Do you find it difficult to generate a consistent flow of new clients that are willing to pay for your services? Whether you are just starting out as a personal trainer or have years of experience in the fitness industry you may find that there are months when business is blooming and others when you need to work hard to get new clients and meet basic cash flow needs of your business.
Stay tuned to find out how to set up a marketing strategy that will not only build an audience of prospects ready to become your clients, but will have a compoundng interest effect over time. Never run out of new clients again!
What's an Audience?
Your audience is the pool of people who follow your activities and social presence, read your blog posts and weekly emails, like your Instagram pics and interact with you on various communication channels.
Why do you need an audience?
Having an audience of people who fit your “ideal client” description can make all the difference between having to struggle to gain new clients and being able to reach out to your audience with a kick-ass offer they can’t resist.
Who needs an audience?
Any personal trainer who wants to create or has a training business can benefit from building an audience, however if you want to enter and be successful in the online training scene, working on your audience is especially important from the get go.
Who should be in your audience?
I see many trainers fall into the trap of inviting their friends, colleagues and their cats to like their business Facebook page or Instagram profile. Whilst that can grow the number of your following quickly at the start, your profiles will be full of random people who don’t fit your ideal buyer persona.
A more useful and long term personal trainer marketing strategy is to build an audience that somewhere down the line can be qualified as leads and potentially become your clients when they’re ready for it.
Incorporating the following 5 tactics into your marketing strategy can help you build such an audience. All you need is being consistent, patient and showing your audience your talent and expertise over time. It takes a lot of work hours at the start, but you can reap the benefits on the long-term.
Why do you need an audience?
Having an audience of people who fit your “ideal client” description can make all the difference between having to struggle to gain new clients and being able to reach out to your audience with a kick-ass offer they can’t resist.
Who needs an audience?
Any personal trainer who wants to create or has a training business can benefit from building an audience, however if you want to enter and be successful in the online training scene, working on your audience is especially important from the get go.
Who should be in your audience?
I see many trainers fall into the trap of inviting their friends, colleagues and their cats to like their business Facebook page or Instagram profile. Whilst that can grow the number of your following quickly at the start, your profiles will be full of random people who don’t fit your ideal buyer persona.
A more useful and long term personal trainer marketing strategy is to build an audience that somewhere down the line can be qualified as leads and potentially become your clients when they’re ready for it.
Incorporating the following 5 tactics into your marketing strategy can help you build such an audience. All you need is being consistent, patient and showing your audience your talent and expertise over time. It takes a lot of work hours at the start, but you can reap the benefits on the long-term.
1. Content
The foundation of all great audiences. Content comes in many forms like blogging, Facebook or Instagram posts and YouTube videos. The mediums you use depends on which you’re good at. Just be sure to create content with a purpose. Create content not for your own entertainment, but to address problems of your target audience.
How do you know what your ideal clients like to learn about?
Easy. You ask them. However small or big your client base is, you can always ask them what their challenges are, how you could help them. The start may feel a little forced, but once you start content creation, the questions will come and the answers you give will bring up new questions.
Start with the channel you enjoy doing the most to build the foundation, then feel free to push yourself out of your comfort zone and venture into other areas like live videos. Keep it authentic though and feel free to use the language that appeals to your clientele, not what marketing gurus tell you to do.
How do you know what your ideal clients like to learn about?
Easy. You ask them. However small or big your client base is, you can always ask them what their challenges are, how you could help them. The start may feel a little forced, but once you start content creation, the questions will come and the answers you give will bring up new questions.
Start with the channel you enjoy doing the most to build the foundation, then feel free to push yourself out of your comfort zone and venture into other areas like live videos. Keep it authentic though and feel free to use the language that appeals to your clientele, not what marketing gurus tell you to do.
2. Facebook Retargeting Pixels
If you never heard of the Facebook Retargeting Pixel, it’s an amazing tool to target people who showed interest in your content and services by checking out your website.
Imagine you have two website visitors. The first visits your blog post about how to lose fat, the second visits your services page.
Which of those too is more likely to be interested in your services? The second visitor, right? The first was still looking to fix the problem on their own. The second was looking for someone to help them.
This kind of targeting not only help you build an audience, it helps you segment them based on how likely they are to buy your services.
Installing the pixel from the start, no matter how small your audience, will ensure that you can create a campaign to the audience who visited your website at any point.
Imagine you have two website visitors. The first visits your blog post about how to lose fat, the second visits your services page.
Which of those too is more likely to be interested in your services? The second visitor, right? The first was still looking to fix the problem on their own. The second was looking for someone to help them.
This kind of targeting not only help you build an audience, it helps you segment them based on how likely they are to buy your services.
Installing the pixel from the start, no matter how small your audience, will ensure that you can create a campaign to the audience who visited your website at any point.
3. List building
Marketers have been talking about this for years but building a healthy list is becoming more and more essential for a successful marketing strategy. The behavior of the buyers is changing significantly and people are much more conscious of where they spend their money.
This means the advantage is with those who focus on creating an audience by providing value consistently, creating quality lead magnets for each stage of the buyer journey and building a list based on what your target audience is interested in.
There are loads places to position your lead magnets to get more leads but stick to two at a time and see which ones work best for you:
- The header of your home page
- The header of your blog
- Your blog sidebar
- Your blog footer
- In the blog content
- At the end of YouTube videos
- On your social media accounts
4. SEO
Search Engine Optimisation has been around for a long time and yet not many personal trainers use it to its full potential. But who does't wan to be at the top of Google when a client searches for your services online?
Good SEO generates more consistent leads than any other marketing source.
Good SEO generates more consistent leads than any other marketing source.
First step to a great SEO strategy is to realise how many people out there are already searching for your services. All you need to do is to make sure when they do, you appear high in the search results so they can find you.
In other words ranking as high as possible in Google is one of the best way to ensure consistent flow of new leads because people search for your services on a daily basis. We dedicated a full course to SEO on the Institute of Personal Trainers Academy, check it out to learn how to use Google My Business, YouTube videos and other strategies to rank on Google.
5. Likes and Followers
Likes and followes should not be at the top of your to do list but they do help to a degree.
Which platforms do you use to reach out to people who can become clients? Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat or others? Most of these providers have paid ways to increase the reach of one of your promotions.
In that sense getting likes and followers is not 100% necessary, however if you have a strong following base and they trust you, you can reduce your marketing budget and reach more people via trusted recommendations. People will always value a friend’s recommendation over a sponsored post.
Which platforms do you use to reach out to people who can become clients? Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat or others? Most of these providers have paid ways to increase the reach of one of your promotions.
In that sense getting likes and followers is not 100% necessary, however if you have a strong following base and they trust you, you can reduce your marketing budget and reach more people via trusted recommendations. People will always value a friend’s recommendation over a sponsored post.
