How to send a win back campaign in Gymdesk

Build your win back list

Gymdesk sorts people into three kinds. Members hold a regular membership. Visitors hold only a trial membership. Leads showed interest but never bought anything. Your list needs past members plus the visitors and leads who never joined.

Past members

1. Open Members in the main menu. Tabs above the list split people by status, including Frozen and Canceled.
2. Open Canceled. Click Filter to narrow it. If you track attendance, the list also shows each person's last training session, so you can see who left in the last six months.
3. Click Select at the bottom, tick the people you want, then click Actions and choose Tag Members. Type a new tag such as winback and press Enter.
4. Do the same on the Frozen tab. For current members who stopped coming, use the last training session shown in the main list and tag them too.

Gymdesk counts both canceled and expired memberships as canceled. Neither grants access or counts as active.

Leads who never joined

Open the Visitors tab under Members. People who hold only a trial membership sit here. Tag the ones from the last six months. Then open Marketing, then Leads. Leads sit in buckets such as New, Booked, Contact Later and Cold. Select the ones you want, then use Actions and Tag Leads with the same tag.

Start with the most recent

If the list is long, tag only people whose last training session was in the past two months, and send to them first. Do months three to six the following week with a second tag.

Send the three emails

Go to Marketing, then Messaging, then Email. Under Recipient Type, choose the types you tagged (Members, Visitors or Leads), and set Tags to your win back tag. Recipient Status filters by membership or communication status, so check it if canceled people are missing.

• Click Send Preview to get a test copy at your account email. Gymdesk asks you to confirm before it sends.
• Click Save as Template after writing each email. On Day 5 and Day 10, click Use Template and the subject and body load for you.
• Gymdesk's help pages do not describe scheduling a bulk email for later. Send each email by hand on its day.
• Under Email settings, Email Sending/ Receiving Address controls how replies are handled, and Set Up Email Domain lets you send from your own domain. The help pages do not name the default sender address.
• Gymdesk's 2022 product update says each bulk send gets a category, Important updates or Announcements and events. Members can opt out of either one. A win back offer belongs under announcements.
• Gymdesk leaves out anyone who has opted out, and your emails carry a footer link to change preferences.

Send the two texts

Gymdesk texts are two way. Replies land on the person's profile, and Gymdesk can email you when one comes in. You need a new texting number first, because your current gym number cannot be used.

• Set up the number under Marketing, then Messaging, then Text (SMS). You pick a local number by area code.
• US gyms must also register the number with the carriers (10DLC) from the same screen. It can take a few days, so start a week early. Carrier fees are passed on at no markup.
• The help page's example shows $0.005 per text per recipient and $0.80 a month for the number, seen in October 2026. Rates vary by region.
• A text holds 160 characters, or 80 with non Latin characters. Longer texts split and cost more. The bottom left of the composer shows how many texts will go out.
• To text from the member list, use Select, then Actions, then Send Text/SMS.
• Text only people who agreed. Gymdesk sign up forms carry a text opt in box. Opt outs are handled for you, but the help pages do not describe a STOP keyword.

Your ten day plan in Gymdesk

The five messages, ready to fill in, are on the win back email templates page. Both texts there already fit in 160 characters.

Can Gymdesk run it for you?

Yes. Open Marketing, then Automations. Each automation starts with a trigger, including Member Canceled, Member Frozen, Absence (no attendance for a set number of days) and New Lead.

• Add Email and SMS steps with a Delay between them. Delays can count days or sessions attended.
• Put a Split on Has a membership before each message, so people who rejoined get nothing more. Replied to this automation works the same way.
• Click use template to open the template library. Gymdesk's product page says it includes cancellation recovery sequences.
• Automations come with every plan. Plans were listed from $75 a month with Gymdesk Payments on Gymdesk's pricing page in October 2026.
• The help pages do not say whether past cancellations get enrolled. For people who left months ago, Manual Trigger lets staff add them by hand.
• Automated texts follow the quiet hours you set under Settings, Marketing, Text Messaging.

See who came back

• Ask your front desk to note anyone who mentions your code word. Text replies also show on each profile.
• Members, then Growth, shows new members, cancellations and freezes for each month. Its help page does not mention reactivations or names, so treat it as a total.
• The Member List export can filter by tags and membership status. Run it on your win back tag after Day 10 to see who is active again.
• Members, then Attendance, has a Check ins export for any date range, to see who trained again.
• For leads, the Marketing Dashboard has an Acquisition Funnel with Leads, Booked and Attended, over a custom date range.

Watch out for

• Trial people are Visitors, not Leads. Pick only Leads and you miss everyone who tried you.
• Pricing follows active members, and visitors do not count. A good win back can move you into the next plan tier.
• Check all selects only the page you are on, though picks carry over as you page through. Raise the number of members per page in the members settings to save clicks.
• Gymdesk documents bulk tagging with a new tag name. Use a fresh tag for each campaign.
• If you already run a Member Canceled automation, recent cancellations may get both. A person's Messaging tab shows their automations and lets you pause them.
• Your texting number is new to people. Name your gym in the first words of every text.

Sources

• Member Management and Member and Visitor Accounts (Gymdesk help center)
• Bulk Member Actions (Gymdesk help center)
• Tag Management (Gymdesk help center)
• Freezing and Unfreezing Members (Gymdesk help center)
• Trial Memberships and Leads and prospects (Gymdesk help center)
• Gymdesk Terms and Quick Links (Gymdesk help center)
• Email Messaging and Email Settings (Gymdesk help center)
• Zapier integration and better bulk messaging (Gymdesk blog, January 2022)
• Email marketing and SMS and text messaging (Gymdesk product pages)
• Text and SMS Messaging and Business Texting in the US, 10DLC (Gymdesk help center)
• Marketing Settings (Gymdesk help center)
• Marketing Automations (Gymdesk help center) and Automations (Gymdesk product page)
• Member Growth Reporting, Reports and Data Exports and Marketing Dashboard (Gymdesk help center)
• Gymdesk pricing (Gymdesk, seen October 2026)