What’s one of the biggest challenges for Personal Trainers? I think you would agree with me when I say that’s it’s generating leads for ther business. 

Or is it?

Well, it turns out that you can find consistent and proven lead generation channels if done right.

In  this post we'll show you 5 Proven Remedies for generating quality fitness leads for your personal training business.

Firstly, we must understand that, as a Fit Pro, your job is to essentially “sell” fitness.

Having a consistent stream of leads that you can ultimately sell to, is important to any fit pro-business. Not to mention that it can completely transform the way you do business and open up a whole new level to success…

Without any leads you can’t get any new sales and without any new sales you’ll soon be begging current clients for $20/hour training sessions.

It's Simple

No Leads = No Sales = Desperation = Working for Less money than your Worth

But it doesn’t have to be this way…

You can choose the negative, downward spiral or the positive, upward one… one that looks like this:

Leads = More Sales = Happiness/Success = Power to Raise your Prices = Doing more of what you love

We can all agree… Desperation sucks.

Any lead generation channel (a successful one that is) should ultimately divert your lead to your email list.

Email marketing and building an email “list” is the most powerful way to market your services.

“But why?”

Let me explain….

Email marketing has the highest Return on investment.

Fact.

Not every lead you meet is ready to buy from you yet. Not many are at all.

A lead usually goes through a journey that marketers call a “Buyer’s Journey”…

Let me tell you some more about that:

The Buyer’s Journey

When a lead first comes in, they’re in the first step of the sales funnel.

A sales funnel is a marketing system that all businesses have but often, don’t have a clear understanding.

So, as of now, we are at the “Awareness stage” but how exactly do we create this awareness?

The brand awareness that gets the message out to your target audience?

The awareness that gets the initial leads to begin to start considering the proposition in the “consideration stage”…. to turn into prospects.

That’s exactly what I’m about to share with you below:

1 – Facebook Advertising

By far, the most powerful way to reach new people is through Facebook.

Facebook has over 1.2 billion users and the amount of data they have on its users is a marketer’s wet dream.

Like any type of social media marketing, you have to first understand that Facebook users rarely buy the first time they see your offer/ad. If they do, you’re either really lucky or have targeted the perfect person with a low enough cost for somebody to make an impulse buy… we aren’t going to rely on this as 99 times out of 100, it won’t work.

Facebook is like a party and if you try to sell at a party it will be just weird. Unless you’re selling drugs… which you shouldn’t be anyway!!

We need to build a system that enables users learn to know, like, and trust you before they buy from you.

Here is a mini “A-E Guide to Success with Facebook Ads”:

1. Get a clear understanding of your target market – Facebook allows you to set demographics by gender, age, interests, income levels, etc…It also allows you to geo locate by zip code. Once you have a clear understanding of who you’re targeting then we can set these parameters.
2. Create a Lead Magnet – offer a valuable gift that your target client will buy from you in most cases but in this case we’ll use it as a “bribe” for exchange of their email address.
3. Create custom audiences – Facebook is all about retargeting to custom audiences. Retargeting means that you advertise to people who have already shown interest. Facebook allows you to track people who have visited your site with a custom audience pixel. You can use the same ad you initially had but with slightly different copy for the headline: “Did Life Get in the Way?” is a tested and often used headline for retargeting.
4. Video Testimonials – Create another retargeting ad this time with a video testimonial. Video ads work great on Facebook. By having the user see a testimonial from someone that looks like them it will add credibility and it will compel prospects to take action.
5. Measure and track campaign – If you’re not measuring and tracking metrics like conversions then you’re just losing money. The key to any successful marketing campaign is tracking and testing.

2 – Instagram

Did you know that Instagram is the fastest growing social media platform in the world?

It’s has the highest engagement of any network and it’s a great to build a brand as a fitness professional… after all, it's all about pictures! Fitness is one of the most popular types of pages on IG currently.

Here’s another “A-E Guide” on how to Generate Leads on Instagram:

1. Set up a link to your squeeze page on your profile – Instagram doesn’t allow outbound links in any of the posts but they do allow one link in your profile. Use this to capture leads.
2. Be consistent with posting – In the beginning, its best post at least 3 times a day to get your message across.
3. Promote valuable content – Post photos and videos that your prospects think are valuable. If you’re a calisthenics coach post workout routines of videos. If you do nutrition post recipes, grocery lists etc…
4. Shoutouts – Use shoutouts to promote other people’s content. Always be looking to give more in the beginning. If your profile contains lots of valuable pictures and posts these influencers will eventually return the favor by giving you a shoutout.
5. Use hashtags – Use hashtags that are related to fitness. You can find the most commonly used hashtags here

3 – Mobile Text Messaging

Even though these services aren’t new there are a few companies that are specialising in the fitness industry.

Some cool facts on mobile text marketing:

• Mobile text marketing has a 98% open rate compared only 22% with emails.
• Text messages can 8x more effective in engaging customers.
• An estimated 54 million consumers will use a smartphone coupon.

4 – Blogging

Enjoy writing?

Think you know your stuff?

Then blogging might just be your answer to generate awareness and in turn more leads.

Sure, it can be overwhelming when you first start out.

The internet is already overloaded with fitness and nutrition sites, however if you do it the right way and you provide valuable and engaging information it can really payoff.

Writing about local things can be easier to rank for in Google and can get you some “free” local exposure when done right!

“But what should I write about?”

Ideally, you should write to your ideal client.

As a fit pro, you know the fitness and nutrition problems your clients face every day and if you write engaging articles that address those problems it will help you connect with your audience.

It will especially help to connect you with the audience that is “your ideal client” base.

If you’re targeting local leads then it’s best to do some keyword research to find out which words are being searched for in your area.

Then, think outside the box.

What types of blog posts could you write about that fits those keywords but doesn’t also lead people to a post that is not related or loosely related to what they were looking for.

Give them what they want. But give them your solution, too.

Hubspot wrote a great beginner’s guide on Keyword Research here

5 – Local Seminars

If you enjoy speaking and presenting then hosting local seminars is another great way to build trust and authority.

Click here for a great blog post on building your business with seminars.

Finding Local Seminars

If your business is local, why not try looking for local events… call people, network with people, make friends in the community… do everything you can to get yourself in front of a group of potential clients.

Remember, almost anyone can be a fitness client… so don’t sweat it if you cannot literally find a talk event based on fitness… the likelihood of this happening down the road is small.

So, don’t worry if things aren’t exactly how you need them… improvise and do whatever you can to get your name, business and brand out there.

Be unique, network with people and talk with passion… that's how you can gain leads with seminars.

Hosting your own

If you can’t find an existing talk event or social gathering then why not host your own!

Halls or stages are often pretty cheap to rent for a few hours!

Print some flyers, tell your friends and get the word around the local community.

Provide value in your seminar and keep marketing your own business to a minimum. People will know you’re a personal trainer or involved the fitness industry in some way.

If you provide value to them, they will come to you… offer yourself to take questions and talk with people on a 1-1 level or announce that you are open to taking on new clients at the end of your talk.

Focus on providing value, getting your name out there and having fun.

That’s how you’re going to find clients when hosting your own seminars.

Conclusion

I hope that you are going to put at least one of these five proven remedies to generating fitness / personal training leads into action after reading this article.

If you’ve found this article helpful or have any questions at all, let us know below, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

I truly hope that you’ve taken some value out of this article and I’d like to thank-you for taking the time to read through it.

This is a Guest Post by Mauricio Cardenal for InternetFitpro.

Mauricio is the founder of The Pt Advisor He's been helping fitness businesses grow online since 2014.