For today’s personal trainers and boot camp owners the Internet is king. It’s the thing that’s going to get you a constant surge of new clients whenever you need them and will give your business a platform to reach a bigger audience. Now, that’s not to knock offline personal trainer marketing methods because, in all honesty- you should be doing both, but if your business lacks a web presence then there is no way you can grow and take it to the next level.

Listen, most of your customers (if not ALL of them) are online just waiting for you to find them and inspire them to want to get healthy and fit. So do them, and yourself, a favor by making your business known online and in the community you live in.

A lot of these tools and tactics that we’re going to lay out for you, you may already have in place- which is awesome. But if you’re missing one or more of these tools in your business’ tool belt, then you might be missing out big time.

Here’s what you need for a powerful web presence:

Facebook

We’re starting with Facebook first because it is, without a doubt, the most powerful and most important social media site that your business needs to be set up for. Period.

Did you know that over 15 million businesses use Facebook for their marketing campaigns?

That just shows you how crucial it is to have one for your business. But you can’t just set one up and forget about it, you actually have to be using it to engage your potential and current clients.

Not only can you reach more people through Facebook, you can reach your target audience and the specific people who are most likely to become your clients. And that’s what makes the biggest difference. You can actually build an audience for your business, an audience that’s excited to hear what you have going on.

So, how do you do that? By posting content that your potential clients will find useful, helpful, or inspirational. Start by introducing yourself and your business. What are you all about? Write that in your “About Me” section. Then get to posting.

Share things on your Facebook like healthy recipes, tips for a good workout, and, of course, testimonials and case studies. Post pictures of clients working out and having a great time with it. Those who are interested in joining will get to see what it’s like working out at your boot camp or personal training studio.

You also don’t want to spam your audience with promotion after promotion after promotion. Pick and choose carefully when you’re going to launch a promotion and then go all out. Don’t run multiple promotions and sales at the same time either, it makes it harder to track what works and what isn’t.

Yelp

Yelp is becoming more and more important for small businesses because it’s the #1 business review site.

Yelp is necessary for two main reasons: reviews and local SEO. If you have an awesome personal training business that your clients rave about, have them rave about it online on your Yelp. It helps not only with your reputation as a business, it helps with “word-of-mouth” referrals and convincing those who are looking to join your gym

SEO stands for search engine optimization and it’s what makes your business searchable when someone is looking for personal training in your area. So if someone types in “personal training in Los Angeles” (or whatever city you live in) your goal is to have your businesses website or Yelp show up on the first page of Google, Yahoo!, and Bing.

Yelp is owned by Yahoo so it’s having an account not only helps with your Google searches, it helps with your Yahoo! and Bing searches as well.

Google Places

Similar to Yelp, Google Places is a big deal and definitely something that you need to set up for your business ASAP if you haven’t already.

Having your business listed on Google place not only helps people find your business online, it helps them to see your hours of business and gives directions to your facility. People can also leave reviews here and you’re able to connect with your clients like you would on any other social media site.

It also helps with SEO and since Google Places is owned by- you guessed- Google, you’ll have a much better chance at your business showing up when someone searches for it, especially on Google because it’s the #1 search engine used.

SEO Website

A website that is search engine optimized is definitely a great personal trainer marketing tool that helps to get you traffic, and depending on where you live- it can get you tons.

Now, SEO is kind of a time consuming thing and if you’re good with computers then you can probably teach yourself all that you’d need to know to take care of it yourself. But if you’re like the rest of us personal trainers, then you might need to hire someone to do it for you- much like you’d hire someone to build your website.

A good looking website that’s optimized for all the major search engines is where you want to end up. It takes some investing, but it’s worth every penny. Having a business without is lazy and can end up hurting it in the long run.

Daily Deal Sites

Sites like Groupon and LivingSocial are amazing when it comes to getting more traffic and more attention for your business. Lots of your potential clients are on these sites right now looking for good deals to snatch up.

The trick with daily deal sites like these is to not view the money you get from it as income- invest it back into your business and use it to love up your new potential clients. You also need to make an effort to treat these clients like any other client. Just because they have a “coupon” to use your boot camp or training studio doesn’t mean that they aren’t worth trying to sell your whole package to.

That’s where a lot of personal trainers go wrong, they have the impression that these people are “cheap” and don’t really treat them like they should be treated. But if you WOW them right off the bat, they’ll end up loving you and your business and will beg to sign on as a member.

Email List

Building an email list is really another really important tactic that you should be constantly working on. It is time consuming, but it tends to pay off big time when you are doing it right.

The formula for your email list is this” for every 4 helpful, worthwhile emails you send out, you get an opportunity to send out a promotional one to get your list onboard. You don’t ever want to spam them with email after email about why they need to join your gym. Once every 4 emails is perfectly fine and your list will appreciate you for it.

So if you’re missing one of these elements- get to it so you can see some growth in your business ASAP!

This entry was posted on March 31, 2014 at 1:01 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in Boot Camp Business, Boot Camp Marketing, Fitness Business, Fitness Marketing by Steve Hochman | No Comments Yet