From strengthening relationships to hosting promotional challenges, here are 17 answers to the question, “Can you share your best tips for growing your personal training client base?”
- Build Strong Relationships
- Share Testimonials on Your Social Media Platforms
- Personalize Your Approach
- Upgrade Your Website and Provide Online Services
- Find Your Unique Selling Point (USP)
- Collaborate With Other Fitness Professionals
- Get Your Clients Amazing Results
- Write Articles for Fitness Magazines
- Offer a Free Trial
- Ask for Referrals
- Encourage Clients to Bring a Friend
- Grow Your Reputation on Social Media
- Display Your Expertise With TikTok and YouTube
- Invest in Marketing
- Create a Community Everyone Wants to Join
- Develop Working Relationships With Health Professionals
- Run a Promotional Challenge on Social Media
Build Strong Relationships
My best tip for growing your personal training client base is to focus on building relationships. Personal trainers are all about building relationships with their clients and helping them reach their fitness goals. You should prioritize connecting with your clients, getting to know them, and building a strong relationship that will keep them coming back for more.
Get to know your clients on a personal level and ask them about their goals, interests, and any challenges they may be facing. Showing genuine interest in them and their progress is key to a successful client-trainer relationship. Also, not to mention, providing excellent customer service and going above and beyond to ensure the best experience for each client will go a long way in keeping them loyal.
To sum it up, focus on developing strong relationships with your clients and providing top-notch customer service will help you build a loyal client base that will keep growing.
Shaun Connell, Founder, Writing Tips Institute
Share Testimonials on Your Social Media Platforms
If you’re looking to increase your client base as a personal trainer, the fastest way would be to use the power of social media. Share testimonials from your existing clients who have achieved their goals under your guidance, and who talk about how amazing it felt to receive such personalized and results-driven training.
People feel more engaged with businesses when they can connect with them on an emotional level, so allow them to connect with you by showcasing genuine success stories that align perfectly with your training offerings. Sharing such stories will entice new customers who may be hesitant to try out your services otherwise and help build credibility for your business.
Jim Campbell, Owner, Camp Media
Personalize Your Approach
Personalization is key when you are trying to build your training client base. As a former personal trainer, I can tell you that just assuming people should want to work with you is not a good marketing strategy—this business is very much about other people, not you.
Many trainers will flood their socials with themselves working out and posing, but what does that actually do to build your client base? Sure, you may show how skilled you are, but it can seem a bit inward-looking, and you would be far more likely to grow your consumer base by sharing client success stories. Not only is this more outward-looking, but it also suggests you genuinely care about your clients’ progress, instead of just your own.
Brett Downes, Founder, Haro Helpers
Upgrade Your Website and Provide Online Services
Providing online services by upgrading your website is one of the best tips for expanding your personal clientele. For PT businesses, having an appealing website is crucial. Make sure your website is easy to navigate and has a complete list of your services, pricing, and contact information. Where feasible, include pictures (before and after pictures, for instance), along with current and prior clients’ comments.
To establish brand recognition and to build confidence in your product, prominently display your company’s logo and any ties with related organizations. Why not think about providing online-only sessions on your new website as well? Traditional in-person meetings are excellent, but they have a limit on the number of clients you can see at once. Today, one of the best ways to grow your PT business and draw in new clients is by creating online programs that anybody, anywhere can participate in. You might quickly expand your clientele with an upgraded website and additional offers.
Joe Li, Managing Director, CheckYa
Find Your Unique Selling Point (USP)
When you are trying to build any client or customer base, you simply have to be focused on those people and selling them something that is unique.
First, work out what your USP (unique selling point) is, and make that a marker of what you can offer. Personal training is an oversaturated market, and customers will not turn to you without knowing exactly what is so special about your offer. If you are trained in boxing fitness, this could be a great way to sell yourself, and not only that, you will find the right clients who are interested in that.
Also, don’t make your marketing all about you; celebrate and share the work of your clients to show how invested you are in their success-you are actually only about 20% of your own sales pitch, and people will be much more excited seeing how you are helping “real” people succeed.
Alex Mastin, CEO & Founder, Home Grounds
Collaborate With Other Fitness Professionals
A successful method for increasing the number of clients for personal training is to network and work with other companies and fitness industry specialists. You may raise your profile and reputation in the business by forming connections with other trainers, gyms, and wellness facilities.
This may draw in more customers searching for dependable and trustworthy trainers. Attending industry events like seminars, trade exhibitions, and conferences for the fitness sector is one opportunity to network and work with other fitness professionals. These gatherings offer opportunities to interact and network with other fitness professionals, club owners, and influential figures. Developing connections with these people might open up prospects for collaboration on projects or initiatives and important referral business.
Karen Cate Agustin, Business Analyst, Investors Club
Get Your Clients Amazing Results
This tip is mostly for personal trainers who already have some clients coming in, but for these people, it can be a very effective strategy. Not every client you get will be someone who screams from the rooftops that they are working on their health. However, when you make sure these people get amazing results, their friends and family can’t help asking what they are doing differently.
In turn, your name and reputation as a good personal trainer will spread slowly but surely. Another added benefit of this strategy is that you basically have walking testimonials out there. When people see what happened to their acquaintances, helping these people realize you can offer significant results becomes a lot easier.
Matt Claes, Head Coach & Founder, Weight Loss Made Practical
Write Articles for Fitness Magazines
These publications regularly feature informative articles that share valuable insights and tips related to health and fitness; by contributing as an expert, you can help spread awareness of your business while demonstrating your knowledge of the field. Writing these articles also offers an opportunity to get picked up by larger media outlets, which could cause a wider reach and more potential customers for your services.
