Effective personal trainer marketing and advertising is crucial for any fitness professional seeking more clients. From using paid ads to incentivising clients, we’ll teach you the best ways to attract and retain new clients.
But before you get started, check out our detailed video on personal trainer advertising:
Contents:
- Setting A Solid Personal Trainer Marketing Strategy
- 8 Proven Personal Training Marketing & Advertising Strategies
- How To Improve Your Personal Training Business
Are you ready to advance your career? Check out our range of Level 4 Advanced Sports Nutrition to increase your income or download our course prospectus.
Setting A Solid Personal Trainer Marketing Strategy
When implementing any marketing strategy, personal trainers need to consider a series of points to find success. Before we jump into our strategies, it’s important to develop this foundation first.
By establishing USPs and knowing exactly who your target audience is, you’ll find it much easier to develop effective personal trainer marketing strategies.
#1 – Know Your Goals and Set Targets
When establishing marketing strategies for personal trainers, goal setting is paramount. These targets should be centred around how many clients you wish to acquire with a set date for when you want this to happen.
For example, you may set yourself the goal of gaining at least 5 new clients in two months. Having a goal within a specific time frame makes it easier to motivate yourself to try and gain it faster than you otherwise would.
These goals provide you with something to refer back to, helping to determine how successful a marketing strategy is/was. For example, should you hit your desired target you can replicate this approach continuously throughout your career.
Alternatively, should you find that you were unable to hit your desired goal you can adjust your future personal training marketing strategies accordingly.
If you’d like to learn more about this topic, check out our article discussing personal trainer business goals.
#2 – Consider Your Target Audience
It’s important to decide who your target audience is as this will help give you a better idea of what direction your personal training marketing strategies should take.
For example, some of the niche demographics you work with could include:
- Personal training for pregnant clients
- Personal training for older clients
- Personal training for clients with diabetes
You will need to adapt your personal trainer advertising and marketing for your intended audience. Directly appealing to groups and individuals by adding a personal level increases the chance of them using your service.
#3 – Establish Your Unique Selling Point
To stand out as a personal trainer, you need to ensure you have a clear and established ‘unique selling point’ (USP).
If you’re unsure what your USP is, ask yourself these questions:
- What kind of specialist services do I offer?
- Who is my target audience?
- What are my brand values & ethos?
For example, your USP may be offering discounted sessions during off-peak hours, to accommodate students on a tighter budget.
After establishing your USP, you should then use it to make your personal training marketing strategy more effective to make your business stand out within a highly competitive field.
Your USP needs to be at the forefront of your marketing strategy. To learn how you can develop this further, check out some of our insightful tips for standing out as a personal trainer.
#4 – Set a Budget
When it comes to marketing your personal training services, this point is especially important if you have a smaller budget to work with.
Without setting a clear budget, you may find yourself spending too much on one aspect of your marketing and neglecting other important areas, which can make it more difficult to make money as a personal trainer.
For example, spending too much on social media ads may lead you to neglect the crucial elements of running a personal training business such as overheads and taxes.
However, if you’re simply going to spend time on organic social marketing, you need to ensure you dedicate enough time to do this effectively. What you may save on money, you’ll need to make up for in time!
8 Proven Personal Trainer Marketing & Advertising Strategies
#1 – Invest in Your Social Media
When it comes to personal training marketing, the most obvious strategy is to establish your presence on social media. The best option is to narrow your scope and keep the focus of your marketing strategies to one or two social media platforms.
In turn, this will provide a greater result! While fewer social media channels may not seem as effective, optimising the few accounts you do have will appeal to clients and increase the likelihood of inquiring.
As mentioned earlier, this is why it’s important to identify your target audience. Finding where your audience is most active is crucial for tailoring your personal training marketing strategy.
Depending on your demographic, you may find your audience is most active on social media such as:
- TikTok
If you haven’t already established a social media presence, you can first identify if it’s a popular platform for your audience and then create your account and tailor it accordingly.
For example, if clients are older you should optimise Facebook but if they’re younger, then TikTok is likely to be more successful.
