Sometimes clients just disappear from your sessions. It sucks, but it happens to all of us.

A common misconception we have as trainers is that the person doesn’t want to train with us anymore.

But that’s not true. Stuff comes up in people’s lives and they fall off the bootcamp wagon. Getting sick, changing jobs, having a baby, or even… a global pandemic.

And just because life happened and someone had to stop bootcamp, it doesn’t mean that they don’t want to start again. So we should be regularly checking in with our old clients to see if they’re ready to come back.

In this article I’ll show you how with a simple fitness marketing email template.

Why Campers Don’t Come Back

These are 3 main reasons I see that cause people to hesitate to return to group fitness classes:

1. Their schedule/circumstances have changed.

People move, their kids take up new activities and careers are changed. All of these change people’s schedules and for a period of time, they might just stop coming to sessions. If you don’t follow up, these period of time can turn into forever.

2. They didn’t feel looked after.

Sometimes it’s just not a good fit. What you’re offering wasn’t what they were after. But if you’re doing your marketing right, this shouldn’t happen very often. What is more likely is – due to the vulnerable nature of exercising in a room full of strangers – the person got scared off and didn’t feel supported. This is an easy fix.

3. They fell through the cracks.

Building an exercise habit can be really hard. Sometimes for no particular reason people stop training with you. If there is no system in place to gently catch those that do, you’ll find people leaving your classes for no good reason.

So What Can You Do About It?

My advice: Forget about sales tactics. Be a human being and communicate human to human.

One way you can always be doing this is with regular, consistent email newsletters. But I’ll talk about those another time as the current situation requires a more personal touch.

I’m going to show you an email (or DM) you can send that’s going to do 3 things:

Let’s quickly go through each step and why it’s important:

1. Check-in with them

We’ll start with a short, personal email or message enquiring how they are going. No sales pitch here, just a genuine note asking after their wellbeing. You may even pause after this step and wait for a response before continuing on.

2. Let them know what’s going on

Next, a super quick one or two sentence update on what’s happening with your sessions. Perhaps you’ve got a particular event or session coming up that you think they might be interested in.

3. Reassure them

Lastly, some quick reassurance that they’re super welcome and that your sessions are a safe space for them. A picture of your other clients happily training speaks a thousand words here rather than a list of impersonal bullet points.

Have you ever run into an old client while you were out running errands… and then a few days later they reached out to you to sign back up?

Reactivations are what’s known in the marketing world as “low-hanging fruit.” That’s because they already know you, you know they are likely financially qualified, and they probably are just waiting for a nudge to come back.

Alicia Streger, Fit Pro Essentials (link)

Reactivation Email Template

Follow the 3 steps above to create your own conversation with your client or use my reactivation email template below.

You might start with my template and then customise it to your own needs as you get the hang of it.

Step One:

Before you get started sending out this email, take some time to make a list of all of your missing clients. Go back 6 months or so.

Step Two:

Once you’ve got your list here’s the email to send them. [Make sure you edit or remove the sections in brackets like this.]

To: Miss Ing Camper
From: You

Hey [First Name],

It’s been a while since we connected so I just wanted to reach out and see how you are doing. How are you?

[If you’re sending as a direct message you can now wait for a response.]

I’m not sure if you heard, but we’ve recently started [a new session time or returning after a break or running a new style of class]. We’ve been missing your [personal attribute] in our Friday morning sessions. Have you been thinking about coming back at all?

Here’s a snap of the group from last Friday:

Hope you’re well,

[Your Name]

Step Three:

Repeat for each client.

It’s that simple.

If you’ve got a lot of missing clients, put aside 30 minutes each week and just work your way through the list.

Send that out to your missing clients and at the very least you’ll get a chance to reconnect with them and at the best you’ll get someone moving their body once more.

How Did It Go?

If you take the time to use this email template (go you!) please leave a comment below and let me know how it worked out for you.

Even 1 or 2 clients returning to regular classes makes this worth your time. We did something similar in a challenge on Bootcamp Ideas recently and the results were awesome.

I know using this reactivation email template can have great results for you too.

Kyle Wood

Kyle Wood created Bootcamp Ideas in 2010 when he was hunting around on the internet for workout ideas. He ran a successful bootcamp in Victoria, Australia and spends his spare time managing this site, adventuring (or lazying) with his wife and find new ways to make bootcamps even better.