The 2012 CRM Elite
Iron Tribe Fitness:
Bulking up on Metrics
Infusionsoft helped Iron Tribe Fitness boost its growth and streamline its business workflow.
THE CHALLENGE
Iron Tribe Fitness, a gym franchise headquartered in Homewood, Ala., prides itself on helping members hit their target numbers. Whether it's losing some weight, improving a muscle-to-fat ratio, or just spending a few hours working up a sweat, Iron Tribe Fitness knows how to meet its members' needs. Not surprisingly, the company applies a similar approach to its own financial health.
Less than a year after it was established in February 2010, Iron Tribe Fitness reached its capacity of 250 members. When it came time to expand, however, the gym's staff needed help. Founder Forrest Walden opened a second location last year in Birmingham, Ala. Three months after opening the doors to the second gym, it was clear, according to Jim Cavale, vice president of operations and franchise development, that the company was ill-equipped to handle the added growth.
"To duplicate what Forrest had done with location number one, we had to have solid systems that could scale the Iron Tribe marketing strategies, fitness coaching, and client engagement," Cavale says. "We needed something that could help us scale more seamlessly, especially considering we had plans to franchise this model to hundreds of units in the future."
THE SOLUTION
After learning how sales and marketing automation software maker Infusionsoft helps users create the "perfect customer life cycle" at a conference in Chicago, Iron Tribe Fitness decided to give it a shot, according to Cavale.
An Infusionsoft customer support representative showed Cavale how to use the software to plug in and standardize information about the company's prospective customers, client sales, and marketing workflow. Iron Tribe Fitness implemented the software last spring, and it was a perfect fit, according to Cavale.
"It [the Infusionsoft software] was a true 'done-for-you' sales and marketing platform that was easy for the new location staff members to learn and implement, just as we were doing at the first two locations," Cavale says.
Iron Tribe Fitness drew 250 members to its second gym by the end of 2011. It also added two more gyms in Alabama this year, and gained approximately 100 new clients within the first month after each gym's respective opening. The company also increased its staff by 50 percent and its net profit by more than 300 percent in one year. In addition, the company recently launched a franchise model.
Infusionsoft has also helped the company streamline and organize the leads it gains from its marketing efforts. In addition to attracting new customers through referrals, Iron Tribe Fitness places advertisements in local publications; on radio, television, and billboards; as well as on the Web, using social media networks and multimedia content such as videos.
Iron Tribe Fitness directs potential customers to its Web site, where they are encouraged to fill out an Infusionsoft Web form, embedded in every Web page.
Depending on the information entered and the URL of the page the form is embedded on, Iron Tribe Fitness can automatically direct the Web forms to the manager of the gym location the prospective client has expressed interest in.
The result is a list of potential customers who have indicated that they are receptive to receiving more information. In addition to nurturing leads with free gifts and a follow-up email sequence, the company also uses Infusionsoft's tagging capabilities to further organize leads for each of the facility managers. The managers edit and adjust these tags to keep their sales and marketing workflow organized. Infusionsoft enables managers to segment customers and prospective customers by age, sex, and other factors, making it easier to provide relevant advertising.
In March, Iron Tribe Fitness reached a new record of more than 100 Internet leads, and converted 46 percent of them into clients.
The ability to embed Web forms on pages and customize their delivery to the relevant gym is "an amazing opportunity" that has "meshed" with the user permission features that Infusionsoft offers, according to Cavale.
What also impressed Cavale about Infusionsoft's software was that it was an operations platform that could be accessed anywhere. Being able to stay informed about each gym's sales performance rates, as well as track marketing results and customer touch points, has been a huge benefit, he notes.
"The first [time] we learned how amazing Infusionsoft was for us was when we started traveling quite a bit, but yet we were still up to speed on each and every metric that was relevant per location," Cavale says. "That's automation!"
Real Results
- Increased its staff by 50 percent after opening two more gyms.
- Improved its net profit by more than 300 percent in one year.
- Launched a franchise model.
- Reached a new record with more than 100 Internet leads.
- Converted 46 percent of those leads into clients.