Are you a personal trainer looking to maximise your earning potential? More and more fitness professionals are creating online fitness training programs. However, in an already saturated and competitive market, success online takes more than passion and being qualified.
How can you transition from one-on-one personal training services to online training? Start with these five tips.
With any business, it’s always beneficial to research what your competitors are doing. Look at their websites, their social media channels, and any other advertising to see what’s working for them. Call and ask about their specials, and listen to the way they communicate with their customers.
While you’re at it, find out how social media marketing can help you reach more people, as well as which platforms are the best fit for your business. By doing your homework and ensuring you keep up with the latest trends, you’ll be one step ahead before making the switch.
Trying to be everything to everyone can be a slippery slope for a small business owner. Before launching your online fitness business, make sure you have a solid grasp of your target market. Do they do shift work or travel a lot? If so, online training might more suited to their lifestyle. Or maybe they have young children, so going to the gym isn’t an option?
Once you’ve identified the basics, drill down further into their problems and how you can resolve them. Where do they spend most of their time online? How do they prefer to consume content? You should be able to continue refining your niche market along the way.
Just as meal prepping requires planning, you need to devise a strategy to ensure your transition into the online fitness training space is a success. Make sure your website is user-friendly and visually appealing, and your offering is easy to understand. You’ll need a social media strategy too, as it will likely be how you’ll share content, such as video teasers, tips, infographics, and articles.
Figure out which tools you’ll need to invest in when planning your strategy. If your budget is tight, consider building your own website through a platform like WordPress, Squarespace, or Wix.com. Social media management tools, such as Hootsuite or Sprout Social, can help you stay on top of your online marketing, while accounting software, such as QuickBooks Online, helps to manage your finances, and even comes with a simplified app perfect for sole traders.
A wide array of quality content is essential when promoting your online training services. It allows you to showcase your expertise in blog posts, videos, vlogs (blogs that contain video content), podcasts, and more. Be sure that when you engage with your customers, you do it in a language they understand. And remember that you’re the expert, so your content needs to educate, as well as motivate and inspire.
Your content should capture your audience’s attention almost immediately and should be suitable for repurposing across different channels. So if you’ve created a video, cut it into short teasers for social, or break down an instructional video into a step-by-step guide. Experiment with your marketing mix, looking for the right balance in terms of free and paid advertising.
It’s one thing to gain a new client, but another to retain them. Think about how you can offer a personal touch that will make all the difference in the online space. What will set your service apart from all the other personal trainers out there? What can you offer your customers that others can’t or won’t?
Once you have a client, make it your mission to get them results. When you do, ask for testimonials to showcase all the hard work you’ve both put in. In the online fitness realm, results speak for themselves, so getting your clients to where they need to be should inspire new clients to use your services.
Running a successful online fitness business is an exciting move for a personal trainer. However, like any new business, you’ll need a clear audience and a solid strategy for growth to ensure the transition is seamless.
To learn more about starting a new business, check out these resources.
Sign up for our quarterly newsletter and receive educational and interesting content straight to your inbox.
Want more? Visit our tools and templates!
