Latest / The Retention Marketing Podcast with Fexingo: Email, SMS, and Loyalty for Repeat Customers / Home Fitness Brand Emails Workout Plans to Boost Repeat Purchases
Transcript
- Lucas: Okay, Luna, quick question for you. Did you know that in the home fitness equipment space, roughly 70 percent of customers never buy from the brand again after their initial purchase? Luna: That's a brutal leaky bucket. So the entire business depends on ads and acquisition just to stay flat. Lucas: Exactly. And one brand I've been looking at tackled this head-on. They make premium stationary bikes and rowing machines — think the kind of equipment you'd put in a dedicated home gym rather than a foldable thing under your bed. Luna: So big-ticket items with a long repurchase cycle. What's the retention play when someone won't need a new bike for five years? Lucas: That was exactly the problem. They realized that if they only communicated when a customer might need a replacement part or an upgrade, they'd be silent for years. So they shifted from selling more hardware to selling a better experience. Luna: Meaning they started sending value over email, not promotions. Lucas: Right. They launched a weekly email series with personalized workout plans. The key was personalization — the emails were tailored to the specific machine you bought. If you have the rower, you get rowing intervals. If you have the bike, you get spin-style HIIT. They even segmented by usage data from the machine's display. Luna: So they're using product data to fuel the email strategy. That's smart. But did it actually move the needle on repurchases? Lucas: Over 18 months, the brand saw the repurchase rate jump from roughly 30 percent to 55 percent. Customers who received the workout emails were two and a half times more likely to buy accessories like weight racks, floor mats, or even a second machine for a partner. Luna: Two and a half times? That's a massive lift. Were there any particular email metrics that stood out? Lucas: The open rate for the first email in the sequence was around 45 percent, which is strong for a post-purchase email. But the click-through rate on the actual workout content — not a product link — was an eye-popping 18 percent. That tells you people genuinely wanted the content. Luna: So the engagement isn't just vanity metrics; it's a signal that the email is becoming part of their routine. Lucas: Exactly. And when they did include product recommendations — say, a set of resistance bands to add to a rowing workout — the conversion rate was four times higher than their standard catalog emails. The context made the offer feel helpful, not salesy. Luna: That's a great principle. The brand earned the right to sell by providing value first. What about the cadence? Weekly is a lot of email — did they see unsubscribes spike? Lucas: Surprisingly, no. Unsubscribes stayed under 0.2 percent per send, which is actually below industry average for fitness brands. They gave subscribers control too — you could choose between weekly or biweekly, and you could pick your preferred workout time. That autonomy probably kept people happy. Luna: So the lesson for any brand with a long repurchase cycle: don't be silent. But also don't just send 'we miss you' emails. Give people a reason to stay engaged. Lucas: Right. And I think this works particularly well when your product has a learning curve or requires ongoing usage. A rowing machine is useless if you don't know how to use it effectively. The emails are actually completing the product. Luna: That's a powerful way to frame it. Let me ask — how did they build the email sequence? Was it fully automated or did it involve manual curation? Lucas: Mostly automated. The brand used a combination of purchase data and a preference center during onboarding. When you first set up the machine, you fill out a quick questionnaire: your fitness goal, typical workout length, whether you prefer endurance or intervals. That data feeds into a dynamic email engine that selects the right workout template for the week. Luna: So it's a little bit like Netflix for workouts — personalized recommendations for the user's taste. Lucas: Exactly. And they A/B tested a lot. They found that including a short video demonstration of the workout increased click-through by 25 percent. And using the customer's first name in the subject line? That boosted open rate by 7 percent. Nothing groundbreaking, but incremental improvements added up. Luna: I wonder if there's a risk of content fatigue after several months. Did they have a strategy for keeping it fresh? Lucas: They did. They introduced seasonal challenges — like a summer rowing series or a winter endurance push — and they occasionally invited notable fitness influencers to design guest workouts. That variety gave existing subscribers something to look forward to. Lucas: They also expanded into SMS for time-sensitive tips, like a quick reminder before a scheduled workout or a motivational message after a milestone. But the core of the retention program was definitely email. Luna: If today was actually useful to you, especially if you're thinking about how to turn a one-time sale into a long-term relationship, you know, the show stays ad-free because listeners support it. If you'd like to help keep that going, you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Yeah, we're grateful for everyone who chips in. It means we can keep diving into case studies like this one without selling your attention. Luna: Definitely. So Lucas, you mentioned SMS as a supplement. Did the brand eventually incorporate loyalty points or rewards into this mix? Lucas: They did after about a year. They launched a loyalty program where you earn points not just for purchases, but for completing workouts logged through the machine's display. That tied the email and SMS engagement directly to in-product behavior. Luna: So the whole ecosystem reinforces itself. The more you work out, the more points you earn, the more likely you are to buy accessories to get even more out of the machine. Lucas: Exactly. And it turned a hardware company into a wellness partner. I think that's the real takeaway — retention isn't just about discounts or reminders. It's about making the product more valuable over time. Luna: That's a great note to end on. Thanks for the deep dive. Lucas: Thanks, Luna. See you next time.