Are you considering a career in the fitness industry? If you’re passionate about fitness and have the right credentials for the profession, you could have a lucrative career as an online fitness trainer. The demand for qualified fitness professionals is high.
According to industry statistics, the market for personal training has grown from $8.5 billion in 2012 to $12.9 billion in 2021. Talk about gaining 52% muscle in 9 years!
The demand for personal trainers is driven by consumers’ growing need to be healthier and fitter. A key contributing factor was the pandemic. 62% of Americans prioritized their health after the lockdown was lifted.
If correct, why did 22% of gyms close down permanently in 2021?
The closure of commercial gyms highlighted a shift in consumer behavior. 56.1% preferred to work out at home because it saved time and money and was more convenient than going to a commercial gym.
However, the commercial gym industry showed signs of recovery in 2023.
In a report published by the Health and Fitness Association (IHRSA), gym memberships increased by 8.1%. The commercial gym industry achieved a record-high of 82.7 million gym members in 2023.
More people are investing in their health and fitness by building home gyms or signing up for gym memberships.
All they need is a licensed personal trainer like you!
How to Market and Promote Your Fitness Business Online
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 329,500 personal trainers in 2023. The projected growth rate for the profession is 14%, faster than the labor market average.
Your challenge is to stay ahead of the competition. That’s why you must actively market and promote your fitness business online.
1. Build Your Brand
Establishing your brand is the starting point of any marketing campaign. Your brand is how you want your market or audience to perceive you.
Identifying your brand requires some introspection:
- Why did you get into fitness?
- What experiences led you to a fitness career?
- What are your hard and soft skills?
- Who or what market segments are you targeting?
- What fitness-related problems are you qualified to fix?
- How do you intend to fix these fitness-related problems?
The series of questions and answers will lead you to answer the most important question:
“Who are you?”
Your brand is you. The online marketing strategies are intended to introduce your brand – you – to your audience.
Health and fitness goals are difficult to achieve. Every New Year, many resolve to lose weight. Halfway into the new year, people don’t renew gym memberships and fall back to unhealthy habits.
Because health and fitness goals are difficult to achieve, honesty is the most important component of your brand-building strategy. You have to be authentic, real, and sincere to be relatable to your audience.
Fitness influencers like “The Liver King,” “Six Pack Shortcuts,” and many others in the TikTok social media space crashed and burned because they weren’t forthcoming and honest with their audience.
They were salesmen first and fitness trainers second. All they wanted to do was sell products to their audience and generate more engagement. It didn’t matter to them that what they were promoting could potentially harm the user.
Your brand will establish the blueprint or roadmap of your digital marketing strategy. Stay true to your values, be sincere with your purpose, and align them with your vision for your online fitness business.
2. Build a Website for Your Personal Training Business
The website is the central hub of operations. Everything you need to build a successful online fitness business is on your website.
- The Home Page:
The home page highlights your Unique Value Proposition (UVP). The UVP answers the question, “What makes you different from other online fitness trainers?” It’s the foundation of your brand.
- About Us
Share your fitness journey on the About Us page. Tell site users why you got into fitness, how you can help them on their journey, and what you’ve accomplished in the fitness industry that qualifies you as the best online trainer.
- Products and Services
As an online fitness trainer, you can sell products and services to help customers achieve their fitness goals.
Create and sell training manuals, e-books, diet plans, exercise routines, sports-specific workout programs, and modules.
Become an affiliate marketer for supplements, pre-packed health food, workout apparel, fitness tools, wearable technology, and home gym equipment. Set up an e-portal page where site users can buy your products.
- Member’s Page
Offer a monthly subscription package where members can consult or have one-on-one training sessions with you.
- Blog Page
Create and publish content about everything fitness-related. Write “how to” articles that answer the most common fitness problems.
For example, “How to Lose Weight Without Losing Muscle” and “How to Do Intermittent Fasting to Get Results.”
- Client Testimonials
You can set up a separate page for client testimonials and display them on the home page. Include reviews and ratings you received from third-party sites and social media.
- Contact Us
Inform site users where and how they can reach you. Provide multiple contact points like email, mobile number, and social media. Add contact forms to make it easier and more convenient for site users to communicate with you.
The website is like your home gym. You’re not competing for clients with other online fitness trainers. When people visit your website, they won’t find anyone else.
You control the content and the process flows. You make the rules. You do what you want. No one will file a complaint and have you suspended because your post offended them.
If we got you excited and the creative juices are flowing, give us a call or email RIGHT NOW!
We’ve built award-winning websites for our clients, and we can build one for you.
3. Stay Active on Social Media
Setting up social media profiles and pages will not automatically drive clients to your website. You must put in time and effort, be dedicated, and be consistent with your posting schedule.
Likewise, posting “anything” won’t deliver results. You can’t go into social media blind. You need strategy and purpose because social media marketing runs on campaigns.
- What is the goal of your campaign?
- What are you trying to accomplish?
- What are your targets?
For example, if you want to introduce your company and build your brand, your content must align with these goals.
- Write an “About Us” blog. Introduce yourself and the business to your audience. Publish the blog on high-traffic platforms like Facebook and X.
- Produce “A Day in the Life” videos. Show your audience one of your typical workout routines. Share a video of a recent competition you won. A popular concept is a “Full Day of Eating” video, where you show viewers the meals you eat in a day. Post these videos on Facebook, Instagram, X, and YouTube.
