How to Start an Online Fitness Coaching Platform: A Detailed Guide

The awareness and significance of leading a healthy lifestyle that incorporates flexible workouts, balanced diets, and improved healthcare has increased exponentially in the recent past. There's also been an uptick in the need for fitness programs that help achieve these goals. In response to that many fitness service providers have come up with virtual fitness coaching platforms. In this blog, we'll be taking a look at this online fitness platform market, how they work, and the key features that help individuals reach their fitness goals.

Understanding the Market Trajectory

Online Fitness Coaching is a convenient service for fitness enthusiasts that connects them to a trainer virtually instead of visiting a gym. The global online fitness market size was valued at $6,046 million in 2019 and is projected to reach $59,231 million by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 33.1% from 2020 to 2027.

Source – https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/virtual-online-fitness-market

And with more gyms and fitness centres forced to shut down to comply with COVID - 19 restrictions, the demand is expected to witness the highest growth rate.

Factors Contributing to the Growth Of Online Fitness Coaching

A variety of factors have contributed to the growth of online fitness coaching. Some of the most important ones are mentioned below.

• Lack of time to attend training sessions at fitness centres
• Increasing reliance on the internet and mobile technology
• Increasing health insurance costs
• The growing popularity of fitness programs among the elderly

Benefits for Trainers

Online Fitness Coaching has become an additional source of income for fitness coaches. In addition to the benefits like time and location flexibility, online fitness coaching comes with various other benefits for trainers.

• Expands the audience reach
• Requires minimum investment
• Safer option for immunocompromised trainers
• Deliver pre-recorded sessions when live sessions aren't possible

Benefits for Trainees

The demand for online fitness services has shot up dramatically in recent years. Below mentioned are some reasons that are responsible for this trend:

• Flexibility to set own schedule
• Access to expert trainers from across the globe
• More economical than visiting fitness studios
• Helps save time

Business Model of an Online Fitness Coaching Platform

It is essential you know the inside out of a business plan before you actually launch the business. The typical business model of an online fitness coaching platform is similar to any other on-demand service business model. The platform consists of three entities:

• Admin: The admin is the overall controller of the website who approves/rejects registration requests, manages user profiles, sessions, payment settings, and several settings related to CMS.
• Trainer: Trainers create public profiles, attach certificates, conduct live video sessions, and chat with trainees. Sessions delivered by trainers are the main source of revenue (commission) for the admin.
• Trainee: Trainees create profiles, add their health information, search for fitness trainers, book and attend online training sessions, and submit reviews.

Workflow of an Online Fitness Coaching Platform

1. Trainees create a profile on the platform and add all the required information.
2. Trainees then browse the trainers on the platform by applying all the relevant filters.
3. Trainees get a list of trainers from which they can choose their professional trainer, depending on the workouts, for either a one-on-one session or a group session.
4. After checking the availability and price of the trainers, trainees can then make the payment and schedule a live streaming session.
5. After the successful completion of the live session, the trainees can rate and provide feedback of the trainer.
6. Once the live session is marked completed by both trainer and trainee, the session's payment is released to the trainer's account. This payment amount is adjusted with the admin's pre-defined commission rate. 

Revenue Generation Channels

Having a proper monetization strategy in place is essential to derive revenue from the service you offer to the users. An online fitness coaching platform can have various monetization channels as discussed below:

• Subscription: Business owners can offer monthly/yearly subscriptions to the users to access premium features on the platform.
• Pay Per Session: Business owners can offer paid session option on the platform and earn commission from the same.
• Premium Listings: The platform owner can also add a featured section on the platform to list premium trainers for them to gain more visibility and more sessions.
• Banner Ads: The admin can also display ads on the site which will be a direct source of revenue. Ads can be served by any third-party ad network service like Google AdSense.
• Merchandise: The platform owner can also offer brand merchandise on the platform which will also help in improving the brand visibility and promotion.

Top Market Players in the Online Fitness Coaching Industry

Let's have a look at the market players to get an idea of the global landscape.

Essential Features for an Online Fitness Coaching Platform

A feature-rich website connects and engages your potential clients, enhances your professional image, saves time, and increases your profitability. Below mentioned are the key features required for an online fitness coaching platform:

• Collaboration Tools: For a fitness coaching platform to be truly effective, it needs to offer more than just pre-recorded content and courses. Having access to collaboration tools through the fitness coaching platform like one-to-one sessions and group sessions via video conferencing and file sharing feature to share diet plans will ensure your platform is all set to move towards the future of fitness coaching.

• Reports/Analytics: Monitoring your platform's progress helps determine ways to improve the user experience, which is why analytics should be readily available for the platform owners. Make sure the platform allows you to create and export reports in order to improve the platform leading to better user retention.

• Payment Methods: The platform should be integrated with multiple and seamless in-app payment methods to sell more training sessions. Secure payment gateways integrated into the platform motivate the users to make the payment without any security concerns.

• Reviews: User reviews are critical to building the credibility, leadership, and expertise level of the trainers. After each session, trainees should be asked about their experience of the session. This helps to moderate the performance of the trainers and improve the trust of other users on the platform.

• Real-time Alerts/Notifications: As everyone is juggling between home, work, and other responsibilities these days, it is possible that the scheduled sessions may skip one's mind. In that event, a reminder from the platform can be exceptionally helpful. The platform should send notifications/alerts to the users (trainers & trainees) for the upcoming scheduled session to reduce no-shows.

• Mobile-Friendly: All of the content of the fitness coaching platform should be viewable and accessible on mobile devices. Either being responsive that can adapt across devices like smartphones and tablets or having a PWA that acts like a mobile application of the website is beneficial for the users who are constantly on the move.