Marketing a Personal Training Business for Maximum ROI
Posted by Steve Hochman on Thu. Oct. 3rd, 2013
You’ve worked hard, you look great and you know your biz. If you have a facility you may have even got yourself into some deep financial obligations to get the place full of the latest state-of –the-art equipment, but without knowing the best way of marketing a personal training business you’ll probably be DOA.
Marketing is essential for any business whether it’s newly established or has been around for a long time. Look at Coca-Cola. Just about everyone on this planet has heard of it, but the company still spends millions on advertising. Why? Because of competition. You have to keep reminding people that you’re there – and that you’re the best, or they may be tempted to try someone else’s services.
Marketing a Personal Training Business Doesn’t have to Cost a Boatload of Money
If you’re new to marketing then don’t panic, some of the best ways of marketing a fitness business don’t have to break the bank, in fact the best ways only take time, careful planning and/or a small financial investment.
Social Media - FaceBook
If you haven’t set up a FaceBook Page for your business, then it’s time you did. Don’t be tempted to mix your personal and business personas by adding your business to your personal FaceBook profile. Your aim is to look professional, and mixing personal training information with comments and pictures of your best buddy’s stag night probably won’t impress a potential client!
The whole idea of marketing is to get as many people talking about your personal training business as possible, so aim to be a bit controversial, engage people and get a buzz going. Make sure you answer questions and interact with your fans regularly, get discussions going and run polls and competitions. FaceBook is a great place to interact with people to find out what they need.
When you get some healthy discussions going, FaceBook is also a great source of ideas that you can use when you build your email marketing list. Get people’s permission to use their names and questions, and incorporate those into topics for your website or email blasts. People love to see their own names and pix on the internet. They’ll Tweet and contact all their Friends to show off, thereby increasing your list of fans.
Social Media – YouTube
If you know your way around a camera, do this. Check out Google’s free Keyword Tool and investigate what people are searching for in relation to losing weight and personal training.
Marketing a personal training business via YouTube is incredibly easy and effective. There are one and a half million searches punched into Google every month relating to personal fitness training and many of these are localized searches.
Use this keyword information to title articles for your website and use these keywords in the titles and descriptions of the videos you make. You can re-use your videos many times over; on your website and on all the other video sharing sites. Pick your keywords wisely and incorporate the name of your town and build a seriously popular channel of helpful videos that will be shared, Liked and Tweeted. Concentrate on content, video quality and sound quality – the latter is often overlooked, but is extremely important if you want to look professional. Aim to get your videos on the first page of the search engine results pages. With a few minutes’ research you’ll discover under-utilized keywords and you will cash in.
Email Marketing
If you haven’t got a list, you’re missing one of the cheapest ways of marketing your fitness business. Placing an opt-in form on a WordPress site is a piece of cake, and getting people to sign up isn’t rocket science.
If you offer something that people want, you’ll have them signing up in droves. If you specialize, offer a free report on what you do best. If you generalize, offer a monthly or bi-weekly newsletter packed with helpful information. Don’t buy some worn-out PLR report that everyone’s already seen. Pay a writer to produce a killer report you can give away, and if you’re lousy at writing hire someone to write a monthly newsletter for you full of up-to-the-minute information, tricks, hints, tips and even recipes for healthy foods.
Get Your Current Clients Involved
When you’re marketing a personal fitness training business you should never overlook your current clients. You’ve got them, so you should do all you can to keep them.
If you offer great incentives they’ll stay with you, and you’ll build loyalty and a strong client base. If they’re seeing great results you know they’re talking to their friends, family and colleagues. Turn each of your clients into a salesperson – offer them money off or free sessions if they sign up the people they talk to!
Offer valuable cash prizes if necessary, and arm them with business cards and maybe a well-designed trifold brochure to hand out, with your web address, FaceBook handle and information about your services – everything that will turn those maybe-one-day’s into active clients.
The Ones that Got Away
You will work incredibly hard to get your first few clients, but unfortunately there will always be those who disappear. Call them and ask what you can do to help and encourage them to come back.
You’ll often be confronted by ridiculous excuses – so do whatever you can to overcome these obstacles and remind the client that you’re there for them. Always use words of encouragement, tell the client she was doing so well and you’re disappointed you haven’t been able to help her further.
If money is a problem, offer a discount (and mention you’re only doing this for her). She knows she needs your services – do whatever you can to bring her back into the fold. If you have an assistant standing around doing nothing (and you can trust her verbal abilities) have her make the calls for you.
The Walking Billboard
How many people do you see walking around in Gold’s Gym tee shirts that don’t go to Gold’s Gym? Plenty I bet. I asked a guy the other day and he laughed, he said the gym he does attend doesn’t have their own tee shirts! After a few minutes of friendly conversation, and an offer of a free session, I have a new potential client! He’ll get a free tee shirt too.
Having a bunch of good quality, eye-catching tee shirts printed up doesn’t cost a lot. On the street, printers are hurting because of internet competition, so shop around. Get some designed that your clients will be proud to wear - and the better their body, the more attention your walking billboard will attract!
Using all the above methods for personal training marketing will bring a great ROI. All that’s needed is some tee shirts, business cards, possibly a trifold brochure which you can design and print yourself, some time and a persuasive tongue and a smile.
You may be surprised at the great results you get – marketing a personal training business doesn’t have to cost a shitload of cash.
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