Online Personal Trainer Marketing Techniques

In this article, we discuss the most effective online personal trainer marketing techniques, explaining what they are and how you can utilise them to expand your client base and earn more money.

This article will be divided into two parts:

• 5 Essential Online Personal Trainer Marketing Techniques
• 3 Essential Tips For Your Online Personal Trainer Marketing Techniques

But before we continue, have you considered enrolling on further courses to appeal to more clients online? Our Level 5 Personal Training Courses are ideal for attracting more clients, and effectively marketing your services as an online PT.

Download our course prospectus to find out more, or provide your details below.

5 Essential Online Personal Trainer Marketing Techniques

Now you’re familiar with some marketing for online personal trainer tips, it’s time to break down our techniques to help you gain and secure new clients!

#1 - Build a PT Website To Market Yourself As An Online Personal Trainer

Above everything else, the most crucial online personal trainer marketing strategy is to build a personal training website for your services. 

As an online personal trainer, a strong and professional website is vital for attracting clients and assuring them you can provide a quality service. Potential clients having this link means they can contact you directly, which in turn helps generate more leads.

Many personal trainers outsource various aspects of their business, especially when it comes to creating websites as it’s important to get this right as an online PT. 

However, you can either choose to use a freelancer on sites like Fiverr, or create your own using a website builder.

Popular website builders include:

• Wix
• Squarespace
• Weebly

Both Wix and Weebly offer a free service, while Squarespace only offers a 14 day free trial. However, if you’re serious about creating a sleek and professional website, then it’s worth investing the money in a website builder with premium options.

Although using the free option on a website builder can be more cost effective, this often comes with limited services which may make your website look amateur, or that you’re not serious about the services you offer.

A great example of how your online personal trainer website can look comes from David Kingsbury:

Although David states he ‘builds Hollywood’s best bodies’, this doesn’t mean you need to aim to provide this level of service as well. 

What you can aim for is the same level of professionalism for your own website. Some tips you can learn from David and apply to your own page are to:

• Include all the necessary information on your homepage - Visitors shouldn’t have to spend long searching for key information. You should be clear and honest about what you can do for them and how they can contact you.
• Keep a consistent colour scheme - This will make the information on your website clear and easy to read. It also makes your page look more professional and shows visitors you’ve thought about your brand.
• Provide an image of yourself as evidence - Having an image to show how successfully you take care of your own body is crucial for an online personal trainer to present on their website, along with an ‘About’ section. This is especially important for online PTs who are providing training plans rather than hosting sessions over video calls.

#2 - Use Social Media Ads As An Online PT Marketing Strategy

If you’re looking at how to market yourself as an online personal trainer, and you’ve found that other methods haven’t worked effectively, consider using paid social media advertisements as part of your personal training social media strategy.

As of January 2022, 4.55 billion people use social media. According to Sociallybuzz, on average 28% of people who use the Internet found new products after viewing social media ads.

Although targeted ads can be used across all social media platforms, these are most common on Facebook and Instagram. Ads used on Facebook are targeted to a specific demographic, and often work on a Pay Per Click (PPC) basis.

Pay Per Click is when a business or company will pay Facebook each time someone clicks on their ad. 

According to researchers at Startups, it can cost around €0.87 - €1.21 per click on a Cost-Per-Click bidding model. This is cost effective as you will only have to pay once someone has been interested enough to directly land on your website.

However, that’s not the only reason you should create effective fitness Facebook ads. Here are a few key points to note:

• Ads are highly targeted to specific individuals as Facebook has plenty of user data, meaning these kinds of ads will show up for those who have interacted with similar ones.
• They help your content get more visibility from users who are already interested in these services, making it more likely they’ll head over to your page.
• Facebook’s integrated messaging features makes it easier for readers to make enquiries.

There are different types, but the most common personal trainer social media posts include:

• Images
• Videos
• Stories
• Text posts

For example, this ad from JD Personal Training highlighting affordable online packages is how a typical one may look:

Ads like these will show up as ‘Sponsored’ on people’s news feeds. The ad algorithm is based on ad quality, how it’s been set up by the advertiser, and a user's previous interaction with similar ads.

This means it’s more likely users who see the ad will click on it to find out more about your service. Having social media ads such as the one above is important for several reasons, including:

• Allowing you to reach a wider audience
• Micro-targeting your exact audience
• Quick to set up and get results

You can be assured those who see the ad will have some level of interest, meaning it increases the chances of you receiving a potential client.

#3 - GoogleMyBusiness Is Good For Marketing As A Personal Trainer

To improve the visibility of your business on Google, as well as better generate more targeted leads, you should consider creating a GoogleMyBusiness account for your online PT business.

