Church of Joe
Church of Joe is a luxury athleisure brand based in San Diego, built on a simple idea. Clothing that moves with you from Barre to bar. They had a great product and a passionate local following, but zero digital marketing infrastructure. No marketing strategy. A website that couldn’t convert. Not enough people finding the brand online. DAP built their go-to-market strategy from scratch, redesigned the Shopify store, and launched paid media campaigns that drove sales up 140% and lifted the add-to-cart rate from below 1% to industry standard.
Church of Joe is a luxury athleisure apparel brand based in San Diego, California, selling direct to consumers through their Shopify store. Founded on a love for Pilates and movement, the brand creates high-quality, USA-made clothing that transitions from studio to street. Their products pair avant-garde design with comfort for active women who refuse to sacrifice style.
Project Summary
Church of Joe had a loyal local following selling luxury athleisure at Pilates studios, but online revenue was flat. Our eCommerce fractional CMO built a roadmap to hit their growth goals, starting with a website redesign to fix the conversion crisis before investing in traffic.
Once the Shopify site launched with conversion-optimized product pages, we ran Google Shopping and paid search campaigns targeting active women in key metro areas. A content strategy, product page optimization, and analytics setup gave Church of Joe real visibility into what was working. Within months, sales increased 140% and the add-to-cart rate jumped from below 1% to industry standard.
The Challenge
Conversion Crisis Sub-1% Product Page Conversion
The product page add-to-cart rate sat below 1%. Apparel eCommerce industry standard is around 8.5%. For every 100 visitors, fewer than 1 added anything to their cart. Running ads to a site that can't convert burns money.
Brand Trust Gap New Brand, Zero Social Proof
Church of Joe had no customer reviews and no press mentions. Brand recognition didn't extend beyond the local Pilates studio. Online shoppers had no reason to trust a $120 pair of joggers from an unknown brand, no matter how good the fabric felt.
Traffic Drought Very Little Qualified Website Traffic
The website pulled almost no traffic from organic search, paid ads, social, or email. Without a marketing strategy or paid media budget, Church of Joe relied entirely on word-of-mouth from their local Pilates community to drive sales.
No Marketing Roadmap No Strategy to Scale Beyond Local
Church of Joe handled social media, website updates, product photography, and email on their own. They had no cohesive marketing plan. No content calendar. No data telling them what was working. Every dollar spent on marketing was a guess.
How we Helped Church of Joe
Go-to-Market Strategy & Fractional CMO
Church of Joe hired Digital Authority Partners to create their go-to-market strategy and digital marketing roadmap. Our fractional CMO designed a multi-phase approach. Fix what’s broken first, then spend on traffic.
- Multi-phase roadmap prioritizing a conversion-oriented website redesign before paid media investment
- Marketing strategy spanning brand awareness, customer acquisition, and retention
- Production calendar mapping Holiday 2023 through Summer 2025 product launches
- Content calendar covering organic social, blog, and email marketing channels
- Competitive analysis benchmarking against Alo Yoga, Carbon38, and Vuori to find positioning gaps
Shopify Website Redesign & Conversion Optimization
The website held everything back. Product pages had sub-1% add-to-cart rates. We redesigned the Shopify store with eCommerce best practices to turn browsers into buyers.
- Rebuilt product detail pages with always-visible descriptions, size guides, and product videos
- Designed mobile-first layouts with responsive homepage hero images for the 80% of traffic on phones
- Added US Women's sizing guide and length measurements to every product page
- Placed customer photos and reviews on every product page to build trust
- Launched free shipping and streamlined the cart-to-checkout flow
Paid Media & Revenue Growth Campaigns
With the website converting, we launched targeted paid media campaigns across Google Shopping and Meta to drive qualified traffic from high-value customer segments.
- Ran Google Shopping campaigns on the top 5 products with strong imagery and competitive pricing
- Targeted Yoga/Pilates enthusiasts, work-from-home professionals, and women in blue-state metro areas
- Optimized Performance Max campaigns with negative keywords to eliminate wasted spend
- Shifted from Google Search to Meta ads to generate demand for a new brand, not just capture it
- Built a Shopify-to-Google Ads feedback loop tracking sales attribution for every campaign
What we Achieved
A redesigned website, targeted paid media, and a cohesive marketing strategy drove sales up 140%. Church of Joe went from a local studio brand to an online business pulling revenue from customers across the country.
Shoppers went from bouncing to browsing. Visitors stayed longer and viewed more products after the redesign. Always-open product descriptions, size guides, and social imagery gave them the confidence to add items to their cart.
The product page add-to-cart rate climbed from below 1% to industry standard. Better product content, visible size guides, and customer reviews paired with a streamlined mobile experience turned the conversion bottleneck into a strength.
80% of traffic came from mobile devices, so speed was non-negotiable. We optimized the Shopify store and cut page load times by 75%. Faster pages meant fewer abandoned visits and more time browsing products.
We overhauled every product page with longer descriptions, always-visible sizing info, customer reviews, and high-quality lifestyle imagery. These pages became the foundation for organic discovery and paid media landing pages alike.
