How I Used ClassPass as a Lead Machine (Without Letting It Eat My Business)

Here’s the thing about ClassPass: it can be the best lead generation tool you’ve ever used, or it can quietly eat your business alive. I’ve experienced both. As the CMO of a boutique fitness concept, I figured out how to make it work to our advantage. This is what I learned.

The case for and against ClassPass

A lot of gym and studio owners have been vocal about how ClassPass has hurt their businesses. And they’re not wrong. The Vice article “ClassPass Is Squeezing Studios to the Point of Death” is a pretty damning read. Studio owners describe getting a fraction of their normal class rate per booking, fighting opaque algorithmic pricing they had zero control over, and watching loyal clients switch to ClassPass instead of renewing memberships. There are Quora threads, Reddit threads, owner forums. People have feelings.

I get it. I lived that frustration.

But I also figured out how to make it work. And the data backs it up. Athletech News recently published a piece called “Is ClassPass Good for Studios?” with a stat that perfectly captures what I experienced firsthand: 94% of ClassPass users are new to the studios they visit. That’s not your existing members finding a cheaper workaround. That’s genuinely new people who might never have heard of your gym otherwise.

That’s the whole opportunity. And it starts with a reframe.

Also worth noting: ClassPass is completely optional. You don’t have to use it at all, and if you do, you’re in full control of how much or how little you open up. Everything I’m sharing here is about how to use it strategically if you choose to.

How we started winning with ClassPass

At some point I stopped thinking about ClassPass as a membership competitor and started thinking about it as a marketing channel. One with more money, more reach, and a bigger local audience than I could ever touch on my own budget.

So I decided to use it.

The way I framed it to my team: ClassPass is a giant corporation with more money than we’ll ever have. We can’t compete with their prices and we’re not going to try. What we can do is use their platform to get people in the door and earn their business once they’re here.

That distinction, between using ClassPass as a top-of-funnel acquisition engine versus letting it function as a membership processing system, is the entire ballgame.

Set your expectations before you start

You are always going to have a handful of people who use ClassPass on a recurring basis and never convert. It’s going to feel like a personal insult. Your coaches are going to point them out. You’re going to want to pull out entirely because of those two or three people.

Don’t.

Two or three people is not a trend. When we actually tracked the numbers, those chronic non-converters were a drop in the bucket compared to the volume of new visitors ClassPass was bringing in every single month. And when we looked at conversion rates, ClassPass visitors were converting to memberships at a rate competitive with people who came in through our traditional channels like events. 

Track your numbers. That’s how you have the conversation with your team from a place of evidence instead of emotion.

How we turned ClassPass into a growth engine

One principle drove every decision we made: ClassPass is for first visits and top-of-funnel awareness. Full stop. It is not a recurring payment system for regulars. 

Everything we put in place was designed to give new visitors a great taste of what we offered, while making it clear that the full experience lived on the other side of a direct membership.

Here’s what we put in place.

We held back our best class times. 

If your 6am and 9am Saturday classes fill on their own, ClassPass doesn’t get access to those. You save your best classes for full-paying members only. ClassPass fills the gaps. It fills the 12pm Tuesday slot that would otherwise sit half-empty. Those empty spots are missed opportunities to get new prospects in the room. ClassPass helps you fill them without touching your prime real estate.

We capped ClassPass spots in popular class formats.

Similarly, we also capped the number of spots available to ClassPass users in our most in-demand classes. Sometimes that number was as low as two spots per class. This protected the experience for paying members and made sure ClassPass wasn’t crowding out the people actively investing in our business.

Pro tip: if you run advanced formats like CrossFit, consider only enabling ClassPass for your intro or beginner-friendly classes. It protects the experience for everyone in the room and tends to drive the highest conversion rates since new people are set up for a great first visit.

We used ClassPass’s “loyal visitor” metric as an early warning system.

ClassPass measures 90-day loyalty at your location, meaning how many people are coming back repeatedly within a 90-day window using ClassPass. If those numbers crept too high, that was our signal that people were using the platform as a de facto membership. Time to tighten the guardrails.

We set a shorter ClassPass booking window than our standard one.

Your own members book first. ClassPass users get whatever’s left, closer to class time. Simple. Effective. Immediately protective of your member experience.

We offered perks exclusive to direct members.

Community events. Specialty programming. Buddy passes. Exclusive swag. Things that made it genuinely worth it to join with us directly, beyond any price comparison.

The most important thing we did: we were honest

Every new ClassPass visitor got an automated email from us the moment they booked their first class. It looked something like this:

Hey, welcome to [gym name]!

Just saw you booked your first class through ClassPass and we are so excited to have you in. Seriously, can’t wait to meet you!

