If you’re a personal trainer, you love helping your clients achieve their potential and enjoy life as their very best selves. But this is a highly competitive industry, so how can you make sure that your business is fit and thriving like your clients are?
In my experience, the personal trainers that I mentor start out with plenty of energy and enthusiasm. However, they often hit a plateau in their business growth – not due to a lack of passion or skill, but simply because their marketing efforts fall short.
Mastering your marketing is crucial if you want to maintain sustainable growth, and I’m here to show that it doesn't have to be complicated. Just like mastering a great workout, if you understand the exercises for your marketing, execute them well, and stick to a routine, you’ll see great results.
Essential steps for marketing your personal training service
It’s a busy marketplace with lots of great trainers, so why should your potential clients choose you? You know why, but for them to see, you must market yourself consistently and professionally.
Look at the following areas and ask yourself, am I doing these as well as I could be?
1. Creating attractive personal training offers
Clarity is the undisputed king when it comes to describing your personal training services. If your audience is confused about what you offer, they won’t buy from you. To see success, you need to design simple, understandable packages that cater to your ideal clients.
Understanding your target market
Do you really understand your customers? If you’re quick to answer yes, still take some time to do some extra research to rediscover their challenges and aspirations. Often, fitness trainers I work with think their audience is ‘everyone’, which is never true.
Make sure that your services are designed to align with your potential customers’ current needs and goals. Then you can be confident that your services are available, relevant, and appealing!
Make it easy to buy from you
Another key aspect of creating a successful offer is making it easy to sign up. Don’t make them jump through hoops – create a smooth customer onboarding process. Free trials and no-obligation consultations are a great way to tempt potential clients. Remember, they’ll be drawn to clarity and simplicity and offers that speak to them.
2. Becoming an authority figure for personal training
Authority builds trust, and trust drives sales. Suppose you can establish yourself as a go-to expert in personal training by sharing your knowledge freely, shouting about your success stories and providing great insights… In that case, you’ll place yourself head and shoulders above your competition.
Focus on building your personal brand and the all-important ‘know, like, and trust’ factor by:
Building your brand as a personal trainer
What sets you apart from the other personal trainers on the market? What are your unique values and qualities?
Identify what it is that’s unique to you and your approach, and then work your personality into all your other marketing efforts. Show up in a way that’s authentic to you, so you can do so consistently.
Don’t be afraid to voice your opinions either. By that, I don’t mean you have to be angry (unless you want to be!). But talk about what frustrates you about the industry or what you don’t align yourself with. I
To give you an example, I personally don’t align myself with other fitness business coaches who encourage ‘hard-selling’ to get fitness clients. I prefer to teach a value-led approach, combined with strong marketing processes and systems. Don’t be afraid to say how you differ.
Storytelling to create a connection
It’s long been proven that using storytelling to create an emotional bond with your audience will create more meaningful engagement with your potential clients.
Do you use case studies and testimonials from successful customers? This is a simple yet powerful way of storytelling. With their permission, it’s a great way to appeal to clients.
If you’d like to learn more about storytelling's power in marketing, I recommend Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller. It contains a simple step-by-step approach to creating a great story that will resonate with your potential customers.
Engaging with your audience
Genuine interaction with your audience is invaluable. Do this as much as you possibly can. You may have lots of followers, but do you engage with them regularly?
You’re busy, and it may seem daunting, but as well as replying to comments on social media, why not consider Q&A sessions or posting user-generated content and quizzes? You’re aiming for meaningful engagement, not just superficial chat.
Strategic collaborations and partnerships
Think about where your target audience spends their time, and how you can leverage another platform to become known to them.
It could mean you partnering with fitness influencers, other businesses, or community figures for valuable social media exposure. If this is done in a mutually beneficial way, you can harness their audience to increase your own.
You could also look for opportunities to speak or make a podcast appearance – getting you in front of hundreds of new potential clients.
For example, if you target entrepreneurs, could you run a workshop or webinar for an online business community? Or could you speak at business events?
All of these methods will raise your profile, get you in front of your audience, and build your credibility as a personal trainer who knows what they’re talking about.
3. Focus on systems for consistent lead generation
A simple, hard truth applies to any business: you won’t sign new clients without new leads in your pipeline. So, you must develop a solid strategy and simple systems to help you with lead generation.
