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Meet ATX Pilates
Meet East River Pilates
For more than 12 years, East River Pilates has been building a deeply connected Pilates community in North Brooklyn. What started on a Brooklyn rooftop has expanded into five studios, all located within a two-mile radius—creating a “hyper-local small business” centered around inclusivity, accessibility, and meaningful human connection.
“Outside of providing feel-good, inclusive classes, we’ve been able to build a wonderful, supportive community,” says Malory Wheatley, Head of Community & Marketing. “A huge part of the experience we offer is not just about giving clients a really great Pilates class, but also a sense of belonging.”
That philosophy shapes every part of the East River Pilates experience, from sliding scale community classes to Pilates retreats designed to feel approachable and accessible for students in every phase of life.
The challenge
As East River Pilates continued to grow, expanding from three studios to five in just two years, the team began looking for new ways to scale marketing efforts while preserving the intentional, community-driven experience that made the brand special.
Before implementing Momence’s Leads feature, East River Pilates had very little infrastructure in place for capturing and converting interest from prospective clients. The team could see website traffic, but there was no system for reconnecting with engaged visitors who left without making a purchase.
“We realized we were leaving a lot on the table,” says Malory.
At the same time, East River Pilates was also beginning to think more intentionally about customer segmentation and long-term retention. The team wanted to better understand the customer journey, identify where potential clients were dropping off, and create more personalized touchpoints without overwhelming people with aggressive marketing.
“We wanted to make sure that all of the messaging going out reflected our values and what we care about,” Malory explains. “And it was just as important that our customers found our communications useful and not invasive.”
The solution
East River Pilates activated Leads at the end of February 2026, starting with a simple abandoned checkout flow. The goal was to reconnect with prospective clients who visited the website, started the checkout process, but didn’t complete a purchase. A few hours after abandoning checkout, leads would automatically receive an email introducing the brand and highlighting the intro offer.
“It was so easy to set up,” recalls Malory. “I started with the suggested template and it felt intuitive from there.”
All outreach was intentionally designed to feel supportive and aligned with East River Pilates’ community-first philosophy. Rather than overwhelming prospects with constant messaging, the team focused on delivering relevant communication at the right moments in the customer journey.
“We’re very aware of not wanting to overwhelm people,” says Malory. “It’s great to have the peace of mind that as soon as someone makes a purchase, they’re taken out of the Leads flow and moved into a different Sequence.”
After a purchase is made, East River Pilates uses additional Sequences tailored to different customer behaviors. Single class purchasers receive communications designed to encourage a second purchase or membership conversion after their first visit, while class pack purchasers and active members receive onboarding and engagement content to help them get more value from their experience.
“We want them to have a clear understanding of everything that they get,” says Malory.
The team has also started using Momence’s customer journey visualization tools to better understand where prospects are converting, engaging, or dropping off.
“Being able to follow the lead through the customer journey has been huge,” Malory shares. “It’s helping us decide where we want to go and better understand where we’re losing people.”
The impact
Within the first full month of using Leads, the team saw immediate results. In March 2026 alone, the studio generated 72 new leads from prospective clients it previously had no visibility into. Of those, 33 met the criteria for outreach through the abandoned checkout sequence, resulting in 24 purchases and five new memberships.
For a studio investing in marketing for the first time, the return was significant.
“Those 24 purchases brought in just over $2,000 of revenue,” shares Malory. “Especially considering how relatively small our investment was in Leads, that’s huge.”
What stood out most wasn’t just the revenue — it was how little manual effort was required to generate it.
“It was all happening in the background,” says Malory. “I didn’t need to look at it or touch it. We were really surprised by the results.”
Leads also shifted how East River Pilates thinks about customer engagement more broadly. Using Momence’s segmentation tools, the team began identifying groups of clients they previously hadn’t thought to re-engage. One example was customers who had visited before but never purchased a membership and didn’t currently hold a class pack — an audience totaling nearly 10,000 people.
After sending a targeted campaign to that group, nearly 7,000 recipients opened the email, reinforcing that there was meaningful demand beyond active members and creating new opportunities to reconnect intentionally.
As East River Pilates continues to scale, Momence remains an important part of making that growth feel seamless for both the team and its community. After expanding from three studios to five in just two years, the team credits Momence with helping replicate what was already working and creating a consistent experience across every location.
“Every time we need a new feature or a new way to connect with our community, Momence has grown with us,” explains Malory. “It’s helped us expand without compromising the seamless, customer-first experience our members expect from us.”
