[Case study] their studio’s $58,100 facebook live

Local businesses can hit a gold mine when they hyper-strategic with social media.

 

Case in point – a studio just raked in $58,100 using a Facebook live class.

 

I’ll clap it out:  FIFTY  EIGHT  THOUSAND  DOLLARS.

 

The team from Arrichion Hot Yoga in North Carolina reached out to me after checking out Chapter 4 of my ultimate guide on Facebook Live for fitness businesses, which is here.

 

The studio wanted to promote a “Christmas in July” special and offer a 5-month unlimited pass for $350. This also gave them an excuse to dress up one of their owners in costume:

 

 

 

 

Using the Facebook “Live Launch” approach, their four locations sold a combined total of 166 passes, which amounts to $58,100. DAMN.

 

 

 

 

I’m blown away, honestly. That number is nearly FOUR times the result we saw at my home studio from selling a 10-class pass.

 

So how did they do it? We’ll unpack five key elements to their successful promotion in this post.

 

But first, I need to point out the ONE THING most brick-and-mortar fitness businesses botch.

 

The biggest mistake fitness studios make with promotions

 

There’s an epidemic happening, and it’s called the REACTIVE FLASH SALE.

 

I know that reactive flash sales happen because you’re in a cash pinch or something unexpected comes up.

 

Flash sales can inject your business with fresh blood and tons of cash flow – but they can also dig you deeper into revenue issues.

 

In fitness, your ideal clients buy again and again at full price. Even if you have the most amazing class or service ever, frequent flash sales train your clients to never pay full price.

 

I also notice these flash sales are often REALLY short. There’s no build-up, no “save the date”, no momentum.

 

Maybe it’s to drive urgency. I get that. If you want to drive urgency, create a limited number of SPOTS, not a limited amount of time.

 

Humans procrastinate, and procrastination is time-based. No matter how long or short your sale is, they’ll sit on their hands and wait.

 

But when you say “we have seven passes left”, as Arrichion did in their promotion’s last day, people took action and the passes went like hotcakes.

 

I’ve seen it so many times. “FLASH SALE – 10 classes for $100!!! TODAY ONLY!!!!!” (100 exclamation points, et cetera…)

 

 

 

 

Without building up any drama or excitement, you’re only effective with a fraction of your audience. If you plan a class pass promotion or flash sale, build momentum.

 

Our hypothesis:

 

In my Facebook Live guide, I showed you an example in which my local studio made $15,525. We sold a package of 10 classes for $69.

 

Our friends at Arrichion wanted to sell a more chunky pass – a 5-month pass for $350. Considering a normal membership is $99/month, it was a pretty juicy deal – but also a higher price tag than usual.

 

We weren’t sure how it would go, since $350 is five times the price point.

 

We also hoped to mainly convert people who were in their first month with the studio or checking the studio out on a Groupon. We weren’t sure if people would be down to jump from a $20 investment to a $350 investment, though.

 

In the end, 56% of buyers were indeed newer students or Groupon students.

 

 

Five qualities that made this promotion wildly successful

 

 

They built in an urgency trigger

 

The initial cap of 100 passes created urgency. This was done to watch for even distribution of sales across locations – we didn’t want one location to get blown out and experience sudden capacity issues. Once we were in the green, we added additional spots.

 

Key distinction: On the last day of the sale, the language was about having a limited number of spots left – not a limited amount of time. It’s 2017, people are basically numb to “limited time” language.

 

 

A final-day post emphasized the remaining spots, not the remaining hours.

 

 

They took an “event promoter” mentality to a sale

 

The studio’s promotion began over three weeks out, as recommended in my live guide. There were several touch points, in which people heard about the sale – but it was not open for purchase yet.

 

The nice thing about using a Facebook Live event is that it acts as a justifiable gatekeeper. It’s not just you holding out on your community and being an asshole. There’s simply an event happening in real time.

 

 

They kept the cart open for six days

 

This was a big adjustment from the previous case study with my home studio, and it went very well. While the initial hours of the sale saw a massive push, it actually contributed to less than 50% of all revenue.

 

The Facebook live was hosted on a Wednesday afternoon. Four emails were sent during this launch:

 

• A “going live tomorrow” email on Tuesday.
• A “sale is live! Here’s the link” email sent on Wednesday after finishing the live video
• A reminder email on Friday
• A “last chance – just a few spots left” email on Monday the 31st.

 

The studio tracked per-location revenue – sometimes multiple times a day. We were impressed with the first day’s performance:

 

 

 

Things cooled off the second day (Thursday, 7/27), with just a few sales. But Friday’s email (marked 7.28 am) helped kick sales back up through the day and the weekend. Another $16,702 was pulled in between Friday and Sunday.

 

 

 

Then a Monday morning email kicker drove serious urgency. Keep in mind, the live had happened five days ago, and people had been hearing about the sale for a while.

 

 

This sale ended on the 31st, though a few more people called on August 1st to request the deal, which we honored.

Moral of the story: keep your cart open, and use both email marketing and Facebook advertising to reach your warm audience and drive sales.

 

They adjusted their boosted Facebook ad in the last 24 hours

 

The studio boosted their live post. My live guide recommends this.

 

However, in the last 24 hours, we went in and changed the language of the post to [LAST DAY! Just a few spots left!] as a headline. This help scoop up a few last-minute people that were on the fence.

 

They focused on community and awareness, not perfection.

 

Yes, the video could have been nicer, or better lit, or whatever.

 

Again, this is nowhere near as important as tapping into your community for a two-to-four week period before your sale goes live.

 

It can also be the difference between a $5K promotion and a $50K promotion.

 

Chapter 4 of my live guide tells you to leverage your “inner circle” – your staff, instructors, and most trusted members, who would love to help spread the word. Tapping into this community is the MOST important element in your Facebook live launch.

 

If you found it interesting, I’d love to hear your #1 takeaway.