Shanli Liu, a CPA, argues that gym businesses fail not from bad marketing but from broken pricing. She charges $600 upfront for a 6-week challenge plus a $200 supplement upsell, then collects $1,000 yearly prepayment by week three, versus the typical $21 trial that converts to $99 monthly.
When I entered the gym industry, they were running $21, 21-day programs, right? And this was like kind of like industry standard. So you get $21 for 21 days and then afterwards you try and convert them from $21 into a $99 per month membership. What we came in to start doing is we ran 6-week challenges and with our 6-week challenges we would get $600 upfront day 1, and then we would sell another $200 of supplements within the next 48 hours. And then at week 3, we would get them to prepay for the year. Now look at the difference in economics between $21 in the first 30 days and $1,000. If you're in business, one, is it the ads that aren't working? Is it the method that's not working, or is it the model? You have a model issue.
