Fitness marketing is how personal trainers make or break their own success.
But if you're new to the business side of fitness, the idea of marketing yourself can seem daunting. Isn't it enough to just be good at what you do?
Unfortunately, the answer is no. Becuase if you don't know how to market yourself, you aren't letting people know how you're good at what you do. And very few people are going to try things out just to see for themselves.
You need a solid marketing plan. And if you aren't sure where to start, we can help.
Here are some solid tips on how to build your fitness marketing as a new trainer.
Build your brand.
As a personal trainer, you are no longer just a person — you're a brand.
So building your brand is the first step in fitness marketing. As a brand, you need to decide:
- Your vision
- Your target audience
- Your competitors
- Your voice
- Your personality
A lot of things go into making a brand.
Will you be more serious, the sort of brand that is an authority in a number of subjects? Or will you be more carefree, having a light atmosphere when it comes to your press?
There is no right or wrong answer to this. It will depend on a lot of things.
Your true personality should shine through in this. It is, after all, a personal brand. But you still need to tailor it to suit your professional goals and mission.
Having a clear brand from the start will help you stand out among the many personal trainers already on the market.
Have an online presence.
Think of what you do when you are considering using a service. You Google it, don't you?
Well, that's what your potential clients will be doing.
When they Google you, make sure the first thing they can get to is your website. Your website should be clean, easy to navigate, and should have all of the information potential clients should easily want.
But your online presence doesn't end there. Having a professional social media presence is also very important for a personal brand.
On your professional social media profiles, you can mix occasional personal posts with updates about your fitness routine and how you use it to help clients. You can even mix it with articles about the fitness industry so that you seem knowledgable.
Taking advantage of social media is one of the most important things you can do for your fitness marketing strategy. That's how you take things to the next level.
Take advantage of video.
Experts agree: video marketing is the future.
In fact, a video on a landing page can increase conversion by 80%. And when it comes to fitness, video can be especially powerful.
Imagine that you're looking for a personal trainer, and you have it narrowed down to two. One has a lengthy bio, one that talks about all of their accomplishments and success stories.
The other one has a snappy video that interviews happy clients and has clips of the personal trainer hard at work.
Do you see? Instead of telling, a video shows!
Showing instead of telling is a very important part of storytelling. And that's all that fitness marketing really is — it's telling a story. The story of who you are and what you can offer.
Video can help you tell that story much more effectively than just text alone. That's why it should be part of your strategy.
Reward client participation.
A big part of fitness marketing is having other people spread the word for you.
For as much as you can put out your own marketing, people will obviously see you as biased. They want to hear the opinions of other people more than they want to hear yours.
So, have a rewards system in place that encourages your clients to leave reviews on websites like Yelp, to encourage them to do so.
By doing so, you'll increase your online presence, but it won't be just your word. It will be the word of your happy clients, as well.
People usually won't leave reviews unprompted unless they have something unkind to say. That's why you need to encourage your clients to leave reviews, to balance out any negativity.
You definitely won't be able to please everyone, so you want to make sure your reviews reflect on you fairly.
Start a blog.
This will not only improve SEO results, but it will also help in establishing authority and building that personal brand that's so important.
If you're busy, then you can still have a blog that updates regularly. You can write posts in advance and schedule them easily on most platforms. Writing blogs does not take much time, depending on the length of them.
But what if you simply don't have the time to write at all? Or just aren't a writer in general? What do you do then?
Well, there are still options. You can hire a freelance writer and make sure that they understand your mission and message. There are also plenty of services that will help you create blogs at a reasonable price.
With all of these options available, there really is no excuse to not be using blogging as part of your fitness marketing strategy.
Find your people.
This is one of the most important parts of fitness marketing: determining your target audience.
In any marketing technique, it's very important to know who it is that you're marketing to. That way, you can easily tailor your message to them and their interests.
Obviously, your marketing should be tailored to the fitness crowd. But you should consider some other things, such as age range and gender.
Do you want to keep things open? Or target to a specific crowd?
You can even keep things diverse by marketing to several targets with several different marketing campaigns.
A big part of marketing is deciding on an audience. After all, if you don't know who you're talking to, how can you ever hope to get through to them?
Spend some serious time considering who it is you want to market to, and you'll find that your fitness marketing campaign will be far more focused.
{Free Template: Target Ideal Client Worksheet}
Play to your strengths.
There are some very important things you need to ask yourself when you're setting up a marketing campaign.
After all, there are plenty of personal trainers out there. Why should someone choose you? These are the questions you need to ask yourself:
- What can I give my clients that no one else can?
- What are my favorite things about being a personal trainer?
- Why did I get into this business in the first place?
- What mistakes do other personal trainers make tha I don't?
- What amazing things do I offer that other personal trainers don't?
By asking these questions, you begin to figure out your strengths, and what makes you special.
And when you figure this out, you help make it easier for clients who are looking for your specific brand of services to come find you. You stand out from the crowd because you are unique.
Keep updating your plan!
So, you have the perfect fitness marketing plan. That's great! Definitely go on and start implementing it.
But don't expect to be able to stick to that plan forever.
The world of marketing is constantly shifting and changing. Especially online, when everything seems to be in a constant state of innovation, you can't expect the things that worked in one year to work the next.
So part of marketing is to constantly be analyzing, refining, and updating your plan. You should never be satisfied or stagnant.
The truly successful personal trainer knows that they should always be looking for new ways to reach their audience. And while some marketing techniques are good long term, others are very much just a passing fad.
Learning to tell the difference — and learning when to let go of marketing techniques that are no longer serving you — is what separates the amateurs from the professionals.
How can we help with fitness marketing?
So, now that you're ready to implement your fitness marketing plan ... now what?
Now it's time to reach a wider audience. It's time to impress your clients. It's time to make more money than you ever thought possible.
How can you do that?
Well, joining Xerofit just might help you achieve those goals.
With Xerofit you can train clients anywhere.
Make unique workouts in minutes or reuse templates in seconds.
Send workouts to clients with the push of a button.
Anywhere.
Phone. Tablet. Computer.
Yes.
Manage clients from anywhere with ease.
Want new clients?
Use Xerofit to easily share your own workouts on your website or social media profiles as free gifts to grow your email list or even paid for additional revenue stream...
You can share your workouts online or as a downloadable PDF. Use this for a lead magnet to collect emails and grow your list.
You can offer online workouts as a value-add to your in-person clients. Now they can workout on the road, traveling, or if they just can't quite make it to the gym you have them covered.
Our suite is full of tools that help you craft beautiful workouts, manage and send to clients all in one easy to use platform.
Help keep your clients focused by using videos of you and only you — which is a great way to get your brand out there.
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