Your members are the lifeblood of your leisure centre, and they’re integral to the success of your organisation. Every single one of them, young and old.  

To be truly successful, you need to attract members from every age group, every background, every demographic. From the parents and babies splashing around in a dedicated swimming session, to children attending a school holiday sports club. From Gen Z members through to Baby Boomers and beyond.  

You need to build lifelong members at your leisure centre… and our latest guide can show you how.  

Five Steps To Building Lifelong Leisure Centre Members 

Our new guide reveals exactly what you need to do to engage every age group – and ability – in your community.

• You’ll learn how to get all parts of your community active by understanding their specific needs and expectations  

That’s the first step in our guide, which explains how to discover member demands and how to target different member demographics.  

• You’ll see why you need to demonstrate your expertise and promote your commitment to the community 

That’s step two, which details the ways in which you expand your offer and turn your leisure centre into a community hub.  

• You’ll discover how to boost member engagement in every age group 

That’s step three, which focuses on interacting with members more effectively, whether that’s through personalised goals, more technology or more social spaces.  

You’ll find all the details and more in our new guide:  

• Five Steps To Building Lifelong Leisure Centre Members

Getting Started Attracting All Ages  

Once you’ve read our latest guide and you’re eager to engage your entire community, you’ll first need to understand exactly what each age group wants from your leisure centre.  

To do that, you’ll need to gather reliable data.  

Collect both qualitative and quantitative data by analysing visit and booking history, sending out surveys, requesting feedback and talking with your members. Leisure management software like Legend can support your efforts here.  

Find out what each demographic desires and what their goals are, and then you can begin to develop (or promote if you already have them) the facilities and services that are most relevant.  

Expanding Your Leisure Offer  

When you understand each demographic’s preferences and priorities, and you’ve identified which facilities and services are most in demand, you can expand your leisure offer.  

Pinpoint what each age group is looking for, and focus your efforts there. Ideally, you’ll want to expand your offer in multiple areas to support every part of your community.  

For example:  

• For children and teenagers, you might want to introduce more kids’ programmes and sports clubs during the school holidays 

• For Generation Z members, you may want to focus on improving wearable technology integrations in your gym equipment  

• For older generations looking for a more social experience, you could create new community spaces in unused areas of your leisure centres. 

After prioritising areas to expand your leisure offer, it’s important that you promote them. That’s how you’ll attract all ages. Use the data you’ve gathered to target each demographic in your area more effectively.  

For example, by sending emails and text messaging about new kids’ clubs to those members with families, or marketing new low intensity classes to those who have mobility issues or have just returned to fitness after an injury or illness.  

Keeping Your Whole Community Active  

As well as understanding the differing needs and desires of multiple demographics, you’ll also find that there are certain priorities shared by all age groups.  

As you’ll see in our guide, to keep your whole community active you’ll need to extend your offer beyond fitness.  

Every age group wants to see more wellbeing support and services offered. Prioritise mental health and wellbeing, breathing workshops and relaxation classes, and your leisure centre will have a big social impact.  

Every demographic benefits from a leisure centre that serves the whole community. Developing a community hub will help you support members through all stages of their life.  

Every little step you take can make a big difference. 

Attracting all ages just takes time and focus 

Building lifelong members is a lifelong commitment. It won’t happen overnight, but there are lots of incremental changes you can make to improve your leisure offer, attract members for every age group and support your entire community.  

Our free guide to building lifelong members is a great place to start.  

It will help you focus your efforts, identify ways to engage and attract every audience, and demonstrate your value to every demographic.  

And it’ll show you how to change your priorities when your members’ priorities change, throughout their whole lives with your leisure centre. 

Download 5 Steps to Building Lifelong Members here.