17 minutes a day: Most subscription companies can only dream of such engagement. In my “Subscribe Now” podcast episode, I spoke to Ellie Hughes, Marketing Director at Freeletics, where she told me how they keep users motivated throughout the entire subscription journey.
And I guarantee that you can learn something from this, even if you sell news or software instead of fitness.
I summarized my 7 biggest learnings for you in today’s deep dive.
1. Start with why
Freeletics relies on strong emotions throughout the entire user journey. Ellie says:
“You can wrap almost anything up in a nice story because, at the end of the day, it’s emotions that connect us. I can identify much better with an emotion than with a product, which may seem irrelevant at first glance.”
To make this work in practice, she reveals a few tricks:
1. Always ask “why”
Users have very different reasons for wanting to get fit: some want to fit into a wedding dress, some want to be more successful at dating and others want to change their mindset.
If you understand these underlying motivations, you can address the strong emotions in acquisition, but also in churn prevention.
Laddering helps with this. So ask “why?” several times in a row.
Why did you sign up for Freeletics?
“I want a six-pack.”
Why do you want a six-pack?
“Because I’m ashamed of my body in the swimming pool.”
Why are you ashamed of your body?
“Because others might think I lack discipline”
2. User Generated Content
Freeletics’ advertising relies primarily on content from real users. They work with impressive transformations, i.e. before and after videos.
The idea behind it is: “If Peter can do it, then I can do it too.”
These videos are sometimes sent in by users without being asked, but sometimes they are also professionally produced, for example as part of a boot camp lasting several weeks, where the participants are accompanied by camera teams.
Ellie says: “Many people are actually very proud to be Freeletics users because it has a certain meaning in terms of consistency and effort.”
3. Show relevant success stories
These success stories work particularly well when they are highly personalized. As a woman, you are more likely to be attracted to a female success story than to a man who has trained himself to have a six-pack.
But it gets even more granular. Since Freeletics wants to appeal to as diverse a target group as possible, they also have videos with trans people and other minorities so that they too feel represented.
This personalization begins with targeting on the advertising channels, but also continues through to engagement and retention. The CRM campaigns, for example, always contain motivational stories that are tailored as well as possible to the user.
2. Personalization in onboarding
Most successful apps now start onboarding with a questionnaire.
This questionnaire has two functions:
- Based on your answers, the appropriate subscription benefits can be displayed to increase your conversion from free to paid
- Your answers are the first step to personalization
With Freeletics, you start by choosing a training plan that suits your preferences. The better the app knows you, the better the plan fits your lifestyle and the more likely you are to stick with it.
Ellie says that the training plan meets 85% of the needs in the first week and then becomes more personalized from workout to workout.
> Publisher onboarding benchmarks and best practices
3. Streaks keep daily engagement high
One day without using Duolingo and the streak is gone. Ouch!
Freeletics has also started using the popular streak-strategy. In order to not lose the streak, you have to exercise for at least 17 minutes a day, otherwise the counter drops back to zero.
Ellie emphasizes that these streaks are not relevant for every user, but some even write to support if the streak didn’t work because of a different time zone while on vacation! It shows how much they want the workout to be recognized.
The email tool that I use for my newsletter proves that streaks work outside of sports and languages. I write this newsletter in beehiiv and if I don’t publish a newsletter within four days at the latest, my weekly streak expires.
By the way, Ellie is currently at 309 days in Duolingo. Respect!
4. Understand the conversion killers – and address them openly
It’s not enough to understand why someone wants to use the app. It’s just as important to understand why not?
At Freeletics, they realized early on that many people don’t have much space to train at home. So they developed special workouts that can work in small spaces. Other users have neighbors who complain about the noise, so they need quiet workouts.
If you understand these conversion killers, you can address them openly and offer solutions. That’s why such restrictions are asked about directly in the onboarding process. This is where Freeletics can show that they understand your concerns and take the limitations into account when personalizing.
5. Activate the community with challenges
70,000 people took part in the Freeletics Summer Challenge. This surprised even Ellie and her team. The goal is to make the challenge even bigger and better this January.
The challenge shows that the best way to motivate one another is for people to share a common goal and unite over this.
6. Newsletter as MVP
12 years ago, three students sent training plans as PDFs via email. That was the birth of Freeletics.
This example shows once again that a newsletter is often the best minimum viable product to find out, without much effort, whether people want your product.
If a significant number of people give you their email address, you have a first positive signal. But even more important is what happens when you take the newsletter away from them.
When the founders stopped the newsletter, users wrote to them: “Here are my PayPal credentials, take whatever you want, but please keep sending me my training plan.”
7. A letter to yourself
This feature does not exist yet, but Ellie dreams of introducing it! Anyone who registers for the app can write a letter to themselves and make a commitment in it.
When your motivation wanes after a few weeks, this letter appears again and you are reminded of the big dreams you started with.
You will find out if this feature is really coming when you install the app…
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