Newtown Athletic Club, Newtown, PA

When the Newtown Athletic Club (the NAC) in Newtown, PA, began a $5 million, 12,000-square-foot expansion to its facility last spring, the club took on another challenge to support its growth. Rather than raising membership dues, the NAC began a drive for members that generated 1,180 memberships in eight months.

“We had about a two-year plan for completion of this big build expansion,” says Linda Mitchell, director of marketing and public relations at the NAC. “In order to make that successful, we knew we had to grow our membership base, and we had to grow it significantly.”

The crux of the promotion featured a two-year membership contract that included four months free and a oneyear contract that included one month free. However, before taking on the promotion, the NAC revamped its sales department from a part-time staff to a full-time staff, redesigned its pay structure to feature a low base salary with a tiered team goal structure and installed a full-time sales director who works on a net commission.

Designed to generate a net increase of 400 memberships, the NAC Big Build Membership Drive promoted these membership offers through direct mail, social media and in-house signage. In addition to a community outreach campaign, the staff developed a referral program in which each employee had 20 10-day guest passes to hand out each month. The guest passes were trackable so that if the guest joined, the employee received a $100 referral bonus. In addition, the employee with the most joins in a month was awarded a bonus of $300. The employee with the second-most joins received a $200 bonus, and the employee with the third-most joins received a $100 bonus. The NAC provided the same program to members and offered a $150 reward to members for every referral who joined.