Acquisition project | Spur.fit

Introduction:

As part of the acquisition project, I'm working on the product - Spur.Fit to design the potential acquisition channels for us.

​

​

The first question is "What is Spur.Fit?"

Spur.Fit is an all-in-one platform to manage your coaching operations as a fitness/health coach, i.e. a

Shopify for fitness & health coaches.

It's been just over a year since we've been in operation, hence we are in the early stages of our PMF, currently, we have just over 1000 coaches, across 60+ countries.

Coming to the user distribution, out of the 1129 coaches, over 60% of our audience was targeted in India & USA, cause the persona of coaches we were looking for were,

• Early adopters to tech & tools - hence age profile of 21-40 years of age, Male or Female
• Small business owners, micro-influencers & UGC creators, who are willing to spend their time and also don't mind paying a subscription fee to experiment with new tools on incentive of social validation
• Spend their time primarily on online/virtual coaching as our product is more suitable to them, not in-person trainers at a gym because we're Shopify- we take your business digital. The features could be limiting them as of this stage.
  

​

Now, where does Spur.Fit land in this rapidly growing" fitness industry?

The fitness industry as per a bunch of sources, the Indian online fitness market is expected to grow between 25-30% CAGR, whereas in the USA this number is between 32-37%. The online fitness market comprises digital products in the fitness & health space.

• Between Q1 and Q2 of 2020, fitness app downloads rose by 46% globally.
• And India topped the list
• India had the maximum increase in downloads – a whopping 157%. 
• 58 million active users registered via numerous health apps in 2020

This industry is speculated to be valued at $15.3 billion as of 2024, but this includes - wearables (wristwear, smart wear, etc.) & apps - (tracking/analyzing, etc.) & with an estimated 32% CAGR - almost $300 billion by 2032.

While all of these stats are promising, it's also a pretty competitive market, there were over 250,000+ apps on health & fitness on the App Store & Play Store as of 2018 itself, I couldn't find data post that but estimates state that over 100k+ apps were getting added from 2020, which means over 500k+ apps.

Clearly this is a booming industry & thus multiple companies are trying to solve various problems in this sector based on physical & mental fitness. If you want to read further data, I'll add a glossary at the end.

Let's understand how our competitors are doing in this space. Coming to global space, the biggest competitors, include,

1. Trainerize - Acquired by ABC Fitness, it's currently generating 20+ million USD a year, ABC Fitness as a whole? - 40X sitting at 800+ million in revenue as of 2024.
2. PTDistinction - Generating revenue of over 5 million dollars, with coaches from over 140+ countries using it
3. EverFit - Over 15+ million dollars in revenue per year, in less than 4 years.
4. Superset - They started recently, hence are 2-3 years ahead of us, so they are a pretty good competitor for a case study

In India,

1. Fitbudd - As of 2023, they just hit about 1 million USD in revenue. Building from India to the globe
2. Bookee - They target enterprises, which could be a potential market for us in the future. They have 100+ enterprises already in the USA, they're building from India

There are over 1000+ such apps, from over 100+ countries, but they are all trying to solve a specific problem under the big umbrella of health & wellness.

​

Target User Persona

"Through automation, you can save your time" is the pain point that we're trying to solve for the age persona of these young coaches who want to optimize their business.

With the help of AI CoPilot, they can create custom programs & plans to schedule, track & manage their client's progress to help them achieve results.

Our ICPs consume their content on social media, primarily on Instagram & TikTok along with forums, & a bunch of niche groups based on the sort of coaching they provide.

Based on this, we went ahead and acquired other freelance coaches who train their clients online as these coaches fit all the above-mentioned criteria. With the help of the founder network, we acquired a few users too.

Have a look at the table below, it mentions what our coach's prior setup was & their biggest point. Having competitive pricing helps too, but the product's core features were built around the pain point hence acquiring wasn't a bigger hassle. Defining our user persona helps with that

​

Now, coming to design acquisition channels, let's understand a few things.

1. We have 1000+ coaches - this is early PMF, and the priority is to acquire them based on pain points as well as a willingness to pay for such tools.

In the USA, an average online fitness & health coach earns about $50-60k per year. Out of this, they typically spend about $1000-1500 a year. Again, these are skewed numbers, on the higher end some coaches spend over $6-8k easily on their annual subscriptions to such tools. In India & other newer markets, the amount is less however there's a willingness to pay. Examples - are South Africa, India, the Philippines, Turkey, and Egypt- to name a few. Here the coaches earn between USD 10-$30k/year on average & they'd be willing to spend $400-600 dollars a year.

