Youfit Health Clubs Undergoes Digital Transformation With Data Analytics at Forefront
Posted: January 16, 2019 in Chains
Youfit Health Clubs
DEERFIELD BEACH, FL – With a New Year underway, and after more than a decade in operation, Youfit Health Clubs, a national chain of affordable health and wellness clubs, has undergone its own brand transformation within the digital space. As one of the largest company-owned high-value, low-price fitness franchises, Youfit Health Clubs has experienced tremendous growth in the last 10 years, opening more than 120 locations across the country.
Over the last few years the company has been committed to undergoing an intensive digital transformation, refocusing and reprioritizing its marketing KPIs. By getting “digitally fit,” Youfit has experienced great results using data analytics focusing on key critical components including purpose, people, platforms, processes and pay off. While Youfit is a traditional brick and mortar business that can be difficult to sell online, the company understood and was committed to bridging the gap between the offline and online worlds to drive more qualified leads for the clubs. As a result of these efforts, the company more than doubled its online revenue from 11 percent to more than 25 percent.
“Building an analytics driven company is very similar to exercising in that you need a set routine. Just like one sets fitness goals and benchmarks, the same is true when developing regular analytics,” said Tom Peterson, Chief Marketing Officer, Youfit Health Clubs. “In a short time, we have rolled out a state of the art CRM, ESP, business intelligence platform, and several other MarTech tools, building a strong infrastructure, similar to setting a ‘fitness lifestyle,’ that will impact the company for years to come.”
As an organization, we clearly defined and quantified our most valuable members and increased our revenue per member by more than 15 percent, while reducing club attrition, bringing it to the lowest level in the company’s history. From a cost per lead perspective, the brand has reduced cost by more than 28 percent and is producing more high-quality leads – 100 percent more, in fact. Most importantly, Youfit is enjoying a customer acquisition cost savings of $12.
Lead generation plays a critical role in driving performance online and offline (in current clubs) as well as in new club openings. The company just recently opened one of its new clubs with 3,000 members secured in the pre-sale, before the club even opened its doors.
Peterson added, “The marketing team has dedicated a lot of time to studying and analyzing the ‘sweet spot’ to generate high quality leads. Consumer behavior today is so rapid and there is a ton of volume of digital behavior. Having an internal team with the right tools has accelerated our effectiveness and efficiencies.”
“It is no longer about just having data or data analytics talent – it is about shifting the focus of today’s marketer to driving real-time decisions that are based on actionable data,” said Peterson. “Simply stated, you need to be aligned with this approach of data-driven thinking and continuous improvement based on actionable data, if not, you will be left behind.”
Additionally, Youfit focused on becoming more efficient in a number of areas. While increasing focus on data analytics and platforms, the company lessened its dependencies on external agencies by more than doubling its internal marketing team from five to 12 and still reducing total marketing spend by over 30 percent YOY.
“As marketers we need to build the trust of our owners and shareholders to consistently, unequivocally show the ROAS (return of advertising spend) before we request incremental advertising investment,” noted Peterson. “The days of not knowing are over. At Youfit, we have taken the necessary steps and made the investment to continue to positioning the company as a leader in the industry.”
