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Diet And Fitness Apps: Check Out These Tips Before Selecting One For Your Gym Members
Tejal Surve 28-09-2021It is very common to see a person using a diet and fitness app on their smartphone. So much so that you may not find many people who are fitness conscious and do not have a fitness application on their phones.
The popularity has soared especially after the advent of wearables in 2014. People have realized and decided to change their sedentary lifestyles. Even people who go to a gym or fitness facility use applications to manage their fitness. However, almost all of such applications are integrated with the gym management software that their facility uses.
Gyms and fitness clubs now need to keep up with the technology to ensure that they stay with the current times and offer the best services to their members. But before you go choosing the right diet and fitness application for your gym members, here are some tips for you.
Follow these tips to find the right fitness app for your gym members. Let’s understand what diet and fitness apps are first.
What are Diet and Fitness Apps?
Smartphone applications used to track and manage health and fitness come under the umbrella of diet and fitness applications. However, not every fitness app is the same. There are different types of applications that people use according to their needs and requirements.
Broadly, they are divided into two types,
• Standalone apps and
• Diet and fitness apps linked to the gym ERP software
Let’s explore them briefly.
Standalone Fitness Apps
These are applications that can be used by anyone regardless of whether they are a part of any gym or fitness facility or not. These applications can be free, contain in-app purchases, or can be paid depending on the developer or provider of the application.
Within these apps, there are further different types.
• Nutrition apps
• Fitness exercise apps
• Fitness streaming apps
• Mindfulness and wellness apps
• Activity tracking apps
These applications allow users to manage different aspects of their fitness. Users can simply download and register to start using the application. For paid apps, users either have to pay for workout routines, customized diet & exercise plans, or they have to pay to download the application.
Diet and Fitness Apps Integrated with Gym ERP Software
These are fitness applications specifically for gym members to manage their fitness and training schedules in and outside the facility. Gyms that use the gym management software often choose to integrate member and trainer applications with it to offer better services to the members.
These are free smartphone applications for gym members and can be downloaded on both Android and iOS platforms. They are connected to the gym software at the fitness facility and can sync all the member-related data between the smartphone and the ERP system.
The main aim for such applications is to improve the communication between fitness facilities and their members while also helping to improve their performance in the gym. Gym facilities can get the app customized and branded for their gym and can ask their members to download it.
This way, it offers tools for member retention for your gym and allows you to provide more efficient services to your gym members. That is one of the major reasons why most gym owners would choose to recommend the gym’s branded diet and fitness application.
Recommending Diet and Fitness Apps
What do you look for in a fitness application to recommend to your gym members? Or do you simply recommend the most popular application there is? Understand what are some of the most important things to know before recommending fitness apps to your gym members.
Your recommendation for any application should not only help your gym members perform better but also contribute to your gym’s branding. Hence, you must choose your recommendations wisely.
Here are a few tips to select the right diet and fitness app for your gym members.
It Should be Personalized
Understand that your gym members are paying you for the services you offer. Your fitness app should be able to do the same for them. Every member of your gym will have different goals, different requirements, and different body structures. Hence, the app should be able to offer them personalized features that will be able to help them with their goals.
Linking your trainer’s insights with your gym member’s goals is the best way to personalize your offerings to your members. When a trainer first understands the member’s goals, medical history, and lifestyle, they can create an accurate diet and workout plan that is personalized for the member’s needs.
Similarly, your gym member application should be able to consider every variable about the member for creating a diet and workout chart. There is no one-size-fits-all in exercising, you need to make sure that your members reach their fitness goals using the app you recommend.
Use this Opportunity for Branding
Wouldn’t it be nice if the app you recommend reflects your fitness brand? It will not only become your exclusive virtual platform for your members but also increase brand recognition in your members as well as others.
Instead of promoting someone else’s brand, it is rather wise to create your own branded application exclusively for your gym members.
And that is our next tip!
Make it a Member-Exclusive App
This is important for members’ data safety and attracting new members to your gym facility.
When you create a member-exclusive app, you are allowing only your members to access the features and content that you offer. This means that no unauthorized person can access your quality content.
Also, when you are offering high-quality content in your app and teasing it on your social media and other platforms, your target audience is going to be curious about it, and would want to access it. You can leverage that to increase your gym memberships.
Ensure that it has Attendance Management
Syncing your member’s biometrics with a gym diet and fitness app has its benefits. Hence, it is also a great way to allow your members to keep a tab of their regular gym attendance through their smartphones.
If the fitness application is integrated with the gym management software in your gym, then it will also be helpful for you to maintain their attendance records in one place. The online gym ERP software like VFitnessClub offers you so many more features and modules than this.
The attendance management feature also ensures that no unauthorized person enters the facility without your permission.
It Must Make Communication Easier
Communication is the key to member retention. The more you keep your members in the loop of what is happening in your gym, the more they will feel like a part of your gym community.
Your gym offers will help retain members only for a short while. It is the sense of community that builds loyalty among your gym members so they would want to keep coming back to your gym. A robust communication channel that connects you to your gym members is necessary.
If your diet and fitness app offers features such as push notifications or in-built messaging then you can send personalized messages to your members on various events. Whether it is to notify changes in schedule, announce a fitness event, offer members discount on merch, or wishing them happy birthday, you can send them all communication through the app you recommend.
FAQs
What are the benefits of fitness apps?
A fitness app linked with your fitness facility’s gym management software allows you to stay connected with the trainers and access your gym schedule whenever you want. It also allows you to access your workout and diet plan offline so that you always are working towards your fitness goals regardless of whether you have an active internet connection or not.
There are many other benefits of fitness apps for the members as well as the trainers.
What do you need in a fitness app?
As mentioned earlier, there are some things you should ensure before recommending a diet and fitness app to your gym members. These are:
• It should be personalized
• Use this opportunity for branding
• Make it a member-exclusive app
• Ensure that it has attendance management
• It must make communication easier
Are Fitness Apps Effective Tools to Increase Health and Fitness?
Yes, fitness apps can be very effective to motivate you and track your health and fitness whenever you want. They help you understand your progress whenever you exercise. This way, you can track even the smallest progress which can motivate you to put in more effort.
Here are some ways a fitness app linked to your gym can help you:
• It streamlines communication.
• Syncs workout and diet schedules to what your trainer has planned.
• Helps you keep a track of your gym attendance.
• Keeps a tab of gym payments.
• And many more...
EndNote
When you want to recommend a diet and fitness app to your gym members, understand that it should bring them closer to your gym and its offers instead of pushing them away. With the fitness app linked to the gym management software, you not only help your members manage their fitness and diet but also give them a tool to stay connected with your gym.
Furthermore, a gym ERP system will help you manage and optimize your gym activity, whether it is managing finance, creating member schedules, or managing inventory. You can start a free trial of gym software to understand what it has to offer and how it can help your facility.
Tell us what you look for in a diet and fitness app for yourself or your gym member. Share your thoughts on this in the comments below and if you think this might be helpful for someone you know, then share it with them.
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