Ep 340 - Digital Marketing Hacks That Drive Community Engagement | Dennis Yu
Release Date: 12/22/2024
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Welcome to the latest episode of L.I.F.T.S – your bite-sized dose of the Latest Industry Fitness Trends and Stories. Hosts Matthew Januszek, Co-Founder of Escape Fitness and Mo Iqbal, Founder & CEO of SweatWorks attended PerformX 2025. In this LIFTS episode, Matthew and Mo are joined by Tim Gray, Founder & CEO of The Health Optimisation Summit. This episode covers: Biohacking industry growth. Balancing extreme practices with health fundamentals. Tim's personal biohacking journey. Limitations of traditional healthcare. Importance of data-driven health decisions. Potential...
info_outlineEscape Your Limits & LIFTS
Welcome to the latest episode of L.I.F.T.S – your bite-sized dose of the Latest Industry Fitness Trends and Stories. Hosts Matthew Januszek, Co-Founder of Escape Fitness and Mo Iqbal, Founder & CEO of SweatWorks attended EHFF 2025 in Cologne, Germany. In part 2 of this episode, Matthew and Mo are joined by: Michelle Dand, Head of Fitness Product and Programming of David Lloyd. Benjamin Roth, Co-Founder and CEO of Urban Sports Club. Jim Pisani, CEO and Board Member of Life Fitness Hammer Strength. David Stalker, Ambassador for EuropeActive. This episode covers: ...
info_outlineIn this special mid-week podcast, brought to you by Escape Fitness, we delve into the strategies that amplify a gym's digital presence and drive real business results with today’s guest, Dennis Yu, one of the world’s foremost authorities on leveraging digital marketing for success.
Here, Dennis shares his decades of expertise, delivering actionable insights on how gyms can build stronger community connections by collecting, curating, and sharing hyper-localized digital content. Whether you’re a gym owner or operator, this conversation is packed with invaluable advice to attract more members and deepen engagement with local populations.
Dennis Yu is the Chief Technology Officer at BlitzMetrics and co-author of the best-selling book The Definitive Guide to TikTok Ads. A seasoned international speaker, Dennis has presented in over 20 countries and worked with iconic brands like Nike, Red Bull, and the Golden State Warriors. His insights have been featured in CNN, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, NPR, and The Los Angeles Times. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Southern Methodist University and a degree in Economics from the London School of Economics.
In this Episode, we discuss:
- The ‘hidden’ data-value that led to the multi-billion dollar sale of Visio to Walmart.
- The ‘dollar a day’ marketing strategy.
- Google and YouTube as social media networks.
- Reviews and recommendations – do they deliver value?
- Hacks to encourage member reviews.
- Setting up Google Pages for success.
- Localization and personalization - the key to online visibility.
- Successfully organizing content across multiple social media platforms.
- Engagement and content strategy.
- Traditional marketing vs. digital marketing – which works best?
- The power of micro podcasts.
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0:00 Intro
0:29 The ‘hidden’ data-value that led to the multi-billion dollar sale of Visio to Walmart
1:12 Using hardware as the gateway to data collection
2:21 Explaining the ‘dollar a day’ marketing strategy
7:10 Google and YouTube as social media networks
8:15 How influential are posted reviews and recommendations?
10:55 Hacks that encourage members to post reviews
13:06 Setting up Google Pages for success
18:06 Signals Google loves - localization and personalization
19:09 Organizing online information for optimal effect
25:17 How to organize content across multiple social media platforms
27:27 Engagement and content strategy
33:29 Traditional marketing vs. digital marketing – which works best?
34:49 The power of micro podcasts