While Facebook's reach is undeniably down, with the right strategies in place, you can still introduce yourself to loads of new clients in a short amount of time.
We've put together this guide to help you become a Facebook marketing expert. Follow these tips and take your personal training business to heights you never thought possible.
1. Essential Features of a PT Facebook Page
The process of Facebook marketing domination begins with creating a Facebook page for your personal training business. Many trainers use their personal Facebook account for marketing their business and while you certainly can, a page provides a much more professional first impression and gives you more marketing abilities.
If you haven't created a page yet, head to our Facebook page, click on Create a Page at the bottom of the left sidebar and follow the instructions.
If you haven't created a page yet, head to our Facebook page, click on Create a Page at the bottom of the left sidebar and follow the instructions.
Next up, we'll need to make your page presentable by adding as much information as you possibly can, creating a page design and adding a call to action.
Page Info
How many times have you seen an ad and then clicked on the link to the page to find out more about the business instead of clicking on the actual ad? Or seen a post and clicked on the page to find out more about them?
This is just how people use social networks nowadays so making it easy for people to find out more about you is essential.
Spend 20 mins getting this right so you don't have to come back to it later.
Page Design
Your Facebook page design doesn't need to be elaborate. Your content is far more important than your page's appearance.
Feel free to use Facebook's built in tools to design your page. If you'd like something a bit more custom, head to Canva.com and use their Facebook page templates to create a cover photo.
Profile pictures with a head shot of the company owner work well. If you're not too comfortable with that, use your logo.
Call to Action
One important thing to include on your Facebook page is a call to action. This can be as simple as a "Contact Me" button in the lower right-hand corner of your page cover.
Pressing the button allows the prospect to send a message to ask about your services.
Facebook will ask you what Call to Action you'd like to use. I've found that a simple "Get in Touch" will suffice. People who want to see your site will click on the site link in the About you section anyway.
2. Your Content Strategy
Using your Facebook page to generate leads and new business isn't as easy as posting random tidbits a couple times a day. It'll take a complete content strategy focusing on many types of media.
We recommend applying the 80/20 rule to your content creation. Make 20% of your content about promoting your business while 80% of it is about your personality and useful information for your visitors.
This approach will help turn your Facebook page into a community where visitors interact with you and each other with the common goal of improving their health and fitness.
Post Types:
The types of posts you use will dictate both your organic and paid reach. A mix of them all is usually best but the key with Facebook posting is consistency. So choose the type of post you can be most consistent with.
We recommend applying the 80/20 rule to your content creation. Make 20% of your content about promoting your business while 80% of it is about your personality and useful information for your visitors.
This approach will help turn your Facebook page into a community where visitors interact with you and each other with the common goal of improving their health and fitness.
Post Types:
The types of posts you use will dictate both your organic and paid reach. A mix of them all is usually best but the key with Facebook posting is consistency. So choose the type of post you can be most consistent with.
For me, I'm too shy for video and I prefer to write, so even though video has a much bigger reach I create written posts more regularly. Here's a quick overview of the post types you can use:
- Posts
A workout tip contained to a sentence or two makes for a good post. A one-sentence thank you to a new client is also great. - Image Posts
Image posts can incorporate a graphic or photo, with or without additional written content. The great thing about image posts is they create 2.3 times more engagementthan those without images. If you want potential customers to stop and read your post, make it an image post. - Memes
It pains me to say this, but memes work exceptionally well for improving reach. While a meme is purely entertainment, they help to increase the reach of your more informative posts. - Third Party
Sharing blogs, articles and ideas from other industry related companies, even your competitors, shows professionalism on a level your clients will appreciate. If you find something that will help your clients, share it with them on your page. - Video
Video is becoming more and more popular on Facebook and it's never been easier to create and post one. 43% of Facebook users would like even more video content from marketers. To shoot video for your Facebook page, all you need is a smartphone, good lighting, and an inexpensive mount to keep your phone steady. Until you get the hang of it, stick to pre-recorded videos where you can plan out exactly what you want to do and re-record if something goes wrong. - Facebook Live
Once you've become a pro, try Facebook Live. Shooting live offers a big advantage over staged video because Facebook's algorithm gives live video a boost. This means your live demonstration of proper bench press form reaches more eyeballs. Make sure your videos are captioned. Since only 10% of people watch videos with the sound turned on, captioning is a necessity to make sure your entire message reaches your viewers. You can hire someone on Fiverr to create an SRT file that's easily uploaded to Facebook.
Posting Schedule
Creating a posting schedule can be tricky. When to post, how often and which days get the most reach are common questions we get asked by personal trainers.
Honestly, it takes time to figure it out for each business. If you train office workers and they've liked your page, you'll see a spike in engagement at lunch time and after work. Other niches will differ.
I recommend getting a few months of content together and using a social media app like Meet Edgar or Recurpost. These apps will recycle old content for your new fans to see and take a huge task off of your shoulders.
From our Facebook Group:
A member asked: Will using apps like Hootsuite, Meet Edgar and Recurpost have a negative impact on the reach of your Facebook posts?
Right now, we have no idea.
Big social media companies like AdEspresso, Buzzfeed and Buzzsumo have conducted several case studies and the results are mixed.
Some report marginal decreases in reach using third party apps, others report no decrease in reach at all.
Some posts even got a BETTER reach with the apps.
