The most common mistake in personal trainer marketing strategies today is the prevalence of small gyms that try hard to cater to everybody. They want to target anyone from youth to elderly with the widest possible net because surely you'll be able to gather more leads that way, right? But the truth is that by doing that you focus more on the things you know you can do and fail to communicate those correctly. When you interact with people they don't want someone who's trained in everything. This makes them see a jack of all trades, master of none. So how can you adapt your marketing strategies to truly help people?
The key is to specialize and focus on just one group at a time. This isn't to say you'll always train one specific group of people forever, but you want to work small groups at a time, learning what their specific worries or "pains" are. By learning this, you can market yourself as a specialist to that group and consistently focus on giving them what they need. This will allow you to work with a smaller group who are loyal rather than consistently struggling with a huge group, a rapid turnover and shrinking reputation. Here are some examples of personal trainer marketing strategies that you can use in your marketing to target specific example groups and their pains.
1. The Busy Executive
When you're dealing with the busy corporate crowd you have a few options. They are still worried about their health and you can certainly make gains by promoting the health benefits of a daily workout but what they're most worried about is time. The biggest concern in this crowd is that they want to live a long healthy life, be fit or even get stronger, but they can never seem to find the time. So what you really want to be doing is not just promoting the health benefits but giving them a class or a workout outside of normal office hours that can be done in a short time. To get even more, get in touch with HR departments of local offices and offer corporate rates. It's no secret that an active employee is more productive, so take advantage of that. Offer short sessions in businesses during the workday as a break, discounting corporate groups or partnering with the HR department to provide members of their office with a discount. This eases their biggest pain, which is time. Then you can focus on their individual needs.
2. Moms New And Old
Moms are a great group for personal trainers. It takes a lot of endurance to keep up with your kids' busy schedules, and a big pain for them is that they don't have much time and they also don't have enough energy. Those are both things you can help with, and that's not all. Common complaints are wanting to get back to the body they had before they had kids or wanting to look like they did when they were first married. That's a valuable gift that you can give them. The truth is, they're not out of shape or losing energy because they don't want to be fit. It's because all their time is going into their family. So if you can provide short, affordable workouts that generate results, you'll be the favourite trainer in town.
3. Bikini Prep Marketing
Regardless of age, nationality or any other factor, summer is the time that many magazines start publishing tips for getting in shape for bikinis. Unfortunately, those alienate anyone who isn't the ideal build. Start by promoting a fun in the sun workout, and don't just focus on the ideal body type. Offer a spring and summer workout that gets your clients into shape and helps them reach goals they set. This way you're not telling them that a specific body type is more ideal and you're letting them set their own targets. There's a couple reasons for this. One, you get to help these people reach goals and feel more comfortable in swimsuits and other summer wear. Two, by letting them set their own goals, you are able to over-deliver more often.
4. Ab-Blasters
If there's one body feature that's craved by people the world over, it's a good set of abs. You see it everywhere. Often, however, the exercises suggested take a long time or aren't really beneficial. Set up a class where you can actively attack the abs, pushing your guys and gals to their absolute limits. Flatten out bellies and start showing six packs and you'll be a popular trainer. Couple that with strength training and endurance to make them feel more confident and work out for longer during their offtime, and you may just see your clients becoming long-term. This is a marketing strategy that has to deliver visible results fast, so you really want to be sure that your exercises are tight and all of them work together. This is the sort of promise that, if not kept, could break a trainer.
5. High-School Athletes
Talk to local schools and organize a membership for their school sports teams. Not only does this get you involved in the community, but it also benefits the athletes, giving them a real shot at the big time by getting them used to training hard for their goals. This will require you to be versatile, as you could be training at any one time a football team, a hockey team, a wrestling team, a swim team and more. You'd have to set up separate days to train each team and design workouts for each student that will allow them to push the envelope that little bit more based on what they need to be doing. Succeeding in this could be a lucrative business, since very few people specialize in this area.
As you can see there are plenty of opportunities available and by focusing in on a niche area, you can make a name for yourself. As long as that reputation is lived up to as your business expands, you can allow other staff members in your business to take care of that specialty until you've built yourself a network that covers more than one area effectively, with trainers experienced in the fields they train. On top of all that, you lay the groundwork for other trainers to go on to do the same. This will improve the customer experience and enrich personal training as an industry. For more information on our marketing automation platform and to learn how you could use automation in your marketing, check out our marketing automation page.
