Thanks to advancements in technology, more personal trainers are now shifting their personal training businesses online. And this means access to a larger client base since there are no location restrictions.
However, running an online personal training business comes with a higher level of competition. As an online personal trainer, you will be competing for clients with fitness professionals from all parts of the globe.
Therefore, to succeed in this market segment, you will need to find establish a strong online presence and separate yourself from the competition. Fortunately, there are several strategies you can implement to achieve that. In this article, we will take a closer look at 8 effective strategies and tips that can help you to increase online personal training sales.
1. Revamp Your Website
Every fitness business needs a strong website. A website provides a platform where potential clients can check out your business, the personal training services you offer as well as your prices, among other key details.
A website can also help you generate more leads for your online personal training business. So, if you don’t have an operational website for your personal training business, you should set up one as soon as possible.
However, simply putting up a website for your online personal training business won’t be enough. You will need to go a step further and optimize it for relevant keywords. Optimizing it for relevant search phrases and keywords will help your website to appear higher on the search engine’s results page, which translates to more visibility.
Also, your personal training website should be user-friendly. It should be easy to navigate, highly responsive and the various pages should load fast. These are the kinds of things that will help you generate more leads.
It will also be advisable to include a call to action, which will encourage visitors to undertake a certain action such as downloading your fitness e-books or signing up for your newsletter.
Including a call to action can help to generate leads for your online personal training business, which you can later on nurture and convert into long-term, paying clients.
2. Harness the Power of Social Media
With approximately 57% of the world’s population actively using social media, these platforms can be a goldmine when it comes to marketing your personal training business online.
So, if you don’t have a strong presence on social media, you are missing out on hundreds of potential clients. But to succeed with social media, you will first need to learn how to maximize its potential. Here are some tips that can help you to harness the power of social media to increase online personal training sales.
2.1 Set Up a Social Media Page
If you don’t have a social media page for your online personal training business, you will first need to set up one. A social media page will provide a platform where you will be sharing your expertise, keep your followers updated and inspire your followers to take action and start their fitness journeys.
When it comes to setting up a social media page for your online personal training business, it will be advisable to focus on the platforms your target audience uses. For instance, if you are targeting Generation Z, you should focus on visual platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.
2.2 Post Consistently
Once you’ve set up a social media page based on your target audience, you should then start posting the right content consistently. If you fail to post consistently, your followers will eventually lose interest. Therefore, ensure you are posting relevant, engaging and meaningful content for your audience at least every day.
2.3 Engage With Your Audience
Besides posting relevant and informative content regularly, you will also need to keep engaging your followers. Engaging your followers will help you to develop a robust online following. So, make sure you are constantly responding to comments, sharing their posts, and answering messages.
By constantly engaging your audience and maintaining a strong online presence, you will stay on top of your audience’s mind. And once they decide to hire a personal trainer, it’s highly likely you will be the first individual on their list.
3. Offer Informative Content
One of the most effective ways of generating leads and increasing online personal training sales is through offering informative content. This content can take different forms like fitness e-books, meal plans, or specialized workout videos, just to name a few.
Once you’ve created the content you intend to share with your target audience, you can then place it on your blog or website. From there, you simply need to include a call-to-action, which directs visitors to the specific content.
You will then require every person to provide their contact address, in exchange for your e-books and guides. By using this approach, you will end up with hundreds of email addresses, which you can then use to set up an email marketing campaign.
4. Host Regular Online Fitness Challenges
Hosting regular online fitness challenges can also help you to increase online personal training sales. For example, you can run a host a challenge to see who can cover the most steps within two weeks or a month, where the winner gets to win a free personal training session with you or even a monetary reward.
You can then post and promote that challenge on your various social media platforms, encouraging the participants to use a certain hashtag. For this challenge, the participants will be using fitness trackers to monitor the steps covered.
So, how can such a challenge help you to land more clients? First, these challenges will help to boost the visibility of your fitness brand. And in the process, some people may even end up signing up for your personal training sessions.
Second, the winners of such challenges will get to witness your personal training expertise firsthand. And if your services are exemplary, they are likely going to sign up for more sessions.
5. Leverage Online Marketing Partnerships
Another way to market your online personal training business is by establishing strategic partnerships. By establishing strategic partnerships, a component of your service will be integrated with the other business’ service or product.
For such partnerships, you simply need to conduct a simple Google search and identify businesses that may be relevant to your audience – but not your direct competitors. Some examples of businesses you may establish strategic partnerships with may include supplement stores or fitness apparel stores.
You can then request such businesses whether you can advertise your services on their website while also offering the same arrangement. With this arrangement, whenever someone visits the other website, they will come across your ad and vice versa. And considering that your target audience is almost similar, it’s highly likely you may end up with some leads or even clients from such partnerships.
6. Offer Free Trials
Most people are hesitant when it comes to signing for online personal training sessions, as opposed to face-to-face sessions. Therefore, you will need to find a means of convincing people who may still be sitting on the fence to check out your services. And this is where free trials come in.
Free trials will provide an opportunity for prospects to experience your personal training services, without having to make any commitment. Besides, you can also use the contact details the prospects have provided to retarget them later on.
Hence, as much as some people may discourage you from offering free personal training trials, they can go a long way in helping you to build a clientele and increase your online personal training sales, especially for someone who has just started their online personal training business.
7. Offer Discounted Packages
Offering discounted packages can also help to increase sales and get your personal training business off the ground – especially when it’s still new. However, make sure you set a time limit for your discounted packages.
Setting a time limit on your discounted packages may create a feeling of urgency, thus nudging some of your warm leads to take action and complete the purchase. As a result, you will end up with more sales.
But, don’t get into the habit of offering discounts now and then. Doing some may make your services appear less valuable. And if your services appear less valuable, making a sale will prove to be a challenge. Hence, ensure you do it strategically.
8. Utilize Paid Ads
If you are still finding it hard to increase online personal training sales after some of the strategies we’ve discussed here, then you should consider utilizing paid ads. Paid ads provide a faster way of reaching a wider, target audience, compared to normal posts.
Google ads and Facebook ads are among the most popular. Google ads are usually targeted by keywords while Facebook ads are normally targeted by audiences. Facebook ads tend to be cheaper than Google ads. However, their conversion rate is slightly lower.
You also have the option of using Twitter ads, Instagram ads or YouTube ads. Ultimately, the platform that you choose will depend on where your target audience spends most of its time, your budget as well as your personal preferences. With the right implementation, paid ads can help to increase your sales considerably.
9. Wrapping It Up
The strategies and tips we’ve discussed here can help to increase online personal training sales. But, remember you don’t have to implement all of them at the same time. You simply need to choose what works best for your online personal training business, implement them, and watch your sales increase.