Regardless of the type of personal training business that you run, you will want to increase your sales, continue growing your fitness business, and establish a thriving personal training brand.
But the truth is, growing a personal training business is not something that can happen overnight. And, there’s no magic formula. It’s an ongoing process, which requires plenty of hard work, commitment, dedication, and patience.
Fortunately, there are several tested and proven strategies, both online as well as offline, which you can implement and catapult your personal training business to growth and success. In this guide, we will walk you through six proven strategies of how to grow personal training business.
1. Extend Your Market Reach
One of the most effective ways of growing your personal training business and taking it to the next level is by extending your market reach. So, how can you extend your market reach? Well, there are several available strategies to consider.
First, you can opt to open a fitness center in a new location. If you have the capital, opening a new fitness center in a new location will enable you to position your fitness business in front of a new client base.
Second, you can also target a new audience. With this strategy, you simply need to identify another group or audience, which can benefit from your personal training services.
For instance, if you only offer one-on-one personal training services, you can consider introducing online personal training sessions. By venturing into the online market segment, you will have access to a larger client base. And this translates to more revenue for your fitness business.
Third, you can also start selling fitness-related products. Some of the products that you can sell include workout supplements, fitness trackers, workout clothing, training sneakers and other fitness accessories. If you decide to sell products, you can source them from a white label manufacturer and then sell them using your own branding. You also have the option of partnering with established fitness brands and promoting their products on a commission basis.
Regardless of the method that you choose, all these strategies will help you to expand your market share. And as a result, your sales will also increase. Also, you will be making your personal training business model more stable.
By relying on different income streams, you are highly likely to survive, in case there’s a dramatic shift in the fitness market.
2. Contain Your Expenses
Without a doubt, increasing your sales and revenue is vital to the growth of your personal training business. But, if your business expenses are almost at par with what you are earning, you will not be turning a profit. And at the same time, you won’t have enough money left to continue investing and growing your fitness business.
Therefore, while you are looking for ways to increase sales and revenue, you also need to pay particular attention to your expenses. Increasing your sales and lowering your expenses will go a long way in growing your personal training business.
By lowering your expenses sustainably, you will be left with enough money to stabilize and grow your business. So, how can you lower your expenses while maintaining great service?
First, you should review your subscriptions. It’s highly likely that you are using CRM applications, email services, scheduling software, music streaming services and other subscriptions. You should review all these subscriptions and see whether you can get other cheaper options.
Second, you should also review your insurance policy and see whether you can get a comparable package but at a lower cost.
Third, you should work with a tax professional, to see identify areas where can claim some tax deductions.
By leveraging these strategies, you will considerably reduce your operational expenses. And this translates to more money in your pocket, which you can re-invest in your business to boost its growth.
3. Invest in Customer Retention
Most personal trainers focus most of their resources on acquiring new clients. While there’s nothing wrong with trying to find new clients for your personal training business, you shouldn’t neglect your existing clients.
As you may expect, if you are losing clients at the same rate that you are acquiring them month after month, your revenues will stagnate. And, you will find it extremely hard to grow your personal training business.
Therefore, for your personal training business to grow, you need to find ways of retaining your existing customer base. Some of the strategies that you can use to boost client retention and reduce the churn rate include:
3.1 Build Rapport with Your Personal Training Clients
Building rapport refers to establishing meaningful and close relationships with your clients. And, it can go a long way in boosting your retention rates. Some of the methods that you can use to build rapport with your personal training clients include:
- Keeping the conversations going outside the training sessions
- Encouraging and complimenting your personal training clients when you see them working out outside the training sessions
- Checking in on your clients and asking how they are doing
- Sharing helpful resources with your clients, which can help to bring them closer to their health and fitness goals
3.2 Make Your Personal Training Sessions Exciting
If your personal training sessions are boring or they lack excitement, there’s a chance that some of your clients may shift to your competitors. Others may decide to cancel their sessions altogether. Whichever the case, you will have lost a client and important revenue for your fitness business.
