The Business

Cassandra Thompson discovered pole fitness just before her 42nd birthday. She jokes that her friends thought she was having a mid-life crisis but, in reality, she was uncovering a brand new passion that she was eager to share with others. So, she decided to open her own studio in Mississauga. Brass Belles has been in operation for 10 years and offers various aerial and pole fitness classes. The studio’s mission is to help women feel at ease with expressing their femininity, be more in touch with their body, and reach their fitness goals.

The Challenge

Brass Belles had always been a busy studio and word of mouth ensured her classes were full and great instructors kept customer retention high. As a result, Thompson never felt the need to dive too deeply into the world of digital marketing so a simple website in place to share key information about the class schedule with students seemed to be doing the trick. That was, until the COVID pandemic hit.

As Thompson watched other studios launch online programs, she realized just how far behind the curve Brass Belles really was. She and her team struggled to film high quality videos and find a way to make them easily available to students. “We didn’t know what we were doing and it didn’t create any revenue,” she says. Subsequently, she began referring her students to other studios who had stronger online programs available . As lockdowns began to lift, Thompson noticed that a significant portion of her student base wasn’t returning to in-person classes at the studio. Instead of feeling defeated, Thompson was inspired to make a change. “We wanted to increase our website visibility and traffic and […] create a streamlined customer experience.”

The Solution

Eager to find a way to reignite her business, Thompson was thrilled when she discovered Digital Main Street’s Digital Transformation Grant (DTG) Program. The DTG initiative provides brick-and-mortar small businesses with a digital assessment, online training, and a $2,500 grant to implement their Digital Transformation Plan.

Thompson learned a great deal about digital marketing from the DTG program’s educational modules, but she says her most important takeaway was that she couldn’t tackle her business’s digital transformation on her own. With this in mind, she invested her DTG grant funds into assembling a team of experts to help her attract new customers, re-engage her existing student base, and set-up an online video library to serve as an additional revenue stream for Brass Belles.

Thompson began by engaging a website developer to work on search engine optimization (SEO) to help improve the Brass Belles website search ranking and attract new customers. Next, she hired a team of digital marketing experts to launch a points program and SMS campaigns to help re-engage existing students who hadn’t returned to the studio post-pandemic. Finally, Thompson secured a digital content team to record, edit and upload instructional videos to improve the online course experience for students, and to diversify the studio’s revenue streams.

Key Deliverables

  • Applied for and received a Digital Main Street DTG in September 2022]
  • Hired and briefed website developer on key search terms to target
  • Oversaw website SEO-optimization process
  • Filmed online classes with help of a digital content team
  • Uploaded online classes to website
  • Hired digital marketing consultant to help set-up a points program
  • Deployed SMS campaigns targeting existing students and informing them about new points program

The Impact

After a difficult few years, Thompson says things are back on track for Brass Belles and she has noticed a number of positive changes as a result of the marketing initiatives she launched with the support of her DTG program funds.

  • Returning students. Since deploying her SMS campaign to re-engage students who had not returned to the studio post-pandemic, Thompsons says around 44 of the customers targeted by the campaign have returned to class.
  • Improved search ranking. Prior to the DTG program, Thompson says potential customers had trouble finding her website through a Google search. Since optimizing the Brass Belles website, she says the business is ranking in the second position for a number of key search terms.

Next Steps

With an improved online presence and busier classes, Thompson is turning her attention to monetizing the library of instructional videos she created with her content team. She is hoping to expand the library and offer her customers subscription options, as well as teacher training courses.

Despite all of the wins Thompson had with her marketing efforts, the biggest success to come out of her experience with the DTG program is the knowledge she gained. No longer behind the curve when it comes to digital transformation, Thompson stated, “The other day, I took a seminar on Artificial Intelligence (AI), “I never would have done that before […] now Brass Belles is more prepared [for the future].”

 

French Version – https://obiaa.com/digital-main-street-phase-4-french/defier-la-gravite-le-studio-aerien-brass-belles-atteint-de-nouveau-somment-grace-a-une-strategie-de-marketing-numerique-astucieuse/

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