According to Invesp, 90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business, and 88% trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. While this works slightly differently for online personal trainers, you should still think about these statistics.

Having this page allows clients and leads to find:

• Contact information
• Links to your website
• Client reviews

This information helps you earn clients’ trust as it makes your business appear more legitimate. 

Setting up a Google My Business page is also completely free, meaning there’s no reason why you shouldn’t make it easier for people to find your online personal training business.

Once again, while this differs for online personal training businesses, if we type this into Google, we’ll find a list of local businesses:

As you can see, these online personal training services are at an advantage as users are provided with a link to their website, as well as access to their five star reviews they can check out before committing to a service.

For those wondering how to use Google My Business as a personal trainer, it’s certainly worth learning. It’s a great tool for pushing your online personal training business higher up on the first page of Google, where it otherwise may be lost to more popular services.

Ideally, you’ll want to rank in the Google 3-Pack for your local area. This is the way Google displays the top 3 results for a local business search they deem relevant, prominent, and in close proximity to the user. 

Most smaller online personal trainer websites would be unlikely to rank highly on Google’s regular search results, but with GoogleMyBusiness, you're much more likely to appear in search results, as the searcher is clearly looking for the service you provide. 

As the user will be specifically searching for a service like yours, this highlights how great this marketing for online personal trainers is as it takes minimal investment. 

#4 - As An Online PT, Use Referral Schemes

Personal training referral schemes can be a hugely effective way of attracting new clients and highly valuable leads. This is a great online PT marketing strategy as it utilises existing clients while helping you gain new ones.

According to Nielsen, 92% of consumers around the world said they trust word-of-mouth or recommendations from friends and family above all forms of advertising. 

Typically, these referrals involve offering an existing client an incentive to get a friend to sign up to use your service. The truth is, most people want something in return for recommending you to others and helping out your business.

Ideas for a referral programme rewards include:

• Free sessions
• Discounted monthly sessions 
• Online group classes or sessions to share with friends
• Free merchandise, such as t-shirts or water bottles

Here is an example of a referral scheme from AnnaJFitness:

Anna offers 1-on-1 training both online and in person, so if you refer a friend to either type of training, you’ll receive a discount for 4 weeks if they book a minimum of 4 sessions. You may also decide to offer something more concrete for clients, like Authentic Personal Training has with their restaurant vouchers:

As you can see, if you follow these examples, you can potentially receive new clients to make up the costs of these incentives which are fairly inexpensive anyway.

However, you should always be clear in what you’re offering clients but also shouldn’t make it too easy to be giving out free or discounted sessions. Using the example from AnnaJFitness again, you’ll see the referred friend has to book a minimum of 4 sessions.

Although she has the option of single sessions, by specifying clients will only receive the discounted training if their friend books 4 classes means as a trainer, Anna can guarantee she will have a client for a longer period of time rather than just for a one off class.

To maintain client loyalty and increase their chances of referring friends and relatives to you, it’s a good idea to reward their loyalty, especially if they’ve been with you for a long time. 

After two or three months attending sessions, you could reward them with a free or discounted session. Kind gestures are likely to increase their loyalty towards you, meaning they’ll be more inclined to refer others to your service.

#5 - Email Marketing Is A Great Online Personal Trainer Marketing Strategy

After creating your website and utilising other online tools, another online personal trainer marketing strategy you should consider is fitness email marketing. 

This process involves obtaining people’s contact details and using them to build a list you can send targeted emails too.

Emails can either be about advertising offers and promotions, or simply about your services in general. By sending relevant content to those who are already interested in what you can offer, it’s much more likely to result in more sales.

You can obtain email addresses by offering something in exchange for free. The example below is a great way to to gain these addresses, as we’re providing something of value for free, meaning those on the page will be more willing to leave their contact details:

The incentive here is a video about starting a successful online PT business from home, offered in return for a name and email address. This information can then be added to a list of emails and lead to a potential client.

While you might not have a video or specific guide to offer, there's a wide range of ideas you could use for your fitness emails.

Users who provide their details will then be provided with targeted emails and content with the purpose to push them towards enrolling on a course.

It’s down to personal choice when deciding how often you should send out emails. These should be regular enough to keep people engaged and interested in your services. 

However, they shouldn’t be constant enough potential clients begin to regard it as spam and are turned away from your services. We’d advise sending one email every 2 - 3 days.

Ideally, it’s best to send these emails out when you have something targeted to advertise to people you know will be interested, such as special offers, rather than just sending out at random.

If you’re confident doing your own email marketing, tools such as MailChimp can be great for helping you with this. However, you can also outsource an email marketing specialist if you’re unsure about effectively doing this.

