If you are a freelance personal trainer, the success of your fitness business will depend on having a long list of clients. Without enough clients, you will struggle to grow and sustain your business long-term.
The question is, how do you get more personal training clients? Well, you will only get more personal training clients, if you are ready to market your services. And, there are several strategies out there, that you can use to find clients for personal training.
The problem is, most of the strategies that you will come across out there, take months before they can deliver results. And sometimes, you may not have the luxury of waiting for weeks or months.
Fortunately, there are several proven strategies and ideas, which you can use to land more personal training clients fast. In this article, we will walk you through 6 proven ways of getting more personal training clients fast.
1. Go Local
Reaching out to local businesses provides a fast means of reaching potential clients. You simply need to identify businesses where your potential clients are likely to hang out, and ask whether they can agree to distribute your business cards. Of course, you will have to offer them something in return. It can be a financial reward or a client-exchange program.
Some of the local businesses that you can approach for this type of arrangement include coffee shops, real estate agents, hairdressers, spa owners, and massage therapists. You can also approach local health businesses such as doctor’s offices and clinics.
Considering that people visit these local businesses every day, there’s a likelihood that some of the patrons who get your business card will contact you. From there, you can then entice them with a great offer such as a free workout session. And if all goes well, you may end up with several clients using this strategy.
2. Leverage Social Media
Social media marketing is also a great method of getting more personal training clients and increasing your revenues. But, with so many social media platforms out there, you may be probably feeling confused as to which channel you should focus on. Well, for personal training businesses, it will be highly advisable to focus on Facebook and Instagram.
You can begin by opening dedicated business pages on Instagram and Facebook if you haven’t set them up already. Once you’ve set up your business pages on these platforms, you then need to ensure you are posting visually engaging content regularly and engaging with your audience as much as possible.
Some of the types of content that you can share with your audience include motivational quotes, short exercises, nutritional tips, testimonials, exercise routines, and recipes, just to name a few. Sharing relevant and informative information and engaging your audience will boost your online visibility. And, some of the people you interact with on these social media channels may decide to check out your personal training services.
Also, you should consider hosting a fitness contest or giveaway on Facebook and Instagram. Holding such a contest is a cost-effective method of boosting exposure around your fitness brand and landing more personal training clients.
You should also consider joining fitness-related groups, especially on Facebook. Sharing helpful and relevant content in such groups will help to boost your credibility and rapport. And eventually, some of the group members may sign up for your personal training sessions.
3. Ask for Referrals
Referral programs provide one of the oldest and most reliable ways of getting personal training clients. What makes referrals so effective is that people trust the recommendations of others who have tried out such services, whenever they are looking for a service provider.
Therefore, if someone is looking for a personal trainer and one of your clients recommends your personal training services, there’s a high chance that the prospect will sign up for your personal training services – since the recommendation is coming from a trusted source.
So, if you don’t have a referral program in place, you should consider setting up one as soon as possible. And, setting up one is not as hard as it may appear. Here are some steps to follow when setting up a personal training referral program.
3.1 Identify Attractive and Valuable Incentives
Your current clients will need to be adequately incentivized so that they can participate in your referral program. Therefore, make sure you first come up with attractive and valuable incentives. Some of the incentives that you can offer to the participants include money, discounted or free fitness merchandise, heavily discounted personal training classes or gift cards.
You can also decide to set up different types of incentives, depending on the number of new clients that someone brings in. For example, if a client brings in one client, they can get a discounted membership. But, if they bring five, they can get free personal training classes for one or two months.
3.2 Choose a Format
Once you’ve settled on the right incentive for the program’s participants, you will then need to choose a format for your referral program. For the format, you can opt for a short-term or long-term referral program.
A short-term referral program can be a time-sensitive one, which runs for a specific number of days. For example, you can set up a referral program that will run for the next 48 hours or seven days. Anyone who brings in a new client during this period will win a prize like a free fitness class or one free week pass.
As for the long-term referral program, this can be an ongoing one. Your clients will be winning various prizes for every client they manage to bring in. You can then be rewarding the member with the most number of referrals at the end of the month, with a huge prize such as free membership for the next two months or so.
3.3 Promote Your Referral Program
For your referral program to deliver the results you are looking for, you will need to spread the word about it. And, one of the easiest ways of getting the word out there is by posting it across your various social media platforms.
You should also post it on your personal training website. And if you offer personal training services in your gym, you should also consider advertising it there, using a poster or banner.
You can also use your weekly newsletter to remind your members about the referral program you are running, especially if you decided to go for the long-term one.
Regardless of the method that you use to promote the program, make sure all the details are clear, including the duration, types of gifts as well as other relevant details. Simply put, ensure there are no gray areas.
3.4 Track Your Program
After launching your referral program, make sure you set up a tracking mechanism in place. Tracking will help to ensure that all the participants receive their rewards on time, whenever they bring in a new client.
Tracking will also help you to assess how the program is working. If it has delivered the numbers you were targeting, then you can keep going using that approach. And in case it has not delivered the results you were hoping for, you can make some adjustments.
4. Host Free Sessions
Another method that can help you to find clients for personal training is by hosting free workout sessions for local businesses and institutions. For example, you can approach a college in your area and present your idea of hosting a free workout session to the students. After the free workout session is over, you can then distribute your flyers, business cards, swag bags or other promotional material to the participants.
You can also approach local businesses and ask whether you can host an information workshop about health and fitness. If they agree, you will then use that event to share various health and fitness tips. And towards the end of that session, you can then mention the importance or benefits of working with a personal trainer.
Hosting free sessions is all about getting your name out there and meeting prospects. And who knows, some of the participants may even end up signing up for your personal training on the spot.
5. Offer Pricing Deals
If you’ve run out of ideas on how to get clients as a personal trainer, then you should consider offering special pricing deals. Special pricing deals can include things like discounted memberships or free trials.
These special pricing deals will help to sign up some people, who may want to check out your personal training services. And if they are satisfied with your services, some will sign up to become paid members, once the free trial session is over.
But, it’s worth mentioning that you should use this method cautiously. Handing out free trials every other week will devalue your service. Hence, while discounting and offering free trials can help you to find personal training clients, don’t overdo it.
6. Invest in Paid Ads
Paid ads can also help you to get more personal training clients. And, you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on TV commercials or print ads. You simply need to set up digital ads across various platforms and use them to target your ideal client.
For example, if you are a personal trainer based in Alabama, you can set up a Google ad, using targeted keywords. And whenever a prospect searches for a personal trainer in Alabama, your ad will appear among the search results, thus helping you to reach more potential clients fast.
7. Wrapping It Up
Growing your customer base is one of the most vital aspects of running a successful personal training business. More personal training clients translates to more revenue for your business. And with more revenue, you will have the resources needed to continue growing and expanding your business.