New padel clubs fail at marketing for the same reason they'd fail at construction: they start too late. You wouldn't pour the slab two weeks before opening day. The same logic applies to your customer pipeline. If you're not building awareness and collecting leads six months before you open the doors, you're leaving money on the table — and risking a quiet first week that turns into a quiet first quarter.
Here's the playbook I'd use for any new padel club launching in 2026.
Phase 1: Three to Six Months Out — Build Your Waitlist
Before your courts are built, before your branding is finalised, you can start collecting names and emails of people who are interested in playing padel near you.
Set up a landing page. It doesn't need to be fancy. A simple page with:
- A short headline: "Padel is coming to [Town]"
- Three bullet points on what's coming (courts, facilities, coaching)
- An email capture form: "Join the waitlist and get early access"
- A compelling offer: founding member discount, first month half price, priority booking
This page costs almost nothing to build and gives you something to drive paid traffic to immediately.
Run a lead generation campaign on Meta. Target a 10–15 mile radius around your venue. Audiences to start with:
- Interest in padel, tennis, squash, fitness, sport
- Age 25–55 (broad — you can refine later)
- Lookalike audiences from your email list once it grows
At this stage, CPL (cost per lead) should be low — we regularly see £1–3 per lead for pre-opening campaigns because competition for "padel near [location]" is minimal before you exist.
Capture every lead in a CRM, not just a spreadsheet. You need to be able to follow up with these people systematically over the coming months.
Phase 2: Six to Eight Weeks Out — Build Momentum
By now you should have a waitlist. The goal shifts from collecting leads to warming them up and moving them toward a founding membership or launch booking.
Email the Waitlist Regularly
Send at least two emails per month. Content ideas:
- Behind-the-scenes construction updates (people love these)
- Staff introductions and coaching profiles
- Sneak peeks of the finished courts
- FAQ-style content: "What level do I need to be to play padel?"
- Countdown to opening
The goal is to keep them engaged so that when the doors open, they feel like they've been part of the journey. Warm leads convert far better than cold ones.
Early Bird Membership Campaign
Six to eight weeks out, launch your founding member offer. This should be your best-ever price for membership — and you should be clear it will never be offered at this rate again.
Run Meta Ads to your existing waitlist (custom audience) and to a new cold audience. The warm audience will convert much better; the cold audience builds your pipeline further.
Structure the offer with urgency: "Founding member pricing available until [date] or until [X] memberships are taken."
WhatsApp Group
Create a WhatsApp Community for founding members and interested players. Add everyone who opts in from your waitlist or early membership campaign. This builds a genuine community before you've opened and gives you a direct, high-engagement channel for launch-day communication.
Phase 3: Launch Week — Convert and Create Content
Opening week is your highest-visibility moment. Plan it carefully.
Launch day event. Invite waitlist members, local press, and sports influencers for a soft launch. Free hit-out sessions, a tour of the facility, a drink or two. Film everything. This is content gold for the next three months.
Run a booking campaign. Switch your Meta Ads from lead generation to booking-focused creative. Show the finished courts, real people playing, and a clear call to action: "Book your first session."
Create urgency with limited early offers. Opening week pricing, first-session-free for new members, or a "bring a friend" promotion can spike your bookings in the critical first few days.
Collect reviews immediately. Ask every player at your launch event to leave a Google review. Social proof in the first week shapes your reputation for months.
The Numbers You Should Be Aiming For
Before you open, a well-run pre-launch campaign should deliver:
- 500–1,000 waitlist leads for a regional club, more for a city-centre venue
- 50–150 founding members converted from that list (conversion rate of 5–15% is realistic)
- A sold-out first two weeks of court bookings
These aren't aspirational figures. They're achievable with a six-month runway and a disciplined ad spend of £500–1,500 per month in the build-up.
What Goes Wrong
The biggest mistakes I see with pre-opening marketing:
- Starting too late. Eight weeks isn't enough runway. Six months is the minimum.
- Not having an offer. "We're opening soon" is not a reason to give you your email address.
- Losing leads. Collecting emails in a Google Form and never following up is wasted spend.
- No re-engagement. Leads collected in October who haven't heard from you by January will have forgotten you exist.
Get the systems in place early — landing page, CRM, email sequences, ad campaigns — and your opening day becomes a celebration rather than a nervous wait for the phone to ring.