2. This is a competitive industry, people have their versions of Japanese GrandFathers bailing them out, hence your CAC to LTV ratio should be 1:5 minimum.

Few of these brands have spent over $15-20k/month on Google Ads budget & are ranking higher on investigative keywords in our industry and their spend on influencers is over USD 10k per reel, which just isn't justified for our scale & goals currently.

​

To design the acquisition system, let's have 3 channels based on,

1. Measurable in <30 days
2. Measurable in 30-90 days
3. Measurable in 90-180 days

Based on this, the 3 channels that I would like to prioritize on,

1. Referrals
2. Content Loop + Socials
3. SEO

​

Time to deep dive into these

Acquisition channel 1 - Referrals

Objective - Design an effective referral program with the right incentives to acquire new users

Timeframe to measure - <30 days

Cost - Direct Cash would be needed, but low - will explain why. About $100 to acquire 5 paying coaches

Goals - Acquiring new users + Improve Sales (Direct metric), Brand Awareness (in the long run)

Ideal CAC to LTV ratio - it's about 1:3 per coach

CAC - $260 ($20 x 12 = $240) plus 1st month bonus $20

Revenue in a year - $720 (60 x 12 = $720)

Ratio - 1:3 (approx).

Ideal Consumer to refer,

1. Active coaches - now, this metric would be coaches using your tool for 4 weeks in a row without any push
2. Sales + Fitness background - profiles that are into sales & fitness are quite common as this industry demands sales from coaches to be able to sell their programs or in general some products/services.
   They need not be your existing users, but they need to be great salesmen.

Incentives- The million-dollar question? What incentives to provide?

Let's understand the users again, these are fitness coaches who are trying to scale their business. Hence they always need new customers to grow their business.

But this is against our pricing model. We do not charge their clients, coaches generate revenue for us. So, I can't get new leads for these coaches directly. But I can do is help them with enough resources & incentives for it.

Phase 1

Since these coaches are also tech-friendly, create enough resources & tools & distribute them.

An example could be a guidebook on "How to run ads on the Meta platform to generate new leads". While this also becomes a content loop, it could be an incentive for them.

But how do I get users to sign up on this? The product can play a role here. Our platform is on the web for coaches, hence

• Send emails of these tools - The CTA would be "Refer a coach" (Just an email invite) & Unlock this guidebook. It could push for a signup directly into their network
• In-product - Based on their user activity, find the most used feature by the coach & target them with a tool on that. For example - a coach uses our meal planner & tracker. Create a guidebook - "30+ Healthy & Easy to Cook recipes", CTA - "Refer a coach (Email Invite)" & Unlock this guidebook.

But is this scalable? Maybe.

Phase 2

If you have a few active coaches, target them with incentives. You can target them with cash + commission along with the above-mentioned resources.

For active coaches, based on demographics - have a 30% commission (Except USA)

Along with that can have some milestone-based referrals too, like $100 for every 5 paid coaches. Now, how are these numbers written?

Our pricing model.

• Free to use - can add 3 clients (forever)
• $29/month - add 30 clients
• $59/month - add 100 clients
  

This is the pricing structure. Our competitors for example charge,

1. Trainerize - 30 clients - $70/month + in-app purchases, 100 clients - $200/month + in-app purchases
2. FitBudd - Starting from $49/month for 20 clients + in-app purchases
3. SuperSet - Starting from $49/month - limited features
   

But to acquire these users, the CAC as you have seen with Google Keywords is relatively high. Since our pricing is also competitive, CAC must be low.

Since we're also building it on a global scale, offering a 30% commission on $59 - which would be about $20 + $20 fixed, which would be $40 for 1st month, & $20 every month for a specified tenure post that.

Is this scalable? I don't think so. As this grows you're also potentially losing out on $20 every month from an already competitive price. Hence deciding how long would be important, hence about 6-9 months would be a fair timeline to rethink the approach.

Phase 3

The first 2 help with the materialistic incentives. Social validation is a key factor for fitness coaches, hence creating content loops would be crucial too, distributing it with the right resources to have a mutual benefit could be the deciding factor in scaling the referral program.

I've detailed the content loop below. But the target here also would be your active coaches itself

Phase 4

Another ideal consumer is a Sales professional with a Fitness Background.

This is fairly an experiment, but could be worth trying. As a lot of fitness coaches require sales as a primary skill, they end up with roles in sales itself. Design the right cash + incentive models with them, this would be different from active coaches.

They could also help you land high-paying clients, thus better revenue in the longer run.

