Next-Gen App Development for Fitness Influencers & Personal Trainers
If you are passionate about sports, an active lifestyle, and motivating others to take action, this article is just for you. Read to the end to explore the benefits of creating your custom fitness app and ways it can boost your influence online.
Just a couple of words about fitness apps
If you are here, you definitely have something to do with sports, know how to cook healthy food, and want to share this knowledge with others. What if we told you that the best way to do this is to build your own mobile app?
From streamlining your routine processes to providing new monetization opportunities, custom fitness software can do magic for your sports blog.
And here’s a motivational fact that will support you in your plans: about 87% of smartphone users prefer to use fitness apps to track their physical activity and overall health. Just imagine, this is the audience waiting for your fitness app to be created!
The journey promises to be challenging, however, with support from a team of dedicated expert developers, it can even please you. Together we can create an app that can people love because it helps them feel and look better.
What fitness app do you need?
Depending on your specific niche in sport, you may want to develop different fitness apps. Let`s see some examples:
Training programs apps. As a personal trainer who has lived through the COVID-19 pandemic, you know that going to the gym is no longer necessary. They can practice at home with video workouts. Your fitness app could be a collection of cool workout programs for bodybuilding, yoga, CrossFit, or specific sports like basketball, soccer, etc.
Apps for healthy nutrition. Sports and food go hand in hand. Indeed, when it comes to weight loss programs, we are also often talking about a healthy, balanced, and not boring diet. Your followers will simply be happy to get cooking ideas from someone who has the same experience as you.
Progress tracking apps. People find it difficult to find the motivation that will allow them to continue exercising, especially when starting out or after a long break. Unfortunately, exercise is only effective if it is done regularly. To motivate your audience and help them track their workout results easily, you can create a progress-tracking app.
Social apps. Training is much more fun when you have a group of people united by the same exercise program and goal. Creating an app where users can share their experiences of getting fit will encourage natural competition among users and a supportive community, which can attract more people to use your app.
Developing a fitness app: where to begin?
Now that you’ve decided to develop a fitness app, you’re probably thinking about taking your first steps in this direction. These three steps can make it easier for you to collaborate with a dedicated software development team when starting a project:
Step 1. Identify yourself
Think about who you are and what you want to give to your audience. It all starts with the people and the purpose for which you are building the application. Depending on their athletic skills, needs, and preferences, you can change the included features, content, and business strategy.
Step 2. Do a research
Once you know your place in the market, it’s time to study your competitors. Take note of what you like about their business approach, what features their apps have, and other things that can inspire you to create a unique brand voice.
Step 3. Outline app features
Finally, you have all the information you need. Now you can move on to the features you would like to have in your application. Feel free to use your imagination and your wildest ideas. Later, when you work with a dedicated development team, they will help you turn your ideas into working features.
Which is better: a SaaS fitness app or a custom fitness app?
This question worries all novice business owners. They want to know what type of application is best for their case. It all depends on your budget, time frame, and just personal preference. Let’s look at the pros and cons of both SaaS and custom fitness apps:
We’ll start with SaaS fitness applications. Their main advantage is that they are almost ready to use. There is no need to hire a team of developers and create features from scratch. It usually takes a few hours to set everything up and the rest is done automatically, including server maintenance and software updates. But this can also be a disadvantage. There is always a chance that something will get out of control and result in a loss of money and time for your business.
When it comes to bespoke software development, it offers a lot of customization options. By collaborating with a team of designers and developers, you can create an app that is completely consistent with your personal brand. A dedicated team will create an application according to your unique needs and the requirements of your target audience.
This way, you’ll only spend time and money building features that you actually need and can use. Even though the benefits that custom software development offers are enormous, still one of the most limiting factors when choosing custom fitness app development is the high price.
How do we develop a mobile app for fitness bloggers?
The TRIARE team has extensive experience in developing solutions, including ones for fitness bloggers. Here’s what the process will look like if you hire us to work on your project:
Discovery phase. During it, we gain important knowledge and lay a solid foundation for the development process. Discovery helps us determine the entire scope of work with a detailed description, calculate budgets and implementation deadlines. With this information, you can plan your investments more predictably.
