{"id":10546,"date":"2020-02-11T08:43:45","date_gmt":"2020-02-11T13:43:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/sweat-how-to-win-in-the-crowded-space-of-digital-fitness-training\/"},"modified":"2020-02-11T08:43:45","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T13:43:45","slug":"sweat-how-to-win-in-the-crowded-space-of-digital-fitness-training","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/sweat-how-to-win-in-the-crowded-space-of-digital-fitness-training\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweat: How to win in the crowded space of digital fitness training"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in the days, personal trainers would train people in person at the gym. Later on, whoever started marketing their programs in e-books, and\/or DVD\u2019s became a fitness guru. Nowadays digitalization has transformed the fitness industry. Everything is an app business full of video tutorials that users have on their fingertips.<\/p>\n

There are countless training apps in the AppStore or for Android platforms but in 2017 Forbes named Top Fitness influencer Kayla Itsines co-creator of the BBG (Bikini Body Guides) and in 2016 Times Magazine named her among the 30 most influential people in the internet. \u00a0Her app Sweat was the number one downloaded app in the 2016 Apple\u2019s World Wide Developer Conference in San Jose, California and brought in $77M USD, aiming for $100M USD next year. Kayla launched the app in 2015 but in 2016 they did a re-launch with 3-4 times more content. The CEO of Sweat is her fianc\u00e9 Tobi who is also a trainer. The couple is in their late twenties now and their worth of $50M USD comes solely from the fitness app.<\/p>\n

The app is only targeted to women and contains several programs from different trainers beside Kayla, including yoga and post-partum workouts that you can do at home or at the gym. The monthly subscriptions costs $19.9 per month or 50% less if you buy the yearly membership.<\/p>\n

What is the secret sauce that made Kyla number one in the online fitness industry?<\/p>\n

The key to her success has been social media. When Kayla was training her 11-year old cousin in the gym, she told her to go on Instagram and post pictures there so she could get more clients. Kayla mentions that growth has been organic for the most part in the beginning and if it wasn\u2019t for social media platforms, they would have never become so big. She has been able to use the media for good and help women worldwide. But you would say all the trainers are in social media today and it is not enough. Kayla had the first movers\u2019 advantage, none of the trainers had a presence in social media when she started.<\/p>\n

Social media is not enough if you don\u2019t manage to build a community. Kayla did not only post pictures of herself all the time, she was focused on posting 60% of the time clients\u2019 transformations. Her strategy has been: Community first. She flies around the world to host bootcamps and announces different challenges within the app that bring women together. Kayla is not obsessed with herself and her training, she added more trainers to her app, so the community grows. What specifically grew this community so fast is the social sharing and the reposting which increased user engagement. The BBG hashtag in the transformation pictures was a very clever move of levering the testimonials and women were following and congratulating each other. The before and after jaw-dropping pictures attracted more women to start and then the community helped them with motivation, empowerment and not fall behind. Kayla keeps the women more engaged by leveraging novelty and posting about five times a day pictures, recipes and motivational quotes. She is authentic and let people in her life by posting pictures with her family and her dogs, so the community feels closer to her like they know her. Another clever move to keep the community tight is that Kyla focused on women since the beginning and the target group has not changed or enlarged over time, she didn\u2019t fall for the mistake of trying to target everyone. If you are not convinced yet to try the paid app no problem, you can use the free trial which helps attracting more skeptical people into the BBG group.<\/p>\n

The idea of the community and social sharing is great in general but Sweat has also implemented everything in a perfectionist way. Kayla\u2019s app is very well build, super easy-accessible and highly customizable for your needs. The design and colors are specifically targeted to women and the tone is conversational. Kyla is not preaching; she is trying in a friendly way to encourage women to improve their lifestyle. The app is seamlessly integrated with music playing apps as a bonus feature.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next?<\/p>\n

Sweat is using technology advancements in their favor. An apple watch app is coming where audio cues almost simulate a personal trainer. The program is also expanding into Apple TV. And last but not least they are working on using augmented reality for their program.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/top-influencers\/fitness\/#58887c2bf690<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/elanagross\/2018\/04\/05\/kayla-itsines\/#1da511ee33d1<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/kayla-itsnines-finance-tobi-pearce-homeless-to-millionaire-2018-5<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/kayla-itsines-interview-sweat-bikini-body-guide-2017-6?r=UK<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2018\/06\/06\/kayla-itsines-sweat-app-will-rake-in-77-million-this-year\/<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.techaheadcorp.com\/blog\/whats-behind-success-of-kayla-itsines-sweat-app\/<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/fitner.co\/growth\/case-study-kayla-itsines-julian-smith<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/duffy.agency\/brandbase\/6-lessons-on-how-to-successfully-build-a-community-on-social-media\/<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.brandba.se\/blog\/kaylaitsines<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/medium.com\/better-marketing\/how-kayla-itsines-markets-her-billion-dollar-business-4226aac280da<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sweat became the number one most downloaded fitness app in the world by using the power of digitalization and social media to create a loyal community and clearly winning in this highly fragmented market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11116,"featured_media":10547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[533,2603,26,2602,1213],"class_list":["post-10546","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-empower","category-fitness","category-hashtags","category-women","hck-taxonomy-organization-sweat","hck-taxonomy-industry-sports","hck-taxonomy-country-australia"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/assignment\/digital-winners-and-losers-2\/","yoast_head":"\nSweat: How to win in the crowded space of digital fitness training - Digital Innovation and Transformation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/sweat-how-to-win-in-the-crowded-space-of-digital-fitness-training\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sweat: How to win in the crowded space of digital fitness training - 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