Creating engaging content and interacting with your audience will help build trust with potential clients.
#2 – Use Paid Ads on Social Media
Whether you choose to use fitness Facebook ads or want to find clients on Instagram, creating advertisements is important to get right when marketing personal trainer services.
Using its state-of-the-art algorithm, Facebook allows you to specify what users you wish to target. These ads will then be shown in the feeds of your chosen demographic, increasing the likelihood of them investing in your business.
An example of how you can optimise these Facebook ads can be found below:
You can also use apps to edit the style of your personal training advertising posts on Instagram, allowing you to appeal directly to your target audience and show off your creativity. So examples of these formats include:
- Picture Ads
- Video Ads
- Carousel Ads (Multiple Pictures in One Post)
- Story Ads
Similar to Google Ads which we’ll also discuss later, these ads work on a Pay Per Click (PPC) basis. This means a business or company will only pay when someone clicks on the ad and is directed to their website.
Although you may be put off paying for ads, this will help you target specific clients who will be more likely to turn into paying customers.
Check out these helpful resources on getting clients as a personal trainer through the use of social media:
- How To Get Personal Training Clients Using Instagram
- How To Create Effective Fitness Facebook Ads
- Google Ads For Personal Trainers
#3 – Set Up a Referral Scheme
According to Nielsen, consumers are 88% more likely to invest in a business if they have received a recommendation from a friend or family member.
You can capitalise on this impressive statistic by adapting your marketing strategy to include a referral scheme. This will require you to directly ask your clients to recommend your business to others.
To increase the likelihood of your clients making this referral, be sure to offer them an incentive, such as:
- Free or discounted session
- Free group session
- Free branded merchandise
Using clients as a way to promote your business will not only create loyal clients as you’re offering them rewards but you’ll also be attracting people who will trust your service more if it’s being recommended by someone they know.
This is an effective personal training marketing strategy as both you and your clients benefit from it. You will receive additional revenue from the new referral, and they will be rewarded for their participation.
This scheme requires minimal effort on your part, as the hard work is done by the client making the recommendation. If you’d like to learn more about this process, check out our in-depth article exploring getting personal trainer referrals!
#4 – Incentivise Social Media Promotion
This is one of the best marketing strategies for personal training as it’s a fairly low-cost way to ensure you’re exposed to more potential clients online.
This process will involve working with those who have a large social media following, such as influencers. You ask them to promote your business to their followers, in return for something of equal value such as a free session or gift card.
When looking for users to collaborate with, focus your efforts on profiles that centre around health and fitness content, as their followers will be your target demographic.
Additionally, it’s important to be realistic with who you’re messaging. Large-scale influencers likely won’t reply to your request, so be sure to message creators who are attainable!
Once this business connection has been established, you can ask the content creator to:
- Share Instagram stories documenting their fitness journey
- Post videos of their sessions
- Ask them to do a ‘before and after transformation’ after training with you for free for a few weeks
However, this isn’t the only form of social media promotion you can run across your platforms. For example, you could create competitions that require users to share posts on their profile, in order to obtain a prize.
#5 – Use Google My Business When Advertising Personal Training
Creating a Google My Business profile is an essential marketing strategy for personal trainers looking to increase their online visibility.
These profiles are often the first things consumers see when they search for a particular service. Including vital information such as:
- Contact details
- Service times
- Links to your website
- Address
An example of how this information is presented to users can be found below:
Customers don’t want to spend their time digging for your important business information. By creating a Google My Business profile you are making it more convenient for users to find and invest in your business.
This marketing strategy for personal training businesses works best for those who have a physical location. This is because the profile requires you to list an address, clients within your local area will then be able to see you’re within close proximity and will be more likely to work with you.
To learn how to set up and optimise your own profile, check out our in-depth article on Google My Business for personal trainers.
#6 – Promote Your Services on the Gym Floor
Networking on the gym floor provides a personal connection and is an effective marketing strategy for personal training. By putting up posters or distributing leaflets and business cards, you’re directly targeting gym-goers rather than waiting for them to find you online.