What this means for you.
To me, this says that Facebook isn't penalising content because it's posted via a third party app. It's just penalising crappy content and showing good content to more people.
My advice is to use them. To get any kind of impact from social media you need to post on each channel around 4 times PER DAY!
(Because it's not easy to create awesome content so that gives you a 1 in 4 chance each day.)
I don't know about you, but I ain't got time to post manually four times per day.
Third party apps can massively cut the amount of time on business admin so you can have more time with clients, friends or family.
Do you use a third party app to post and recycle content? Have you noticed any difference in reach?
Join Group
A member asked: Will using apps like Hootsuite, Meet Edgar and Recurpost have a negative impact on the reach of your Facebook posts?
Right now, we have no idea.
Big social media companies like AdEspresso, Buzzfeed and Buzzsumo have conducted several case studies and the results are mixed.
Some report marginal decreases in reach using third party apps, others report no decrease in reach at all.
Some posts even got a BETTER reach with the apps.
What this means for you.
To me, this says that Facebook isn't penalising content because it's posted via a third party app. It's just penalising crappy content and showing good content to more people.
My advice is to use them. To get any kind of impact from social media you need to post on each channel around 4 times PER DAY!
(Because it's not easy to create awesome content so that gives you a 1 in 4 chance each day.)
I don't know about you, but I ain't got time to post manually four times per day.
Third party apps can massively cut the amount of time on business admin so you can have more time with clients, friends or family.
Do you use a third party app to post and recycle content? Have you noticed any difference in reach?
Join Group
3. Paid Facebook Advertsing
Once you have a bit of cahsflow for your business, you might want to consider Facebook ads. There are different types of ads and each have their pros and cons. Whichever ad type you choose, I recommend setting up custom audiences:
Custom Audiences
To get the most out of what you're spending on Facebook ads, set up a custom audience first. From there, you can retarget people who've viewed a certain percentage of your past videos. Here's how to create them:
Custom Audiences
To get the most out of what you're spending on Facebook ads, set up a custom audience first. From there, you can retarget people who've viewed a certain percentage of your past videos. Here's how to create them:
- Click Tools from the top menu.
- Click Pixels > Facebook Pixel.
- Click Create a Pixel.
- Give your pixel a name. There's only one pixel per advert account, so choose a name that represents your business.
- Click Create Pixel.
- Now install that pixel in the header of your site.
Once your pixel has been implemented on your website, you can build an audience based on your website visitors.
- Go to Adverts Manager.
- Click Tools, then choose Audiences.
- Click Create Audience.
- Select Custom Audience.
- Click Website Traffic.
- Give your Custom Audience a name, choose a Website Traffic option and click Create Audience.
- Create one audience for your whole website (yourwebsite.com) and one audience for your Service/Pricing page (yourwebsite.com/services).
That's it!
Once the Facebook Pixel is installed, it may take some time to build up an audience. How long depends on how much you blog and advertise your website.
Facebook Ads
Facebook makes it easy to create an ad that's targeted to your audience of prospective training clients. A little too easy if you ask me. I suspect a large amount of their income comes from targeting businesses who have no idea what they're doing and end up wasting money on ads that yield no results.
If you've created a custom audience, you're already one step ahead of the game. Now you can create a few different types of ads to encourage people to sign up to your persona training service:
- Awareness Ads
These ads are used to build an audience of people who know, like and trust you. They're the least used type of ad because they don't yield and instant return but they're the highest value ad because they reduce the cost of all your other ads.
An awareness ad is an ad that promotes a valuable piece of content to your ideal client (blogs, infographics, how to guides), without an offer. People who consume this content begin to believe you're the expert and become way more receptive to your offers. - Consideration Ads
Consideration ads are the next stage in an advertising funnel. You retarget people who showed interest in your Awareness ad with soft offers or case studies. Things like eBooks or success stories. - Decision Ads
Decision ads are ads used for people in the decision making stage of the buyer journey. They're looking for an easy way in to your business, a reason to START. Low barrier offers like a free session or a 7 day trial work well here.
Boosting Posts
Boosting a post is nothing more than paying an amount of money to have your post reach more people. We use them often for blog posts that are going to be a big hit, solve a very specific problem or have a high value.
The more people who see the post, the more people will end up in your Facebook custom audiences.
(You've probably been added to our Facebook custom audience just by reading this post. Creepy!)
A Word About Customer Service
As you become an effective Facebook marketer, the number of leads you receive from Facebook will increase, perhaps dramatically. Responding quickly is the key to converting inquiring prospects into personal training clients.
Nothing is more disappointing to a prospective client than to receive a delayed or no response from someone they've grown to trust through the content they've viewed. Word spreads fast online so don't be the person who develops a reputation for not answering messages timely.
Well...are you ready to put to good use what you've learned and start becoming a Facebook marketing expert?
Great! And if you need help creating a website or marketing strategy for your personal training business, we can help with that too. Contact Us for more information.
Nothing is more disappointing to a prospective client than to receive a delayed or no response from someone they've grown to trust through the content they've viewed. Word spreads fast online so don't be the person who develops a reputation for not answering messages timely.
Well...are you ready to put to good use what you've learned and start becoming a Facebook marketing expert?
Great! And if you need help creating a website or marketing strategy for your personal training business, we can help with that too. Contact Us for more information.
