ActiveCampaign success story · Indoor pickleball club franchise

How a pickleball franchise lifted tournament registrations 200% with targeted ActiveCampaign emails.

Name: Overtop Media Digital Marketing
Address: 933 Louise Ave Suite 101-18, Charlotte, NC, 28204, US
Telephone: (704) 237-0707
Price range: $$

Pickleball Kingdom grew from four open clubs to 33, run mostly by owners who are not marketers. Moving every club onto one ActiveCampaign setup, with templates that fill in each club’s details and automations built at headquarters, gave the whole network professional email. At one club, two targeted campaigns lifted tournament registrations 200%.

Business: Pickleball Kingdom
Market: United States, 33 open clubs
Goal: Give every franchise club professional email

Two yellow pickleballs on a blue indoor court beside the lines

The results.

The 200% compares tournament registrations at one club before and after two campaigns segmented by past event participants and email openers; ActiveCampaign does not publish the starting count. The open rate is year to date in 2026. Open rates are inflated by mail privacy features, so treat them as a direction.

200%increase in tournament registrations at one location after two targeted email campaigns
40.6%average email open rate across all system-wide communications, year to date
100%franchisee adoption of ActiveCampaign across all open locations

Year to date 2026 for open rates. Figures as reported by the business in the story; ActiveCampaign does not publish dates or a measurement method for them.

The challenge.

Pickleball Kingdom opened its first indoor club in Chandler, Arizona, in 2022, so players could avoid the heat, wind and dirty outdoor courts. By early 2026 it had 33 open clubs and nearly 400 franchise territories sold, with a goal of 100 open clubs by the end of 2027.

Email ran on Mailchimp, marketing files were shared through a folder, and there was no CRM or formal way to get campaigns to the clubs. Most franchise owners were not marketers, few used email at all, and every national campaign meant manual work for headquarters.

ActiveCampaign automation that sends a personalized birthday text message with a discount the day before a contact’s birthday

What they did.

Franchise parent and club accounts · Templates with club details filled in · Welcome, win-back and birthday automations · Reservation system integration · SMS

One parent account, one account per club: Headquarters runs a parent account and each club has its own, through ActiveCampaign for franchises, so templates, automations and national campaigns are pushed to every club at once.
Templates that fill in the club: Variables insert each club’s name and details automatically, so one national email reads as local everywhere.
Automations for the member journey: Welcome series for members and non-members, win-back, birthday, membership anniversary and a beginner course sequence of up to 45 days run through marketing automation.
Connected to reservations: A custom connection to the club reservation and membership system keeps contact data and play history current.
Targeted tournament campaigns: Tournament emails go to past event players and recent openers instead of everyone, and 13 clubs use text messages for flash sales, events and membership offers.

Why it worked.

Our read on the decisions behind the numbers, and what any business can take from them.

Headquarters does the hard part: Owners who are not marketers do not need to build anything: proven campaigns arrive ready to send, already localized.
Segments beat blasts: People who played a tournament before are the most likely to sign up for the next one. Sending to them first doubled down on intent.
The journey sells the membership: A beginner sequence teaches the game first and introduces membership around the fifth email, when the player is already hooked.
Personal dates keep members: Birthday and anniversary messages give members a reason to come back that has nothing to do with a discount calendar.

How we would run this play for your business.

You do not need a national budget to use the same ideas. This is how Overtop Media Digital Marketing puts them to work in our ActiveCampaign automation and management.

Design the central system: For franchises and multi-location brands we set up one ActiveCampaign structure: shared templates, shared automations and room for each location to add local news.
Build the member journey: Welcome, first visit, beginner education, membership offer, birthday and win-back, written once and tested across locations.
Connect your booking system: Reservations, memberships and point of sale feed contact data, so every message knows who played, booked or lapsed.
Fill new locations fast: Grand openings need people. Our Meta ads and Google Ads build a local list before the doors open.