

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So not a three-pack, not a five-pack, a 10 or more pack.

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Now, if you're not converting 50%, there are several steps to troubleshoot this.

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I'm not going to go into depth into all of them.

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It's a whole episode, but essentially first look at the intro offer.

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If your intro offers less than $49, probably the intro offer is part of it because

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if you're attracting, if you're selling a $25 intro offer or first class free

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or someone one class for $19 or something,

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you're just attracting tire kickers and people who are mildly curious.

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You're not attracting people who are seriously trying you with the view to actually

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finding a forever Pilates studio.

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So put your intro offer up to a minimum of $49.

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And really the sweet spot I see for most studios, $49 can work,

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but really 70 to $100 is the band where I see the most successful studios clustering.

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I've got a couple I work with where $49 intro offer for two weeks does work.

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So that's possible, but really 70 to 99 is ideal.

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And minimum of three visits in your intro offer should be three,

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four, eight, or unlimited.

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Those are the successful ones that I see. And there's a lot of psychology behind that.

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But at a very basic level, we see,

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So statistically, clients that attend at least three sessions in their intro

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period are substantially more likely to convert.

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So if you don't offer them the opportunity to do three sessions,

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you're basically preventing them from doing what they need to do to convert.

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And also, they need to feel like they got value from the intro offer.

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So if you give them like five sessions or six sessions in two weeks,

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and then they only use three of them, then they have the unused visits,

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which they think, oh, well, I didn't really even get the full value for the pass.

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So I probably won't get the full value from the membership. So there's not any

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point buying membership.

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So it's much better to give them three or four where they're more likely to

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use it or unlimited where they can't calculate the value and they can't say,

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well, it was unlimited, said, but I only did three, so I didn't get the value.

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So those are the ones that work. Don't give them five, six, seven,

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eight works if you do it for a month.

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So this would be like $99 for a month, eight visits or $99 for a month unlimited.

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But probably the best one to start with would be something like three for 49

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or four for 69, something like that.

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Somewhere in that four for 79, somewhere in that vicinity is probably your best place to start.

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That'll bring the right people in the door, people who are interested in actually

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finding a long-term Pilates practice, not just people who are bargain hopping

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and trying the latest cheap thing.

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And then you need a conversion offer after that to convert them into a membership or a pack.

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And the one that I see working the best across all the studios I'm working with is either half or,

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100% of the intro offer free. So essentially what you do is you credit them

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back either half or all of the cost of the intro offer against their first 10

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pack or month of subscription.

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And whether you choose half or the full, just depend on the price of your subscription,

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the price of your intro offer.

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So if you did a $99 intro offer and then your subscription is like 120 a month,

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I wouldn't give them full price back or give them half of it back because it's

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just, You're giving them like 85% of the membership for free,

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which is too little, too cheap.

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But if your intro offer is like $49 and your membership is $120,

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I'll probably give them the full price of the intro offer for free when they

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sign up for that subscription or 10-pack only during their intro offer.

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Do not extend it one second past the end of the intro offer.

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You have to have that time pressure there.

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And that is just off the first month of the membership or their first 10-pack or whatever.

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All right. So you have to have that. And then the third thing is,

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and this is instructors, this is where you get to fill your classes.

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And Studio Owners, this is a massive one for you guys as well. Service quality.

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You need to give those people a positive experience in class.

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What's a positive experience? Well, firstly, there are three components.

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One is the experience in the class, like the physical aspect.

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One is the social aspect, and one is just the service aspect.

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So in terms of the physical aspect, the class needs to be not too hard, either physically.

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So not like they're burning, they're dying, they're sweating,

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they're turning red, they're shaking.

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None of that. or technically there's you

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know kneeling on a reformer box

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with one hand on a ball one foot in a strap etc

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like not too hard physically or technically simple and moderate intensity so

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they should feel good during and after if they wake up tomorrow they can't cough

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or roll over in bed or get onto the toilet they're not going to want to come

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back it's not fun being that sore especially as a beginner.

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So make it, give them success, make them feel like they're good at it.

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Give them simple moves that anyone can do.

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You don't need to be coordinated or strong or flexible and give it like,

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stop them several reps before the burn.

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Don't push them into the burn because you're just making it not fun.

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Now, people have been with you for ages, love the burn.

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People on the very first class after they've been sitting on the couch for a

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decade, don't love the burn.

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They fear the burn. So make it pleasant physically for them during and after.

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Second, the social aspect, make them feel welcome. How do you do that?

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You smile and greet them with eye contact within two seconds of them walking into the studio.

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You show them around. This is where you put your shoes. This is where you get

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a drink. This is the change room. This is how you adjust the foot bar.

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You introduce them to other members. This is Sally. She's been with us a year.

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I'm going to put you next to her.

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If you get lost, follow along. She's really good. She knows what she's doing.

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Sally, would you look out for Mary, please? Use their names. Use their names.

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Walk past them, tell them they're doing great. Make sure that they know that

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you see them and care about them and approve of them and want them to be part of the club.

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All right, so those are the things that will bring your conversions up to 50%.

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And dear instructors, if that's you, guess whose class they're going to want to come back to.

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All right, the third big pillar. So we've been through first visits,

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we've been through conversions.

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The third big pillar is churn. And churn is just a measure of the percentage

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of your long-term users, so whether that's 10-plus packs or subscriptions,

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who cancel or fail to renew in any given month.

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So if you've got 100 members, so, you know, 100 members on 10 packs slash subscriptions,

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at the start of the month, if 10 of them cancel, that's 10% churn.

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Now, the best studios average 5% to 7% churn.

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Per month. And the biggest factor in churn is service quality.

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Now, service quality, again, I divide into those three areas,

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which is, actually, I didn't touch on the third area for.