- Do Livestreams. For example, you can livestream a workout session, a competition or event you’re participating in, or a Q&A session. Facebook, X, Instagram, and YouTube are ideal channels for livestreams.
Important: Always include a backlink to your website in all of your content.
4. Highlight the Results of Your Training
The proof of concept is in the results. It’s not enough to tell people what you can do. Show them.
Share the results of your training programs… and it starts with you. This is an excellent way to share your story!
Videos are a powerful medium for storytelling.
Create a montage of images and videos of how you looked before you started your fitness journey.
Were you overweight growing up? Were you constantly bullied? How did you deal with social pressures?
Let your audience know your backstory and why you decided to focus on your health.
Share your struggles through the workouts and the diet plans. Talk about the challenges you faced and how you overcame them. Lastly, reveal the end result of your hard work.
Ask your clients if they’re okay with sharing the results of your workout programs. If you get their approval, produce short videos documenting your clients’ progress.
Upload the videos on your YouTube channel and embed them on your website’s home page. Share the videos on Facebook, Instagram, and X.
5. Utilize Email Marketing
The Return on Investment (ROI) on email marketing is $36 for every $1 spent. It’s arguably the most effective process in the digital marketing toolbox.
The goal of digital marketing is to drive traffic to your website. Once visitors are on your website, its features, contents, and Calls-to-Action will take over. The objective is to get visitors to subscribe to your newsletter service.
People who subscribe to your newsletter have given you the green light to send them content. Emailing a newsletter to a subscriber’s inbox is one foot inside the door.
You must ensure that your newsletter provides great value to the subscriber. Don’t just send the same email to everyone. Segment or categorize your email list according to the various needs of your subscriber.
What are the goals of your subscriber?
- To lose weight
- To gain weight
- To build muscle
- To gain strength
- To improve health
- To improve athletic performance
What physical activities do your subscribers participate in?
- Team sports
- Weightlifting
- Running
- Golf
- Tennis
- Swimming
- Martial Arts/Boxing
Don’t send them sales content immediately. Build trust by providing useful information. Eventually, you can offer subscribers special discounts on new products and services.
6. Collaborate with Other Fitness Professionals
Collaborating with other fitness professionals is an effective way of enhancing your profile, increasing your number of followers, and expanding your audience. You see collaborations between fitness professionals on YouTube.
Collaboration can be tricky, especially if the other party has significantly more followers and a higher search ranking.
If you haven’t collaborated before, start with a fitness professional you’re good friends with. It won’t matter to him that you only have 100 followers. He’ll gladly help you out.
Here are some ideas for a collaboration:
- Shoot a series of workout videos.
- Do a “Day in the Life” type of video.
- A “Full Day of Eating” is always popular with the audience.
- Visit and work out in a new gym.
- Work out in the other person’s home gym.
The most important thing to remember is to have fun! The audience can tell if the collaborators have chemistry or not. Your happiness will leap out of the screen and entice new sets of eyes to check out your website and social media pages.
7. Start a Podcast
In 2023, 70 million people listened to podcasts. The number of podcast listeners is projected to hit 110 million in 2029.
Today, podcasts aren’t just something you listen to on the way to work. People watch and listen to podcasts during breakfast, while on the treadmill, and when they want to be entertained.
A podcast is a great way to showcase your fitness knowledge. Talk about the topics your audience is interested in. Invite resource people who can contribute valuable information during the discussion.
One of the most popular fitness podcasts is the Thomas Delauer podcast. Delauer is a popular fitness trainer, businessman, and author who promotes Intermittent Fasting (IF), the Keto Diet, and healthy practices that support longevity.
Delauer’s podcast guests have included Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, Dr. Peter Atilla, and Dr. Rhonda Patrick. Delauer has also invited controversial fitness personalities such as Bryan Johnson, Mark Bell, and Jocko Willink.
You can start a podcast on your YouTube channel, share the link to your podcast on your other social media channels, and upload the most successful podcasts on your website.
8. Set up Online Workshops or Seminars
Another effective way of promoting your qualifications as an online fitness trainer is to set up online workshops.
You can set up an online workshop via Zoom or Google Meet. Promote the workshop on social media. Entice attendees with the assurance they will receive certificates of completion after the seminar.
What topics can you discuss in the seminar?
Here are a few popular topics in the fitness industry.
- How to start a career in the fitness industry
- What are the best personal certification programs online?
- What are the current and future trends in the fitness industry?
- How to make more money as an online fitness trainer
- How to build up your client list
You don’t have to be an expert on the topic. You can invite credible resource persons to discuss different issues related to the subject matter.
If you’re starting out in the industry and this is your first time conducting an online seminar, don’t charge the attendees. A free seminar will encourage people to attend, and your purpose for doing the seminar is to get discovered.
Conclusion
Marketing and promoting a fitness business online is like a fitness journey. You must be dedicated, consistent, and confident to realize your desired results.
Despite the advances in technology, it’s not going to be easy. The personal training industry is competitive.
Many PTs are active on social media. They’re constantly finding ways of harnessing technology to make their products and services more accessible to the market.
However, if you follow our action plans, you’ll be an in-demand fitness professional before you know it.
You can also entrust us with your digital marketing needs. We can build a mobile-responsive website and create optimized content for your business. Contact us, and we’ll map out your digital marketing strategy.
