As a personal trainer, there is an urgency to move towards online and remote training with clients. Due to the pandemic, there are fewer people in the gym and more working out at home. But not everyone will be able to keep themselves motivated at home without the right influences.
That's where you come in. As a PT nowadays, it's essential to know the online marketing strategies you can use to secure new clients. Here are 10 cost effective strategies to get you started!
A good website is going to be the face of your business online as a personal trainer. So with that being said, make sure you create a website if you haven't already and ensure that the design is easy to browse and reflects your branding and image as a personal trainer.
When building a website, do it properly and seek out a web designer or builder if necessary. Most are pretty basic and easy to make though on your own, even if you have limited experience with it.
There's much complexity to SEO (otherwise known as search engine optimisation). Still, it's worth understanding because it can help bring more traffic to your website if you can utilise it properly.
According to Ahrefs, ‘68% of online experiences begin with a search engine.’ So, once you have a professional fitness website and want to create a long-term inbound marketing strategy, learning the basics of SEO will be paramount. Even if you decide to hire a professional for the job, you still want to understand they are the right people for the job.
There are plenty of companies within the health and fitness industry that offer fruitful affiliate and associate programs. It could be a way of making some extra money but also getting your name out there and securing more clients.
You may find it helpful to partner up with a protein powder brand, or perhaps you want to get an affiliate with a particular fashion brand for gym wear. There are lots out there to work with and to make extra money as a passive income. The primary consideration is that your associations align with your values as a personal trainer. In other words, you might want to be picky about who you take on as well. Money is not everything. Providing your clients with the best service to help them achieve their goals is an excellent way of selecting your associations.
Whether you're only starting or you've already established yourself, there will likely be other personal trainers, who are doing just as well as you or even better.
You can benefit from this by seeking guidance from high performing trainers, learning from them about how they secure their clients. If you're struggling, it can certainly be helpful to do.
Marketing can be great to do via multiple channels, and one efficient way to engage with your followers is via email. Remember, social media platforms will always tweak their algorithm to best benefit their performance. Once you have someone's email address, it's just you and them in a more intimate conversation.
There are a few ways of getting started with email marketing. The first step is to choose your email marketing software. Platforms like Mailchimp and MailerLite, for example, are good suggestions, you can also use PT Distinction's powerful message centre if collecting emails with online challenges and trials.
Talking of emails, your mailing list is something to consider when it comes to securing new clients. You might want to think about building an opt-in option for your mailing list, which you can link up via your website but also through your social media platforms. It's a simple and easy way for prospective customers to sign up for your mailing list.
The simplest way to do this is to offer an ethical bribe, also called a lead magnet. The key to using lead magnets for lead generation is to provide something your target audience will find highly valuable.
Getting yourself into the press or via influential publications can be very good for your business as a personal trainer. Whether you can build relations with an online portal or an offline paper, it will be great for your reputation and putting your name out there as a personal trainer.
Even though exposure doesn't pay the bills immediately, it's worth doing it to some extent when you have the capacity so that you can continue to drive interest and traffic to your website, email and social media accounts.
Press releases are also a great way of marketing your business. You might work with a PR company or marketing agency to get it done. Great reasons to opt for a press release include promoting your services in general or maybe offering a unique opportunity for a limited time or on a specific fitness problem you are very well positioned to solve.
A press release can also be part of an advanced Search Engine Optimisation campaign to boost your website's ranking on Google.
Who doesn't love a discount or a freebie from a service they are interested in trying anyway? Or even those that need a nudge to jump on board would benefit from a special offer. Allowing prospects to interact with your services before committing will undoubtedly help secure some clients for your personal training services.
This offer can be an in-person consultation with fitness assessments or even a short trial session for local personal trainers. Online personal trainers could offer similar video calls following an online assessment form, or for online coaching, you can offer them limited-time access to the system. Between 7-30 days, whichever is the ideal time frame for your prospects to see some results of working with you.
And finally, when you have a website, publishing blog articles will give your readers a deeper insight into your methods, values and even the results you can get them.
Content is essential nowadays, and it can be helpful for your prospective customers to know what you're about. Feel free to discuss topics your ideal clients are interested in investigating. Think of questions you get from your clients, social media followers or even your friends about fitness and health. You can also publish case studies of your client's success and share what they did to achieve that under your guidance.
As a personal trainer, operating online can provide you with many more opportunities to find new clients. Employing these marketing strategies consistently, you could find your fitness business taking off substantially. You can start with one and build it up over time. Or if you have lots of capacity, use it to employ the ones you're best at!
We'll get you up and running in no time. Start with our zero-risk free trial and build your personal training empire today.
