Industry Update: How Fitness Is Leveraging Digital

It’s no surprise that fitness entrepreneurs are some of the most tenacious, ambitious, and goal-driven people that you’ll ever meet, and when it comes to taking advantage of industry trends, they’re often eager to jump on anything new and exciting. Today we’ll be talking all things digital+fitness. Since we’ve already covered fitness wearables, let’s focus on how fitness companies have been leveraging digital elements to help overcome hurdles and win big.

Personalization

There is no such thing as one-size-fits-all in when it comes to working out, and while everyone may wish they had a personal trainer, pockets don’t always run deep enough to afford one. With that in mind, fitness companies such as gyms are using data that’s being offered up by patrons to add a custom aspect to their experience. As loads of alternative classes start to pop up, personalization is absolutely key to client retention.

As an example, forward-thinking gyms are offering up apps that measure progress and use client data to recommend classes, allow personalized schedules, provide custom analytics or create at-home workout ideas.

The Community Effect Of Fitness Challenges

Nobody wants to feel like they’re fighting the weight loss battle alone, so a large success factor in reaching goals has always been support. Web technology has allowed innovative fitness brands to leverage the masses by creating specific niche communities centred on optimism, encouragement and moral support. Using social media, people within these communities are not confined by factors such as demographics or age and can easily build strong ties with each other through a unified, online experience. With the proper marketing, these companies can create an extremely engaged and loyal following that is likely to feel closer to the brand than they otherwise would have.

A great example of this is Bikini Body Mommy. Toronto-based Briana Christine does a fantastic job of personal branding and has started a movement of over 60,000 mommies wanting to lose baby weight, using YouTube as a base to reach dedicated fans. She’s also helped lead a popular trend in digital fitness – flash challenges. Since BBM has regimented 90-day programs, it ensures that all members are starting and ending at the same time, making engagement more motivating for everyone.

Customer Relationship Systems

Whether you’re a single entrepreneur or a large corporation, being able to keep track of staff, clients, activities, and classes can definitely be more than a handful. This is where customer management comes in to help managers stay productive. Of all the management systems out there so far, Mindbody is at the top of the pack. Think of it as the Salesforce of fitness – it’s a huge system capable of handling almost every aspect of client and staff interaction and management. Walk into any yoga studio or fitness gym, and there’s a good chance it’s managed by Mindbody software!

Looking for other ways to mesh fitness and tech? Hopefully this served as a bit of inspiration to show you that there are a ton of ways to create new business models or refresh old ones with the help of digital.

Industry Update: How Fitness Is Leveraging Digital