Business analysis. At this stage, we ensure problem-solution fit, product-market fit, and business model fit. The analysis process identifies any ambiguities and brings stakeholders on the same page regarding the future product. Also, our business analytics conducts research to better understand a business idea and build/improve business logic.
Design & Development. We start by getting to know you and your business goals, then work with you to design your app layouts and create the final product. Our developers then write clean code for your fitness app, adding feature after feature. All this according to Scrum best practices.
Quality assurance. We have an in-house team of testers who take care of the highest code quality at every development stage. Thanks to our STF, developers and testers can control and manage real-time testing on many devices regardless of how far they are from the clients.
Warranty. The warranty period is completely free for our clients and is equal to half the duration of the project. It allows you and your users to thoroughly test the software in real-life scenarios and provide feedback on any necessary adjustments or improvements.
Maintenance. During app maintenance, our development team will implement application monitoring tools (e.g. Crashlytics, Google Analytics, Firebase) for the fitness app we built for you. Thanks to these tools, we can detect any glitches, monitor application statistics and plan for product improvements.
What risks are there at each stage of fitness app development?
Developing a custom fitness app from scratch is a complex process that comes with its own risks. Here’s what they can be and how we prevent them from occurring in our projects:
Risks of insufficient planning. It’s easy to screw things up from the start by doing insufficient market research and creating an app that your users don’t need. Experienced software development companies deeply study user preferences and pain points to provide users with a truly unique application that suits their needs.
Risks of poor design. Your fitness app should be easy to navigate and visually appealing from the very first layout. Otherwise, you risk getting an app that only confuses users and makes them want to quit the game as soon as possible. Our team of dedicated UI/UX designers will do everything possible to make your fitness app user-friendly and visually appealing.
Development risks. Well, here we won`t say that we develop with zero bugs. Bugs are part of the process, and through rigorous code reviews and unit testing, we spot and fix them quickly and easily. Moreover, we ensure that the code we create is written according to the latest standards to prevent security vulnerabilities and compatibility issues.
Risks of inadequate testing. They are somehow related to the previous group of risks. Undetected errors can certainly lead to poor application performance and even security issues. To minimize the number of bugs that may occur after release, our QA specialists conduct usability tests and often work with users to test the application on real, everyday tasks.
How to create content that attracts more subscribers
There’s one more thing left. Just before releasing the project, you will need to fill your fitness app with engaging content that will bring both benefit and pleasure to the user. Here are our tips for creating content that will help you attract more users:
Offer content that solves a problem. When you know your audience and their pain points, you can offer them a fitness app and content that makes their sports journey easier.
Communicate with your audience. Connect with your followers, use trending topics, create quality content, and maintain casual communication daily.
Use SEO techniques. Adding a few keywords can get your app to the top of search results. And with AI tools like ChatGPT, enriching your text content with the right keywords takes just minutes.
Promote your content. And it’s not always about buying ads, you can promote your content organically by collaborating with other content creators and making sure your users are happy to spread the word.
What business benefits can a fitness app provide?
Just in case by the end of this article you’ve forgotten why you started this journey, here’s a reminder. Your fitness app should bring you the following benefits and many more:
Monetization opportunities. Your initial investment can pay off very quickly if you add some monetization features to your app. For example, subscription plans, in-app purchases, premium content, etc.
Brand recognition. Your custom fitness app is a powerful branding tool that communicates your brand’s values and vision through design and content, making it easily recognizable among users.
Building trust with users. A custom fitness app is a special space where you and your audience can connect and develop athletic skills. This creates a sense of community and increases audience loyalty.
Our experience in fitness app developing
Here at TRIARE, we’ve got loads of experience developing apps for all sorts of industries, including health and wellness. We’ve already nailed several projects in this area.
Teaming up with us means you’ll not only get a top-notch fitness app but also some great support along the way as you grow your influence. When it comes to health and fitness, we’re here to help you make the most of your journey as an influencer.
Conclusion
Having a custom fitness app can truly be a game-changer, and the effort and hassle are absolutely worth it.
With its unique set of features, your app becomes the perfect match for your audience. Its design not only catches the eye but also speaks in your brand’s voice through visuals. When combined, these elements create a commercially successful fitness app. Let us know if you need assistance developing one for health and wellness!
