LifeFit Group: Pandemic Response

The Client

The LifeFit Group is a leading fitness and health platform in Germany, combining several fitness brands from the boutique, high value/low price and premium segments under one roof. The Group strives to inspire and support its customers to improve their lives through personal, entertaining and targeted health and fitness experiences.

In addition to Fitness First, other brands are also part of the group: Elbgym, the exclusive Hamburg-based performance fitness provider, stands for hard training and a strong community, while Smile X positions itself in the premium low-price segment with a special training surface concept for a wide range of customers. The boutique fitness concepts of Barry's Bootcamp, the pioneer of high-intensity interval training indoors, and The Gym Society, the innovative, compact studio concept from the Netherlands, which aims to reach 80% of health-conscious people who have not yet found the right concept for themselves, and now the brands Club Pilates and Pure Barre from Xponential Fitness, round off the LifeFit Group's diverse portfolio.

The Situation

The worldwide pandemic forced people to stay at home and reinvent themselves and their daily tasks. Technology helped this adaptation to the new reality, and it was no different for LifeFit. Forced to close all the gyms at different periods during the pandemic, the brand started to lose members who were unable to physically attend the company’s facilities. As numbers began to drop, LifeFit knew it needed to quickly respond to this change.

The Challenge

The brand’s first challenge was to establish a fast and open line of communication with members. Its second challenge was larger — it needed to rethink its 100% offline business model, rebuilding it with a more digital and user-friendly approach.

The Solution

LifeFit worked with digital partner Wunderman Thompson to become closer to its members, keeping them informed of changes as they were happening while simultaneously maintaining and expanding the client base.

LifeFit started by launching new communication channels to keep clients engaged with its brand. The company also provided "home workout" content and motivation to members: training plans, videos about the exercises and on-demand training instructions. Since the beginning of this initiative, LifeFit has produced and uploaded more than 500 videos to the site. 

Because LifeFit was a pioneer in adding home workout content to its website, the company achieved high search engine rankings on strategic keywords, boosting overall website traffic significantly. In addition, the brand tweaked its schedule to provide updated content on a daily (or sometimes multiple times a day) basis. 

While fitness centers were closed to the public, LifeFit made this work to its advantage, filming training videos and streaming live training sessions. The brand also created new tools and features to support its digital offerings. For example, it is now possible to sign a contract 100% online.

When LifeFit’s gym doors closed on Sunday night, content authors used Drupal and Site Studio to put new communications in place by Monday morning. In minutes, content authors changed all banners and buttons that invited the user to a physical visit to calls-to-action for a more digital experience, opening even more digital doors. And Acquia Personalization allowed LifeFit to tailor experiences for every user, creating greater customer engagement. 

The Results

When the pandemic caused a lockdown, LifeFit was able to realign its website in a day — from adding coronavirus communication to shifting the site’s focus to highlight home workouts instead of in-studio training. Additionally:

• The site’s conversion rate increased by 1,532%
• The number of memberships signed online jumped 686% compared to the previous year
• The site’s bounce rate decreased by 29%
• Fitness First achieved a leading position in Google organic search results for home workout requests. Some high ranking non-branded terms included:
  • Online workout - Position 1
  • Online home workout - Position 1
  • Home workouts - Position 2
  • Home training - Position 4
  • Online training - Position 5