Real talk: we’re a small business that will never be able to offer rates as low as ClassPass, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise. What I can do is earn your business while you’re here.

If you fall in love with what we’re building, I hope you’ll consider supporting us directly. Consistency is how you actually get results. Community is what keeps you coming back. And a coach who knows your name, your injuries, and your goals is worth more than any cheap drop-in rate.

Here’s a look at our membership options: [link]. No pressure, just want you to have the full picture before you come in.

Give us a real shot. I’m confident you’ll feel the difference. And when you’re ready, I’d love to talk about bringing you on as a member.

Talk soon.

Then, after a few visits, we sent a follow-up that doubled down on why membership mattered. Here’s a version of that one:

Hey [name],

So glad you’ve been coming in. We’ve loved having you.

ClassPass is a great way to shop around and find your fit. But at some point, the hopping around stops working in your favor. Here’s why we think [gym name] should be your home base:

Consistency matters. You get good at what you do. A consistent program is one of the most effective ways to actually change your body and build real fitness. Bouncing between gyms makes that a lot harder.

Community matters. When you’re in the room as a guest, you’re on the outside of something really special. There’s nothing like training alongside people who know you, push you, and have your back. That’s what membership unlocks.

Your coaches matter. A coach who knows your name, your injuries, the way you move, and what you’re working toward can do so much more for you than one who’s seeing you for the first time. Give them the chance to really coach you.

And supporting local business matters. We’re a small business. When you choose to train with us directly, it makes a real difference for our team and our community.

We want to make this easy. [Insert your offer here.] Come train with us. I promise you’ll be glad you did.

Talk soon.

These emails were just the start. We had a full nurture sequence in place that kept us top of mind between visits. With Wodify, you can auto-enroll ClassPass drop-ins directly into your lead nurture campaigns so none of this happens manually. Every new ClassPass visitor gets pulled into the sequence automatically, which means no one falls through the cracks regardless of how busy your front desk is. 

A few examples of what our nurture sequence looked like:

• A text the day after their first class: “So glad you came in today! How are you feeling? Let us know if you have any questions about what we offer.”
• A coach check-in after their third visit: “Hey, I’ve loved having you in class. Have you thought about what a membership might look like for you? Happy to chat.”
• An invite to a member community event: “We’ve got [event] coming up, open to members and their guests. Would love to have you join us and get a feel for the community.”
• A direct membership offer after 30 days: “You’ve been in a few times now and we’d love to make it official. Here’s what we can do for you as a first-time member.”

The goal was simple: every touchpoint moved them one step closer to a conversation, without ever feeling like a hard sell. 

5 things to do when you launch ClassPass

To recap everything we covered, here’s your quick-start checklist.

1. Set a shorter ClassPass booking window than your standard one. Your members book first. ClassPass backfills the rest. Easiest setting to adjust, most immediately protective of your member experience.

2. Cap ClassPass spots and protect your peak times entirely. Be ruthless. If a class fills on its own, it doesn’t need ClassPass.

3. Track your 90-day loyalty numbers like a dashboard. If that number climbs too high, tighten the guardrails. That’s your signal ClassPass is drifting from acquisition tool to membership processor.

4. Build a conversion sequence for first-time ClassPass visitors. Flag them on arrival. Send the honest email. Nurture them. Make the ask. Keep it human, not pushy.

5. Arm your coaches with data before they get frustrated. When they can see the volume of new visitors ClassPass is driving and how well those visitors are converting, those one or two chronic non-converters stop feeling like a referendum on the whole strategy.

Bottom line

ClassPass is a giant. You’re not going to out-spend them in your own backyard. But you can use their platform to fill classes, build awareness, and generate leads you never would have reached on your own budget.

The studios that struggle with ClassPass are the ones who joined without a strategy, let it run on autopilot, and woke up one day to find their regulars had switched to ClassPass instead of renewing memberships. The good news? It’s entirely avoidable with the right strategy in place.

Set the guardrails. Earn the business. Go get the leads.

If you’re already on Wodify, our new ClassPass integration makes a lot of this easier to set up and manage in one place. Reach out to support@wodify.com if you’d like help getting it configured.

Not on Wodify yet? Book a demo and we’ll show you how it all works together: https://www.wodify.com/demo 

Grace Bettino is the Director of Brand and Communications at Wodify where she leads creative and content strategy. With a background in boutique fitness marketing and a passion for storytelling, she’s focused on connecting Wodify to its community through marketing that’s both effective and authentic. Grace lives in Minneapolis with her husband, daughter Sloane, and their 80lb Golden Retriever, Bear.