From strengthening relationships to taking on promotional challenges, here are 17 answers to the question, "Can you give us your top tips for growing your personal training client base?"
- build strong relationships
- Share testimonials on your social media platforms
- adjust your approach
- Update your website and offer services online
- Find your unique selling proposition (USP)
- Collaborate with other fitness professionals
- Get amazing results for your clients
- Write articles for fitness magazines
- Offer a free trial
- ask for references
- Encourage customers to bring a friend
- Boost your reputation on social media
- Show off your experience on TikTok and YouTube
- Invest in marketing
- Build a community everyone wants to join
- Build working relationships with healthcare professionals
- Run an advertising challenge on social media
build strong relationships
My top tip for growing your personal training client base is to focus on building relationships. Personal trainers are all about building relationships with their clients and helping them achieve their fitness goals. You need to prioritize connecting with your customers, getting to know them and building a strong relationship that will keep them coming back.
Get to know your customers personally and ask about their goals, interests and challenges. Showing genuine interest in them and their progress is key to a successful client-coach relationship. Not to mention, providing excellent customer service and striving to give each customer the best experience goes a long way in retaining them.
In summary, your focus on building strong relationships with your customers and providing superior customer service to build a loyal customer base that will continue to grow.
Shaun Connell, Gründer, Writing Tips Institute
Share testimonials on your social media platforms
If you're looking to grow your client base as a personal trainer, the quickest way would be to harness the power of social media. Share testimonials from your existing clients who have achieved their goals with your guidance and talk about how great it was to receive personalized, results-based training.
People feel more connected to companies when they can connect with them emotionally. So let them connect with you by presenting real success stories that perfectly match your training offerings. Sharing these stories will attract new customers who might otherwise be reluctant to try your services and help build credibility with your business.
Jim Campbell, Owner, Camp Media
adjust your approach
Personalization is key when trying to build your training customer base. As a former personal trainer, I can tell you that just assuming people will want to work with you is not a good marketing strategy - this business is very much about other people, not you.
Many trainers flood their social media with themselves working out and posing, but what does that really do to build your client base? Sure, you can boast about how good you are, but it might seem a bit thoughtful, and you'd be far more likely to grow your customer base by sharing customer success stories. Not only is this more outward looking, but it also suggests that you genuinely care about your clients' progress and not just your own.
Brett Downes, Founder, Haro Helpers
Update your website and offer services online
Providing services online by updating your website is one of the best tips for expanding your personal clientele. A responsive website is vital for PT businesses. Make sure your website is easy to navigate and has a full list of your services, prices, and contact information. If possible, include photos (e.g. before and after photos) along with comments from current and previous customers.
To create brand awareness and build trust in your product, prominently display your company logo and any links to related organizations. Why not consider offering online-only sessions on your new website as well? Traditional in-person meetings are great, but they have a limit on the number of customers you can serve at one time. Today, one of the best ways to grow your PT business and attract new clients is to create online programs that anyone, anywhere can participate in. With an updated website and additional offers, you can quickly expand your customer base.
Find your unique selling proposition (USP)
If you're trying to build a customer or customer base, you simply have to focus on those people and sell them something unique.
First find out what your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) is and make that a sign of what you can offer. Personal training is a saturated market, and clients won't approach you without knowing exactly what makes your offering special. If you are trained in fitness boxing this can be a great way to market yourself and not only that, you will find the right clients who are into it.
Also, don't do all your marketing about yourself; Celebrate and share your clients' work to show how invested you are in their success - in fact, you only make up about 20% of your own sales pitch, and people will be all the more excited to see you "real" help “people” to be successful.
Alex Mastin, CEO and Founder, Home Grounds
Collaborate with other fitness professionals
A successful way to increase personal training clients is to network and collaborate with other companies and professionals in the fitness industry. You can increase your profile and reputation in the industry by connecting with other trainers, gyms and wellness facilities.
This can attract more customers looking for reliable trainers. Attending industry events such as seminars, trade shows and conferences for the fitness industry is an opportunity to network and collaborate with other fitness professionals. These meetups provide an opportunity to network and interact with other fitness professionals, facility owners, and influencers. Developing connections with these individuals can open up prospects for collaborating on projects or initiatives and important referral deals.
Karen Cate Agustin, Business Analyst, Investors Club
Get amazing results for your clients
This tip is mostly for personal trainers who already have a few clients, but for those folks it can be a very effective strategy. Not every customer you get will be someone screaming from the rooftops that they are working on their health. However, when you make sure these people get amazing results, your friends and family can't help but ask what they're doing differently.
In return, word of your name and reputation as a good personal trainer will slowly but surely spread. Another added benefit of this strategy is that you basically have testimonials running around. When people see what happened to people they know, it becomes much easier to help them see that you can provide meaningful results.
Matt Claes, Head Coach and Founder of Weight Loss Made Practical
Write articles for fitness magazines
These publications regularly feature informative articles that provide valuable insights and tips related to health and fitness; By contributing as an expert, you can help spread the word about your business while also demonstrating your expertise in the field. Writing these articles also gives you an opportunity to get major media coverage, which can lead to wider reach and more potential clients for your services.