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If you’re seeking further guidance on online personal trainer marketing, take a look at these articles:

• How To Become An Online Personal Trainer
• 19 Best Online Personal Training Software Options
• Personal Trainer Marketing Strategies And Tips 

3 Essential Tips For Your Online Personal Trainer Marketing Techniques

Before we get onto exploring our essential online PT marketing techniques, we’ll first take a look at some tips to employ to ensure you’re successful when finding new clients.

#1- Take A Level 4 Course To Market Yourself As A ‘Master’ Online PT

It’s absolutely crucial to progress in your studies in order to appeal to as many potential clients as possible. By doing so, you’re increasing the range of people you can attract to use your services.

Level 5 Personal Training Courses are ideal for carving out your own niche. This means developing your skills in areas you’re passionate about, and targeting specific clients who will benefit from your services. 

These specialised courses include:

• Level 5 Lower Back Pain Management
• Level 5 Obesity & Weight Management Control
• Level 5 Nutrition For Sport & Exercise

By having these advanced qualifications, you can market yourself as either a master, experienced, or expert online personal trainer and set yourself apart from other online PTs who have fewer qualifications.

Think about it this way, if you suffered with lower back pain and were looking for a personal trainer, which one would you choose? Would it be any PT, or the one who has qualifications managing back pain?

For example, Craig Parnham is a qualified Level 5 Personal Trainer, meaning he can advertise himself as an ‘Experienced Personal Trainer & Expert Nutrition Coach’:

Having further qualifications also assures potential clients you can help them reach their goals much more successfully as a result of your qualifications and experience.

#2 - Ensure You Market Yourself As An ‘Online PT’ Across All Of Your Marketing Efforts

If you decide to become an online personal trainer, you’ll need to remain consistent across both your online and offline presence. 

Your branding, such as your logo and personal training tagline, should always be consistent, and give potential clients an insight into who you are, and what you can offer them.

This means you should keep your online PT aesthetics and branding focused across your:

• Website 
• Social media pages
• Physical flyers and leaflets

By keeping this consistent across all platforms, it stops potential clients being confused about what you’re offering. 

For example, if we look at the bio on Andy Griffiths online personal training website, the first thing he says is that he's an online personal trainer and nutrition coach:

Keeping with this consistency, on his online PT Facebook page, Andy mentions the same information as highlighted below:

This is also shown on his LinkedIn page below, which maintains this same consistency of mentioning he’s both a personal trainer and a nutrition coach:

This shows potential clients what exactly he can offer them, and allows them to either contact him further if they’re interested, or find something different if they aren’t seeking an online personal trainer.

Plus, by retaining that same name and title, you're starting to build brand recognition for your online personal training services, and ensuring you're always recognised for what you do.

Giving yourself different fitness titles across your platforms will only confuse clients who are seeking your services. People shouldn’t have to search hard to understand what exactly you offer.

It’s down to you to make this clear on your website to avoid deceiving potential clients in any way!

#3 - Have Consistent Branding Across All Platforms As An Online Personal Trainer

Consistency is key when it comes to online personal trainer marketing techniques. Establishing a clear name and logo across all platforms is important both for attracting customers, and creating a recognisable brand for your services.

Take Fitandhappy as a great example. They’re a personal training provider which offers online personal training for women.

If we take a look at their website, you can see it follows a specific type of branding in terms of its colour scheme and style:

Although the image above is in black and white, when looking at their website, the team all wear uniforms to match their colour scheme. 

This is a great online personal training marketing tip to keep in mind, as what you wear in your videos or sessions if training over Zoom should be consistent with your online branding too.

Similar to our point above, this branding and style should extend across all your platforms, including social media.

As you can see from Fitandhappy's Instagram page, they maintain the colours from their website on these posts too. 

This adds a professional quality to your posts which is crucial for attracting clients and assuring them you will provide a quality service.

A professional website and sleek social media posts assures potential clients they will receive a high-quality service. Think of it this way - would you be assured you were receiving a professional service if you walked into an actual gym with no consistent branding or theme?

Online PT services should maintain this same level of professionalism, even more so than an in-person trainer. 

A client looking for online services only has your virtual services to look at, as opposed to meeting in a gym and familiarising yourself with a particular training area.

Before You Go!

By following our advice and implementing the online personal trainer marketing techniques above, you’ll certainly expand your client base and attract a wider audience to use your services.

With our personal training courses, especially our Level 5 Personal Training Courses, you’ll be able to successfully market yourself to a larger pool of clients by developing a niche as an online PT.

Find out more by downloading our course prospectus here.