In a 2022 webinar, Tu Le, co-founder and CEO of MyStudio, revealed how his team leveraged innovative martial arts school marketing to transform InCourage Martial Arts into a lead-generating machine. Today, InCourage Martial Arts has dozens of locations across the nation, four of which are directly owned and managed by Tu and his team. In 2022, Le’s four locations averaged gross revenue of over $900,000 each.
The answer as to how Le managed to achieve such consistent and significant growth lies in his MyStudio gym class management software. Join us as we take a dive into the history of MyStudio gym automation software and share how to sell gym memberships using Le’s winning tactics.
The Story Behind MyStudio
In 2007, Tu Le opened the very first InCourage Martial Arts studio, and just one year later, he opened a second location and purchased a third. By 2011, Tu Le was grossing $2.9 million just across the three locations.
The challenges of fitness studio management eventually caught up to Tu, however, leading him to go back down to just two locations in 2014. Like many gym owners, Tu was relying on old-school business management tactics.
He quickly realized that he needed to make use of modern location management software if he wanted to balance his passion for martial arts with the demands of running a successful business, but the existing membership management and group class–scheduling software solutions simply did not meet Le’s needs.
His passion and desire for that balance led Le to develop MyStudio, which launched in 2018, and he immediately put his new solution to the test, opening a new third branch of InCourage and transitioning to a remote management framework.
With MyStudio, Le quickly expanded the revenue of each location, helped his business partners launch successful InCourage Martial Arts franchises, and even managed to open a fourth location of his own.
How Le Enrolled Thousands of Trials Across Four Locations
MyStudio’s user-friendly tools are the secret to Tu Le’s success. By leveraging these tools, he simplified multi-location studio management and generated quality leads with little to no paid advertising.
Instead of investing heavily in paid ads, Le instead enrolled prospects in countless fitness studio trials by doing the following:
Hosting Family-Friendly Events
InCourage Martial Arts' primary strategy for generating leads and signing up more trial customers involves routinely hosting family-friendly events. Le revealed that each location hosts at least three such events monthly.
A fan favorite is Parent’s Night Out, during which InCourage allows parents of the club’s youth members to drop their kids off for a few hours while they enjoy an evening out. Parent’s Nights Out are supervised events that are typically hosted on a Friday or Saturday evening and last for around three hours.
In order to participate in the event, parents have to register their children for the event via MyStudio. As part of this process, they have to provide contact information, which can then be used for marketing purposes. Some events are free, whereas others charge a small admission fee (usually somewhere in the range of $25-$50 per attendee).
Nurturing Leads with MyStudio’s Automation Tools
After InCourage collects contact information during event registration, they start nurturing leads with MyStudio’s automated tools. Team members can create custom marketing messages that highlight certain offers or encourage parents to sign up for a trial class themselves.
MyStudio enables businesses like InCourage to send messages in one of three ways. They can communicate with leads via SMS or email, and current members or parents of members that use the MyStudio app can also be targeted with in-app messages.
Incentivizing Members to Introduce Others to the Brand
InCourage Martial Arts embraces the idea that the best ambassadors are current members. The studio taps into that powerful marketing resource by allowing event attendees to bring a friend in exchange for free admission.
For instance, let’s say that InCourage hosts a Parents’ Night Out event and charges a $25 per-person admissions fee. Instead of paying the fee, attendees can opt to bring a friend to the event, and both the guest and the initial member will receive free admission and access to any perks offered at the event, such as complimentary pizza.
The bring-a-friend approach gives the studio an opportunity to develop several leads, including the member’s parent, the guest, and the guest’s parent as well.
Notify Current Clients of New Offers
As part of Le’s trial-generating strategy, he and his team also focus on increasing the average lifetime value of existing members. For instance, they use MyStudio’s built-in communication tools to send out notifications about free classes or current deals they are offering. Furthermore, the gym can create custom automated campaigns that encourage members or their relatives to sign up for a free trial class, schedule one-on-one training sessions, and more.
Ready to Generate More Leads? Check Out MyStudio
Pairing Le’s martial arts school marketing methods with a dynamic solution like MyStudio can help your gym or fitness-related business achieve unprecedented growth. By leveraging these strategies, you can generate quality leads, sign more prospects up for more trial memberships, and drive conversions like never before.
If you want to experience the power of MyStudio fitness studio management software for yourself, sign up for a free trial today!
