22 September 2026 · 5 min read · Oscar Markham
Do gyms really need a January campaign?
Every gym in Ireland advertises in January. That is exactly the problem: everyone bidding at once, into the same audience, with the deepest discounts of the year. It is worth asking whether the month deserves the budget it gets.
You are paying peak prices for your worst members
Two things happen in January. Competition for attention peaks, which drives the cost of reaching anyone up. And the offers are at their deepest, which selects for people choosing on price.
Members acquired on a heavy discount churn faster than any other group. So the month combines the highest acquisition cost with the lowest retention — the worst possible pairing.
The months nobody fights over
Late spring and autumn are considerably cheaper and considerably less crowded. The people joining then have decided for their own reasons rather than because a calendar told them to, and they stay longer.
A budget moved out of January into those months usually produces fewer joins and more members still training in six months, which is the only number that pays a gym's rent.
So should you skip January entirely?
No. The demand is real and ignoring it hands it to competitors. But the shape of the offer matters more than its size.
An offer built around commitment — a longer initial term, an onboarding block of sessions, a goal-based programme — attracts the same demand without selecting for the people who leave in March.
The part that is not marketing at all
Most of what decides whether a January member is still there in June happens in their first three weeks: whether anybody learned their name, whether they knew what to do, whether the place felt like it was for them.
No campaign compensates for that, and gyms that fix it get more from every euro they subsequently spend.
Written by Oscar Markham, founder of Dublin Growth Digital. We run lead generation for Irish estate agents and trades, reported every Friday in enquiries and booked work.