The COVID-19 pandemic has hit personal training businesses hard. Clients are more cautious about how they spend their money following job losses and reduced incomes. There’s still hesitation from many about resuming normal activities that we enjoyed pre-lockdown. For some, the previous necessity to have a PT has become an unaffordable luxury. As the world opens up, you need to find innovative ways to overcome those barriers and market yourself as the go-to PT in your area and win back customers, new and old. This article will look at the top 5 ways to boost your marketing efforts and reach more clients.
Know your target market
The objective of any marketing strategy should be to reach your target market. Knowing your target market will help you fine-tune both the services you offer and your marketing strategy. You might think that you want to cater to anyone who needs a personal trainer, which may be true to some extent. However, if you delve deep into the demographics of your customer base, you will likely see a pattern. For example, are most of your client’s mums looking to shift the baby weight? Or are they clients in their 40’s or 50’s looking to improve their fitness and build strength? Maybe you have several male clients who are looking to build muscle and become leaner?
By splitting your customers by demographics, you’ll be able to identify your customer base and use that information to promote your business to prospective clients who fit a similar profile. Of course, this doesn’t mean you can’t train other customer types. Still, if you can identify your target market, the highest percentage of your client base, you have identified the bread and butter of your business and should use that information to your advantage.
Write for industry blogs and publications.
If you are seen as an expert and influencer in your field, you will win more clients. Showing off your expertise in the health and fitness space is a great way to achieve this. Make a list of websites and publications in your industry and pay particular interest in those your target market is likely to read. Then, take the time to email your articles to the content manager at each website or publication. The biggest tip we can give you is to be personal in your approach, not promotional. It’ll be received better and increase your chances of being published. When you get published, it will improve your credibility, and you should share your success far and wide for example:
You want to get the word out that you are a fantastic personal trainer that is an influencer in the personal training field that clients want to train with.
Get Social
You’ve likely set up a social media page for your business already, and maybe you post occasionally. This is a great start. However, when used effectively, social media can be a great tool to promote your personal training business and reach your target clients. Compared to traditional marketing methods, social media has the potential to reach 1000s of people. So what are the best ways to utilise social media?
There are too many social media platforms out there to hit them all at once. It’s better to have 2-3 great social media presences over ten substandard ones. Consider what platforms your target market are most likely to use and focus on those. You can get an overview of the top social media demographics for 2021 here.
Build your branding
You want to reach a point where your brand is instantly recognisable. Create a logo and define your corporate colours and make sure you use it through all your marketing materials. The average consumer needs to see an advert seven times before they can recall it. Making sure your branding is consistent makes your business more memorable. Being memorable builds the authority of your brand in a consumers mind.
Part of building your personal training brand is in how you present yourself too. Having a uniform for your brand gives a smart, professional appearance in front of clients and prospects. Having a range of personal trainer clothing in your brand colours with a visible logo on works best. In addition, if there are several members of your personal training team, you’ll be instantly recognisable to clients turning up for their first PT session. You could even go one step further and provide your clients with branded clothing when they sign up to train with you. So they get a new t.shirt, and you get a little bit of marketing exposure as they walk around wearing your brand - everyone wins!
Utilise word of mouth
You want to turn those one-off personal training sessions into long term customers that sing your praises and tell all their friends. Being a personal trainer is about really caring about your client’s aspirations and working with them to achieve their goals. Being warm, friendly and approachable will put them at ease quickly and more likely to turn into repeat customers. Word of mouth is still one of the best forms of marketing there is. Happy customers will spread the word. In addition, use those satisfied customers to spread the news of your fantastic work throughout the community, provide them with business cards or leaflets to hand out to interested friends or share a review on social media.
We hope this article has given you some ideas to boost your marketing efforts for your PT business. Once you’ve identified your target market, creating an ongoing marketing strategy and creating fresh content will be key to increasing engagement with your audience. In addition, making sure your branding ties into every area of your business, including your PT clothing and equipment, will mean your services will be instantly recognisable to your clients and prospects, whether online or in the gym.