Lead generation for your personal training business doesn’t need to be complicated. Make a plan to regularly share your insights, workout tips and success stories on the social media platforms that work for you.
Revisit your customer research. Where are your potential clients, and what do they want to know? It’s also a good idea to use different formats for your content, such as videos, images and articles – appealing to as much of your audience as possible.
Email marketing campaigns
Are you using email marketing to its full potential? Getting your audience’s email address is a valuable marketing tool – along with your website, an email database is one of the only marketing channels that you own.
Don’t forget to attract new subscribers by regularly sharing your email newsletter link or offering a freebie (also known as a lead magnet) in exchange for their details.
Once you’ve attracted your subscribers, maintain their interest with valuable, interesting, and fun content (also known as nurturing). Focus your attention on converting potential customers into paying customers through regular emails.
Networking and community engagement
As a fitness trainer, you’re a people person, so your local community is a potential goldmine of opportunities. Find and engage in networking collaborations with local gyms and other wellness centres.
Could you organise or participate in fitness workshops and community events? You would become well-known for your energy and personality – a surefire way to attract attention and build lucrative relationships.
Free Personalised Report Reveals:
How To Add An Extra £3,000-5,000 Per Month, And Build A Tribe Of Followers Who Can’t Wait to Like, Save and Share Everything You Post.
Tracking and analysing your marketing efforts
Be confident that you’re investing your time and energy in the right place by keeping an eye on your data. There are some brilliant analytical tools built into your social media platforms that will help you monitor your marketing efforts and their effectiveness.
If you use them to your advantage, you’ll soon be able to see what resonates with your audience, and then you can adapt your tactics for the best results.
Inspirational personal trainer marketing examples
It can be helpful to see how successful personal trainers have built their business and happy client list. These well-known trainers were once where you are now, but they’ve all used marketing to achieve success.
Take a look at their websites and social channels for extra inspiration:
Scott Laidler
Scott is a shining example of great marketing as a personal trainer. With testimonials and the endorsement of high-profile clients, his website has a strong simplicity, and he’s used storytelling to maximum effect. He also uses different media to share customer testimonials that establish his authority and clearly articulate his unique offering. Scott offers a customised fitness and dietary plan that caters to his potential clients’ preferences and fitness goals.
Pete Gaffney
Pete built his brand authority through great storytelling. His team has 1,350 body transformations to date, which successfully shows their experience, and he’s not afraid to talk about his high-achieving clients, including royals, politicians, and CEOs. His 4-step blueprint program is an excellent example of a well-researched, targeted offering.
Joe Wicks
Joe isn’t just a huge success and TV celebrity because he’s relatable and likeable – his marketing is spot on. He’s built an audience invested in and loyal to Joe, his story, and his family. ‘Lean in 15’ is a workout plan that helps clients achieve a perfectly toned body in as little as 15 minutes of daily high-intensity exercise, with longer routines for clients who want to push themselves further. Joe’s perfectly marketed his offer towards busy people with everyday lives.
What to do after you’re a fully booked PT
When you follow this marketing advice, you may soon find yourself fully booked. Even with a full diary, personal trainers shouldn’t get complacent – keep up your marketing efforts. You don’t want to be scrambling to find new clients during a quiet period because you’ve dropped the ball with your marketing. And a waiting list is never a bad thing!
Ace your customer retention strategy
It’s great to have new clients knocking at your door, but don’t forget to take care of the faithful ones you already have. Customer service is key to retaining clients, which is far more cost-effective and enjoyable than always signing new ones.
Plus, you can almost guarantee they’ll tell their friends and family members about you if you’re doing a great job (which in turn is free marketing!).
Strong Collective: 121 Personal Trainer marketing support
In personal training, your personality is your greatest asset. You’re unique, and so your marketing approach should reflect that.
If you need help and guidance to master the world of marketing, Strong Collective’s 121 coaching service is here to help you build a successful business. We’ve been there, and we can help! Get in touch today.
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Free Personalised Report Reveals:
How To Add An Extra £3,000-5,000 Per Month, And Build A Tribe Of Followers Who Can’t Wait to Like, Save and Share Everything You Post.
