No business growth despite building traffic, community, great reviews…
The Challenge
Sleek Ballet Fitness (formerly Sleek Technique) was founded by Flik and Victoria, two professional dancers with 32 years of combined experience. They offered an online membership with:
- A library of ballet-based fitness workouts
- Recordings of LIVE sessions
- Small group LIVE sessions (4-6 people) with premium options
Despite having a strong brand, loyal community, and raving reviews, they faced a critical problem: their business was shrinking. Their churn rate exceeded their growth rate—more members were canceling than signing up.
Their previous homepage
Initial Assumptions
The founders initially thought price was the issue and planned to:
- Drop prices
- Create a low-priced entry-level membership
- Eventually offer training programs for trainers and boutique gyms
They also wanted a new, more flexible website to replace their custom-built Django site, which was expensive to modify.
The Real Problem
When we dug deeper, we found surprising insights:
- Some members stayed for years (2+)
- Core members were highly engaged
- Members who participated in a few LIVE sessions typically became long-term subscribers
The issue wasn’t the product or pricing—it was the conversion funnel. Their website failed to:
- Explain benefits clearly
- Show competitive advantages
- Create emotional connections
- Provide sufficient social proof
- Offer an engaging call-to-action
My Solution
Rather than rebuilding the entire site, I proposed:
- Keep the existing members’ area but move it to a subdomain
- Create a new conversion-focused mini-website with a 14-day free trial funnel
- Set up proper redirections to maintain SEO value
The free trial funnel:
- Sent one workout per day via email (68% open rate!)
- Built familiarity and habit formation
- Addressed emotional barriers to starting fitness routines
- Educated potential members gradually
- Ended with a timed offer
The Results
We launched on January 1, 2018, targeting New Year’s resolution makers. After six months:
- Membership grew from 93 to 206 members
- Email campaigns achieved 68% open rates and 45% click rates
- Growth curve turned positive
- All without spending on ads!
Client Feedback
“Raj is a brilliant ideas man. He knows his line of work so well and has such a deep understanding of consumer behaviour online that he can develop a site and strategies for almost any eventuality that not only engaged customers but keeps them engaged… he brought brilliant ideas to the table and knows so much about this ever changing market that he is able to refresh the way we gathered new leads and pursued our customers to great effect.”
Raj is a brilliant ideas man. He knows his line of work so well and has such a deep understanding of consumer behaviour online that he can develop a site and strategies for almost any eventuality that not only engaged customers but keeps them engaged. In our experience, he brought brilliant ideas to the table and knows so much about this ever changing market that he is able to refresh the way we gathered new leads and pursued our customers to great effect. If I were to highlight an area we found challenging, it was timing of delivery (we were very often behind dates we had set for completing tasks) and regularity of communication as Raj travels a lot while working. To sum up, ‘a brilliant, energetic, bright spark and a good person to know in the world but allow for a good time contingency.
Flik Swan and Victoria Marr
Founders of Sleek Technique (Sleek Ballet Fitness)