According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the number of personal trainers and instructors is expected to grow at a rate of 8 percent between 2014 and 2024.
This means that fitness enthusiasts will have more options when searching for the right trainer to help them attain their goals.
But, to fitness instructors, this is entirely a different narrative. Ideally, it means stiff competition is going to be a norm. Fortunately, it's possible to counter such waves through deploying effective personal training marketing ideas that work for you.
Well, how can this be done? That's the reason we are here.
In this post, we're going to share some of the actionable marketing ideas that you can start using today to earn and retain your clients.
Are you excited? Let's get right into it then.
1. Brand Yourself
Using your name as the business name may seem a viable idea when just starting out. But if you want to scale your business for growth, you need to think twice about using your name.
By creating a unique business name, you are defining your brand and opening yourself to new possibilities and opportunities for growth. Branding helps you to send a clear message and project the right image to your potential clients.
Just like other professions, being a personal trainer stretches over a large spectrum of practices and ideas, which help in defining your brand. Take the time to understand your goals and the ideal clients before embarking on developing your brand.
Strengthen your brand with business cards, stationery, signs & banners, website, flyers & brochures, and media kits. Bear in mind that branding is an ongoing process that needs to strategic.
Also, keep abreast of new fitness trends that you can use to refine your brand.
2. Use Social Media
Well, this doesn't need to be reiterated, but it's something that many personal trainers are not capitalizing fully. Social media can't miss out of your personal training marketing ideas and can be the best tool trainers need to connect and attract new clients.
Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram have already proven to be great platforms for showcasing your personal brand. With social media, you can share content with your audience to gain their trust and following.
This way, it becomes easier for you to establish a personal relationship with potential clients. Social media helps your clients to get to know you and what you do. Typically, it provides a common ground for building new and long lasting relationships.
Social media also offers tools that you can use to learn more about your target audience and streamline your campaigns to suit them. The trick with using these platforms is to remain consistent in sharing fresh, exciting and useful content.
Basically, try to make the whole process fun, and you'll find it an effective way of attracting leads online.
3. Videos Work Like Magic
Videos are fitness instructors best friend, and they offer a great way to showcase what you have. They are also easy to integrate with other personal training marketing ideas to ensure a solid strategy.
With the advancement in technology, you don't need an expensive video camera to shoot your videos.
Today, mobile phones have made things easier. You can make short videos for mini workouts, tips for fitness, common questions, common mistakes, and things that you need to share.
You can also record exercises you like, upload to Xerofit and use the drag-n-drop workout builder to quickly make unlimited workouts using your exercise videos.
Videos are great for adding to your resume if you want to earn new business. Ensure to create channels on Vimeo and Youtube where you can upload the video. Facebook has also made it easier to share content with its Live Video, which you can to share real-time content.
You can also share the videos with your clients through email.
4. Set Up a Blog
Blogging is one of the most effective personal training marketing ideas you can't simply overlook.
If you want to establish yourself as an expert in what you do, blogging is the best way to do that. It allows you to take your marketing to the next level through providing insightful and relevant content that you clients can use in their routines.
Blogging can also help you to organize your training and research on new ideas to help you improve your skill. It doesn't just help the readers; you can benefit from learning the shared content better.
Keep in mind that your blog posts need to have value. There are many people out there who don't know much about fitness and would likely use your blog to learn more if they find it relevant.
That way, you are building new businesses through gaining the interest of potential clients.
5. Work with Local Businesses
Building B2B relationships is one the best ways to land more clients with minimal efforts. Plus, this might help you to learn more personal training marketing ideas for professionals within your industry.
Some local businesses have in-house fitness programs to help their staff to stay fit and active. You can partner with such businesses to ensure the success of their programs.
Health food stores, physical therapists, and family physicians also make great partners if you find ways to work with them. Some of them can refer their clients to you for special fitness programs.
By building a mutually beneficial relationship with local benefits, you can enjoy a wide coverage for your brand. Try as much as possible to work with businesses that are in the same industry as yours. This will make it easier for you to attract qualified leads.
For the better part, becoming a successful personal trainer may also depend on the kind of relationships and contacts you build.
6. Leverage the Power of Testimonials
This is one of the top personal training marketing ideas that you need to use optimally. They can help you to increase your brand awareness and reputation.
Word or mouth is still an effective form of marketing that businesses are using to earn and retain new clients. Testimonials can be written texts or videos, but you should focus on creating a video.
Add the testimonials on your website and share them on your social media pages. With testimonials, you can expect to benefit from better conversions, lead generation, client retention, and increased credibility.
