Every boutique fitness studio is on a different path—but when the weather heats up, the best brands don’t slow down. They double down on creative marketing, community connection, and data-driven growth. And it’s paying off.
In fact, our data shows that studios on Mariana Tek aren’t seeing the so-called “summer slump” at all. Many are growing in attendance, community engagement, and revenue. So what’s their secret?
We turned to some of the winners from our 2024 Mariana Tek Studio Awards—recognized for member growth, attendance, and brand love—to find out how they’re keeping demand hot this summer. Here’s what they shared:
1) Social Media
From poolside playlists to rooftop rides, the best studios are leaning into seasonal content and showing off their community’s energy on their social platforms.
iiCE Fitness, winner of our 2024 Studio Influencer Award, breaks the mold with FOMO-worthy clips that highlight their electric class energy.. Their unique content does an amazing job at breaking the mold of traditional indoor cycling.
“We heavily leverage social media to showcase our energy, highlight member experiences, and create FOMO-worthy content that keeps people engaged and keeps them coming back for more.”
Sara Habetz of Hype Haus Fitness, one of our Community Choice Award instructors, says the Hype Haus team focuses on showcasing the energy and inclusivity of their studio.
“Social media is a major driver—we highlight real client experiences, class energy, behind-the-scenes moments, and community events and collaborations every single day. Our content is fun, high-energy, and relatable, making it easy for potential clients to see themselves as part of our community.”
Sara Habetz,
Hype Haus Fitness
Sweat and Tonic, winner of a Full House award, gives some credit to their growing social media following for filling out their classes. Their highly engaged community of over 50,000 Instagram followers grew by 62% in 2024 alone. “When you create an experience that is centred around community, that encourages being yourself, and doing new and challenging things, you naturally want to share that with others,” they said.
2) Email and Text Campaigns
Award-winning studios are staying in front of their members with bold, branded communications—especially when vacation brain sets in.
A number of award winners use consistent email and text communications to nurture leads and engage clients. These campaigns can cover studio updates, personalized messages, event announcements, exclusive offerings, and more.
Sweat and Tonic’s online marketing extends beyond their social media following to a whopping 67,000 email subscribers who sign up to be notified about brand partnerships, events, and one-of-a-kind classes.
Mariana Tek makes it easy for any studio to follow in the footsteps of these award winners. Our automated email and SMS tools enable you to:
- Write and schedule unlimited texts and emails, complete with your branding and logo automatically synced to each one
- Build responsive emails specifically designed for fitness, with schedule blocks, featured staff, events, and more
- Use pre-built templates designed just for your studio to speed up campaign creation
- Design unique landing pages to maximize your events, promotions, and sales
iiCE Fitness is a great example of these tools in action. Their management team focuses on using Mariana Tek’s Xplor Growth tools to customize emails, automations, customer journeys, and landing pages: “This meets all of our needs, from daily campaigns to special events.”
3) Events, Collaborations, and Challenges
Studios winning this summer aren’t just running more classes—they’re creating more moments.
Recess by Bevin Prince won our Most Popular Award in the spin modality for 2024, indicating their remarkable member growth last year. Some of that growth certainly comes down to their strong stance on community and connection vs. promotion:
“Community is everything to us. We stay true to our core while always finding new ways to make things exciting—whether it’s through pop-up events, collaborations with local businesses, or new class times and themes that keeps our riders engaged.”
CAMP – another Full House Award winner in Tampa, FL – is on the same page. “With our expansive property, we’re able to create experiences beyond the studio – markets, happy hours, recovery days, etc. We also like to keep things fresh with local and national brands, who gift special offerings such as sponsored classes, studio challenges and unique onsite events.”
The CAMP team loves to experiment with events, even starting their own hour-long play period – for adults! – called RECESS.
Want to pack out your next pop-up or themed class? With Mariana Tek, it’s easy to create and manage pop-up events events—whether it’s a one-time rooftop ride, a brand collab, or a seasonal challenge. Once it’s live, use in-app ads to promote it directly inside your branded app, putting signups just a tap away for your most engaged clients.
4) Strategic promotions and referrals
Award-winning studios don’t discount everything—they run smart campaigns that create urgency without cheapening the brand.
- First-timer specials – Joy Ride Fit, a Community Choice winner in Madison, WI, uses introductory offers and seasonal promotions to get new clients in the door, then uses loyalty perks to retain members.
- Strategic promotions – Hype Haus Fitness aims to run seasonal strategic promotions that “create excitement while maintaining the value of [their] offerings,” i.e. not running constant discounts or sales, but building urgency and demand through other ways.
- Referral programs – YoBa Studio in Raleigh, NC, another Most Popular winner for the barre modality, believes strongly in the power of referrals. “We celebrate clients who refer others and focus on building a routine for members, with many attending 3-5 times per week. The fun part is seeing clients stick with those consistent routines for years!”
Word of mouth is earned—not bought. But these tactics can spark that buzz. Whether you’re launching a summer challenge, building an email series, or hosting a beachside bootcamp, Mariana Tek gives you the tools to turn up the heat.
by Maddy Crouch Sr Product Marketing Manager, Fitness & Wellbeing
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First published: June 11 2025
Written by: Maddy Crouch