Natal · B2C · pregnancy and postpartum fitness app
DM every new user personally and invite them to a coach-run community
31% of community joiners return on day 2; no baseline
Workedretentioncommunitycustomer-support
What they did
As soon as a user enters the app, a real person DMs them ('Welcome to the app. Let me know what I can help you find'). In-app community staffed all day by expert coaches answering pelvic floor and similar questions.
What happened
Users who engage with a coach or community are more likely to return; community entrants: 31% return D2, 14% D3 (no non-community baseline given).
- Stage
- ongoing
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · How Removing the Free Trial Grew Monthly Subs 2000% – Nancy Anderson, Natal“As soon as they get into the app, a real person is reaching out to them like, "Hey, just shooting a DM. Welcome to the app. Let me know what I can help you find."”
“In our in-app community, if they get in there, 31% of them are coming back on day 2 and 14% are still returning by day 3.”
Related topics
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More from this episode
- Nancy Anderson Fit: Sell a program as a monthly 30-day group challenge with before/after photos100 signups in month one, 125 in month two; kept growing
- Nancy Anderson Fit: Run paid social ads before Apple's tracking changeWorked well for a couple of years, then Apple's tracking change hurt it
- Natal: Post funny, relatable personal content, not just product postsStories get ~50K views; organic beats competitors' by 90%
- Natal: Reply to every DM, comment and email with a real expert within 24 hoursTrial-to-paid ~68% vs 38% typical; not isolated
- Natal: End posts with a soft 'learn more' instead of a sales pitch
- Natal: Turn down brand deals and affiliate links to keep audience trustGives up an estimated $0.5-1M/year; benefit not measurable
- Nancy Anderson Fit: Turn the questions people keep asking in DMs into your main programOver 1M users; still the top traffic driver
- Natal: Merge several niche apps into one app users keep across life stagesLess confusion and a lower price; ARR +20% in Q1 2026
- Natal: Narrow to pre- and postnatal fitness and rename the brand away from the founder
- Natal: Have your in-house expert coaches film the brand's videosFounder says it's working well; no numbers
- Natal: Ask 10-15 onboarding questions and show only content for the user's stage
- Natal: Build a new program for every client requestBiggest fail of the year: too many choices, users didn't start
- Natal: Offer a free posture check by a real expert that picks the first workout68-70% who finish it complete their first workout
- Natal: Never give away free workouts or freebies
- Natal: Let people pay with their health savings account (HSA) at checkoutTens of thousands of dollars in two weeks, unpromoted
- Natal: Push 'spend your HSA dollars before they expire' at year end
- Natal: Drop the free trial on the monthly planMonthly subs up ~2,000%, annual +21% (founder's rough recall)
- Natal: Raise subscription pricesARR still grew 20% that quarter
- Natal: Pay influencers to post about the brand