Is this scalable? Yes, cause here volume isn't a priority, it's getting the right ICP & generating better sales. Hence it will help with overall growth too.

What will this channel flow look like?

• Active coach - email - tool market - CTA - refer & coach & unlock, sign up
• Active coach + Paying customers - 1-1 convo - Cash + Commission - new paying users
• Sales professional + Fitness background - Channels - Cash + Commission - ICP + better sales

What outcomes to measure?

Running these as structured phase-wise experiments & assessing the North Star Metric, i.e. "Number of user sign-ups" must be the priority along with a boost in sales as the secondary goal.

Other metrics to analyze each experiment could be,

1. Phase -1 - in-product referrals IDs, Most referred coaches, which tool had the most sign-ups, etc.
2. Phase - 2 - Sales & revenue numbers, a country with most sign-ups, most referred coaches, etc.

This might be a bit risky, but is achievable. The results would be clear in about 30 days for all these phases to plan, execute & measure the above channel. Experimentation is key, A/B tests on every action point of each campaign to ensure effective results.
Referral is always a low-cost effort, the product will always speak for itself however distributing it well yields exponential results.

​

Acquisition channel 2 - Content Loop + Socials

Objective - Host podcasts with existing coaches, create local content from your existing consumers to drive new growth

Timeframe to measure - 30-60 days

Cost - Setup for the podcast - $50-100 (Mic & Camera from Amazon), & maybe a budget of $50-100/micro-influencer additionally to shoot content with an existing coach in their language, total - $100/month + salary of a resource (intern) - $75/month, tools - $25/month.

Total CAC - $200/month (approx)

If you cannot acquire influencers, create micro-influencers. Our ICP spends their time on Instagram & TikTok, hence the best approach would be to target coaches, who have a following between 10-30k on either platform to create content with them & distribute it through omnichannel marketing. This includes,

• YouTube shorts + Clips - The viewership on shorts is over 3.5 Billion in a day, then focus on creating hook-based content - find relevant questions through various communities, add a coach explaining the solution & share them. Create content based on user pain points. Have the complete video of the podcast too, to drive users to other channels
• Platform-specific - Based on the ICP, target either Instagram & TikTok. Create engaging reels with coaches, plug in the podcast clips & ensure that they are collaborative reels.
• Local Content - Creating content based on their local language - Common issues related to the industry in specific demographics with their solutions, etc. These are just a few ways to ensure you're reaching the direct user.

Here are a few thumbnails of episodes of the podcast. However, these need to be distributed as content loops.

This was the hypothesis, now what metrics to measure in this?

The moment a podcast is posted, distribute it with scale. Again, the bigger objective is to acquire them, so "Number of users signed up" i.e. have created an account. A timeline of 14-21 days should help you give early signs of conversion rates.

Create content in their local language by their micro-influencers to share it across their pages to engage with their network to ensure that you're penetrating likely into your ICP themselves.

This would require,

• Cost - As we have seen, it's about $50 per one-time cost, $100/per month - for resource + tools, and $50-100/per micro-influencer, as it grows the cost can grow too, however, it will rise from year to year on each of the above conditions. I wouldn't spend on ads to promote these anytime soon. So remember to evaluate it every 6 months
• Flexibility - There's pretty good flexibility in terms of how you want to create your content but restrictions on how you want to promote it. Each platform has its algorithms but learning the craft to evaluate them every 3 months would be helpful.
• Effort - This too, has its pros & cons. You need to put in 3-4 resources, spending close to 80-100/week in total of these resources, to ensure the processes are in place for this to work & have measurable outcomes.
• Lead Time - I believe for our exact ICP currently i.e. self-employed online fitness & health coaches the conversions can be extremely quick, if the product can be self-explanatory, getting someone started on a free trial is achievable within a short span. You can push for 10-15 new sign-ups from each micro-influencer coach in 2-3 weeks. When it scales, this would also require some evaluation within 3 months to keep looking at MoM growth.
• Scale - Now even if you have some stagnation with the "number of user sign-ups", remember it's a content loop. It can help you with SEO, on forums, building new referrals in the long run & build brand visibility.

Who are these micro-influencers?

Whatever existing coaches you have, check for their profiles. Create a priority list to understand their biggest pain points, the current paid users are a great start. Generate content loops as social validation, & since they're paid users they're highly likely to recommend & since you'd be paying them, they're highly unlikely to not help. Also, start targeting other ICPs on this model to scale it further, while existing users are on a trial & new users are being acquired.

