Pilates is one of the fastest-growing categories on Google Business Profile. The reformer boom that started in 2022 hasn't slowed, new studios are opening in every inner-city suburb, and the competition for "pilates [suburb]" searches is getting fierce.
In a market where most studios offer broadly similar classes at broadly similar prices, the way a prospective member chooses one over another comes down almost entirely to the local pack: who ranks, what their rating looks like, and what recent reviewers said about the instructors. Reviews are the moat.
Here's how to build that moat, especially for studios at the two hardest stages: cold-start launches and established studios whose ratings don't match the current quality of teaching.
of new pilates members research the studio on Google before booking their first class
Boutique fitness industry research. The number is even higher for reformer-specific searches.
1. Pilates reviews are about the instructor, not the studio
Read 100 pilates reviews back to back and you'll see a pattern: the studio comes up, but the instructor comes up more. "Vivienne is amazing", "Sarah pushes you in the best way", "Em's 6pm class is my favourite hour of the week."
This is unique to class-based fitness. People talk about hair stylists, dentists, and physios by name too, but the relationship is one-to-one. In pilates, the member chooses both the studio AND the instructor, and they often switch studios if a favourite instructor moves. The instructor name signals to the reader "this is the kind of person you'd meet."
Studios that train their instructors to introduce themselves with first names at the start of every class get more named-mention reviews than studios where the instructor stays anonymous. It sounds small, it's not.
2. The post-class window is short and sweet
The endorphin high after a good pilates class lasts 2 to 6 hours. After that, the member is back at their desk or chasing kids and the moment is gone.
The right window to ask for a review:
- For evening classes (5pm or later):Send at 8 to 9pm the same evening. They're scrolling their phone before bed, the post-class buzz is still there.
- For morning classes (6am to 9am): Send between 11am and 1pm. The class is processed but recent enough to remember warmly.
- For midday classes: Send 3 hours after the class ends.
Don't batch sends. Trigger off each individual class completion in your booking system (Mindbody, Glofox, Momence, or equivalent). A batch send on Wednesday afternoon catches the Monday and Tuesday members, but the timing is already wrong.
3. The pilates SMS template
Reference the instructor and the time of day. Warm but not gushing. The member should feel acknowledged as a person, not marketed to.
Hi Em, hope you're feeling good after Vivienne's class tonight! If you had a moment to drop a quick Google review, we'd really appreciate it. It helps other people find the studio. Link here: g.page/r/[id]/review
The variables that matter:
- First name. Same as everywhere, but especially important in pilates where members value being known.
- Instructor name.The instructor they actually had. Cross-check this from the class roster, don't guess.
- Time of day reference."Tonight", "this morning", "today". Anchors the message in the recent experience.
See more templates in our SMS review request guide.
4. Cold-start launches: how to open with reviews
Opening a new pilates studio is brutal on Google. Established studios in your area have hundreds of reviews. You have zero. New prospects searching "pilates [suburb]" see the existing studios and never see you.
We worked with Villa Pilates on their Glen Waverley launch. They opened with zero reviews in a suburb already full of pilates studios. The plan that worked:
Get the first 10 from the soft launch
Start the SMS system from day one
Reply to every review within 4 hours
Within 8 weeks, Villa Glen Waverley had 36 reviews at 4.9 stars. That's enough volume to start appearing in the "pilates glen waverley" local pack alongside studios that had been open for years. Once the studio is in the pack, every new searcher is a potential member.
5. Established studios: the rating problem
The other hard case is studios that have been open for years and are sitting on a 4.4 or 4.5 average. The current teaching quality is excellent, but the average is being dragged down by older reviews from the early days when the studio was finding its feet.
You can't delete those old reviews. But you can flood the recent-review feed with fresh ones that reflect the current quality. Most prospects scan the recent reviews first, and Google weighs recency in its ranking algorithm. Recent reviews matter disproportionately.
Villa Pilates Carlton started at 26 reviews at 4.5 stars. Three months of consistent post-class SMS asks brought them to a 4.8 average. The old 3-star reviews are still there. They just don't weigh on the average the same way once there are 35 fresh 5-star reviews on top.
6. The recency factor in fitness
Fitness is one of the most recency-sensitive review categories on Google. Prospects scan for dates because they want to know if the studio is still active and if their favourite instructor is still teaching there.
A pilates profile with 100 reviews where the most recent is from 18 months ago reads as "they probably closed." A profile with 60 reviews where new ones are landing every week reads as "active and popular."
The implication: don't coast on past reviews. The asking rhythm has to be continuous. Every class generates an SMS the next day. Every week the profile picks up fresh entries. Over years, this is what separates the studios that keep filling classes from the studios that gradually fade.
7. The takeaway
Pilates is a review-driven category in a way most fitness owners underestimate. The competitive moat between two studios in the same suburb is rarely the equipment or the schedule. It's the Google profile that converts the local-pack-scrolling prospect into a trial booking.
Build the profile by triggering an SMS off every class completion, using the instructor name in the message, and replying personally to every review that comes in. Done over months, this turns into a profile that ranks for the suburb, gets fresh weekly velocity, and converts at a higher rate per click than any of the established competitors.
New studios should start the system on day one. Established studios with stale averages can recover faster than they think: a quarter of consistent asking is usually enough to lift a 4.5 to a 4.8.