Mobile applications are penetrating every sector, from small to large. And, the fitness industry is no longer an exception.
If you are a personal trainer or running a gym and you owe a website, turning your website into an app can help you stay in the game.
Building a mobile app does not concern the scale of the gym. Whether your gym is known for weightlifting, boxing, martial arts training (mixed), swimming, CrossFit or other fitness specialities such as, Zumba, aerobics and yoga, all fitness activities should be listed on your mobile app.
Either you are a solo trainer or own a chain of gyms across the country, you will definitely need an app to let people know about your gym.
Luckily, if you have identified the possibilities of getting an app, find AppMySite – a mobile app builder for WooCommerce that can empower your fitness business. Around 58% of people with a smartphone download an app related to health and fitness every minute. So, why are you not harnessing this possibiity?
If you are on the fence about building an app for your gym, we will help you improve your gym app, get you more customer engagement and increase the number of app downloads.
Here are a few tips that let you know how your app can be used to make more money. Have a look –
Mobile apps help in acquiring new customers
Consider your existing target market and customer acquisition strategy. We can bet that your current and prospective customers must be tech-savvy and use mobile applications regularly.
Having a mobile app can help you connect with more people even before they step into your gym. Have a look at how the vast majority of people discover apps.
People are browsing the play store and app store on a daily basis to fulfil their basic needs that can create a more extensive exposure for your gym.
Take your current customer acquisition strategy into consideration. This strategy may include getting customers to sign up for a gym membership.
For instance, customers walk through your doors and seem interested. You can give them a gym tour or you may rely on your staff to give these interested customers a great visit experience and pitch a valuable offer. However, if your staff is not trained and something goes wrong during the tour, it could turn people away from joining.
Added to that, sometimes, people get afraid of being judged and this can be one of the primary reasons that they do not prefer to go to the gym. Also, a personal trainer in a great body shape giving gym tours can also hurt the self-esteem of someone who may want to join. These potential customers may feel like they are out of place and will not fit into the gym environment.
Even if the gym tour goes well, the new customer has to sit for hours to undergo a lengthy sign-up process. Above all, gyms become intimidating for a prospective member to join.
In that respect a mobile app can play a critical role in acquiring new customers to the gym. Your prospective customers can now discover your gym and sign-up without having to come into the gym. Pictures and videos added to the app, help you showcase a virtual tour of the gym. It becomes convenient for your customers to choose you.
With a mobile app, you do not need to worry about wasting time on giving gym tours to customers and having to staff extra people for the sales team. Your employees can spend their time doing other tasks instead.
It may also be possible that people do not even know about your gym before, but your gym app discoverability helps them to look for you in the Google Play Store or App Store. This can help them in connecting easily with you.
If your gym is in niche markets, a mobile app can improve your gym’s reputation in the market.
People generally read reviews before downloading an app. Therefore, if your app has good ratings and reviews, they are likely to download your app.
Mobile apps can improve customer experience
If your customers get registered with your mobile app, they do not need to carry a key tag or membership card during their visit. Hence, it is more convenient for your regular gym members.
Adding payment methods within the app help customers to switch from cash to credit/debit card. Giving multiple payment option improves customers’ experience.
For instance, when people don’t want to bring their wallets with them to their work out session, they feel more secure about having an app instead of giving their credit card information to one of your employees at the gym.
Besides payment methods, lots of gyms post their classes on the wall or print flyers available for members to take home. However, these flyers can get misplaced quickly and won’t be available in any of the members’ pockets, like a smartphone. Also, sometimes classes get cancelled or an instructor gets changed owing to circumstances.
While updating such schedule changes on a piece of paper is tricky, building an app can make your job easy. It can give relevant information to your gym members on time. It would be fruitful for you and your members as well.
Uploading a weekly schedule within the app and updating it regularly helps your members know about all the classes they may join. Therefore, creating a mobile app for the gym would be a great idea.
Let’s understand it better through the example of leagues. Members can use this platform to manage leagues, such as basketball or racquet ball. Users, who have interest in the teams, game schedules etc., can also participate in these leagues and can keep themselves updated with everything else that they need to know through your app.
If you still want to improve your customers’ experience, you need to know why people consider joining the gym in the first place. There can be many reasons like the desires to get in shape, lose weight and to be fit.
Some people use wearable technology to maximize their fitness experience. It has been estimated that there will be around 560 million units of wearable devices by 2021.
Moreover, if your app can support these wearable devices, it will be great for your customers. Members can track and monitor every workout and can always refer back to this information. This can give them a more personalized workout experience.
Leverage other mobile apps to promote your brand
When you look around your gym, how many people do you find using their phones during work out?
If members are not in the middle of a set (crunches, push-ups) or taking a class (Zumba, Aerobics), we can bet they must be staring at their phones.
According to a study, more than half of the gym members use their phones during a workout. From checking emails, chatting with friends, listening to music to posting workout pictures on their social media accounts, they might be doing almost everything while running on a treadmill.
