During and after 2020 pandemic, people are more concerned than ever about their health and overall fitness goals. Health anxiety is on the rise, pushing people to take responsibility for their own health. The prolonged blockade has triggered a surge in the number of health app downloads.
As the New Year approaches, one of the things on most people's minds is health and fitness. Between the impact of COVID-19, increased levels of obesity and depression, and the upcoming holiday feast, it's no surprise.
Anyone working in the fitness industry understands the need to influence timely messages customized for individuals looking to achieve weight loss and fitness goals. The motivation to lose weight is triggered at specific times of the year, such as after the holidays and before spring break. Local trends are also important when it comes to the timing of the urge to lose weight. With all of these factors in mind, marketers must increase their advertising budgets during these strategic periods and drive targeted campaigns to increase app conversions.
Types of health and fitness apps you need to know
A health and fitness app is any app that helps users improve their health and/or fitness. If that's a broad description for you, we agree. But that's the Health and Fitness category in the iOS Store - it's huge and doesn't contain subcategories.
Fitness apps typically fall into the following categories:
Training and workouts app
This type of fitness app includes workout plans and videos with explanatory comments. A good app in this category should be able to adapt to the user. For example, it should create a personal training plan based on goals and initial data, and easily monitor the athlete's progress.
Activity tracking app
This type of health and fitness app monitors the user's activity, such as sleep patterns and running times. Google Fit is an example of an app that utilizes activity tracking. This app works with other apps such as 8fit, Calm and Instant to give users a complete picture of their health.
For example, geolocation is a great feature if you have a running app. This allows you to suggest running routes or present a visualization of the user's most recent run on a map.
Diet and nutrition app
A nutrition-related mobile app should also be tailored to the user's needs and contain a common set of basic tools, such as
- a calorie counter
- a collection of video recipes
- Tips on supplements and sports nutrition
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Wellness apps
This category includes meditation, yoga and exercise apps with spiritual exercises. In most cases, these apps publish videos and photos with workout tips, motivational content and various timers. Additional features of health apps are as follows.
- Sleep tracking, such as sleep cycles.
- Meditation exercises, such as Oak Tree.
- Positive thinking, such as Zenify.
All-in-one apps
This type of app can combine the features of several fitness app categories at the same time. For example, it could be a personal app for a famous athlete that would reveal tips for proper exercise techniques, tips for a balanced diet, and other tools. The more features an app has, the easier it is to monetize it, where you can pay to enable each feature individually. For example, you can use a freemium monetization model that will allow users to access only basic features (such as step counting) for free. At the same time, you can provide paid access to advanced features (e.g., a detailed overview of calories burned during each activity or detailed sleep tracking).
In addition, it is more convenient for users to have one, rather than three, universal apps. However, the cost of creating and maintaining such apps is much higher.
Useful and easy methods for promoting health and fitness apps
User acquisition
1. optimize your social media networks for what users value
With more than 180 million uses of the #fitness hashtag on Instagram in 2017, social media marketing is an invaluable way to get your fitness app discovered and expand your audience. In fact, a recent study showed that 55 million people joined a health or fitness club, with social being one of the top three reasons to join. Of course, while most fitness apps don't offer physical socialization with peers, social media provides a place for users to interact digitally.
As a fitness app, you can optimize your social media platform to be social by implementing tools that allow users to share their accomplishments with friends, which also provides accountability. Since 82% of users prefer real-time video over social posts, the option to take over followers through Facebook live updates in specials or story takeovers for Instagram followers will actively engage users. You can also increase ROI and attract new followers by paying for social media ads - 75% of Instagram users take action, such as visiting a website, after viewing an Instagram ad.
2. Tell stories through PR
At a time when 86% of consumers say authenticity is important in determining which brands they support, PR is a reliable and effective way to get your fitness app discovered - stimulate users with unique stories and attract niche target audience apps for your fitness.
Given the number of fitness apps that exist in the app store, the first step in optimizing your PR strategy is to give examples of what makes your app stand out. 86% of survey participants said that quality thought leadership boosts trust in your organization. In order to boost your outreach and engage a trusted target audience, your goal should be to become a thought leader in the fitness space. Some ways to build thought leadership are to take a view on trends, work with customers and users to find out what people want to know, and curate content that includes your stamp of identity.
ASO
Investing in ASO is also critical to ensuring your app is optimized and findable in the app store. This is the practice of optimizing app store listings. The goal is to make it visible to organic users and increase conversions by leveraging category rankings.
To learn more about ASO strategy, you can check "
App Promotion: How to Master ASO in 2021" of our previous articles.
To learn more about ASO keywords, you can check "
How to Conduct Competitive ASO Keyword Optimization Analysis" of our previous articles.
User engagement
As competition for market share increases, app marketers must try to engage users in ways that add value to the app usage experience. While user acquisition is simpler than user engagement and long-term retention, a well-planned fitness app marketing plan can help companies achieve all of these goals. User segmentation can be used to curate personalized experiences for different users With data analytics and customer insights, marketers can create highly customized user experiences for their users. Combining these strategies in your marketing plan can help you reap huge benefits from your fitness app.
1. Integrate your fitness app with wearable devices
About one in five Americans use a smartwatch or fitness tracker, and 10% use both a fitness tracker and an app, making integration with fitness devices a valuable tool for increasing the popularity and discoverability of fitness apps. Since 80 percent of fitness device owners report that their device has positively impacted their lives, it's important to ensure that your app achieves this success rate.
Integrating your app to run on devices like Apple Watch - the third most trusted industry or brand for secure data - is a valuable way to get your app noticed, used and trusted by users.
2. In-app messaging
This allows you to communicate with users when they open your fitness app. For example, you may want to trigger an in-app message after a workout to promote your subscription package. Having just completed a workout - and therefore benefiting from the app - may be the perfect time to show users this additional offering. Take this in-app message from 8Fit as an example. When a user selects a new workout, this is shown to non-subscribers. In-app messages have the potential to disrupt the user experience, so they should be used with caution. This is another feature that should be A/B tested to get the best results.
3. Push notifications
These messages are not within the app, so they will pop up on the user's screen at any time you define. To capture your users' attention, you need to provide exciting content that sparks their interest. You can do this with promotions, offers or reminders that will keep them on top of their fitness journey. However, users do have the option to turn push notifications on and off. If the majority of your users opt out of push notifications, you can use in-app messages to prompt them for benefits.
4. Gamification and Motivation
One of the biggest concerns with fitness apps is user retention. People often drop out of training, and this can affect your app. It's obvious that workout programs require effort.
So, this can be both a challenge and an opportunity for you. If you can make your app engaging and entertaining, it can help your users stay engaged and pay attention to more content.
Try to include aspects of your fitness app that feel like games. You can put in rewards, points or credits that users can trade in for something real and engaging. Here are some great examples.
Charity Miles is an app that allows users to help save lives by walking, running, or biking. Users can choose one of 40 charities and donate miles. It's a fantastic motivator. To date, the campaign has earned $2.5 million.
Leaderboards are another great feature you can add. It helps to see your name at the top of the rankings. fitness apps like Map My Run and Nike Run Club optimize users' streaks with leaderboards.
Zombies run is an excellent running app. Users are immersed in the story of zombies and survivors. Users are engaged in listening and forgetting about fatigue.
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