Crunch Fitness
You can sign up for the HubSpot CRM Platform even if clubs are closed. Franchise Growth and a Pandemic. Crunch Fitness was a community-building organization that offered in-person classes before the pandemic. Crunch trainers are loved by members and spread the word to friends. Crunch Fitness has grown from a small studio in a basement to more than 300 locations.
The company’s sales and marketing tools were unable to keep up with the growth. The website crashed frequently and was difficult to update with the most current information.
Crunch Fitness began franchising in 2010 and added 116 clubs in three years. Crunch Fitness was unable to provide the necessary marketing and sales support for franchisees.
“Our franchisees are their LLCs and they wanted more control and input into marketing and sales,” Haley Irwin (Marketing Technology Manager at Crunch) says. They wanted to analyse and see the performance of their email contacts. We were limited in our ability to do so.
Crunch Fitness therefore implemented HubSpot Marketing Hub Enterprise and Sales Hub Professional as well as CMS Professional in order to bring together sales, marketing and content management on one platform. This could allow it to open up for franchise owners.
Crunch Fitness had all the tools and marketing capabilities they needed to succeed online when COVID-19 shut down Crunch clubs across the globe in spring 2020.
Engaging members when crunch fitness clubs are closed
Haley and her team have many new initiatives to keep members engaged and inspired as the pandemic continues.
These initiatives are supported by the HubSpot CRM platform in the following key ways
Crunch Fitness Online community building
Haley and her team launched Gym Shorts, a biweekly newsletter that keeps the Crunch community engaged and strong.
Haley says that “Those first days of the pandemic were frightening.” “We used our newsletter as a way to encourage and motivate members to get out of bed every day.”
The newsletter was a huge success, with high open rates and growing signups.
Haley says, “We were able add new subscribers to the list during this difficult time.” “It was a signal to us that this situation could be overcome and we can thrive.”
Crunch fitness builds on the success of Gym Shorts today.
Haley says that they have started to include location-specific offers in these newsletters. They’re read widely, so it’s a great way for us to expand the reach of our promotions beyond the ‘join now!’ message.
Communication of COVID-19 local updates
It is important to keep up to date with health restrictions and communicate local needs to members.
Members would like to find out if Crunch Fitness is open near them, what safety precautions are in place and how they can attend classes.
HubSpot CRM makes it easy to update and communicate local rules and requirements.
Haley says, “We created a table for managing government information and a landing page for member updates.” “HubSpot makes this all possible.”
Haley and her team can also use list segmentation to communicate at club level regional health guidelines and limitations.
Gaining efficiencies
These new initiatives would have been more difficult if Crunch didn’t already have efficiencies through HubSpot’s all in one CRM platform.
Haley’s team used to take five to seven days for an email to be created in consultation with the local club. Haley’s email team would create it, then the local club would read it and make changes. Haley and her team would then edit and proofread the email. The email was ready for sending only after that.
HubSpot allows email creation in a modular format that is accessible to both parties. The process is cut down to one to two working days for each team, as they can both create and modify the page right from their computers.
Haley plans to work more closely with franchisees through the shared platform.
Haley says, “We intend to roll out a few more modules or templates each quarter.” “And we’ll keep growing what franchisees can access.”
Controlling permissions
Without HubSpot’s advanced permissions controls, collaboration between Haley’s team members and Crunch franchise owners wouldn’t have been possible.
Haley says: “You can give different roles to different people so that no one is inadvertently overstepping their authority.” This allows us to confidently open the platform up to more people.
Recognizing best practice
Haley and her team also benefit from this collaboration, as they are able to share best practices with franchisees.
One example: A new franchise holder drove large numbers of pre-opening signups through its online campaigns. This is a model future franchise holders can emulate.
Haley says, “This club is doing an amazing job with promotions and is showing others what’s possible.” “As an added bonus, we can draw leads from these lead generation forms directly into our CRM.”
Reporting segmentation
Haley is also delighted with the HubSpot platform’s reporting data at the club and enterprise levels, as well as the ability to include and exclude data as required.
Haley says, “If a club is doing well we want to be in a position to identify what’s driving their success.” “Similarly, if a few clubs aren’t performing well, we want to be able to exclude their data form overall reporting so that they don’t distort averages.”
HubSpot professional services
Haley could not be happier with her HubSpot professional service team, despite the many challenges Crunch Fitness has had to face over the years – whether it was rapid franchise growth or a pandemic.
HubSpot professional services are meant to assist customers at every stage of their growth journey. Haley and her team of consultants do exactly that.
Haley says, “I could go on and on about Denise or Katie.” “They have helped us numerous times with technical issues and allowed for direct communication with HubSpot’s product team.”
Haley and her team are now more creative in their marketing thanks to their assistance.
Haley says that “we’ve had fun pulling assets from HubSpot and customizing them,” and “our professional services team has provided us with excellent guidance.”
Get 28% more trial signups for increased leads
- Crunch Fitness has been growing its leads with the HubSpot CRM platform. This is despite the continuing impact of the pandemic on fitness clubs.
- It has also increased its free trial signups to 28% and doubled its email open rate.
- Haley and her team have also found new efficiency by having sales, marketing, and content management all in one platform. They can then open this platform up to franchisees.
- Because of its innovation commitment, Haley is certain that HubSpot will continue supporting Crunch Fitness’ needs in the future.
Haley says that “remaining static” is one of the most dangerous mistakes a software company could make. “HubSpot listens to its customers and keeps up with the changing world of technology. It is a reliable platform that will adapt to whatever the future holds.