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Pandemic has affected several personal trainers’ business operations. Clients have found it difficult to justify prioritizing their health over more urgent matters.
Effective personal training marketing methods have never been more critical than they are right now. The best moment to boost your marketing is now, regardless of whether you’ve been conducting face-to-face meetings or relying more on digital interactions.
You’ll be able to outperform your competitors if you use these marketing strategies and case studies.
Why Personal Training is a Unique Business
Listed below are the most compelling arguments for why personal training is essential for pushing your business to the next level while maintaining the optimum work/life balance.
Increased Revenue Per Session
It may seem impossible for anything to be profitable for both you and your clients simultaneously, yet this is precisely what happens in the world of group personal training.
It’s a win-win from a financial standpoint because the client pays a lesser cost, and you earn more per session from the cumulative group than you would from a single-client private session.
Because of this, you can train more clients in fewer hours, which benefits both you and your clients!
Motivating Current and Prospective Clients
A large number of your clients may be inspired to train on their own with you, while others may lose interest and cease training completely.
The extra drive comes from group training that helps them push each other in their sessions and generate friendly competition, whether they have two or forty clients.
Many people might benefit from the instruction of a trainer but are scared by the prospect of working out with someone one-on-one.
To reach a new market of potential clients, you should advertise small group sessions and encourage them to form training groups with their friends.
More Referrals
A higher number of clients per session suggests a greater likelihood of client referrals. For example, if you can get a group of five friends together to train with you, that’s four more people who will recommend your business to their family, friends, and coworkers than you would get if you were to conduct the training in private.
Increased Flexibility
A tight timetable is something that no one wants to be tied to. There is no such thing as a routine in life! So why would you like to? Make your work schedule a little more flexible by incorporating group personal training into your company’s operations.
Increased customer participation in less time allows you to have more time to work on other business elements and concentrate on expanding rather than spending the majority of your day in training sessions. Advertisement, providing content on social media, and preparing your in-person and online workouts for clients are all things you can devote time to.
Increasing Demand for Online Training
By utilizing your internet business as a tool, you may offer training packages that are more appealing to a more significant number of potential clients. For example, it is possible that some clients will only be interested in in-person group training, while others may prefer a combination of in-person and online workouts—and still, others may be willing to train entirely online.
Create a curriculum that everyone can follow while holding each other responsible through group chats and check-ins along the way. In addition, marketing particular personal training groups will help you reach your goals faster.
Suppose you know many golfers and want to inform them that you are starting a six-week group strength training program that will focus your core and legs on improving your swing.
Clients who participate in these programs are more accountable, have higher levels of adherence, and spend less time developing workouts as they progress through the program together.
Main Personal Trainer Business Challenges
No Market Knowledge
As a fitness center owner that specializes in water aerobics for the elderly, you will be expected to know more about your target customers, who are typically older individuals over the age of 60.
The elderly have unique health concerns and physical limits and exercise and diet requirements, and safety requirements. If you do not understand these issues, you will not provide adequate care for your consumers.
Solution
- Before deciding on the fitness center, you want to build, conduct an extensive study into the beneficiaries and end clients. Learn about their health, fitness level, and preferences, as well as your legislative obligations and responsibilities towards them, before you intervene. Once you have a deeper understanding of your target market, you can broaden your business idea.
Inaccurate Planning
A successful fitness business owner’s capacity to foresee and adapt to changing circumstances is a distinguishing characteristic. An inaccuracy in preparation, or a complete absence of planning, might result in a slew of issues for you and your training business. The need to cover all of the bases before putting any strategy into action cannot be overemphasized. As a result, you may incur additional expenses and produce negative feelings against yourself.
Solution
- Before putting your plan into action, take the time to consider all areas of your fitness business, including marketing, equipment procurement, recruitment, facility management, and regulatory compliance.
Lack of Talent
Depending on the type of business model you intend to use and how quickly you want to grow, you may not require the services of a second coach or trainer right away at the start of your operation.
In this case, remember that employing the wrong staff is significantly more expensive than not hiring an employee at all, so make sure you do your homework before making a hiring decision. In addition, a bad personal trainer can have a severe impact on your existing team’s attitude, as well as leave a long-lasting poor impression on your customers.
Solution
- Employer websites and job boards are excellent places to look for qualified candidates. You can also contract with an outside agency to handle your hiring needs.
Budgeting Errors
A rookie businessperson or woman may not be aware of all of the expenses associated with marketing and running a new business when they first start. It is possible that you will under or over budget your costs as a result of this. When this occurs, you will not have an accurate view of your financial requirements, and you may not obtain the appropriate amount of funding. You could also make poor decisions about how we spend our money.
Solution
- Investigate in-depth the costs associated with opening your fitness center before taking the plunge. This should cover everything related to beginning a business (accounting, set-up fees, and so on), the acquisition of equipment, leasing or purchasing real estate, utility bills, web and marketing charges, and so on.
Lack of Suppliers
For every fitness center, it is necessary to have exercise equipment, appropriate flooring, insulation, and accessories. You’ll need to identify the top providers to receive the most excellent equipment at best possible price. When it comes to choosing suppliers, most inexperienced personal trainers who have never launched a new studio are unaware of what they should look for. The questions they should ask result in them making the wrong decision.
Solution
- Before making a decision, speak with several suppliers, obtain price quotations, and research brand and supplier evaluations online before making a final decision. Also, talk to other fitness center owners to determine how to make the best selection for your business.
Inability to Pivot
Pivoting is something that any organization must do to keep up with the demands of a constantly changing market. Unfortunately, most new personal trainer studio owners lack the confidence to go outside the box, which is understandable given the stakes involved. Unfortunately, this cautious approach to the business may ultimately prove to be your demise, mainly if you cannot adapt quickly enough to shifting market conditions.
