Henrik Torstensson
Many consumers might think Noom or Weight Watchers are industry leaders with their nonstop commercials, but neither is the fastest-growing weight management program.
Over the past year, nutrition app Lifesum has acquired users at nearly twice the rate of both Noom and Weight Watchers, according to statistics from Sensor Tower, the independent market intelligence for the mobile app economy.
Over this past summer, we surpassed Noom on the global scale with 45 million users. More impressively, we accomplished this without any TV buys. That’s right — no multimillion dollar ad campaigns, allowing us to redistribute precious marketing dollars to other growth projects.
Here’s a closer look at the three growth marketing tactics I credit with helping us scale Lifesum over the last 36 months. It’s a strategy any startup can use, regardless of size or budget.
Understand the different generational lenses
Generations approach products differently. It’s important for startups to understand the different generational approaches of their customers. Startups that spend time thinking and strategizing about where generational trends are going will scale faster.
Millennials and Generation Z are now the largest consumer market in the world, so you can’t ignore them if you want to scale. With Lifesum these generations have helped our brand surpass the older and well-established competitors. We achieved this by intimately understanding how they view health and fitness.
Gen Z and millennials are all about empowerment. They grew up with Google and Facebook, having information at their fingertips. They are far less likely to be moved by a TV commercial since they desire to discover the world on their own.
In our industry, we’ve learned millennials and Gen Z don’t want a one-size-fits-all weight loss program or to count calories like their parents did 20 years ago. As millennials and Gen Z started embracing keto, intermittent fasting and pescatarian diets, our nutrition team had already created tailored programs to help them stick with it.
Bypass traditional marketing methods
As a brand, it’s important to look ahead and anticipate what is coming next. This also applies to marketing your product. If you get in early with emerging marketing platforms, you will save money and potentially reach more early adopters.
Facebook marketing is traditional by today’s digital marketing standards, but when we launched Lifesum in 2013 in Sweden, Facebook was an innovative marketing platform. We advertised with Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Snap well before their sites exploded with advertisers, making our ad buy much more cost effective. More recently, we started advertising on TikTok before much of the U.S. had discovered it.
These ad spends were minimal compared to TV, yet they brought us just as much exposure. Early adopters to these emerging platforms are also more likely to be early adopters of your product.
We’ve also measured how positive reviews in the media drive more downloads. Today’s younger generations don’t want to hear Oprah talk about a weight-loss product. They know she’s a paid endorsement. But it’s different with product reviews in large media outlets.
Earlier this year, the editor of PC Magazine wrote in her story that Lifesum was “one of the best weight management apps I’ve seen,” while a writer for the national Parade Magazine called Lifesum her “personal favorite.” That’s more persuasive and more affordable than any TV commercial.
Form strategic partnerships
Any startup who has tried to get meetings with corporations, tech companies or investors knows it isn’t easy getting your foot in the door. When Lifesum opened its first U.S. office in 2017, it was just as difficult for us. Few had heard of our brand outside of Europe.
Three years later, we’ve formed strategic collaborations with global brands like Amazon, Apple, Samsung and others. So how did we get in the door?
First off, you need to have a good product and user experience. You can be the best startup sales guy but if you don’t have a good product, no one will want to partner with you. That should go without saying but it’s an important point to reflect on. Make sure you’re ready for larger partnerships before you reach out to them.
Assuming you’ve hit that milestone, your product must also help your larger partner by complementing their existing products and services. We recently collaborated with Amazon on its newly unveiled health and wellness wearable, Amazon Halo. Lifesum became its nutrition expert, which in turn introduced our nutrition program to an entirely new user base.
We also have a great working relationship with Apple. Our nutrition widget for the iOS update was featured at Apple’s Keynote Conference and viewed by more than 22 million people. This free promotion from partnerships brought a better return than any TV commercial, while also introducing our nutrition app to influential early tech adopters.
Contrary to what many entrepreneurs believe, bigger brands don’t always want to build a product or expertise brand from scratch. If they partner with your expertise, both sides can frequently scale faster and benefit from innovation. At the same time, partnerships can help smaller startups scale by accessing the distribution channels from the larger partner.
All three of these strategies have one thing in common: You need to have a good product out of the gate. You won’t get good consumer reviews and the media won’t say positive things if you launch without a strong, stable product that meets customers’ needs. Larger corporations won’t want to partner with you as well unless your product is top notch. But if the product is right for the time with a solid user experience, you will be better positioned to take on your industry leaders with the help of these tactics.
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