The use of testimonials has been somewhat controversial, so you want to ensure that you're getting them from real clients who approve and recommend your services. This is the first step towards building trust and credibility.
7. Host Competitions
Competitions help you to make a splash and get the exposure you need to grow your fitness business. You can hold a "Big Loser" contest, which your clients compete against one another.
Give your competition an exciting twist by getting local sponsors and ask them to provide gifts to the winners. This will help to give all the parties exposure in their target markets.
If possible, also get the local media to see of they will cover the story. It's your responsibility to create a "big" competition that will impel the media to cover it. Ensure to use the contest optimally to market yourself and boost your reputation.
Remember to share the contest's photos and results on social media and other platforms. Implement these personal training marketing ideas well, and you'll start getting the results you want.
8. Use Local SEO
A website is a powerful tool that acts as the virtual face of your business. With online marketing techniques, you can leverage the power of local SEO to make your business more visible to potential customers.
Keep in mind that nearly a third of mobile searches are related to a location, so you need to audit and optimize your website for your target market. Most customers usually search for local businesses online before making a call.
For example, one way to optimize your site for local SEO is through using both your target keyword and location together, such as personal trainer in Detroit. Ensure this combination is included in your titles and website content
Other tips for using local SEO to improve your local rankings include:
- Create a Google My Business page
- Encourage and respond to reviews
- Get local media coverage
- Add a map to your location to your website
- Leverage the use of citations
Remember, SEO is one of the ideal personal training marketing ideas for getting good local rankings for your site. The higher you rank, the higher chances you have for getting more calls and securing new clients.
9. Stay In Touch with Email
Email is still an effective marketing tool to upsell or extend your reach. You want to ensure that your customer base is subscribed to your updates via email.
The good thing about email is that it's one of the most personal mediums of communication. Regular updates, tips, and newsletters can help you to build great relationships based on their goals, habits, and diets.
Emails allow you to personalize your messages and provide links to relevant information and articles. Plus, they can help to improve session attendance. This means that those who attend training twice a month can consider weekly attendance.
Find an email system such as Constant Contact or Mail Chimp, to help you manage the who process seamlessly.
10. Contribute to Industry Blogs
Apart from setting up your own fitness blog, it's recommended to find reputable blogs that accept posts from contributors. This is one of the most effective personal training marketing ideas for building authority and showcasing your expertise.
Before doing that, you want to ensure that you've created impactful and concrete content on your blog. Some popular blogs would want to see your published work before accepting your request to contribute.
The more you contribute and reach out, the better you will get at attracting the right leads to your businesses. This is because the posts you public increase your exposure, thus taking you to a whole new level of personal training.
Also, remember to share your posts that have been published on industry blogs. They mean a lot.
11. Give Free Trials
It's true that customers are usually reluctant to subscribe to a new service right away. So, try to offer free trials to new customers who just want to try out your training first. Free trials are excellent personal training marketing ideas for getting new clients.
Also, don't make the trials lengthy as you can find yourself generating a lot of bad leads. When they first sign up, make sure to be upfront and explicit about the trial period. During the trial period, send them notifications to remind them of the time remaining before their trial ends.
In some cases, clients will be prompted to subscribe even before the trial ends. This will depend on how they will feel about your training. So, use the trial period to give them a reason for becoming subscribe members sooner.
Remember to help them track their personal starts from the start of the trial period to the end.
Walking the talk...
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12. Run Special Programs and Package Deals
Special programs are one of the effective personal training marketing ideas for gaining the interest of potential clients. People are usually quick to jump on such opportunities whenever they're available.
You can customize your programs to suit different targets. For example, you can have one for employees to help them prepare for their busy schedules or for people who have events coming up.
Another way to attract more leads is allowing the ability to share one membership. Target this deal to single accounts that have been inactive for some time.
This way, you remind them that having a training partner helps to gain the necessary motivation for attaining their set goals.
Personal Training Marketing Ideas - The Takeaway
The marketing game for personal training is just as exciting and overwhelming like other business types. It all depends on what you do to attract the right leads that will support your business growth.
Always try to think out of the box and use creative ways to stand out of the competition. This post offers some simple personal training marketing ideas that you can implement anytime to improve your reputation.
More importantly, make the internet work for you. It's a gold mine for personal trainers that are looking to grow their businesses. The internet offers various tools and platforms that when used effectively can help to generate the right leads.
For new personal trainers, having a robust fitness marketing strategy is important to ensure growth from the onset.
Do you need help? Sign up with us to start growing your business.