How to Write a Gym Member Newsletter That People Actually Read

Why Most Gym Newsletters Get Ignored

The average gym member newsletter is a list of announcements dressed up as communication: new class on Tuesdays, boiler maintenance on Thursday, half-price protein bars this week. Members have been trained to skim these emails for anything that directly affects their visit and delete the rest. Open rates drop over time, click-through rates are negligible, and the newsletter becomes a box the gym ticks rather than a channel that does anything useful. (see ukactive State of the UK Fitness Industry report) (see Sport England Active Lives survey)

The gyms whose newsletters get read regularly — and whose members look forward to receiving them — treat the newsletter as a member benefit rather than a distribution mechanism for operational updates. This guide explains how to make that shift: what to include, how to structure it, how often to send it, and how to know whether it is working.

The Core Principle: Write for the Reader, Not the Gym

Every decision about your newsletter content should be filtered through one question: Does this make the member’s training or gym experience better? Operational announcements are relevant to members (yes, tell them about the maintenance). Promotions are occasionally relevant. But the content that keeps members opening your emails is content that actively helps them — training advice, nutritional guidance, programme ideas, progress frameworks, and genuine insight from your coaching team.

A useful rule of thumb: 70% of your newsletter content should be genuinely useful to the member independent of whether they ever spend another penny with you; 30% can be gym news, offers, and announcements. If the ratio is reversed, your newsletter is an internal marketing document, not member communication.

Choosing Your Format and Frequency

Frequency

Monthly is the right default for most independent gyms. Weekly is too frequent unless you have a dedicated content creator and a compelling reason to communicate that often. Fortnightly can work if you are consistent. Whatever frequency you choose, keep it fixed and keep it predictable — a newsletter that arrives irregularly trains members to ignore it even when they do open it.

Length

Short enough to read in under three minutes on a phone. The sweet spot for an independent gym newsletter is three to five discrete sections, each readable in 45–60 seconds. Members read newsletters between sets, on the bus, or while waiting for a class to start — your content needs to work in that context. Long-form essays belong on your blog; the newsletter is where you surface the best of what you know in digestible form.

Format options

• Plain text email: High open rates, feels personal, easy to write, difficult to include images. Works well for gyms with a strong coaching voice and a loyal existing member base.
• HTML template with sections: More professional, supports images and formatting, allows click tracking. Works well for gyms that want to drive blog visits or have a more branded identity. Tools like Mailchimp, Klaviyo, or even WordPress’s newsletter plugins can handle this.

Do not start with a complex HTML template if you do not have the capacity to maintain it. A well-written plain text email sent every month on time beats a beautifully designed template that arrives irregularly or half-finished.

What to Include: A Section-by-Section Structure

1. The coaching tip (always lead with this)

Open with something genuinely useful from your coaching team. This is the most important section — it is the reason a member should open the next email before they know what is in it. Examples that work:

• “This month we’ve been telling members: if you only make it to the gym twice a week, here’s how to structure those two sessions to keep making progress.”
• “A common mistake we see in January: training too hard too fast. Here’s what we recommend for the first six weeks of a new programme.”
• “The most underrated recovery tool we know of: here’s why sleep quality matters more than supplementation for most people.”

The coaching tip does not need to be long — three to five paragraphs is plenty. It should be written in the voice of your coaches, not generic fitness content. Specific and personal beats polished and generic every time.

2. Member spotlight

A short feature on one member’s progress or experience — with their permission. This section does three things: it recognises the featured member (who will share the newsletter), it provides social proof to less committed members that real people achieve real results in your gym, and it creates a reason for members to keep reading every month to see who is featured. Keep it to 150–200 words and include one photo if possible.

3. What’s on and what’s new

Operational updates, new classes, equipment changes, seasonal offers, upcoming events. This is where announcements live — but keep it brief. Three to five bullet points is the maximum. If something needs more explanation than a bullet point, it deserves its own email.

4. One recommendation

A single recommendation from your team — a book, a podcast episode, a piece of research, a piece of kit, a recipe. One thing, explained briefly: “We’ve been recommending this to members who want to understand the basics of strength training programming. It is free, it is clear, and it covers more than most.” This section is quick to write, builds trust, and is highly clickable.

5. CTA (optional, specific)

If you have one specific action you want members to take — book a PT consultation, sign up for the new class before it fills, refer a friend — state it once, clearly, at the end. Do not include multiple calls to action; one specific ask is far more likely to be acted on than a list of options.

Practical Tips for Writing It Consistently

• Batch the coaching tip at your team meeting: Ask your coaches for one insight, observation, or tip they have been sharing with clients this month. This takes five minutes in a team meeting and produces the most valuable section of your newsletter with no additional effort from you.
• Keep a running notes file: Anytime something useful comes up in the gym — a member breakthrough, a coaching observation, a common question you heard three times this week — add it to a notes file. By newsletter day, you have a list to choose from rather than a blank page.
• Write the member spotlight section in advance: Ask members for permission and a quote at the point of celebrating a win (when they hit a new PB, complete a programme, achieve a goal). Capture it immediately; do not rely on memory later.
• Assign ownership: The newsletter will not happen consistently unless one person owns it. That person schedules the writing time, sends it, and tracks the open rate. In a small gym this is usually the owner or head coach.

Measuring Whether Your Newsletter Is Working

Track two metrics per send:

• Open rate: A healthy open rate for a gym member newsletter with a reasonably clean list is 35–50%. Below 25% indicates a subject line problem, delivery timing issue, or list quality issue. Above 50% indicates strong relevance and an engaged community.
• Click rate: If you include links (to a blog post, a sign-up page, a recommendation), track clicks. A 5–10% click rate on a linked section is solid; below 2% means either the link is buried or the content is not driving curiosity.

Subject lines matter more than most gym owners realise. “January Newsletter” is not a subject line — it is a label. “The training mistake we see every January (and how to avoid it)” is a subject line. Test different approaches and track which style of subject drives higher open rates with your specific audience.

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