A report by Futuremarketinsights estimates that the personal fitness trainer market is projected to be valued at $63.8 million in 2023 compared to $39.74 million in 2022.
As more and more people feel the need to take care of their health and fitness, the fitness industry is seeing a boom in gym membership sales. New members who prefer one-on-one training are signing up with fitness trainers working individually as well as those employed by gyms.
Why is Branding Important for a Personal Trainer?
A boom in the industry also means more competition and where there is more competition, there is a higher need to make your brand stand out.
Branding allows you to create a separate identity for your business. It is not necessary to be associated with a large large-scale gym or studio to promote your business. As a fitness trainer, you can become a brand yourself.
One might ask how this can be achieved. Below, we have listed 8 tips that will help you grow your brand.
8 Branding Tips to Help You Grow as a Personal Trainer
Click on a tip below or continue reading to start from the first.
- Target a specific niche
- Professionally brand yourself
- Have an attractive Business Webpage
- Use social media for promoting your brand
- Partner with other companies and brands
- Offer packages and discounts
- Write informative blogs
- Advertise yourself consistently
1. Target a specific niche
The first point you need to consider before anything else is to identify your target audience. You need to see whether you want to target people who are more inclined towards losing weight or want to go for body-building.
As you are an individual personal trainer you can target a specific niche otherwise you will burn out yourself from the pressure of work. Focusing on a specific niche does not mean that you can’t be successful, on the contrary, it is a much better option as you can create more targeted campaigns and offers.
When you will make offers according to the liking and preference of your target audience they would be more inclined to join your class. You can be qualified as an expert on a specific niche if you have a specific target audience.
2. Professionally brand yourself
You need to professionally brand yourself as a business. Just creating an Instagram page which links to your website is not enough. Your logo and theme should represent who you are and what your personality is like or what you want to portray it as.
A well-designed logo and mission statement can say a lot about your values and what you want to provide your members with. Giving the right kind of impression to your target audience is your main goal so, you need to brand yourself in order to attract and retain them professionally.
Essentially your values and mission statement should align with each other, as your mission statement represents your values. Your main focus should be how much value you place on your members’ fitness and health, this should reflect in your mission statement. If you communicate your values clearly it will create a greater impact on your target audience and can also resonate with them if they hold the same values.
3. Have an attractive Business Webpage
Usually, if anyone wants to look up something they will first search for it online, the same goes for businesses. Most of your potential members will try searching the web if they want to look up your business or if they are looking for a personal trainer. You need to have an attractive webpage which represents your business.
You can mention your certification and experience on your webpage along with your contact information. Other than that you can include member success stories and testimonials which creates trust with your members. Potential members can also request more information online if they want to learn more about your business, which makes communication much easier.
4. Use social media for promoting your brand
Are you effectively using social media platforms for promoting your brand? By having an attractive Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube profile you can market your presence to a greater audience. Setting up your business and expecting your clients to come to you without putting in any effort is a big mistake you can make as a personal trainer.
You need to be more proactive and promote yourself and your brand using social media platforms. Before promoting yourself using social media you need to figure out which platforms your members prefer the most and which type of content they engage with the most.
You can easily create brand awareness with anyone around the world and let them know about yourself and your brand. Word-of-mouth marketing is important for promoting your brand but social media is another great platform which you can use.
Generating new leads becomes more efficient with social media platforms. Promoting your services and offers online is a great way to reach a larger audience. You can read more about how you can market yourself online in our previous blog, 10 Marketing Strategies for Gyms and Fitness Clubs.
5. Partner with other companies and brands
You can partner with professionals or other brands in the community. Partnering with professionals such as health care professionals or physical therapists is a great way to promote your own brand. You can partner with gyms, fitness centres, or even other companies who have a similar industry as yours, which can refer their members to take extra classes if the members require them and you can in turn refer some of your members to join their facility.
Being a personal trainer you would require having equipment at your own facility as you might have members who come to your facility for training. Using branded equipment gives a good impression to your members. Partnering with brands can increase your exposure and create great opportunities for both businesses.
Now the main question is what type of equipment you require for getting started with training your members. You can check our previous blogs by clicking on any one of the links below to read about the type of equipment you might need to train your members according to your niche:
- The Ultimate Fitness Equipment Checklist for your new Fitness Club
- A Complete Boxing Equipment Guide for Your New Boxing Club [Owner's Guide]
- The Ultimate MMA Gym Equipment Checklist [Owner's Guide]
6. Offer packages and discounts
A great way to gain new members and retain your existing members is to provide discounts or offer packages to them. Offering referral rewards is a great way of attracting members. This is a great promotional strategy for your existing members to bring in new members.
You can either arrange a free group class or an individual training session for your members whether online or outdoors. This strategy will let your members experience your training first-hand and decide whether they want to become your member or not.
Other than that you can offer a free trial class to new members who will join your class, this makes it easier for your members to decide whether they want to become your member or not. If you have established yourself as a well-renowned trainer then you can even promote your brand by offering a free class to the members who take your class regularly.
7. Write informative blogs
Writing blogs and articles on your website related to nutrition, health, and fitness is great to get your name out to the public. You can write informational blogs and then place Call-To-Actions in the blog that are related to the blog.
You can write a blog on how to lose weight in 2 to 3 months and provide a call-to-action for either booking an online session with you or showcasing the current offers you have for weight loss. Writing blogs or articles does not pay you a lot but it is a good way to attract the public to your brand and services.
8. Advertise yourself consistently
Consistency is the key factor that will help you with growing your brand and yourself as a personal trainer. We have discussed how you can advertise and market yourself online by creating a webpage and using social media platforms but you need to also advertise yourself offline.
Advertising offline means that you will be using traditional advertising methods such as print, such as newspapers, brochures, flyers, and magazines or Television and radio advertising. These are great to engage your local audience even though they might seem outdated ways.
To get the most out of your advertising efforts you need to figure out where your potential members go the most. Such as health food stores, chiropractors, or medical stores are great places to put up your flyers or posters. This increases brand awareness and can get new members to join up for your training sessions. But if you consistently want to gain new members you need to be consistent with advertising yourself both online and offline.
Final Thoughts
As a personal trainer, strong branding will help you stay ahead of the competition. With the goal of growing your client numbers, you need to create awareness of your brand. Professional branding, social media, discounts, referral rewards, advertising, and partnerships are a few strategies explained above that you can use to grow your brand and revenue.