People also like to post their workout pictures on social media that makes them popular among their friends.
In research conducted by the Dominican University of California, 70% of people who shared their fitness goals with family and friends were able to reach their objective. In addition, 35% people couldn’t achieve their objective because they didn’t share it with their friends.
Your members, for instance, are posting pictures of their workout sessions, its progress and even telling their social media followers about their diet. They want them to know, how to get prepared for such workouts. This results in increasing your gym discoverability among many others. For more exposure, you can encourage your members to give you free advertising through user-generated content.
Besides, if you want to brand your gym, you can have a look at the Instagram account of LA Fitness that helps you know how they were able to increase exposure, create brand awareness, and engage with their members.
You can also sign-in to social media accounts to drive traffic to your mobile app and get more downloads, and use these accounts to run contests, giveaways, and other promotions. In this way, you can encourage your members to use your app and other mobile apps while they are working out at your gym.
Micro-influencers thrive using mobile content
Try to identify your potential customers with lots of social media followers.
Once you classify these members, you can use them as a promoting tool that enhances your brand name and influences your marketing content. Also, these members must be active on social media platforms, so get them on your app too.
Hiring a micro-influencer can also help you promote your brand without spending much on promotions. Rather than paying them, you can try to negotiate a discounted membership or a couple of free months of subscription. All they need to do is to post pictures and videos on their social media accounts to promote your brand and mobile app.
James Tollefson’s Instagram account is an excellent example of this strategy. James is a fitness enthusiast with nearly 14 thousand Instagram followers. Influencers like him are great for promoting your gym and the app.
It has been observed that about 82% of people are likely to follow recommendations from micro-influencers. Therefore, they have higher engagement rates with a huge number of followers.
Getting your gym and app promoted using a micro-influencer can increase buying conversions by more than 22%.
You can also scan through social media posts to see who is posting pictures and videos at your gym. If you discover that some members have tons of followers, reach out to them and see if they would be willing to work with you to promote your gym app.
Videos can help improve customer engagement on your app
Building an app is only the beginning. Assure that you have got relevant and legitimate content on your app. Do not just build the app and forget about it. Upload pictures and videos daily to keep your content fresh and engage users.
You can explore several options here. Consider using videos to show different workout demonstrations and explaining how to use proper form for various exercises, lifts, and other fitness moves. You can even try to hire a micro-influencer, as discussed above, to participate in these videos.
Videos are a great way to promote your brand. If you have a small gym or practice on a private basis— broadcasting classes via live video through your app to influence your customers can help a lot. Live video is an even more effective approach than using social media posts as a promotional method. These videos for your mobile app can also be used for other content.
You can also add the same video demonstrations to your website, social accounts, and even include them in your email marketing strategy. Besides videos, you can also use your training staff to demonstrate fitness activities.
Using all these platforms can help you promote your brand, increase customer engagement and encourage them to download your app.
Establishing a fitness community
Your members are coming to the gym for healthy living, improving body structure, and maintaining a healthy mind. Your mobile app can serve as a platform to connect you and the fitness enthusiasts together and enhance their experience.
Allow your members to upload pictures, videos, and success stories on a fitness community through your app. The videos can become an excellent marketing strategy. Your registered members can also track their workouts and offer advice to new or other members.
These app features will add a social element to your app and give people a reason to come back every day to see what their gym friends are saying about them. It can also serve as a motivational tool for your registered members, and help you establish a fitness community.
Use your app to upsell and make more money
Discounts and other promotional offers via push notifications can help you upsell your mobile app to fitness enthusiasts.
You can try to get more people to pay more money by signing up for certain classes. However, consumers are more likely to respond to push notifications that include special offers and promotions. You can also promote products like t-shirts, hats, backpacks, and other merchandise and make them available for purchase once they sign up at your gym.
Drive sales by offering discounts for protein shakes, smoothies, and energy bars to your registered members. All the extra sales can increase your gym revenues and annual profits.
Building up a marketing strategy that encourages people to pay for merchandise or items at the juice bar will increase your brand visibility in the market. Use your app to build the strategy and make the most of it.
To conclude
Your gym really needs a mobile app.
A mobile app for your gym will help you get more customers and make the sign-up process even easier.
You can use the app features to improve your customers’ experience with the gym app. Understand how your potential customers are using other apps while they’re working out and leverage that behaviour to drive downloads to your gym app.
Working with micro-influencers can help you promote your gym brand as well as your mobile app.
Also, setting up a community board in the app can help your users to communicate with each other regarding gym activities and workouts.
Uploading content on social accounts gives motivation to more people to sign up through the app. You can even upsell your app users by promoting merchandise, food and drinks of their favourite characters (comics or movies) via push notifications from your app.
Fitness enthusiasm is brimming like a river and the industry is changing rapidly. Therefore, if you cannot keep up with the trends, it’s going to be tough for your business to survive and move forward in this industry.
Building a mobile app with one of the best online app makers, like AppMySite, can help you increase profits and improve your gym members’ experience.
