Case Study: Upstate Studios
Since 2023, I’ve had the pleasure of working as the Virtual Chief Marketing Officer for Upstate Studios, and it’s been an incredible 12 months! During this time, I’ve overseen their SEO team and deliverables, ensuring that key studio locations consistently rank on page 1 and appear in Google Maps search results.
THE ROLE.
As part of my role as Virtual Chief Marketing office, I’ve worked closely with Upstate Studios Paid Media agency, directing campaigns to promote new studio launches for South Yarra, South Melbourne, Richmond and Elsternwick with tactical “coming soon” campaigns promoting Upstate’s popular 30-day intro offer of unlimited Pilates, Reformer Pilates, Boxing, and Yoga intro offer.
I also worked on tactics to drive awareness and add to carts for their established studios across Victoria including, Ascot Vale, Torquay, Fitzroy, Balaclava, Geelong and Ballarat. We achieved some excellent results with growth seen in intro offers on average +20% month on month.
The Goal.
Beyond managing these teams, I ran the retention marketing efforts for Digital Advertising. By creating a remarketing strategy identifying key audiences and key messages to convert casual users into members, targeting specific customer segments to encourage them to upgrade their membership. These ads have been incredibly successful, driving up click-through rates, add-to-carts, and memberships.
Retention.
One of the key areas I focused on was improving Upstate Studios’ email marketing. I conducted email flow audits and made strategic updates to email design, triggers, and content, leading to a +155% revenue growth from offer redemptions. Open rates increased by +10% on average, with click-through rates improving by +6%.
Additionally, I created a comprehensive email marketing training course tailored for the fitness industry, which I used to train a staff member, ensuring ongoing success in retention marketing. I am an Upstater myself, so working with these legends every Tuesday was more a passion project than feeling like work.