Alejandro Arce — home Thinking in Public
No. 109 · Marketing

Grow an app with an event and a free gift

Line illustration: a yoga mat rolled beside a wrapped gift box with a ribbon, and a calendar page with a grid of days.

Here is how we grow a yoga app: events.

01
Run an event for new members, like a 30 day challenge.
02
Get in touch with related businesses. Since this was a yoga app, we called yoga prop businesses, holistic products, oracle cards, and so on.
03
We told them we would advertise their products to our fan base.
04
In exchange, they gave us a free gift that we could give away.
05
Then we told the followers.

The partner gets an audience. The members get a gift. The app gets new members.

A challenge has a start date

Yoga With Adriene's 30 Days of Yoga is a free daily practice that opens with a welcome video, then one session a day for 30 days, and lets people practise alongside others around the world. A start date gives a person a reason to join today. A finish line gives them a reason to stay to the end.

Why a partner says yes

Picture a small company that sells yoga blocks. It has no audience of its own yet. You tell it that thousands of people who like yoga will hear its name. It gives you a few blocks to give away. The gift costs the company little, and the introduction is worth more than the blocks.

Tell the partner what you will do before you ask for anything. Say how many followers will see it, where, and when.

Your first test

Write to three related businesses this week. Offer to feature their product for a gift you can give away. Run one challenge. Count how many new members it brought.

One event. Three winners.

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