Season 2, Ep. 6: Keystone Boxing & MMA Gym

New boxing gym knocks out the competition

Tune in every week to see a new episode from the Small Business Revolution TV series by Deluxe.

Season 2 takes us to the tight-knit, blue-collar town of Bristol Borough, Pennsylvania. Catch up on episodes one, two, three, four and five - stop by weekly for future episodes!   

Growing up in the resort city of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Jose Tilapa taught himself how to box at an early age. His passion for the sport and desire to coach others led him to open Keystone Boxing & MMA Gym in his new hometown of Bristol Borough, Pennsylvania. Offering a unique mix of youth and adult fitness programs, Tilapa is fighting hard to turn his dream gym into a profitable business.

Survival hinges on steady stream of new clients

Like most businesses in their first year, Keystone Boxing’s biggest challenge was finding new customers to create a healthy cash flow. Tilapa needed 20 members to join and pay a monthly subscription fee to break even on his expenses. At the time Deluxe connected with Tilapa, he had 10 full-time members and various customers attending ad-hoc classes. Filling the available spots would require some savvy marketing.

“Everything I saved went into this place — literally every penny,” Tilapa says.

A brand to tell the gym’s unique story

The first step to execute the marketing plan was to clarify and strengthen Keystone’s brand to better communicate a more professional image and set the tone for how potential members perceived the gym.

Old Logo

While the gym’s existing logo paid homage to Pennsylvania’s keystone symbol, the design was overly busy and the name of the gym was barely legible.

New Logo

The logo team at Deluxe reworked the design to give both the Keystone name and icon more prominence. The design also leaned heavily on the shapes and visual cues of the boxing world including the tough, angular strokes reminiscent of hand wraps used by boxers.

Designing branded merchandise and promotional products

With a new logo in place, Deluxe provided branded merchandise for Tilapa to sell at his gym (generating additional revenue), or give away to new members (boosting brand awareness around town).

Deluxe also wanted to help Tilapa get started with apparel so he could professionally outfit the staff and equip them with business cards to hand out to prospective clients.

Elevating Keystone Boxing’s online presence

After an initial online audit, the marketing team at Deluxe recognized several areas of unfinished business for Keystone Boxing: Their website, directory listings and social media presence all lacked vital information. Once addressed, these improvements would help Tilapa step up his web presence and position him to go toe-to-toe with national fitness chains.

Rebuilding the website

A substantial part of Keystone’s marketing plan would be overhauling the existing website. While Tilapa made a solid attempt to build the gym’s first version, competing demands for his time left his site unfinished and underutilized. Deluxe set out to rebuild his website to showcase classes and schedules, tout the staff’s expertise and make it easy for new members to try a class. Check out his new site. 

Homepage: before

Homepage: after

Class schedule page

The former class schedule page was difficult to access on mobile devices. Before implementing the new website, Tilapa was communicating class times via phone calls and texts with members.

The new class schedule page integrated industry-leading scheduling software, allowing visitors to review schedules and sign up for classes online.

Claiming and optimizing search engine and directory listings

In addition to building a high-functioning website, Deluxe also helped Tilapa get found faster by claiming and optimizing his business listings on popular directories like Google and Yelp. Given most fitness seekers are looking for gym options within 15 miles of their home of business, it was imperative for Keystone Boxing to show up strong.

Growing the business organically, one member at a time

In the three months since Deluxe launched Tilapa’s website and optimized his directory listings, online visits have increased dramatically. The majority of traffic to Keystone’s website consist of searchers using generic terms like “boxing classes” or “MMA” and matching to the type of programs offered at Keystone Boxing. Seventy percent of all traffic is mobile — proving why a mobile-friendly class schedule was vital. While Tilapa has not quite hit his goal of twenty new members, he’s climbing upward steadily.

“I just needed this extra push, this work and all this extra help. It looks good!” says Jose.

By Deluxe.