About a year ago I signed up for a 12 month membership to 24 Hour Fitness. I knew I would be traveling quite a bit, so I wanted to give the all-club access a shot. For the most part, my experience was a positive one, however during the course of the year I received practically no emails. If I recall correctly, there was one ‘membership kick-off’ email and that’s it.
What about some cross-selling, new classes, membership expiration promos? Being that I was on board for at least 12 months, this was a fantastic opportunity for them to set up some snazzy life-cycle messaging and retention campaigns.
Below are a few areas of low-hanging fruit that 24h could have implemented
Geo-Segmentation: Let me know when new classes are available at my primary location. Also let me know when new facilities are open. This is important to increase the use of my membership and keep the brand top-of-mind. Better yet, set up an email preference center so I can select what I want to receive.
Promotional: Why not set up a sequenced campaign with special promotions to cross sell products, up-sell packages, and offers to refer my friends and family to the gym?
Retention: The biggest blunder was the missing membership renewal emails. I found out my membership was up when I went in one day and they told me it had expired 3 days earlier. Here was the perfect opportunity to plan a scheduled sequence of emails to ensure I renew my membership. They could have started 2 months back with reminders that my expiration was coming up, followed with invites to meet with a sales person or promotions to extend my membership online. They could have done some testing, sweetened the offer, and secured me for a longer period at a lower cost it took to initially acquire me. Once my membership did expire, they could have implemented some tactful win-back emails.
It’s still not too late, as I have not had time to make a decision on a competing gym. Perhaps I accidentally fell off the their list or was placed in the wrong segment. But this is a very costly error for 24h that potentially costs millions a year in lost opportunity. I would make it top priority to audit your program, review your key email marketing metrics, and establish a strategy that aligns with your customers, products & services.
- Cheers
Forest Bronzan - Follow Me On Twitter!
