Gold's Gym Case Study
state of the business
Gold’s Gym, a 50 year-old member-based fitness company with over 700 locations in the U.S., needed to find and keep new members. Corporate clubs were needing to develop a strong lead flow program, while learning how promotion of new services could expand and drive a higher lifetime value membership.
Strategy
Our first challenge was to understand what drove their highest value members– finding those members who truly lived a fitness lifestyle while consuming the ancillary services that drive revenue and margin. Our analytics team attacked the situation by evaluating 3 years of customer data and identified the most profitable members – those who made it past the 22-week fitness cliff (the point after which the uncommitted threw in the towel).
We found that the Gold’s Gym Best Member self-identified as an audience in search of constant self-improvement. Not only did they wanted education on which workout or nutritional supplement was best – they were looking for ways to improve themselves across the board –the latest technology, career improvements, and improving the situations they faced every day. Truly a person who looked to overcome challenges and reach their goals.
Facebook Canvas - Pivot Campaign
Media Mix and Tactics
Knowing that Gold’s Gym needed to reclaim what was once theirs – the leadership position in the category – we knew the combination of content, message and channel needed to work together to establish the brand relationship while activating a lead-driver campaign with a strong focus on member conversion.
Gold’s Gym’s media mix was previously focused heavily on mass channels (broadcast television, terrestrial radio) delivering Limited Time Only (LTO) offers to drive in-gym traffic. Additionally, they deployed geo-targeted tactics (marriage mail and mass postcard mailings), inviting the public to visit a nearby club across 18 local markets.
Email Marketing
With a full understanding of media habits driven by our Best Member profile, we knew with certainty that their strongest prospects were digitally focused. However, digital media tactics alone would not be the solution – our approach included a fully integrated digital strategy with data-targeted media placements, content that enabled prospects to learn how Gold’s Gym could help their betterment mindset, as well as landing pages that drove the strongest opportunity to fill the lead funnel and drive member acquisition.
Awareness channels were activated through digital video placements in both social media and programmatic platforms, seeking and finding prospects by connecting proprietary data sets and tracking engagements and video views. To deliver product specific messages, streaming audio and terrestrial radio were used to extend messaging in a mobile environment, organically aligning with workout playlists. Native was activated to drive prospects to content that provided deeper education on how Personal Training, Gold’sFIT, Gold’sCYCLE and Gold’sBOOTCAMP could boost their fitness journey.
Our Drive to Join program was deployed after rigorous testing–improving landing pages, testing offers and optimizing the data-targeting techniques. With the strength of a test-and-learn foundation, we deployed the full-scale acquisition program in January.
Social media and content became a cornerstone; as the first to implement Facebook Canvas in the fitness space, we established a storytelling platform and built excitement for great fitness programs while providing a better in-app experience.
In parallel fashion, we evaluated the use of Paid Search and identified that the cost-per-click strategy had been focused on highly competitive terms and keywords. Through initial testing we found the strongest response was driven by branded terms, searches around type of classes and finding gyms within proximity of their homes. Conquesting terms were also managed closely in January and February, seasonally the strongest search time of the year, and then backed down to better align with overall search strategies ongoing throughout the year.
The final component was our focus on existing landing pages. We tested and re-tested, and after eliminating multiple input fields that were barriers to lead input, we adjusted the design to better connect with the prospect in the moment.
Results
Using advanced data and analytics to continuously evaluate and optimize our consumer messaging and engagement, to-date in 1Q 2018, we increased long-term memberships for Gold’s Gym, ultimately impacting their bottom line.
Year-over-year results:
25% increase in leads
16% growth in new members
23% increase in site traffic