Whether you are a personal trainer working in a fitness studio or you run your own gym, you need to ensure you keep your clients' roster full. Without seriously interested clients, you will struggle to keep your fitness business profitable and keep up with your bills.
Fortunately, there are several methods, which you can use to attract and land personal training clients. In this article, we will take you through easy and affordable means of acquiring personal training clients to keep your fitness business strong.
1. Run a Free Fitness Workshop
One of the easiest ways of getting personal training clients is by running free fitness workshops. Free fitness workshops will allow potential clients to try out your personal training services without having to commit to anything.
Furthermore, a free fitness workshop will also allow you to demonstrate your expertise. Also, you will end up acquiring details of potential clients, which you can then nurture later on.
When it comes to running a free fitness workshop, you have two options to explore. You can decide to host free one-on-one sessions as well as group fitness sessions. However, a one-on-one session will consume more of your time and other resources. Hence, group fitness sessions will be more cost-effective.
You can then hold such a workshop in your fitness center, in a local forest park or even in a large car park. You then need to ensure you collect all the contact details of the attendees, which you will then use for nurturing.
2. Run Free Trials
Another cost-effective method that you can use to land personal training clients is by offering discounts or running promotions. There are hundreds of people out there, looking to hire a personal trainer. But, they are not sure whether they will get value for their money.
So, when you offer a free trial, this group of potential clients will be more willing to check out your services, since they don’t have to make any monetary commitment. And once they sign up for such an offer, you simply need to ensure you put in your best effort to convince them that they will get their money’s worth after signing up for your personal training services.
However, make sure your free trial comes with certain limits. For instance, you can run a promotion, where the first 20 people to sign up within three days, will get free personal training sessions for seven days. By putting these limits into place, you will create something known as fear of missing out or FOMO, thus increasing the chances of potential clients signing up.
After the free trial session is over, you can then offer them a 50% discount, to convince them to sign up for your personal training sessions. And since they’ve already sampled your services and you’ve managed to convince them they will get their money’s worth, there’s a high chance they will take you up on this offer.
3. Incentivize Your Clients to Bring Referrals
Your existing clients may have a friend, family member, work colleague or any other close associate, who may be looking for the services of a personal trainer. You can then ask your existing clients to refer such individuals.
However, simply asking them to refer their close associates to your fitness business may not work. You will need to find ways of incentivizing them. After all, they will be doing you a favor.
Some of the ways that you can incentivize your existing clients to refer their family or friends to your personal training business include free personal training sessions, massage vouchers, meal vouchers, protein shakes or even money.
You also need to offer something to the referrals. As you may expect, they also have other options to consider. So, why should they sign up for your personal training sessions? To this end, you can offer them something like a free personal training session, which will give them a chance to evaluate your services without commitment.
With such a robust referral system in place, you will have a constant supply of potential clients, coming from your existing client base. And as you can see, this method of getting personal training clients won’t cost you much.
4. Utilize Cross Referrals
Besides client referrals, you can also get more referrals from other wellness businesses in your area. You simply need to identify non-competing businesses and then approach them with a cross-referral offer.
For instance, there may be a chiropractor offering services close to your fitness center. You can then propose an offer where if any of your clients is injured and need a chiropractor, you will refer them to the chiropractor you’ve partnered with.
On the other hand, a chiropractor may be working with an athlete, helping them to recover from an injury. Once that athlete recovers, they may need the services of a fitness coach, to help them get back to their earlier levels of fitness. And, the chiropractor may refer such a client to you.
As you can see, it will be a win-win situation for both businesses. Some of the other businesses that you can approach for a cross-referral arrangement include supplement stores, fitness equipment sellers, shops that sell workout clothing, grocery stores and massage parlors, just to name a few.
5. Grow Your Presence on Social Media
Social media platforms can also be a great source of clients for your personal training business. First, you need to identify the social media platforms that your target audience is using.
For instance, if most of your target clients are on Facebook and Instagram, then you should focus on these two platforms. By focusing on the platforms where your target audience is hanging out, you will use your time wisely.
Furthermore, you will be able to offer your target audience the most value when you only focus on the platforms your target clients are using, as opposed to trying to establish a presence across all platforms.
Once you’ve identified the platforms that your target clients prefer, you then need to optimize your profiles, to ensure they align with your fitness brand. After setting up everything, you should then make sure you are posting high-quality, relevant, and valuable content to your audience. And you should do the posting frequently and consistently.
You also need to create time to interact and engage with your audience. And you can do so by liking their comments, replying to their comments and messages, and sharing their posts.
From there, you can then start reaching out to social media users within your niche or community, who are actively engaging with your posts. And the best way to do this is via email.
Some of the social media users that come across your posts may also begin reaching out to you, asking about your fitness services. And, some of these leads may end up becoming long-term clients.
6. Offer More Services
If you are struggling to get personal training clients, you should consider introducing more services. Expanding your service offering will help you to reach more clients and fill your roster faster.
For example, if you only offer in-person workout sessions, you should consider introducing online or virtual personal training sessions. Introducing online personal training will help you to attract those individuals that want to live an active and healthy lifestyle, but don’t have the time to attend in-person training. If your prospect lives far away, you can try introducing them to a moving cost calculator if they are interested in living closer to your gym to save money and trouble commuting.
Another service that you can introduce is mobile personal training. As a mobile personal trainer, you will be taking your services right at the client’s doorstep, whether it’s in their home or at their place of work. And, there are hundreds of people out there, who may be looking for such services.
7. Regain Old Clients
Regardless of how great your services may be, you will also lose clients along the way. After all, clients come and go. And, it may not have necessarily been your fault for losing a client.
For instance, a client may have become extra busy at work. And they may have decided to discontinue their membership with you, due to time constraints. However, such a client can still renew their membership, if you can provide a solution that addresses their time constraint.
So, if you have a means of contacting them, you should consider giving it a try. And, the best way of doing this is via email. When crafting that email, you should try to establish how they are as well as the progress they’ve made in their fitness journey.
From there, you should then proceed to ask them why they discontinued your services. If they discontinued their membership due to time constraints, you can offer to give them a slot that won’t conflict with their busy schedule. You can also offer to be training them at their home, making it convenient for them.
However, keep the conversation polite and relaxed. And if the timing is right, they will accept your offer. But, don’t try to pressure them into anything. In case they refuse, you should simply move on to the next one.
8. Wrapping It Up
Implementing the strategies we’ve listed above will help you to get clients. However, make sure you also take good care of your existing clients. The last thing you want is to keep getting and losing clients. While it’s important to work on attracting new clients, it’s equally important to retain the ones you have. And by using this approach, your client roster will always be full of high-quality clients and your fitness business will remain healthy.