Running your own business as a personal trainer is great fun. Not only do you get to work for yourself and choose your own hours, but you get to change the lives of your clients and make a real difference doing something you love. But finding new clients and keeping existing ones motivated can be challenging, which is why so many personal trainers take to social media.
Below, we’ve put together just some of the reasons why you should consider boosting your social media presence if you want to take your personal training business to the next level.
Follow the progress of your clients
Keeping a check on your clients when you’re not in the gym is a great way to build rapport, trust and encourage customers to stay with you.
If you create social media handles just for your personal training business, for example, you can follow all of your clients and send them regular reminders and updates on their progress.
Of course, we’re not suggesting you sit scrolling through your clients Instagram feeds and scrutinizing their meal choices, but keeping an eye on them online and offering motivational comments is a great way of maintaining relationships.
Find new clients through Facebook Groups
Facebook Groups offer access to a highly concentrated audience, so use Facebook to search for weight loss and fitness groups in your local area and cut your marketing costs.
The key to being successful in groups is to follow the rules – if an admin has a blanket ban on advertising products or services, then do as your told or you’ll likely to be removed from the group.
Offering your advice as a fitness professional, commenting on users’ posts and generally being a “good egg” will boost your profile within the group, and people will naturally get in touch for advice.
Offer free guidance and advice
The chances are that you’re an expert in your field, so don’t sit on that knowledge and do nothing with it.
One of the best ways to grow your presence on social media and find new customers is to offer free guidance and advice.
You might choose to create your own graphics with statistics on weight-loss and muscle-gain, or you could sit down in front of a camera and offer advice to your followers in an Instagram live session.
Giving away something for free will make people more likely to stick around and see what you’re about, leading to new customers.
Build your personal brand
Personal trainers such as Joe Wicks have used Instagram to build personal brands, posting regular selfies and inspirational content to grow their audience and become a name in their own right.
Now, Joe Wicks has millions of followers and is a self-confessed fitness and lifestyle guru, with his own Channel 4 TV series and two best-selling books to his name. This could be you!
Offer discounts and free sessions
Money-saving consumers will go a long way to grab a freebie on the internet, with giveaways and competitions often tweeted by thousands of users who are all in hopes of winning.
You could spread the word about your personal training sessions by offering a discount coupon, or even a free block-booking session with one of your followers by asking them to like and share your page.
You’ll get thousands of new followers, and the winner will get a couple of PT sessions.
There you have it – just some of the ways in which you can use social media to boost your personal training business.
Remember that visual content always works best; take lots of selfies and record videos in the gym, and you’ll create a pool of engaging content that your followers won’t be able to keep away from. Wishing you the best of luck with your PT venture!