How to Turn Enquiries Into Members Who Stay

By Abi Jacks, Marketing Director at Thrive4Activities

Across the activities sector, I hear the same thing: the interest is there, but somewhere between the first enquiry, the first session and becoming part of the club, people are dropping away.

Having grown up in the dance school world, worked closely with providers across the sector and now running classes myself, I know how easily the customer journey can become fragmented. When you’re managing people, answering questions, promoting sessions and keeping everything running, it’s natural to judge performance by how busy things feel.

The instinctive response can be to have a flurry of social posting (often all at once!) or to try an offer. Anything to get more enquiries through the door.

Sometimes that’s the right answer. But before investing more time and money in generating interest, it’s worth looking at what happens to the interest you already have.

The numbers might not be what you think

Before deciding you need more enquiries, it is worth checking what is actually happening to the people already finding you.

One of the findings that stood out to me in the Big ICAP Report 2026 was the gap between how activity providers felt they were performing and what the benchmarks showed.

Providers estimated their retention at 80%. The benchmark figure was 29%. That’s not a small difference.

There was also a gap in occupancy. Providers believed their classes were around 75% full, while the benchmark was 56%.

As the report puts it: “Our instincts are valuable, but our decisions are strongest when they’re supported by data.”

That matters because the picture you have of your club shapes where you put your time, energy and marketing budget.

If you believe your sessions are full and most families stay, generating more enquiries or opening more classes can feel like the obvious route to growth.

But if occupancy, conversion or retention is lower than you thought, there could be a much more immediate opportunity: making better use of the interest you already have.

And the first step is finding out where people are being lost.

Find out where people are being lost

You don’t need a complicated dashboard to begin. Start by following a small number of useful figures:

• How many enquiries do you receive?
• How many become trials, tasters or first bookings?
• How many of those become paying members?
• How many are still involved after three, six or 12 months?
• At what point do people most often stop responding or leave?

A high number of enquiries followed by relatively few bookings suggests that the first response or booking process may need attention. Plenty of first visits but few ongoing members could point to the initial experience or follow-up. Strong conversion followed by early drop-off may mean expectations, communication or connection need strengthening.

No single figure tells the whole story. Together, they help you see where to focus.

Make the next step easy

When someone enquires, they may be comparing several activities while fitting work, school, travel and other commitments around family life.

Your response should make it easier for them to decide what to do next.

Review the journey as if you were a new parent or participant. Is it clear which session is right for them, what it costs and how they can book? Do they know what will happen during their first visit, what they need to bring and who they should speak to when they arrive?

Small uncertainties can create delays. Those delays can quickly become lost enquiries.

Speed matters, but usefulness matters too. A quick response that says “the details are on our website” puts the work back on the family. A friendly response that answers their likely questions and provides one clear next step makes it easier to continue.

Follow-up matters as well. Someone may be interested but distracted, unsure or waiting to confirm their availability. A helpful check-in can bring them back into the conversation without adding pressure.

Give people reasons to stay

Converting an enquiry is only the beginning. Growth becomes much harder if every new member has to replace someone who has left.

Retention develops through the experiences people have over time. It’s shaped by the welcome they receive, how well they’re kept informed and whether they feel recognised and involved.

The broad principle is simple: people are more likely to stay when they feel they belong.

That doesn’t require a constant stream of messages or large community events. Often, it comes from small, consistent interactions that help people feel welcome, included and valued. We explore this idea further in How to create a club people want to stay involved in.

The changes activity providers describe to us are often quite ordinary: clearer communication, smoother joining journeys and less time lost to admin. Yet those improvements can make it easier to grow while keeping people connected.

For example, Chiltern Cheetahs Cheerleading achieved 17% growth after improving its member journey and communication with families.

Turn what you learn into a plan

Taking the first step to improve something can feel the hardest, but it doesn’t need to be.

Choose the point in your journey where the greatest number of people appear to be getting stuck. Decide what you’ll change, who will take responsibility and which figure will tell you whether it’s working.

That could mean improving your enquiry response, simplifying trial bookings, planning more consistent follow-up or changing how you communicate with members after they join.

If you’d find it useful to step back and work out where your biggest opportunities are, that’s exactly what we do in the Growth & Marketing Blueprint. I run live sessions with activity providers to help them look at their visibility, enquiry journey, onboarding, communication and retention, then turn what they find into practical changes they can make over the next 30 days.

And if you already know what you want to improve but need an easier way to do it consistently, the Growth & Marketing Accelerator brings together social media management, email and SMS tools, ready-to-use templates and reporting to help you put those plans into action.

Whichever route is right for you, start with the evidence. Find out where people are being lost, improve that part of the experience and keep measuring what changes.

More enquiries can help an activity provider grow. Making better use of the interest you already have, and giving people more reasons to stay, can make that growth much easier to maintain.

About Abi Jacks

Abi Jacks is Marketing Director at Thrive4Activities and runs her own Class-based business in Brighton. Using her two decades of marketing background, she currently supports activity providers in identifying areas to allow more space for growth and better connection with their communities.

You can connect with Abi on LinkedIn here.