The Human Touch: Equinox Embraces Data-Driven Marketing

Luxury fitness club Equinox offer customers more than just a place to work-out; it offers an environment where each member can pursue her unique health goals as part of a larger community. As Equinox’s motto states, “It’s not fitness. It’s life.”

Luxury fitness club Equinox offer customers more than just a place to work-out; it offers an environment where each member can pursue her unique health goals as part of a larger community. As Equinox’s motto states, “It’s not fitness. It’s life.”

To stay true to that mission — and to recruit new members — Equinox leverages the latest data technologies to give its marketing efforts a more human touch.

Consider how Equinox utilizes Adobe Audience Manager. Using this versatile tool, the fitness club was able to separate its audience into distinct “segments” based on each individual’s relationship with the brand. These segments included prospective clients, individuals who had visited the Equinox website only once, repeat website visitors, and former Equinox members.

By segmenting its audience, Equinox was able to offer more humanized and personalized digital experiences. For instance, first-time visitors to the website weren’t bombarded with invitations to “join now,” but instead found information about the many benefits Equinox offers. Repeat visitors, meanwhile, were encouraged to stop by an Equinox location and have a look for themselves.

Equinox also used Adobe Analytics to synthesize offline and online data about former members. Creating this unified profile enabled Equinox to better understand each person’s interests and goals. With the help of Adobe Target, Equinox then crafted personalized content that spoke to these former members not as prospects, but as human beings.

This content spanned three different digital touchpoints — paid media, organic web traffic, and emails. For instance, former members received exclusive email offers tailored to their specific fitness preferences. Such messages were consistent with the paid advertisements these same former members were seeing, as well as the content that greeted them when they visited the Equinox website.

The response to this personalization was overwhelming: Equinox recorded a 500 percent jump in conversion rates and an 80 percent jump in digital sales over Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

By harnessing the power of data, Equinox was able to engage with former members on a deep level — and to attract a remarkable number of them back to the gym.