Latest / The Marketing Funnel Podcast with Fexingo: Awareness, Interest, Decision, and Action Stages / How ClassPass Built a Marketing Funnel on Scarcity and Access
Transcript
- Lucas: So let's say you wake up on a Tuesday morning in midtown Manhattan and you decide you want to take a 10am hot yoga class at a studio you've never been to. You open the ClassPass app, you see that two of the three classes today are already full, and the one that has spots left shows exactly four remaining. There's a little countdown timer: the class starts in three hours. That feeling — that slight pressure to book now — that's not a bug. That's the entire funnel. Luna: And it works because the alternative — scrolling through the full class list with no limits — feels like a chore. Scarcity makes the decision feel urgent. Lucas: Right. And ClassPass leans into that harder than almost any other subscription service I can think of. They redesigned their whole pricing model back in January of this year — January 2026 — and the new structure basically doubled down on the idea that limited access is a feature, not a limitation. They scrapped the old credit system — where every class cost a different number of credits — and moved to a simpler tiered plan: five, ten, or fifteen bookings per month, starting at $19 a month for the entry level. Luna: So fewer decisions per class. You're not doing mental math about whether a Barry's class is worth 4 credits versus 2 for a smaller studio. You just have a set number of bookings. Lucas: Exactly. And that clarity actually increases the perceived value of each booking. You're not spending credits — you're spending one of your precious ten slots. And when you see a class with only two spots left, you're more likely to book it right then because you know if you wait, that slot disappears. ClassPass published some internal data last quarter showing that users on the new plans book, on average, 40 percent faster than they did under the old credit system. The funnel from awareness to action — from seeing a class to reserving it — got compressed. Luna: Forty percent faster — that's huge for a company that depends on converting impulse into commitment. And it helps the studios too, because they fill capacity more reliably. Lucas: That's the two-sided marketplace piece. ClassPass has roughly 30,000 partner studios globally — everything from SoulCycle and CorePower Yoga to independent Pilates studios in cities like Austin or Berlin. Those studios are the supply side. They give ClassPass a certain number of slots per class at a discounted rate, and ClassPass takes a cut — typically around 30 to 40 percent of the booking fee. The studios get filled seats that might have gone empty, and ClassPass gets a recurring subscriber base that pays every month whether they book all their classes or not. Luna: But here's the thing — if too many subscribers try to book the same popular classes and can't get in, that creates frustration. So scarcity has to be managed carefully. How do they keep that from backfiring? Lucas: They use waitlist data as a signaling mechanism. If a specific cycling studio in SoHo has a waitlist of 50 people every single Saturday at 10am, ClassPass sees that and goes back to the studio and says, 'Hey, you should give us more slots, or open a second class time.' It becomes a negotiation tool. And for the user on the waitlist — they get a push notification when a spot opens up. That notification is a re-engagement moment in itself. You get that dopamine hit: someone canceled, and now you're in. Luna: Honestly, if today was worth a coffee to you, that's the link — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It keeps the show ad-free and lets us dig into these mechanics without selling anything. Lucas: Yeah, listener support is what makes this possible. No pressure, but if these marketing breakdowns have sparked something you've actually used, that link is the smallest way to give back. Anyway — back to the waitlist. That notification is actually a masterclass in the decision stage of the funnel. Luna: Because you're not just being reminded that a class exists — you're being told that a slot just opened, which is a time-limited opportunity. The decision window shrinks from days to minutes. Lucas: Yes. And ClassPass has data that shows the conversion rate on those waitlist notifications is over 65 percent. Two out of three people who get that ping end up booking the class within the hour. Compare that to a generic push notification — 'Try a new yoga class this week' — which might get a click-through rate of 2 or 3 percent. The scarcity context completely changes the behavior. Luna: So the funnel doesn't just stop at booking. What about retention? If I book a class and I go, I have a good experience. But what happens if I book and cancel — or if I no-show? Lucas: They've built in a penalty structure that actually increases engagement. Under the new plans, if you cancel within twelve hours of the class, you lose that booking slot for the month. If you no-show, you lose the slot and you get a small fee — like $5 to $15 depending on the class. That creates real cost to flakiness. But here's the interesting part: ClassPass found that users who get charged a no-show fee are 30 percent more likely to book another class within the next week. It's a weird kind of commitment device. Luna: Because they feel like they've already paid a penalty, so they want to get value out of the remaining slots. It's loss aversion applied to the subscription. Lucas: Yeah. And the data backs it up. ClassPass ended 2025 with over 35 million visits booked per month globally — that's up from about 28 million in 2023. Active subscribers grew 22 percent year-over-year after the redesign. And their churn rate dropped from about 8 percent monthly to 5.5 percent. The scarcity model doesn't just drive action — it drives repeat action because people want to use those slots before they expire. Luna: Let's talk about the awareness stage. How does ClassPass get people into the top of the funnel in the first place? They don't have retail locations. They don't have a physical product. Lucas: They rely heavily on two channels: free trial offers and studio referrals. The free trial is typically two weeks with two to three booking credits — enough to try two classes. They market that trial heavily on Instagram and TikTok, especially in cities where they have dense studio coverage. And the studio referral piece is interesting: when a studio signs up with ClassPass, they get a