Ludovic Chung-Sao, Lead Engineer & Founder, Zen Soundproof
Offer a Free Trial
As the leader of a service-providing business, I believe the best strategy for growing your client base is to offer a free trial. People are skeptical of signing up for fitness services, and this is a great way to show them the value by letting them test it out before committing.
In my skills-training business, I offer potential clients a one-hour session at no cost, where I can assess their needs, understand their goals, and determine how our business can teach them the skills to reach those goals.
I believe providing this initial service will give aspiring fitness enthusiasts an insight into how personal training can benefit their lives—so much so that many opt to sign up after the trial ends!
Derek Bruce, First Aid Training Director, Skills Training Group
Ask for Referrals
Don’t be afraid to ask for referrals from your satisfied clients. They’ll be some of your best supporters for selling your brand to other like-minded people. If you have clients that are happy with what you do for them, they’re often going to be more than happy to help you grow your business and get your name out there.
This is an easy step for any trainer looking to increase their client base, so don’t be shy. At the very worst, your current clients won’t lend a hand, which is no loss on your end. But if and when they do reach out to others, they’ll be providing you with new contacts that have been wooed by well-earned, first-hand promotion from satisfied customers.
Max Ade, CEO, Pickleheads
Encourage Clients to Bring a Friend
Word-of-mouth marketing is one of the most cost-effective and easiest ways of growing a personal training client base, and encouraging your current clients to tell their friends about the personal training services you offer is one way to go about it.
You can offer their friends a free training session when they come with your clients at their next appointment. You’ll still be making money while increasing your chances of landing new clients when you offer free sessions with an already scheduled session.
In addition, you can offer referral rewards like a discounted rate on a client’s session when a friend successfully signs up for the personal training services you offer.
Nirav Patel, Growth Leader, GrowthWisely
Grow Your Reputation on Social Media
By effectively using social media, you can develop your reputation as a knowledgeable personal trainer and gain the trust of potential clients. Some of the best tactics you can use to significantly increase your social media efforts are:
- Deliver value forward. Make it a practice to show your fans your educational credentials.
- Give them daily advice or informational nuggets in your captions beneath photos, as a status update, or in an instructive video.
- Post frequently. Consistency is key with social media. You must continuously offer educational, amusing, or conversational content every day if you want to develop a devoted fan audience.
- Firmly hold a position. People are drawn to those who are willing to stand up for their values. If you disagree with a particular fitness ideology, explain why your approaches are superior and provide evidence to support your claims.
Himanshu Sharma, CEO & Founder, Academy of Digital Marketing
Display Your Expertise With TikTok and YouTube
TikTok and YouTube are two of the most popular social media platforms today, making them great places for personal trainers to reach potential clients. Creating short videos on these platforms is an effective way to showcase your knowledge and experience so that potential clients can get a better idea of who you are and the services you offer. Additionally, if your videos are engaging and entertaining, other people will help spread the word about your personal training services and may share them.
When creating videos for TikTok and YouTube, think about what makes you unique as a personal trainer and how you can stand out from other trainers. Share helpful tips and advice, demonstrate exercises or stretches that clients could do on their own, or show off your own physical transformation journey. It’s also important to be consistent with your videos and post regularly, so that potential clients will come back for more.
Mark McShane, Marketing Director, Birmingham First Aid Courses
Invest in Marketing
You can use online advertising and social media, as well as traditional forms of marketing, such as flyers and business cards. Reach out to potential customers through email, direct mail campaigns, or even by attending local events related to fitness or health promotion.
Don’t forget that word of mouth can be a powerful tool in expanding your client base, so make sure to ask happy clients to refer their friends and family. Offering discounts or referral programs can motivate customers to promote you and bring in more business.
Last, don’t forget about networking with other trainers and health professionals who may provide referrals as well. These strategies can help you find potential customers and grow your personal training business.
Nick Varga, Chief Riding Officer, ERide Journal
Create a Community Everyone Wants to Join
This means you are attracting clients organically rather than looking for them. Utilize social media to tell a story: the story of you, your journey, your clients, and their journey, and share the progress. This will attract followers to observe and possibly want to join. Everyone wants to be seen and a part of something. If you build it, they will come.
Deanna Kane, Owner, Metamorphosis Fitness Coaching
Develop Working Relationships with Health Professionals
Developing a good working relationship with doctors, physical therapists, and nutritionists who refer clients to you can be highly beneficial.
By establishing yourself as a trustworthy professional in the industry, these health professionals will be able to recommend you with confidence. They may also provide feedback, helping to ensure that all of your training methods are safe and follow best practices. Having them as part of your team will give you the support system necessary to successfully build up your client base over time.
Nadzeya Sankovich, Regional Manager, Health Reporter
Run a Promotional Challenge on Social Media
Running a promotional challenge is an excellent way to engage your current clients, while also helping you reach a new client base. Be it muscle building, weight loss, conditioning, or whatever you are best at, starting a fitness challenge motivates people to work out while being a part of the group.
You can either do a free challenge or charge a minimal fee to cover the costs. Some benefits of running a promotional challenge include onboarding a high number of clients, the flexibility to coach multiple people, and having a community. You can take the challenge a step further by having weekly or monthly goals and keeping track of the progress.
Rohan Arora, Owner, Gaining Tactics