Are you ready to ditch the inflexible structure of the fitness club and go solo?
Have you already branched out on your own and need to explore ways to find new clients?
A career in personal training can be extremely rewarding. But it does come with its own challenges. If you're an independent personal trainer marketing is one of those challenges.
How do you focus on growing your business while you're busy creating a new kick-booty workout?
And how can you research exercises that facilitate a fuller core response when you're trying to reach more clients?
By going online, you open up your market to a much wider range of people, allowing you to do a lot more business. Most online marketing resources are quite simple and cost-effective to use.
Adding the following strategies to any level of personal trainer marketing will help you gain a competitive edge over the competition.
Start Your Personal Trainer Marketing With A Strong Brand
How do you define your business identity? What is your brand?
It's you, right? YOU are your brand.
According to John Durham, CEO of Catalyst SF, a boutique brand strategy firm, your brand embodies what your business stands for. He explains that your business identity is "the purpose, the mission, the look, the feel, the tone and the voice of your company."
He goes on to say that "So many people make decisions about the name, the logo and the colors they use so casually. They are forgetting that each of these decisions should come from the brand identity."
The best practice for personal trainer marketing is to develop your brand around your passions in health and fitness. What is it that makes your style of training unique?
Your message needs to be clear, concise and memorable.
It also needs to be the same everywhere you advertise. Your goal is to intrigue customers to want to learn more about your business, not confuse and alienate them.
Stick to one simple idea, one logo, one slogan.
Have An Online Presence
In today's digital age, if you're not online, you don't exist.
Here's a list of things I recommend:
Create A Website
Or at least a blog.
It doesn't need to be anything fancy, exploding with GIFs and graphics and javascript. It does need to look clean, professional and be easy to navigate.
A website is the hub of all your personal trainer marketing efforts. All other marketing strategies lead here. Your website should have at least the following:
- An appealing home page. Make a good first impression.
- About Me (Us) Page. Tell them what makes you unique. Broadcast all your certifications and accomplishments.
- Services Page(s). Answer every question a potential client may ask about what you offer. What is your specialty?
- Testimonials. Word-of-mouth is important for establishing trust.
- Blog. Just. Do. It. It can become one of your most effective personal trainer marketing tools.
For a more detailed discussion check out my post "How to Create a Personal Trainer Website."
Leverage LinkedIn
Every second two new members join LinkedIn. It is the world's largest professional network with more than 500 million users.
As a personal trainer, you ARE a business. Make sure you have a presence on the website that highlights this.
Use Social Media (carefully)
A personal trainer marketing their brand correctly has a presence on some (not all) social media channels. With the wide variety available nowadays it can seem overwhelming. That's why you should choose only two or three to focus your efforts on.
To help you choose which channels are best for you, I discuss them in more detail below.
Warning: Don't make the mistake of using social media as an advertising platform. People who use social media do not want in your face promotional material. They want a relationship.
Create brand awareness by posting interesting, helpful, and motivational fitness advice. This is also a perfect avenue for posting before and after pictures to show exactly what to expect when they work with you.
Get Listed
You may very well be the best personal trainer on the planet. But if people can't find you, how are they going to benefit from your expertise?
Here are some ways to get your business out there, many of them are completely FREE.
The mother (or father?) of all search engines.
And if you haven't set up a Google My Business account, do it today. It's free, easy and gets your name out there in search engines if used correctly.
Many businesses don't realize that Google My Business is really important.
Include as much detail as possible when you add information about your business. If a fitness enthusiast has the option between your or your competitor, make you stand out the most.
Some ways to take full advantage of Google My Business:
- Verify the phone number in your listing is accurate
- Make sure your business address is the same as the one listed on your business card and website
- Add a cover photo and profile image; using high-res photos comes off more professional
- Upload as many photos as possible
Here's an interesting tidbit from Google as to why photos benefit personal trainer marketing campaigns. Businesses with photos in their listings receive 35% more click-thrus to their website.
Other Search Engines
Any site that allows a link to your website is worth taking the time to fill out a form. Use these.
- Yelp (it's not just for restaurants!)
- Bing Places for Business
- YellowPages Business Directory
- Yahoo! Small Business Directory (lists you on 60+ sites for $30/mo)
Specialized Directories
To find directories specific to the personal trainer niche search Google. Simply type "personal trainer [your state] or [your city]" for a list of the popular sites in your area. Many allow you to list your business for free.
