Summary

Faced with the challenges of Covid-19 restrictions and local and national lockdowns, PureGym worked with customer engagement platform Braze to deliver a personalised campaign to boost engagement with prospective and current customers. The targeted campaign delivered a 69% increase in email open rates, an 89% rise in clickthrough rates and a 206% higher conversion rate compared with emails sent to all users.

Objectives & Aims

PureGym’s objective was to reduce membership churn, while also re-engaging and encouraging former gym members to kick start their membership again. PureGym specifically wanted to engage those who placed a gym membership in an online shopping basket but abandoned it before purchase as well as those who had paid visits to gyms but subsequently put their membership on pause.

Implementation, Execution & Tactics

PureGym partnered with Braze, using its Alloys solutions, and ConsultMyApp to create the cross-channel campaign. To ensure engagement, the campaign tested different messages for different audience groups, using Braze’s A/B testing capabilities. The results were used to improve creative content and experiment with message frequency.

The campaign was then delivered using Braze’s email and SMS technology, allowing it to reach the target audience. By combining email and SMS in a single solution, PureGym was able to manage and deliver customer discounts without duplication.

Informed by testing, PureGym moved from sending daily emails to previous members, which had poor engagement, to a lowering frequency of sends and adding personalisation to generate excitement. Personalised content to previous members included targeted offers such as 50% off memberships for the first month and a £0 joining fee. In addition, PureGym also started retargeting those who had opened previous emails but had not converted with these specific offers.

Results

PureGym’s campaign targeting prospective and current customers delivered:

• A 69% increase in email open rates
• An 89% increase in email clickthrough rates
• A 206% higher conversion rate on targeted emails that were personalised to individual users, compared with emails sent to all users.

In 2021, gyms across the UK have again been required to close indefinitely. PureGym is utilising these tactics to engage lockdown customers through at-home workout content and personalised messages, in order to build long-term trust and help retain existing customers post-lockdown.