Table of contents
This article is for educational purposes and does not constitute legal, financial, or tax advice. For specific advice applicable to your business, please contact a professional.
Looking for ways to expand the client base for your personal training business in 2022?
A new year often leads to an increase in demand for health and fitness businesses. What can you do to break through and find success? Here are some tips and tools for standing out across platforms, increasing your reach, and booking new clients.
1. Run New Years’ promotions and challenges
The new year is a great time to create a promotion or fitness challenge. It can help you re-engage with current clients and increase your bookings while encouraging clients to share the opportunity with friends and colleagues.
Tailor the challenge to match your own strengths and the brand of your business. Do you focus on overall wellness and mental health along with physical training? Embrace that as part of the challenge. Consider ideas such as workout streaks, a detailed health and fitness schedule for the month of January, and setting weekly or monthly goals.
2. Inspire word-of-mouth marketing
Many people turn to personal recommendations before selecting a trainer. You can encourage your clients to share your information by offering referral incentives, such as complimentary classes or discounted group sessions when a client brings in a new referral. It can also be as simple as letting a client know when you have upcoming openings in case they know of anyone interested in working with a new trainer.
Highlighting your clients on social media and your website — with their permission— can also help here. If they are succeeding at a challenge you set up or feeling proud of their progress, show off those results and tag them in your post so they can share it with their followers.
3. Promoting client testimonials
On that note, make sure your website and social feeds have fresh testimonials from clients that spotlight your work. Without a direct referral, that will be one of the first things prospective clients look for before scheduling a session.
4. Nail your branding and messaging
Clients care about results, but the working relationship is also an essential part of the training experience. Give new clients of sense of who you are, not just what you offer.
Consider what you think your brand should be and evaluate if it’s reflected in your marketing assets and online presence. Read through client reviews and testimonials for keywords that come up often, then use those to shape your message.
Here are eight more tips for showcasing your brand personality online.
5. Publish consistent content
This is another good way to show off who you are what you offer to clients. Use a blog on your website, email newsletter, or social media posts to promote your approach to fitness. Set a goal to post regularly in the new year and outline a content plan to help you stick to it.
Looking for content ideas? Ask your current clients what questions they’d like to see answered and what would be most useful to them.
6. Audit your SEO, website metrics, and social media engagement
Take a close look at what’s working and what isn’t. Are more people coming to your website but not booking sessions? How are they finding your website? Are video posts on your Instagram driving higher engagement? Is it difficult to find your website on search engines even when using primary keywords?
Dig into your Square Dashboard and any other tools you use to measure your online presence, and consider making a regular review (such as monthly or quarterly) part of a holistic marketing strategy.
7. Pursue a partnership
Partnerships with other businesses help expand your reach in ways you might not have been able to on your own. This is a place where you can get creative and try out nontraditional collaborations, such as bundling your training sessions with local markets offering healthy food packages or retailers selling athletic attire.
9. Streamline your booking
Make booking online or via social media a seamless experience for all clients. Square Appointments comes with a free online booking website for individuals, booking links across social platforms, and friendly, automatic reminders for your clients to help reduce cancellations.