Here's a list of some of the more popular nationwide directories:
- FitnessTrainer.com
- iPersonalTrainer
- IDEA FitnessConnect
- FindMyFitnessTrainer.com ($20/lead; leads can be declined)
- babyandmefitness.com (pre- and postnatal specific)
- Tribelocus.com
Leverage Your Social Media
It's difficult to be everywhere all of the time. I suggest choosing one or two social media platforms so you don't get overwhelmed keeping up. Pick the ones you already familiar with and use on a regular basis.
Here are some tips for personal trainer marketing on social media.
Separate personal from business by setting up a Facebook Public Figure Page. This is completely free and focuses on promoting your personal brand.
It's fairly simple to get started, but it doesn't hurt to have a step-by-step guide for reference.
Have you noticed some businesses now have a video as their cover image on their Facebook page?
Once you set up your new Facebook page, you'll be able to add video too.
If short and sweet is more your style then Twitter is the way to go.
Twitter is a social media platform people use to connect with their passions and interests. The perfect place to interact with fitness fanatics.
For a personal training business, Twitter is the place to engage in conversations that educate, encourage, and empower. Not sure what to Tweet? Check out five suggestions from Twitter on creating "Tweets that spark conversations and keep your audience engaged."
Don't have a Twitter account? When you proceed to setup remember our brand identity discussion. Create an account name that is consistent with your other advertising and your brand.
Instagram is not just for people who love posting selfies. If approached the right way, it is a great tool to bulk up your personal trainer marketing kit.
This is a visually rich platform that values participation and engagement. The user-centric environment is perfect for people who like to tell stories through pictures. Spotlight customers using your routines and getting results. It's always better to show than tell.
Use Instagram to engage with clients, plus keep up on industry trends and follow what other fitness trainers are doing. Using a tool such as Canva makes it super simple, so you don't spend a lot of time photoshopping images. when you sign up for a FREE account, make sure to check out their "Design an Instagram Post" tool.
YouTube
Over three-quarters of the world's mobile viewing will be video by 2021, according to a recent Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast report from Cisco. They predict that mobile video will increase 9-fold between 2016 and 2021, accounting for 78 percent of total mobile data traffic.
That's enough to have you jumping onto the video bandwagon yesterday. Video and personal training go hand-in-hand. There's no better way to brand yourself as an expert than to have a robust video library of how-to workouts.
What better way to create a YouTube channel than to watch a video tutorial. As they say: Creating a YouTube Channel is as easy as 1,2,3...4!
Stay On Top Of Their Mind
For the independent personal trainer, marketing is important since you cannot rely on client leads from the studio or club.
Even if you're an established personal trainer marketing can seem like an unnecessary use of time, but what happens when you lose a client?
Communicating with clients on a regular basis is key. Here are a few easy ways that require very little time:
- drop them a line with a motivating thought or quote for their day
- send out a cool new warm-up video you found on YouTube
- send a link to a healthy recipe
- know their birthdays and send Birthday Wishes on their special day
Another way to keep yourself at the forefront is through blogging or engaging content on your website.
Share your experiences, your struggles, your successes. Motivating readers through content builds trust and establishes your brand as a valuable resource. A resource they will come back to time and time again.
Beside blogging you can stay involved with customers through reviews. Encourage your community to write reviews and then respond. This adds another personal touch, which draws customers to you rather than your competition.
Not convinced?
Did you know that 88% of consumers trust online reviews as if it were a recommendation from family or friends? What a great way to have an impact on a potential client who may not know you yet.
Create an Online Platform for Your Personal Training Business
Did you ever lose a good client because they moved or got a new job that required more travel? Being an online personal trainer allows you to keep that person as a client.
Taking your personal training business online allows you to service multiple clients at once, which in turn allows you to take on more clients. And we all know that more clients positively effects your bottom line.
Plus, what do you do about "you time?" To stay fit physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually you need personal time. Time for personal interests. Time for working out yourself. And time to create more killer routines. Having an online personal training business can help you manage that, and a lot more.
Give a 100% to your clients, by streamlining your personal training business.
The Xerofit online platform helps you develop specific strategies for a personal trainer marketing campaign that has positive results.
Personal Trainer marketing Made Simple
These simple personal trainer marketing practices won't break the budget. Start implementing them now and watch your visibility skyrocket into the minds (and hopefully hearts) of customers.
For some tips and advice on how to begin your online platform, the Xerofit program is a great place to start.
Xerofit offers easy-to-use, cutting-edge online tools to help personal trainers save time. Use our technology to impress clients with beautifully designed workouts and videos. Clients can now work out with you anytime, anywhere on their desktop, tablet and mobile phone.
Try us out with a 7-day free trial. We're ready to help kick your career into high gear.