Gilbert's Gazelles provides runner training workouts and a member forum to 375+ paid members. Below is their MemberSpace case study which contains website screenshots of their membership setup along with a short founder interview.
Home Page
Gilbert's Gazelles home page uses fun imagery which should immediately connect with other runners. The page also uses good copy writing to let folks know what they offer and where they are based (Austin, TX). Clear navigation options at the top of the screen are helpful for new and existing members.
Sales Page
Gilbert's Gazelles uses their home page as their main sales page as well. They have many calls-to-action at the top and throughout the page (and sub pages) which constantly encourage visitors to take the next step and register/join the membership program. They also specifically state what they do for people.
Member Navigation
After paying to become a member, people are brought to this dashboard page which Gilbert's Gazelles designed. They use playful graphics and large fonts to create navigation image links which allow members to easily go to any member pages they want to visit without hassle or confusion.
Member Pages & Content
Here is one of the member pages Gilbert's Gazelles provides for their members. This page utilizes MemberSpace's direct integration with Muut (a 3rd party forum software). So after someone becomes a member they can access and interact with other members on the forum seamlessly.
Interview with the Founder
Why did you start your business?Gilbert’s Gazelles is a training group for runners in Austin, Texas. We offer multiple membership plans with different prices and time-lengths. As our membership grew, it became a challenge to keep up with each of our members and their account status. MemberSpace helped us retain members, solve administrative issues, and allowed for more efficient registration and payments for our members.
How does your business model work?Our business is dependent on active memberships. Only when new members register and remain active (paid), will they have access to our "Members" pages that provide important training information - weekday workouts, videos, a pace calculator, a group forum and a picture gallery, for example. Before MemberSpace, memberships could lapse and go inactive without much notice or consequence. Now that we are able to connect account status with training access, we not only have an accurate record of membership, but a larger and more consistent number of active members.
How do you continue to build your membership?To acquire new members, we rely on strong brand awareness, repeat members, referrals, and social media marketing efforts. Once we have prospective new members on our website, we direct them to registering in several ways: an announcement bar at top, "Join" buttons at top and bottom, and "Register" buttons on all of our group training pages.
How do you keep cancellations down?First, we provide great service to our members. Second, most of our memberships are on auto-renewal which encourages member retention. We also maintain mailing lists exported from MemberSpace for promotional mailings and consistently add new membership options to keep it fresh.