When you’ve chosen personal training for a career, it can provide you with some wonderful opportunities to meet and forge relationships with some fascinating people. While it’s important to work on maintaining these relationships, you also need to find the time to get new clients to walk through your door. While marketing your services might be covered when you study for your qualifications, it won’t have been in too much detail. So, here are some tips on how you can market your services and grow your personal training business.
Have an Awesome Website
A website is almost as essential for your business as having the right premises and equipment. For any modern business to be successful, it has to have a website, and it’s no different if you’re a personal trainer. Word-of-mouth in your local area will only work so far. Your site is a chance for you to showcase what you can offer and give potential clients an insight into your personality. It must provide clear details about your services including price packages and contact information. A few before and after shots might be a great idea and some testimonials from previous clients.
Work on Your Branding
Branding has proved to be a very successful marketing tool for thousands of different companies. Apple, Coca Cola, Nike, and Amazon are just a few that spring to mind. It can also work for your personal training business! You have to know yourself, be known and get recognised.
- Start by making a list of your strengths and weaknesses, what defines you, what you’re passionate about, what are your specialities, and what makes you stand out from everyone else offering the same service. Any marketing you do has to showcase these points.
- To get known, you have to work on building your network and learn how to promote yourself using social media platforms. Put up ads in your local area and generally increase your visibility.
- If you want to be recognised, you have to make sure people remember who you are and what you’re offering them.
- If you have a budget to outsource, find out how to find the right internet marketing company for you.
Word-of-Mouth and Recommend a Friend Campaign
Word-of-mouth advertising and recommendations are one of the most cost-effective ways to market your business. You might have to provide incentives for your clients to spread the word, but the cost of this will be covered because you’ll have new clients. Rewards and incentives don’t have to be huge. It could be a free training session, some fitness gear, a voucher for a healthy meal or a spa treatment. If you work freelance, you could also consider asking your local gym, health club or studio to refer leads to you as well.
Use Social Media
Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube have become very powerful marketing tools for a wide range of businesses. It’s a great way to build a credible and trustworthy reputation and widen your reach. It does require time and effort, however. Merely setting up an account is not enough. Regular posts have to be made. You need to write interesting and engaging training tips, retweet any mentions and recommendations you might get from existing clients. It’s essential you gain a following as this will result in more leads.
Become an Avid Blogger
As well as using social media, you should also be harnessing the power of blogging. Provide useful information for your target audience including workout tips, facts about nutrition, and announcements about your services. As long as you do this, your audience will keep on growing. It’s also a great way to add some personality to your business and will help to drive targeted traffic from the various search engines.
As well as writing for your website, consider writing blogs for the fitness industry. You can do this by approaching fitness bloggers or media outlets. Many of them are very receptive to receiving fitness posts from others in the industry.
Send Regular Emails
As well as working on your marketing for new clients, it also pays to utilise your existing client base and upsell or expand their reach. A great way to do this is with an email campaign. Using emails, you’re able to connect with your clients and send them personal messages, links to relevant articles and other business-related information. Even though certain clients might only visit you once or twice a month, sending them a weekly email will keep you at the front of their mind.
Give Your Clients Homework
This is a good way of getting your clients to feel they’re getting value for money. Your sessions probably only last 30 minutes or an hour at the most. Giving them something to do in between their sessions with you provides more value for them. It’s also something you can talk about when they return for their next meeting.
Invest in Your Own Professional Development
You’ve already obtained the necessary qualification from a reputable training provider like, The Fitness Group or OriGym training in order to offer your services, but that doesn’t mean you should stop learning. There are other personal training areas you could specialise in. You might have started your career by concentrating on clients who want to lose weight or get fit, but you could expand your client base by helping clients who want to be able to alleviate their pain or recover from injuries or surgery. There is a wide range of areas you can explore including a level 4 nutrition course, martial arts, yoga, youth or senior fitness.
As well as gaining additional qualifications, it also helps to keep abreast of changes in the industry. The fitness industry is constantly changing and evolving, and it helps to keep your finger on the pulse. If your clients approach you and ask about a new trend, you want to be able to answer them confidently.
Search Engine Optimisation
You want your business to feature in any relevant searches made online, so you need to invest in SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation techniques. One way of doing this is to get listed on the most popular online directories. If you’ve got a website, it’s also going to help, although it’s not essential. There are also many online personal trainer directories, and these can be very valuable for extra exposure.