You aren’t restricted to gyms either! If you specialise in a niche such as pre or postnatal personal training, you can target places such as parent and baby classes or child’s play areas.
However, always ensure you have permission from the business or company when distributing your marketing materials. You should also approach gym goers in a friendly and professional way – avoid being too persistent or brash.
With our list of 9 Proven Ways to Get Clients Off the Gym Floor, you’ll learn how to successfully network with clients, allowing your service to expand further.
#7 – Create a Website for Your Business
Having a website is an effective marketing strategy as this makes it easier for people to find your service and increases your credibility. To increase the visibility of your website across search engines, you’ll need to use effective Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
This personal trainer marketing strategy will help your website rank higher on Google, meaning users are more likely to find it when they search-relevant keywords.
Take a look at our guide on SEO for personal trainers for a detailed breakdown of this topic!
Top Tip! Calls to Action (CTA) are important for inexperienced marketers as this is a simple way to turn this visibility into leads by encouraging users to complete a specific action and give their details:
OriGym’s guide on how to make a personal training website will walk you through this entire process, from creation to optimisation!
#8 – Use Paid Google Ads
If you’re open to paying for personal training advertising, it’s definitely worth looking into Google Ads. This process involves personal trainers paying a fee to appear at the top of a Google search for specific keywords, increasing their visibility and making it easier for potential clients to find their website.
For example, if someone searches for ‘personal trainer Liverpool’, these ‘sponsored’ ads are the results that appear at the top of the page.
These ads work on a Pay Per Click (PPC) basis. This means you will only pay for the advert when someone clicks on your link and is directed to your website.
The cost of these ads will differ depending on the keyword you wish to rank for. For example ‘local keywords’ such as ‘personal trainer Liverpool’ are significantly cheaper than popular, generic keywords like ‘personal trainer’.
When creating a marketing strategy personal trainers should consider targeting local keywords, as they have a ‘high intent’.
This means that clients who are searching these words are more likely to make a purchase and invest in your business. For example, those searching ‘personal trainer in Liverpool’ have likely decided that they wish to hire a PT in this area.
Our guide on Google ads for personal trainers explores this topic in greater depth and can teach you what keywords your business should be specifically targeting.
How To Improve Your Personal Training Business
Aside from implementing personal training marketing strategies to attract more clients, follow our suggestions below about how you can continue improving a PT business:
#1 – Diversify the Services You Offer With Specialist Expertise
As a personal trainer, you should continue developing your knowledge and qualifications, allowing you to continue marketing your personal training services to a larger range of clients.
As we mention in more detail in our guide on how to become a personal trainer, you can do this by completing Level 4 Personal Training courses such as:
- Level 4 Lower Back Pain Management
- Level 4 Obesity & Weight Management
- Level 4 Diabetes Management & Control
- Level 4 Certificate in Nutrition
Upskilling and expanding your services, especially by offering a combination of different specialities, allows you to appeal to more clients and attract a range of different clients to your service.
#2 – Professional Design For Your Brand
While this may seem obvious, it’s important you have a unique yet professional brand for your service. This is crucial when it comes to marketing personal training as a recognisable brand establishes trust for those who continue to use your service.
If you continue with your business and build a steady client base, a professional logo can be a stamp of quality people recognize, making people more inclined to try it out.
To do this effectively, you may choose to invest in a professional designer, even if it’s just for your logo. You could also use online tools with professional templates such as Canva.
However, personal trainer marketing strategies don’t just have to be online. You can use printed materials such as posters or business cards. These can be distributed on the gym floor at a place you’ve worked at or regularly attend.
This can still be an option if you’re an online nutritionist. Be sure to be clear on having an online service by explicitly stating this on your printed marketing materials with a link to your website and an outline of what you offer.
Ready to Begin Your Personal Training Career?
As one of the UK’s most trusted providers for health and fitness education, we aim to assist both new and experienced personal trainers with reaching their career goals and finding their speciality.
For more information on our range of Level 4 Sports Nutrition course to help market yourself to more clients, download our course prospectus or enquire today!
