If you’ve ever planned a fitness retreat to take place during the long, cold winter months, then you’ve faced the challenge of selling that respite from the frost during the dog days of summer. From June to August, class attendance is down, family vacations abound, the sun is shining, and no one wants to wish away their summer. So how do you sell a warm weather retreat when no one seems to recall that WINTER IS COMING?!
Build Your Lists
Warm weather, sunshine, and vacations that accompany summer do drag down class attendance. Although, one of your primary platforms for promoting your future retreat is reduced, the silver lining is a bit more free time out of the studio for you too! Spend a little more time building your list of potential retreat attendees. This is time very well spent, and we find that our creative thoughts flow best sitting on the grass, walking through the woods, or relaxing on the beach. Once the weather starts to turn, and the number of good selling days before your retreat starts are getting shorter, literally, this list will help you to sell those last few spots.
Get Out into Your Community
Summertime is busy! Of course, summer brings plentiful BBQs and social events among your inner circle, but it’s also the time when the local community events calendar fills up. Outdoor theater, music, and fitness classes are just a few of the offerings you’re sure to find. What’s more, each of these make incredible venue to connect with your community. Invite some of your students to join you for a stroll through a farmer’s market after class. All this time spent connecting with your community outside the studio offers plentiful opportunity to grow your list.
Lean on Your Theme
It can be difficult to gain people’s attention about a distant retreat. Lean into the theme of your retreat. Your theme is the element or elements that make your retreat stand out against all the other retreats on the market, and fine tuning your messaging in order to get people excited is important. Many winter retreats focus on getting out in the sun, and that’s what the summer is all about. Attend events that share similar themes to your retreat. Are you going to focus on fitness and surfing? Attend one of the many free community events your local surf shops will be hosting. Evangelize, network, build your list, and use the summer to lean into your theme!
Host a Free Event
Sure, in the depths of winter, a nice, warm studio is what we all crave for our workouts. But its summer, let’s get outside! Take advantage of the public spaces in your area: parks, beaches, nature reserves, etc., and host a FREE event. Don’t worry about licensing too much, you aren’t collecting money, you are just encouraging a bunch of like minded individuals to come have fun, with you! Demonstrate that you’re organized, creative, fun, and worth following around the globe. Encourage friends to bring friends, and acquaintances to become friends. This doesn’t have to cost a lot of money, heck a hike and a stretch are FREE. Up level your event by tying in your unique retreat theme, and make it easy for people to join your list!
Extend Early Bird Pricing
OK, so we’ve talked about the selling activities you can focus on in the summer, and we’ve touched upon how to connect with your community outside the studio. But how do you get the commitment? How do you get people to allocate their budget to a retreat that’s still 6-9 months away, in a time when one’s wallet is focused on weekend trips, family vacations and concert tickets??! Use a preferential pricing strategy. Most commonly, we call this early bird pricing. As you connect with people, and add them to your list, also extend them this offer: If you can place your deposit before summer is over, you can lock in the best possible pricing!
One Final Piece of Advice
Be realistic about how much of the retreat you can comfortably sell during a time when it’s traditionally difficult to sell a retreat. Set a goal of 30-40% of the total headcount you are striving to bring. That is probably only 5 to 8 signups. Hopefully all of the above are all things you were planning to do anyway. Coupled with a little intention to sell, and an eye on the future, you can still enjoy your summer and sell your retreat. And it’s summertime, so enjoy yourself. There, that wasn’t so hard, was it?