In the age of social media, digital marketing, and a booming fitness and health industry, certified personal trainers (CPTs) need to stay up to date on their marketing strategies. Not doing so will not only cost you business but will affect your public persona and perception as well.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that your marketing strategy is fine as it is, and your work will speak for itself. While it’s true that the quality of your services is what matters the most, it’s also important to remember that you still need to put in the effort.
Here are some common mistakes that personal trainers make when it comes to their marketing content and strategy, and you should be careful to avoid them:
Setting the bar too high and becoming unrelatable
While you might think it’s inspirational to post workout videos, ‘clean’ meals and expensive, extensive grocery lists, waking up at 5 am to go run or workout, other people may not agree. It’s one thing to look toward your favorite trainer for motivation, but if you’re only projecting an image of perfection, it might be highly unrelatable by being unattainable to the ordinary person.
After all, you do this for a living, and it’s your job to stay fit, healthy, and practice what you preach, but for other people, be it, stay-at-home moms or college students, their routines may not be adaptable for that lifestyle.
In short, the best thing you can do is stay relatable.
Not having a regular posting schedule for content
You’re damaging your online presence by not planning and having a posting schedule. You need to plan your social media and general marketing content ahead of time, building a cohesive sequence of what goes on, when, and how.
Space out and diversify the kind of content you share, including whatever your personal preferences are, from motivational quotes to workout tips and advice to promotional content. Everything must be well-thought-out and balanced because you’ll have a poorly organized feed with random, repetitive content without that.
Additionally, be sure to post consistently and follow a regular schedule. This is necessary for engagement, showing you’re active and indicating that your business profile can be used to reach out to you.
Don’t go weeks or months without posting and expect engagement and responses. This applies to all marketing content, including emails, web content, promotional messages, etc. Consistency is key, and a CPT should know that!
Mundane, repetitive content that doesn’t do much
Beyond just posting consistently and following a schedule, however, you should also work on mixing up the type of content you share. The same motivational videos and quotes can only get you so far.
It’s definitely challenging and an added layer of work to manage, but as a CPT, you need to provide value to your clients through your marketing strategy. Make a combination of text, images, video, and audio content, and continue to diversify your web presence.
You can do this through the aforementioned point regarding planning content, which allows you to curate and create meaningful material rather than just self-promotion and images and videos of yourself.
It’s true that while you are the main service provider, there’s got to be more to your profile than gym selfies and videos. It should be engaging, interactive, and inviting.
Ask questions, get to know your audience, understand what your potential clients are looking for, and think of how you can make your feed more organic. Testimonials, snippets of training sessions, educational information are all excellent options.
Excessively posting sponsored content and material
Another mistake that a lot of fitness experts are often guilty of making is posting excessive sponsored content. Yes, it’s great for your credibility and income to have sponsorships and paid content, but posting too much of that can be off-putting to audiences.
It can make it harder to trust in your abilities and your expertise if you’re continually promoting products, whether they’re skinny teas or supplements or even gym wear. However, as long as it’s spaced out and cushioned by more organic material or other forms of content, you should be good to go.
In addition to that, focus on building your SEO presence and optimizing your existing content for more relevance. Build a website, develop content for that, make your work more accessible and watch that work wonders over typical PPC advertising.
Pricing yourself far below market rates (it’s not a good thing)
You might think that selling your services lower than the average market rate will help you attract more clients, but that works against you. The more you devalue your work, the more people are skeptical.
After all, why would a skilled, qualified CPT charge significantly lower rates than their competitors unless something was wrong? You can, however, use promotional offers and seasonal discounts to build a sense of urgency, but never sell yourself or your services short.
Not targeting the right audience or focusing only on new clients
Don’t be that trainer who’s so focused on attracting new clients that they forget to value their current ones. It’s cheaper and more profitable to retain old clients than constantly bring in new ones, and as a CPT, you should know who to target and how. Find your niche, address that, and attract faces while also highlighting your current clients’ progress and achievements. Their stories, testimonials, reviews, and recommendations are what can make or break your practice
As a personal trainer, you are running a business at the end of the day. Whether you’re selling services independently, as part of a gym or facility, or in affiliation with other programs, you need to have a solid marketing strategy that drives results.
You can also upgrade your marketing strategy with the help of our fitness trainer programs, including marketing and business content. Get in touch with us to register to become a certified personal trainer or upgrade your current education and training!