custom landing page they can share with their existing members. If a member signs up for ClassPass through that link, the studio gets a small bonus — usually a few extra dollars per referral. So the studios themselves become a distribution channel. Luna: It's almost like a partner co-marketing arrangement without the complexity of a formal partnership. Each studio has its own audience, and ClassPass piggybacks on that trust. Lucas: Exactly. And once you're in the free trial, the scarcity elements kick in immediately. You see that your credits expire after a certain number of days — not after a month. So there's a built-in timer. And the app shows you which classes are 'popular' or 'almost full' based on real-time data. The combination of a ticking clock on your trial credits plus limited availability on classes creates a very compressed awareness to action cycle. Luna: But doesn't that risk overwhelming new users? If I sign up for a trial and within the first day I see ten notifications about classes filling up, I might feel anxious rather than excited. Lucas: That's a real concern, and ClassPass has actually A/B tested notification frequency. They found that sending three to five push notifications in the first week is the sweet spot — any more and trial to paid conversion drops. Any fewer and users don't engage enough to see the value. They also personalize which studios they recommend based on the user's location and the time of day they open the app. So if you're browsing at 8pm on a Tuesday, they're more likely to show you evening classes later in the week, not tomorrow morning's 6am spin class. Luna: That's smart segmentation. They're basically matching supply to intent in near real-time. Lucas: Right. And the decision stage — where the user says 'I'm going to book this specific class' — that's where the scarcity cues are most prominent. You see the number of remaining spots, and if it's a popular class, there's often a banner that says '80% booked' or 'Only 2 spots left'. That's not just a design choice — it's a behavioral intervention. ClassPass ran an internal study in late 2025 showing that classes labeled 'almost full' had a 50 percent higher booking rate than identical classes labeled with the same time and instructor but no scarcity label. Luna: So the label itself is a conversion lever. It doesn't matter if the class is actually almost full — it's the perception that drives action. Lucas: Well, they do have to be accurate. If users repeatedly book a class that says 'almost full' and then show up to an empty room, they lose trust. ClassPass's data team monitors the gap between the displayed scarcity and actual attendance. If a studio consistently has a gap bigger than 15 percent — meaning the class is displayed as almost full but only half the spots are taken — they adjust the algorithm. It's a balancing act between driving conversions and maintaining credibility. Luna: Which brings us to the action stage — the actual booking and attendance. But what about the post-purchase stage? The 'action' in AIDA usually includes the transaction, but ClassPass needs people to actually show up, not just book. Lucas: That's where the cancellation policy and the reminder sequence come in. Twenty-four hours before the class, you get an in-app notification. Two hours before, you get another one. And if you haven't canceled and you don't show up, you get charged. That charge is actually a revenue stream for ClassPass — they estimate about 3 percent of bookings result in a no-show fee, which adds up to millions of dollars a year. But more importantly, it enforces the scarcity model. If anyone could book and no-show without penalty, the available slots would be less reliable, and the whole system would break down. Luna: So the penalty isn't just about revenue — it's about maintaining the integrity of the availability signal. If you show a class as '2 spots left' but those two spots are held by people who never show up, the scarcity is fake. Lucas: Right. And that leads to a broader point about the marketing funnel for a two-sided marketplace. ClassPass has to manage the funnel for both the consumer side and the studio side simultaneously. On the studio side, the funnel looks different: awareness comes from sales outreach and online sign-ups; interest is driven by the promise of incremental revenue; decision is about setting the right slot inventory and pricing; and action is the integration with the studio's scheduling system. They have separate marketing teams for each side, but the metrics are interconnected. Luna: How does ClassPass measure the health of the overall funnel? What's the one metric that matters most? Lucas: I'd argue it's 'booking velocity' — the rate at which available slots get filled across the entire network. If booking velocity is high, it means consumer demand is strong, studios are happy because their classes are full, and ClassPass is collecting fees. If it drops, it could mean either side of the marketplace is out of balance. They track this daily by city and by studio category. As of their Q1 2026 earnings call, global booking velocity was at 72 percent — meaning on average, 72 percent of all available ClassPass slots were booked. That's up from 64 percent a year ago. Luna: That's a significant improvement. And it suggests the redesign and the scarcity tactics are working together. Lucas: I think so. But there's a risk. If the scarcity becomes too aggressive — if users constantly feel like they can't get into the classes they want — they might churn. ClassPass's own research shows that users who experience more than two 'sold out' notices in a row on classes they want are twice as likely to cancel their subscription. So the scarcity has to feel like a gentle nudge, not a barrier. That's why they're investing heavily in expanding studio partnerships in underserved time slots — like lunchtime classes or late afternoon on weekdays — to balance demand across the day. Luna: So the marketing funnel for ClassPass isn't just about converting a lead into a booking. It's about maintaining a delicate equilibrium where both sides feel the value of limited access without feeling excluded. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the lesson for any business that uses scarcity as a marketing tool: it only works if the underlying supply is real and the demand is genuine. If you manufacture fake scarcity, users will figure it out and the trust breaks. ClassPass has built their entire funnel around that principle — and so far, it's scaling.