Ludovic Chung-Sao, Chief Engineer and Founder, Zen Soundproof
Offer a free trial
As a service company leader, I believe the best strategy for growing your customer base is to offer a free trial. People are skeptical about signing up for fitness services and this is a great way to show the value by allowing them to try before they commit.
In my skills training business, I offer prospective clients a free one-hour session in which I can assess their needs, understand their goals, and determine how our company can provide them with the skills to achieve those goals.
I believe that providing this initial service will give aspiring fitness enthusiasts a glimpse of how personal training can benefit their lives - so much so that many are choosing to sign up once the trial is over!
Derek Bruce, First Aid Training Leader, Skills Training Group
ask for references
Don't be afraid to ask your happy customers for recommendations. They will be some of your best supporters to sell your brand to other like-minded people. When you have clients who are happy with what you do for them, they will be happy to help you grow your business and get your name out there.
This is an easy step for any trainer looking to expand their client base, so don't be shy. Worst-case scenario, your current customers won't help, which isn't a loss for you. But when they reach out to others, they will provide you with new leads, courted by well-deserved promotions and first-hand feedback from happy customers.
Encourage customers to bring a friend
Word of mouth is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to build a personal training client base, and encouraging your current clients to tell their friends about the personal training services you offer is one way to do this do.
You can offer your friends a free training session when they come to their next appointment with their clients. You will still make money while increasing your chances of attracting new clients by offering free sessions with a session already booked.
In addition, you can offer referral rewards, e.g. B. A discounted rate for a client's session when a friend successfully signs up for the personal training services you offer.
Nirav Patel, Growth Leader, GrowthWisely
Boost your reputation on social media
By using social media effectively, you can build your reputation as an experienced personal trainer and gain the trust of potential clients. Some of the best tactics you can employ to significantly increase your social media efforts are:
- Deliver value forward. Make it a habit to show your fans your educational credentials.
- Give them daily advice or information nuggets in your captions under photos, as a status update, or in an instructional video.
- Post often. Consistency is key on social media. You must continually provide educational, entertaining, or entertaining content every day if you want to build an engaged following.
- Hold a position. People are drawn to those who are willing to stand up for their values. If you disagree with a particular fitness ideology, explain why your approaches are superior and provide evidence to support your claims.
Himanshu Sharma, CEO and Founder of the Academy of Digital Marketing
Show off your experience on TikTok and YouTube
TikTok and YouTube are two of the most popular social media platforms today, making them great places for personal trainers to reach out to potential clients. Creating short videos on these platforms is an effective way to showcase your knowledge and expertise so potential clients can get a better idea of who you are and the services you offer. If your videos are engaging and fun, others will also help spread the word about your personal training services and may be able to share them.
As you create videos for TikTok and YouTube, think about what makes you unique as a personal trainer and how you can differentiate yourself from other trainers. Share helpful tips and advice, demonstrate exercises or stretches clients can do themselves, or present your own physical transformation journey. It's also important to be consistent with your videos and post regularly to keep potential customers coming back for more.
Mark McShane, Marketing Manager, First Aid Courses in Birmingham
Invest in marketing
You can use online advertising and social media, as well as traditional forms of marketing like flyers and business cards. Reach prospects via email, direct mail campaigns, or even by attending local fitness or health events.
Don't forget that word of mouth can be a powerful tool for expanding your customer base, so ask happy customers to refer their friends and family. Offering discounts or referral programs can motivate customers to promote you and do more business.
Finally, don't forget to network with other trainers and health professionals who can also provide recommendations. These strategies can help you find potential clients and grow your personal training business.
Nick Varga, Riding Director, ERide Journal
Build a community everyone wants to join
That means you're attracting customers organically, rather than seeking them out. Use social media to tell a story: your story, your journey, your customers and their journey, and share the progress. This will attract followers who want to watch and possibly participate. Everyone wants to be seen and be part of something. if you build it, they will come.
Deanna Kane, Proprietária, Metamorphosis Fitness Coaching
Build working relationships with healthcare professionals
Building a good working relationship with doctors, physical therapists and nutritionists who refer clients to you can be very beneficial.
By establishing yourself as a trusted professional in the industry, these health professionals can recommend you with confidence. You can also provide feedback to ensure all your training methods are safe and follow best practices. Having them as part of your team will give you the support system you need to successfully grow your customer base over time.
Nadzeya Sankovich, Regional Director, Health Reporter
Run an advertising challenge on social media
Running an advertising challenge is a great way to retain your existing customers and help you reach a new customer base. Whether it's muscle building, weight loss, conditioning, or whatever you do best, starting a fitness challenge motivates people to move while they're part of the group.
You can run a free challenge or charge a minimal fee to cover costs. The benefits of a promotion challenge include onboarding a large number of clients, the flexibility to train multiple people, and a community. You can take the challenge a step further by setting weekly or monthly goals and tracking your progress.