Marketing for Personal Trainers

As a personal trainer, you already eat, breathe and live fitness. Now, you just need to show off a little. Not in a cocky way, just in an informative way. Show your audience exactly what they would...

I’m willing to bet that at one point or other in your career you came up with a creative new way to shake things up with your clients. Maybe that idea didn’t make it that far from the drawing board. At some point in the process it was stifled. Either you or your clients weren’t ready for change.

Our profession can inspire creativity and stifle it at the same time. Our time with clients is precious. They want results, and you can’t risk using them as guinea pigs to try an untested system. This is where the focus group and a trial period come in.

Gift cards aren’t just for birthdays and holidays anymore. Now, in the world of personal training they are for generating leads.

Just about every trainer has tried the old trick of offering “the first training session free” to draw in new clients. The problem is, the success rate isn’t that high. With a “free session” promotion coupon there are only two outcomes. Either they use it or they don’t. Unfortunately, for every 100 free sessions you offer, only a handful of people are likely to respond.

The first thing you will need to do is purchase a domain name and hosting for your website. There are a plethora of companies out there that offer these two must-haves as a package deal. Shop around and find the one that works best for you.

Here are a few good hosting companies to check out:

The idea of building a strong online presence for your fitness business is exciting, but the actual task seems intimidating. Don’t worry. This isn’t a sprint- it’s a marathon. If you are training a client for a marathon would you set the treadmill to 26.4 miles on the first day? I hope not. Well, I won’t do that to you either. But, just like when training for a marathon, visualizing the end goal at the beginning helps keep all the little things you do in perspective.

I can’t think of a better way for personal trainers to grow their business than by having a strong online presence. Potential clients are out there, and chances are they are active online.

Think about it. When you are looking for something, where do you turn first? The classified section? Probably not. The Yellow Pages? Doubtful. No, you look on the Internet. The same goes for people who are trying to find someone who can motivate them to lose weight, get into shape or simply learn to live a healthier life.

The Internet is where you can find the answers to almost anything…almost. The question: are you the answer potential clients find? If not, you can get there. But first, let’s examine how building a strong online presence can help your business.

The day-to-day of building a new client base can be daunting. Chances are you've blindly thrown out a few lines hoping to get a bite. With any luck you have managed to attract a new client or two....

I’ve spoken to many personal trainers and many say they jumped into the personal training business for the simple reason that they enjoy fitness.  And, they want to share their passion of helping others live healthier lives.  In fact, many trainers don’t start off thinking of personal training as a long-range business opportunity.

But, then there could come a time when you become tired of working for someone else – when you see potential in branching out on your own. So, what do you need to do first? Start thinking with a business mind- a marketing mind.