Gold’s Gym has been using Gleantap to run successful & engaging marketing campaigns through both email and SMS for the last 2 years.

Everything from email creation to SMS messaging to landing page building was done through Gleantap, giving us the chance to report on each stage of the process as these campaigns were created. 

In this case study, we’ll review the initial challenges that we were able to overcome along with the lasting effects of these campaigns on Gold’s franchises. Our hope is to show how franchisees and other similar gyms and fitness studios can do the same with Gleantap’s powerful platform and technology. 

QUICK STATS

✔ Across all Gold’s Gym franchises, 500+ new members were added from referral campaigns.

✔ One franchise saw 64 out of 323 people come back to the gym after receiving 1 text campaign.

CASE STUDY OVERVIEW

WEBSITE: goldsgym.com

COMPANY: Gold’s Gym International, Inc. is a chain of international co-ed fitness centers. Each gym offers a variety of cardio and strength training equipment as well as group exercise programs.

CHALLENGE: Gold’s Gym partnered with Gleantap to improve member engagement throughout the onboarding process, hoping to create more revenue opportunities and improve retention long term.

RESULTS: Through the suggested campaigns Gleantap provided and conversations to figure out the best approach, Gleantap has been able to help Gold’s retain more members, engage with more members, and have more members upgrade to higher tiered memberships than previous years.

Here, we will review the most successful campaigns, how they were formulated, and how they were able to achieve the goals we set out for using Gleantap’s marketing technology.

Guide All New Members through Onboarding

The first goal that Gold’s set out to meet with their marketing campaigns was to guide members through onboarding (the initial 60 days of their membership) to cement their buy-in and set them up for success. The campaigns were set to send out at different points in their first six weeks, with usually 1-2 messages going out each week to highlight different parts of their membership and the benefits that came with.

Some of these campaigns included:

• Introduce the Class Schedule: One of the first emails they set to go out was a class schedule for new members to find the best times in their calendar for group classes. By locking themselves into a routine with Gold’s, they are more likely to stick with it. 
• Present a Free Training Session: Some Gold’s Gym franchises offer free personal training sessions to new members. This is the perfect opportunity for them to find out why someone signed up and how they can help them meet their goals. By adding it as an automated campaign, they were able to secure more sign-ups and more dedicated members. 
• Highlight Mobile App: Another campaign we set up with Gold’s that we’ve seen be successful with other partners is one that highlights and points to their mobile app. Again, these campaigns are all about giving the members everything they need to be successful and make sure they see what’s included in their Gold’s membership.

Through Gleantap’s automation, Gold’s was able to automate the entire onboarding process across multiple locations, giving the trainers and staff more time to focus on helping the members achieve their goals. These first six weeks are critical and now, with Gleantap’s help, just one less thing to worry about.

Prevent Thousands of Members from Dropping Off

The next area Gleantap set out to help Gold’s was preventing members from dropping off from attending classes and coming into the gym. Since Gleantap partners with ABC Financial for data integration, we are able to track exactly when someone visited last and set up campaigns based on that behavior. 

To give you an example of how effective a simple message can be to get members back into the gym, one franchise saw 64 out of 323 people come back in after receiving 1 text campaign. 

This just shows the power of automated, intelligent, and intentional customer engagement. When you can set up campaigns to send when a member hasn’t been into the gym or club and show them that you care enough about their progress that you reach out, the likelihood of them returning jumps considerably. All while you can sit back and let the campaign run. 

Timed Upgrade Campaigns to Increase Revenue

Now, engagement is good, but when engagement leads to higher revenue, that’s even better. Which is exactly what we set out to do with Gold’s Gym and their timed upgrade campaigns. 

While the timing was different for each franchise, the general idea was to send an SMS and email campaign around the 30-45 day mark for new members. At this time, they would receive a message highlighting the benefits of the next tier plan to the one they were currently on, sometimes accompanied by an offer to upgrade. 

The results? Over 300 conversions for just one franchise and hundreds of other upgrades across the board. Not only did this allow Gold’s to improve their bottom line without new member acquisition, but as an ongoing automation, they are still converting more and more members. 

The key here was to figure out the right timing and only target members who were actively on membership plans with straightforward upgrades. Once that was done, the rest fell into place.

Generate Referrals Across Channels

Along with improving customer engagement and retention early on, Gold’s Gym set up referral campaigns as well in order to generate new member acquisitions as well. Each of these campaigns worked together to meet a variety of goals and referrals was one of the best performers. 

The SMS and email campaigns were set to go out within the first 2 months of membership with the gym and invited members to invite their friends to come in with them. The promotion or offer being that if their friend signed up, they would receive either a discounted or free month of membership. 

Across all Gold’s Gym franchises, there were 500+ new members added from these campaigns. Then, when you consider that of those 500+ new members, a good amount of them will upgrade and refer other new members, you can see how vital these campaigns are to growing a business while maintaining your current membership levels.

Win Back Lost Customers

Finally, the last campaigns we set up that we saw success from were automated win-back campaigns to try and get previously cancelled or expired members to rejoin the gym. Again, the timing was different for each franchise, but the idea was to set up campaigns at 30, 60, and 90 day marks after they cancelled to remind them what they were missing. 

Some of the results from these campaigns include: 

• 51 Conversions via email at Fairport
• 64 Conversions via email at Webster

And while that may not seem like a huge number, that’s still a good amount of revenue that these clubs never would have seen without an automated message going out to invite these members to rejoin. It’s all about timing and targeting the right audience. The rest comes with time. 

We hope that these successful campaigns can display exactly how powerful Gleantap’s platform can be with the right set up. Curious about setting these campaigns up for your own business? Reach out to us at support@gleantap.com to learn more about what we can do for you.