Tools

Platforms

• YouTube - TubeBuddy/VidIQ, CapCut or Canva Pro, Copy.ai - content
• Instagram/TikTok - CapCut or Canva Pro, Copy.ai - content, Riverside - Podcast, Platform tools itself to understand data insights

Note - Currently, we're maybe starting phase - 1 of this plan, we're setting up these distribution channels, I've added the rest of the Phases here to plan the execution & have enough measurable outcomes. Experimentation is the key in this process with content, design, editing & publishing strategies.

What outcomes to measure?

The Northstar metric always during early PMF is "Number of user sign-ups" but also look out for,

• Basic metrics of Platforms like - Growth of Users subscribing, engaging & viewing your content across all social media apps, Most active time, etc.
• Demographics - Targetting new countries who are viewing your content regularly with micro-influencers of their geolocation
• Loop metrics - Capture numbers on, whether these content pieces are helping SEO rankings with intentional + informational keywords

Having these as a few KPIs might help. Within 30-60 days, I hypothesize that it would give enough metrics to evaluate it.

Micro-content is expected to have various fluctuations due to reasons beyond control. Hence flexibility from the platforms is limited. Focus on experimenting with various micro-content campaigns based on trends & relevancy would be the key factor to build an engaging community in the long run.

​

Acquisition Channel 3 - SEO

Objectives - Generate create content loops & distribute them to rank higher. Metric - Brand Visibility

Timeframe - 90-180 days

Cost - Tools - Semrush $100-$150/month, Resources - 2 interns ($150-$200/month), Additional tools - $50/month (optional)

The first thought that popped up was if EverFit, Trainerize, & Fitbudd are spending over $10k+/month only on Google ads, how would we rank better with <$500/month?

SEO has 5 keyword essentials, right?

1. Informational
2. Investigative
3. Comparison
4. Transactional
5. Navigational

They primarily target their ad spends mainly on investigative, comparison, and navigational.
,

KD averages over 65% in keywords for this category, however, informative keywords can yield high results

Forums - Forums such as bodybuilding.com, FaceBook & Reddit groups are a great way to create informative content

Step 1: Pick the most engaging questions on the forums

​

Step 2: Look for the search volumes, & create an informative article

​

Step 3: Look for references to optimize better

Distribute content loops:

In the above-mentioned acquisition channels where through podcasts, local content, etc. you can scale your brand visibility, SEO plays a crucial role.

Write blogs for podcasts, reviews, pain points of users as case studies, etc. to build authority too. This approach should build an ecosystem of measurable within 3-6 months that can be scalable exponentially. Here too, using geolocation keywords can give an additional boost to your rankings within regions

What outcomes to measure?

SEO is tricky, but within 3 months, keeping a realistic expectation of

1. Keywords & their ranking,
2. Page Authority,
3. Organic sessions,
4. Page engagement rates,
5. Growth in daily viewership numbers

To name a few of the metrics, henceforth analytics would play a crucial role in optimizing your pages better for higher scalability.

This is a highly skilled & effort task, however, it can yield exponential results too. It helps you understand your ICPs better. I believe each competitor has their ICPs based on their pricing, henceforth targeting your ICP through these would be the priority.

You can use email marketing as a key channel to distribute your blogs, articles, case studies, etc. too. Generate local keywords to target new markets. Constant optimizing would help with the overall rankings too.

Summary

For an early PMF product, the approach to the acquisition channels is distributed based on the timeline for measurable outcomes. While low CAC is always a priority, the scale matters too.

Targeting users through Email Marketing in the USA would be a better approach than any other paid channel as CAC is low for conversions, but again user paying cycle comes into play.

Example - During November - January, people typically in the USA spend a lot. Due to Black Friday, Christmas & New Year, and New health resolutions, spending on health & fitness becomes a priority. Hence they target coaches who in turn look for solutions to handle clients & are thus far more likely to spend on technology during this phase.

​

Along with this, target a few markets such as,

Asia - Tukey & South East Asian belt (Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia etc.)

Europe - Greece, Romania, Denmark. Germany could be worth experimenting too

Africa - South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco

South America - Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil (Translation in Spanish could be the key)

• Coaches mentioned in the above countries here typically earn between USD 10-50k/year on average. They're willing to spend $500-$1000/year on technology.
• Coaches in the USA however, earn between USD 50-70k/year on average. They're willing to spend around $1000-1500/year on technology

With these, setting up the acquisition channels to achieve the PMF would be the goal. These channels would create the right ecosystem for the scaling as all 3 can potentially have medium to high yields.

​

Thank you for your time! I'm hoping to implement these channels soon so I can provide measurable outcomes too!

​

​