by Jon Gilson

During 2007, Neal and I increased revenue four-fold at CrossFit Boston.  This tremendous increase in cash flow allowed us to purchase new gear, hire new trainers, and start a snowball effect that took CrossFit Boston from a struggling box to a viable business, providing a full-time living for two trainers.

A large part of this success was due to our website process for attracting, recruiting, and signing up new clients.  Once they were in the door, we counted on excellent training and programming to keep them coming back, but without the initial introduction, we would have been dead in the water.

Most of our website traffic came from CrossFit.com.  The $2000 annual Affiliate fee is a paltry sum to pay for this fact alone—at our membership rate of $200 per month, the payback period on Affiliation is a mere ten months on a single member.

Once prospective clients arrive at the site, the funnel begins.  The option to sign up for a free introductory class, on the home page, is obvious and inviting.  Note that this is not an announcement of dates and times with no further hook.  Upon clicking on the introductory class link, the visitor is asked to supply personal information, including name, email address, and telephone number. 

Further, they are admonished that the introductory class is appointment only, and there may be no class if they don’t sign up, encouraging commitment to the initial session.

Their personal information, which automatically downloads to an Excel file upon submission, gave us the wherewithal to send out an email each Tuesday and Friday, just prior to our free introductory classes, telling the participants what to expect and asking them to confirm their attendance.

Further, the email asks them to examine our membership rates, ensuring that they are aware of our above-the-norm monthly cost and do not come to the introductory class simply to find out the rates and “kick the tires”.  This practice also ensures that the trainer conducting the introductory class can focus on explaining CrossFit rather than our business practices.

Here is the exact text:

Good afternoon,

Thanks for registering for the CrossFit Boston Introductory Class.  We'll be meeting Saturday morning at 11:00 a.m. to introduce you to CrossFit, answer your questions, and get in a great workout.

Please come prepared to exercise, and bring a water bottle.  If you would like to gain a greater understanding of CrossFit prior to attending, be sure to read the attached .pdf, "Foundations".  This article gives a fantastic overview of what we do and why we do it.

Also, please take the time to review www.crossfitboston.com, including our class schedule, membership rates, and workout of the day page.  This will give you a good look at the workings of CrossFit Boston.
 
Please reply to this email to confirm you will be attending.  Have a great evening, and we'll see you on Saturday.

Best,

Jon Gilson
General Manager
CrossFit Boston

You’ll also note the attachment of CrossFit’s most elegant explanatory document, “Foundations”.  You can obtain a copy here: http://www.crossfit.com/cf-download/Foundations.pdf.  Giving the participants a look at the CrossFit method prior to the introductory class allows the instructor to recap the main tenets of Crossfit prior to the introductory workout without slowing the pace of the class by getting too in depth.

There are a couple of points worth noting in finer detail.  One, we scheduled the introductory classes for Tuesday and Saturday quite on purpose.  These two time slots ensured that a broad swath of the population could make it in without scheduling conflicts.  On Tuesday evening, the young professional population has settled into their routine for the week, and has resolved pressing Monday business.  On Saturday morning, those with families and hectic work schedules can carve out an hour without a major disruption to their obligations.

Also, you’ll note the collection of contact information.  While this may seem heavy-handed, it allowed us to get not one, but two commitments from the prospect.  Not only have they told themselves they’d like to go, they’ve told us—twice.  This increases the likelihood of attendance tremendously.  Further, we can follow up each week with those who didn’t attend via phone, asking them to reschedule.

The Web Funnel worked spectacularly, and has been refined several times since.  CrossFit Boston is continually examining their practices, keeping metrics on attendance and prospect-to-client conversion in concert with a record of any changes made to the introductory process.  This allows them to see what is working and what is not, enhancing the gym day after day.

We’ll examine what we did to convert introductory class prospects into clients in next month’s newsletter.

Please post your questions and comments regarding the Web Funnel below.  We're dedicated to helping you grow any way we can.

Neal gets his run on at the CF Endurance Certification.  Picture by Again Faster.