Thank You National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM)

Have you ever heard of the phrase, “if you build it, they will come”? Of course you have, and I’m sure the rest of the world has. However, in the software industry it’s a little more like, “if you build it, will they come?”. We have been building TrainerMetrics (formerly Results for iPhone) over the last few years and the most anxiety I’ve had is when we decided to launch an open beta in September of 2015.

When most people hear we are building a software application, instantly they think of Silicon Valley and indispensable cash. Considering TrainerMetrics is a bootstrapped web-based application built by a couple of Personal Trainers, in order to keep the project alive we need to maintain consistent growth.

Why does this matter? Marketing isn’t cheap, nor typically free. So how the hell did we get anyone to sign up for TrainerMetrics when the only real free source of marketing is this blog?

On September 14th, we came across a great Q&A article published by the National Academy of Sports Medicine’s online magazine, The Training Edge online magazine, “What are some quick and accurate body-composition measurement tools that won’t break the bank?”

This article paralleled with our philosophy that a few easy measurements body girth (circumference) measurements can yield important key performance indicators (along with weight) such as body fat%, lean body mass, fat loss, ideal weight, and more.

So what’s the point? We figured an easy attempt to get TrainerMetrics out in the open would be to post a comment with a simple screen shot and an easy takeaway. And we were right.

NASM decided to approve the comment (which unfortunately has been taken down) and we got our first few signups within a week. After 3 months of the comment staying up, we saw over 50 of mostly new Personal Trainers or people studying for their certification sign up for TrainerMetrics.

This may not sound like an overwhelming number, but for us it was the perfect starting place.

We learned that a vast majority of these people decided to use TrainerMetrics because:

1. It helped them make better sense of their textbook, more specifically assessment calculations, procedures, and protocols.
2. They realized that long-hand math is old practice, and TrainerMetrics was a reasonable solution for calculating complex formulas.
3. They could store all of their client data in one place.

So why am I spending time to write NASM a thank you post?

First, they did not have to help us out (regardless if they knew it) by approving our comment and inevitably referring TrainerMetrics. Second, 1 out of 4 people signed up for TrainerMetrics that came from this article which helped us to identify the value different channels. And lastly, these referred users are very responsive to communication and are helping us create an even better service for personal trainers.

So once again, we want to give a big shout out to the National Academy of Sports Medicine for helping us gain some initial steam with TrainerMetrics and we look forward to a possible partnership in the future.