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Conversions, which is the same

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as the third area for service quality for churn, which is convenience.

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So I'll just go through them again. So the first one is the physical outcomes.

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Now, for long-term, this is not the same consideration as for new people.

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So for new people, we want to give them a moderate intensity experience where

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it feels achievable, a little bit challenging, but not painful during or after.

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It feels good during and after, where they feel that they are winning because

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you gave them simple moves that they could achieve regardless of their level

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of flexibility, strength, or skill.

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Okay, and then they don't wake up tomorrow unable to breathe or laugh.

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Whereas with long-term members, what they actually want and what will keep them is getting results,

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getting stronger, getting more flexible, becoming able to control the reformer

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more expertly, be able to do more advanced moves that they couldn't do before.

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So those results, so not actually just like fun classes.

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I mean, that's the price of admission, but they need to get the results.

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People don't come to reformer to have fun. and they come to get stronger,

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to feel better physically.

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So getting results. The second one is community. Feeling that they are part

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of a connection, they have relationships with you as the trainer,

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with their fellow clients, you've introduced them, you use their names,

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remember their dog's name, their cat's name, their kid's birthdays, all of that stuff.

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And then the third one is the third aspect of service is,

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It's just all of the factors around just the mechanics and the logistics of using your studio.

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So the booking system, how easy is it to use?

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Can you use it easily on a phone?

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Capacity, can they get into the classes they want to get into or is everything waitlisted?

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How do the waitlists work? Is your cancellation window optimized so it actually

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is user-friendly for both people cancelling out of the class and the people who are on the waitlist?

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How easy is it to purchase? You know, do they have to, you know,

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go through 77 steps every time they want to renew their pass or is it just like easy peasy?

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Are your change rooms clean and do they have to wait in line?

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Like, can they actually get into the change rooms, the bathrooms, et cetera?

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What's the parking situation like? So all of these things collectively make up the user experience.

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And there are a bunch of other things in there. Are the, you know,

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are the floors clean? Are the bathrooms clean?

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All of this stuff. but essentially you know the user experience unrelated to

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the fact that it's a plati studio,

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all of those things collectively do really influence

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churn as well so those are the steps that i go through to troubleshoot firstly

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first visits at least 40 if you're not if you don't have that you've got to

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spend more on paid ads and you've got to spend whatever it costs you to buy

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one customer spend 40 times that and that number should be less than what the customer pays you.

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And hint, it's much easier to get that number that your ads working properly

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if you sell like a $49 plus intro offer because you get more money from each person.

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Second is your conversion. So you should convert 50% of those first visits into long-term users.

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So whether that is 10 pack, 20 pack, or whether that's a subscription,

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you should convert half of them to long-term users within the intro period.

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And the way to do that is, number one, have a conversion offer,

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which should be half or all of your intro offer,

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credited against your first month of membership or your first 10-pack, first 20-pack.

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And then you also got to have great service quality. And what does that look like?

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That looks like having a positive physical experience, not too hard. They feel successful.

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They don't feel sore for the next three days.

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And they feel welcome. They feel part of the club straight away.

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They feel like that you want them there. There are people who are glad to see them.

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And the third thing is just the normal convenience, you know,

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how easy is the booking system?

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How could they find it easily? What's parking like, et cetera.

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And then in terms of the third thing, which is churn, the benchmark is no more

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than 7% of your long-term users.

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Either cancelling or failing to renew their pass within a given month.

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Now, of course, in any one month, that's going to fluctuate a little bit,

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but when you average it out, it should average to 7% or less.

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And if it's more than 7%, that's probably a factor of why your classes aren't full.

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And the reasons that, or the things that you can do to impact churn are number

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one, getting people results.

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So they need to get stronger. They need to get more flexible.

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They need to be able to control all their bodies better, they need to be able

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to do, you know, things they couldn't do before or things, more intense things

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that they couldn't do before.

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The second thing is community, so your friendliness, connection,

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relationships, all of that.

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And then the last one is just that same convenience, the bookings,

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the schedule, capacity, purchasing, how easy it is to get into the change rooms,

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the parking, all of that stuff.

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All right. Now, I know that kind of was a lightning round,

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so I'm not sure if you want to play that back on half speed but

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I promise you dear listener this is not

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just a list that I made up out of thin air this is

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just based on the data I've seen 100 plus sets

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of financials for Pilates studios I currently work with over 30 studio owners

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one on one I see their numbers on a daily basis I talk with them on a weekly

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basis I know what the most successful studios look like i see the patterns these

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are the patterns so if your classes are not full.

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Anything I didn't say on this list is not one of the things that is going to fix it.

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So things that are not on this list that I see commonly people trying to do

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in order to fill classes that do not work or do not work for the majority of

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people, posting more on social media,

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adding extra modalities like bar or mat pilates or 77 different types of reformer

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classes, you know, burn and stretch and challenge and strength and sweat and cardio and all that.

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Doing special promos. Now, promos have their place, but they generally just

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provide a short-term boost and then a bit of a dip for the next couple of months after.

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They're not going to long-term fill your classes.

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Doing super low-priced intros. Having more than one intro offer.

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If you've got a one-on-one intro offer and a small group intro offer and a clinical

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intro offer and a casual visit pass and a bring a friend pass and a group intro

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offer, you're that doesn't, that isn't going to help. In fact, it's hurting you.

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So what I would say to you is this is the distilled, I wouldn't really call

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it wisdom, it's the distilled data of all of the studios I've worked with and

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I'm currently working with.

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Do the things on this list and don't do things that are not on this list and

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you will thrive and prosper and your classes will be full.

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All right, that is it. Much love and I'll see you in the next one.

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Bye.