Case study · 2023 · Anonymised

A wellness retreat business that needed to know who it was for

A small retreat business in England running wellness, art and cultural retreats for groups of eight to twenty-five people, with plans to run retreats in Europe too.

  • ClientWellness retreat business, England
  • Year2023
  • ScopeMarketing strategy

The challenge

The owner had a lot of retreat ideas and an audience of "everyone": families, couples, solo travellers, companies looking for team retreats. Each of them looks for a retreat in a different place and decides on different things, so one message for all of them reaches none of them well.

The plan also needed a written definition of a good season. Without one, there is no way to tell whether the marketing is working.

What we did

  1. Mapped the offerA marketing-mix workbook: the retreat formats, what each includes, price position, where it runs and how people book.
  2. Wrote three buyer profilesFamilies with children, couples, and women looking for art and wellbeing retreats. Each with how they search, what they pay attention to and what makes them book.
  3. Ranked the channelsWhere each profile actually looks: Google search, Facebook groups, YouTube, Instagram and retreat listing sites. Effort goes to the top of that list first.
  4. Set a seasonal targetA retreat calendar for the year, so success is a number of retreats filled per season, not a feeling.
  5. Built the feedback loopEnquiry form on the website, email and a group chat, so every question from a guest becomes input for the next season.
The seasonal retreat targetWinter: 3 weekend retreats. Spring: 4 weekend retreats, or 4 to 5 one-day retreats. Summer: 3 seven-day retreats and 3 weekend retreats. Autumn: 4 two-day retreats.WinterSpringSummerAutumnseven-day retreatweekend or two-dayTarget set by the strategy, not a result
The seasonal target the strategy set.

Result

A written strategy the owner could run: one offer map, three buyer profiles and a seasonal target.

How it was measured. The deliverable was the strategy itself. Booking figures from after the strategy were not recorded with this studio, so no booking result is claimed.

  • The seasonal plan is the target the strategy set, not a result it achieved.
  • Retreats sell on trust and on the experience itself. No marketing plan can promise a full house, and this page does not.

This client is not named because they have not given written permission. Every client on this site is named only with that permission. The details that would identify them, such as the brand name, the location and screenshots of the work, are left out on purpose.

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