Solution
- It’s normal to be nervous about attempting anything new, but don’t allow this to prevent you from taking the plunge. Instead, begin by implementing tiny, incremental modifications and then gradually expand your recent activities.
Pros and Cons of Personal Trainer Business
Pros
- Fitness trainers have a relatively undemanding profession.
- You learn a great deal about maintaining your physical fitness. You also know a great deal about a healthy diet.
- As a personal trainer, you have the opportunity to earn additional income.
- Fitness instructors can work with a wide range of people.
- You can blend your professional life with your interests.
- As a fitness trainer, you can work in an indoor setting.
- It is simple to make connections with others.
- You can work out for free; you don’t have to go to the gym after work; you can teach your friends for free, and you don’t have to pay for anything.
- Fitness instructors can develop a substantial network of essential individuals.
- Fitness trainers don’t have to put in a lot of extra effort.
Cons
- Health and fitness trainers do not make a lot of money.
- You will be considered to be of poor social position.
- Fitness instructors are easily replaceable.
- Future employment prospects are a little hazy.
- For fitness instructors, working from home is not an option.
- Working in an artificial setting will be required of you. In addition, clients can be challenging to deal with.
- As a fitness trainer, you will not learn many hard skills due to digital literacy.
- It isn’t easy to get out of this field.
- You will be required to work in a physically demanding environment. Promotion opportunities are limited.
- When you reach a certain age, you may have to leave your employment.
- It’s possible that your work feels like a waste of time.
Personal Trainers Marketing Strategies
Sending Emails to Inactive Leads
We were working with one of our clients, Carl, who was attempting to reactivate old leads by using a list of emails from nonactive leads and clients that he had accumulated throughout his business’s existence.
The first email sent out by Carl was an offer to everyone on the list, asking whether they were interested in personal training (“Buy My Stuff”). The second and third emails were similar. This worked well and resulted in a few more people signing up for his online programs, but he discovered that when he reached out to clients who had been out of the loop for 12 months or more, the emails were not opened, and no offers were accepted.
How to go about it:
If I hadn’t spoken to you in 12 months and then asked you to purchase my merchandise, you’d probably be a little put-off, wouldn’t you?
As a result, the strategy, in this case, is to RE-ESTABLISH rapport through an email series before making an offer. But, first, greet them and inquire as to their well-being.
When was the last time you got in touch with an old customer? In actuality… Please don’t respond to that. Just go ahead and do it.
Reaching Out in Person
To scale a fitness business, you must automate a large number of jobs. The result is that most of your marketing and selling is done automatically through your trainer’s website and funnels, email lists, and other techniques.
Real-time, inter-personal engagement becomes increasingly rare, but it is tremendously potent as a result. Because people are accustomed to automated everything, having an honest discussion with a prospect has never been more effective than it is now. It is ‘going the extra mile and providing a high quality of service when you have the opportunity to interact with a human being.
How to go about it:
If you’re an online personal trainer, don’t be hesitant to pick up the phone or meet with clients to provide them with assistance and to determine how you can best suit their specific requirements. Other trainers attempt to close a transaction with little to no involvement, so your extra effort will be noticed.
If you’ve collected phone numbers from possible clients in the past, these are likely to be your most valuable assets at this point.
Have a conversation with them and keep the discussion focused on how you can assist them. Even if they do not become clients, they will spread the word about you to their friends and colleagues.
Headlines That Include Numbers
According to research by Conductor, headlines with numbers are 2x more likely to drive clicks than “how-to” headlines. In addition, the analysis of 150,000 headlines indicated that headlines with odd numbers have a 20% higher click-through rate than headlines with even numbers.
Outbrain discovered that including [brackets] in a headline increased click-through rate (CTR) by 38 percent in an analysis of over 3 million headlines.
How to go about it:
Take a look at your archived blog content and see if you can use the tips from this article to promote your entries. Then, following the guidelines outlined above, promote them on social media.
Example:
How to Lose Weight During the Holidays
Instead:
Using these three methods, you can torch fat at Christmas (and make it last!)
Special Interest Groups
If you can figure out where your potential clients hang out on the internet and then go to those locations, you have a good chance of gaining some new customers.
As a result, look for Facebook groups, Meetup groups, and forums for local, interest-based communities that are a good fit for what you do and join them. Then get involved with them and interact with them. It is not sufficient to provide a sales pitch; this will be a significant turnoff. rather than stating your expertise outright, contribute, add value, and demonstrate your knowledge without ever having to say so
Due to this connection, people will naturally feel a relationship with you and begin to approach you for additional information about what you do.
How to go about it:
- Find local fitness groups on Facebook by searching for them in the search box.
- Join as many organizations as you can to maximize your exposure.
- To find your topic, use the search box provided in the group.
- Respond to queries and be of assistance.
Videos for Onboarding
Once a person has joined something, whether it’s an email list, a product purchase, or a consultation, a short 30-90 second video of you greeting them and explaining what to expect will go a long way toward establishing an initial connection and ensuring that they are confident in their decision and don’t suffer from buyers’ remorse will be highly beneficial.
This and other small acts of customer care contribute significantly to running a successful fitness business that people want to be associated with.
How to go about it:
Record yourself or enlist the assistance of a friend to record a brief introduction. There’s nothing fancy about it. Looking professional while standing against a blank wall or in your training environment is all you need.
Quickly introduce yourself, thank you for joining, express your appreciation for their service, and express your excitement about working together to achieve their goals. That’s all there is to it—Fitness marketing at its most effective level.
Final Thoughts
Personal trainers have a unique opportunity to market their business as an extension of their personality. Be curious, be passionate, be friendly, and your personality will shine through in your services.