To avoid such situations, you need to find ways of making your personal training sessions exciting. And to achieve this, you can implement different approaches such as:
- Make every session that you have with the client unique
- Change the location of your personal training sessions
- Introduce your clients to new pieces of equipment
- Introduce new exercises
- Let the clients choose their preferred workout music
3.3 Recognize and Reward
Humans love being recognized and rewarded. And your personal training clients are no exception. So, whenever your personal training clients achieve their individual fitness goals you had set together with them, you should find a means of recognizing their achievement and rewarding them.
You can either do so by announcing their milestones on your social media platforms, your fitness blog or via a weekly newsletter. As for the reward, it can be something like a token of appreciation, paid dinner, or new training gear. Regardless of how small the gift may be, it will go a long way in strengthening your relationships with your clients, enhancing loyalty and boosting your retention rates.
3.4 Know Your Clients Personally
You should also put in some effort to know your clients more. Make sure you know about their anniversaries, birthdays, or any other important days in their lives. Ensure you send holiday cards or thank you cards regularly. These personal touches will go a long way in making a lasting impression on your personal training clients and help you to retain more clients.
4. Provide Great Customer Service
When it comes to growing your personal training business, one area that you should focus on is customer service. Great customer service is vital to attracting new clients, retaining the existing ones, and growing your fitness business.
To enhance your client’s experience, you should first ensure you are consistently delivering great results. And this means making sure that you are doing everything possible, to make sure your fitness clients achieve their goals.
For instance, if a client has approached you with the goal of losing weight, you need to work with them tirelessly, to ensure they can achieve those goals.
Secondly, make sure you respond to customer inquiries or complaints. If one of your clients sends you an email or message to complain about something, you should ensure you respond and address that issue promptly.
By keeping your clients happy and ensuring they are satisfied with your services, it’s highly likely they will spread the good news and recommend your personal training services to their friends and family. Besides, they will also continue doing renewing their subscription.
5. Create a Unique and Memorable Experience
Another effective way of growing your personal training business via marketing is by coming up with something unique around your fitness brand.
Whether you offer one-on-one personal training services or you run an online personal training business, offering something unique and unexpected to your clients is an effective way of entrenching your fitness brand into their hearts and minds.
And by offering a unique and memorable experience, your clients will begin sharing your brand story with their friends and family. As a result, some of the people who hear these great stories about your fitness brand may decide to sign up for your services, leading to more clients. Some of the methods you can use to create memorable and unique experiences to help your personal training business grow include:
- Giving random discounts, deals and other offers to your clients
- Designing humorous ads
- Giving your fitness center a specific feel and look like 60s music or TV
- Gamifying your personal training sessions
6. Market Your Business Aggressively
Your personal training business will need a constant stream of new clients to grow. And, you can only attract new clients to your personal training business, through aggressive and effective marketing.
And, while there are numerous personal training marketing strategies that you can implement to get more clients, here are some of the most effective ones.
6.1 Maximize Your Presence on Social Media
First, make sure you at least have a presence on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. However, simply opening a personal training Instagram account or personal training Facebook page is not enough. Make sure you post good content regularly and engage your audience as much as possible.
6.2 Blog Consistently
Also, make sure you have a personal training blog, where you can be sharing relevant, helpful and informative articles with your target audience.
By sharing helpful, valuable, and informative content with your audience, you will establish yourself as an expert in your niche and this will help to build trust. And the more people trust you, the more they are likely to sign up for your sessions.
6.3 Ask for Referrals
You should also consider asking your current clients for referrals. But, always ensure you offer something in exchange for these referrals. Offering something valuable in exchange for these referrals is a means of appreciating your clients, for going out of their way to recommend your services.
7. Wrapping It Up
Whether you have recently launched your personal training business or you have been operating for a couple of years, the above tips and strategies will help you to land more clients, boost your retention rates, increase your revenues and take your business to the next level.