Building an online presence as a personal trainer means more than just sharing workouts and nutrition tips.

It involves inspiring and motivating your clients to take action, achieve their goals, and stay committed to their fitness journey.

Using a mixture of different types of content – instructive, entertaining, motivational – can be a very effective way of keeping your followers engaged. This post will examine motivational content, why it’s important, how to approach it, and some ideas to consider.

The benefits of motivational content

Motivational content is any kind of content designed to spur people into action. Depending on who it’s aimed at - and what type of action is involved - it could be inspirational (giving that initial push to get started), encouraging (supporting an ongoing commitment), or challenging (driving progress to the next level).

There are two main ways in which motivational content can benefit your personal training business:

1. It’s a rich seam of positive content to add to your ongoing marketing plan

1. Motivated followers are more likely to become (or continue to be) clients

How to approach motivational content

Your target audience and the services you provide will influence the kind of motivational content you opt for.

It’s important to recognize that different people respond to different types of motivational messages, and this will also vary according to where they are on their fitness journey.

You’ll likely be targeting newbies and established clients, which will mean producing a range of motivational content rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach.

Here are some points to bear in mind when planning your motivational content:

1. Find the balance between aspiration and accessibility:You want to inspire people, but it needs to feel achievable, so remember to suggest quick and easy tips as well as promote longer-term goals.

1. Get the tone right: It’s all about positivity and feeling good and should never make people feel ashamed or come across as patronizing or lecturing.

1. Use it to build your community: Motivational content can be a great focus for engaging your community by setting challenges, sharing tips, and celebrating achievements.

Some motivational content ideas

Motivation is the fuel that drives success, and as a personal trainer, inspiring your clients is a fundamental part of your role. One of the keys to keeping your clients engaged and committed to their fitness journey is through motivational content.

In this section, we'll dive into an array of inspiration-packed content ideas tailored to your fitness niche. Whether you're helping clients build muscle, lose weight, or achieve their fitness goals, these creative motivation content ideas will help you ignite the fire of determination in your clients.

1. Give tips on how to stay motivated
2. Let’s start with an obvious one: laying the proper groundwork to stay motivated.
3. Depending on your fitness niche, these tips could be quite general or very specific. Still, they include things like finding the right time to exercise, joining a group, getting a trainer, listening to inspirational music or podcasts, setting goals, recording/celebrating progress, keeping a sleep or food diary, and so on. Check out our article on 10 habits to help your personal training clients succeed for some more ideas.

1. Share success stories and celebrate achievements
2. It can be very inspiring to see what others have achieved, so identify some of your best success stories and see if those clients are happy to share them.
3. It’s good to showcase a range of achievements to appeal to a wide variety of people at different stages and with different goals.
4. Your content could include anything from a quick name check on social media to a case study or video testimonial. If you want to write up a detailed success story, this Spur Reply article has a helpful checklist of what to include.

1. Promote user-generated content
2. This leads us nicely to UGC (user-generated content), a great way to increase your output and extend your reach.
3. Encourage your followers to post their videos, testimonials, achievements, etc., to motivate others; ask them to tag you in their content, but also check that they are OK for you to repost it on your channels.

1. Get people involved - challenges, competitions and recommendations
2. A good way of motivating people is by involving them in an engaging shared activity.
3. So try setting challenges, running competitions or polls, asking for and sharing recommendations – anything you can think of that might help your followers feel part of a community and galvanize them into further action.

1. Share quick, easy, healthy recipes
2. Bulk out your content with a prevalent motivational subject – food. People are always interested in finding out about new recipes that are quick, easy, and healthy.
3. These could be drinks, snacks, or proper meals tailored to suit your particular audience or specialism (e.g., older women, muscle building).
4. The content could simply be links to other sites, along with your comments or recipes you’ve come up with or adapted yourself.

1. Signpost other inspirational content
2. A key element in motivating people is making them feel part of a broader community on the same wavelength and striving to improve.
3. Tap into this by signposting your followers to other motivational content that aligns well with your brand and messaging; do some research to find out the best influencers, experts, and blogs to keep tabs on and share with your audience.

Now, it’s Your Turn

In this post, we've explored the immense benefits of motivational content, from drawing in potential clients to nurturing your existing community. We've also discussed the importance of tailoring your motivational content to cater to your diverse audience, from beginners to seasoned fitness enthusiasts.

We've provided many creative ideas, from offering tips on staying motivated to celebrating success stories and engaging your audience through challenges, user-generated content, and quick, healthy recipes. Remember the power of cross-promotion and signposting to other inspirational content that aligns with your brand.

Now, it's your turn to implement these ideas, inspire your clients, and watch your personal training business thrive.