How to Get More Clients for Personal Training: An Actionable Playbook

The hardest part of running a personal training business is attracting new clients. 

If you don’t have a solid plan to promote your personal training services and reach the right people, you’ll struggle to maintain consistent revenue—no matter how good you are as a trainer.  

That’s why I wrote this detailed guide listing the eight best ways to get more clients for personal training and building your own community of fitness enthusiasts. Use these handy tips to drive new leads for your personal training service and boost your income.

8 best practices to get more clients for personal training

Being a digital marketer and also a licensed fitness trainer, I’ve curated this list of eight best practices to get more personal training clients based on my own experiences. So, let’s break them down with actionable tips.

1.   Understanding your target market to tailor your services

Before everything else, you have to define exactly who you’re targeting. Your marketing efforts should resonate with a specific group. You have to highlight how you can solve their challenges and fulfill their goals.  

Without defining your target market and audience, you’re relying on guesswork and setting yourself up for poor results.

Now, remember that your target market isn't limited to demographic factors like age, gender, location, etc. You also need to identify multiple aspects of your audience, such as:

• Their profession
• Lifestyle habits
• Fitness level
• income

This will help you package your services better and build a strong positioning for social media. 

For instance, if you want to position yourself as the go-to trainer for working professionals, create tailored plans that meet the needs and tackle all pain points of these busy individuals.

2.   Make it easy for potential customers to become clients 

Think of a complex workout routine. If it’s too intimidating or difficult to follow, people are less likely to stick with it, right?

The same principle applies to your lead generation process. A long and complicated sign-up process can create too much friction for interested customers. If you don't give them an easy option to book a session, make payments, or contact you, they'll likely look for other trainers. 
That’s why it’s important to simplify your customer acquisition funnel and let potential customers get started effortlessly. This is where TIMIFY can make a huge difference for you.

TIMIFY’s fitness booking system is purpose-built for gym owners and personal trainers like you to delight new customers with a seamless booking process. You can easily set up your backend operations and give interested customers complete visibility into your availability. 

With TIMIFY, they can do all this in just a few clicks:

• Book or reschedule sessions
• Manage their membership
• Book specific equipment
• Share feedback 
• Make payments 

Besides streamlining the client experience, TIMIFY also makes it easy for you to update your availability in real-time, share custom booking links for your Instagram bio, and launch marketing campaigns directly from the app. 

Try TIMIFY for free to see how it can make life easy and efficient!

3.   Offer first class for free and/or Situation Analysis with fitness goal planning

Choosing a personal trainer can be a tough decision for many. Your customers want to feel confident before signing up for your services. 

You can win their trust by offering a free class where they can assess if your training style matches their expectations. 

A free first class is your chance to showcase your expertise and prove the quality of your services. Providing first-hand value through this free class also makes the decision easier for potential customers, driving more sign-ups for you.

Another way to demonstrate your training style and skills is by offering a situation analysis plan and goal-setting services for interested customers. With this personalized approach, you can convert interested customers by recommending exact services according to their current fitness level, lifestyle, and goals.

Use this template to create fitness goal planning reports for potential customers:

Think of both these tactics as a good way to establish credibility for yourself and nudge clients to start their fitness journey with you.

4.   Market your personal training in your gym/studio

What’s the best way to get in front of your target audience beyond social media platforms? Through in-person marketing campaigns in gyms or fitness studios. 

This can work really well if you work at multiple gymming facilities. Advertise your services for existing gym members with:

• Flyers: Distribute these hand-outs to gym members before or after their session. Include details about your service packages and pricing with interesting insights on your training philosophy/style.  

Here’s a sample for inspiration:

• Posters: Design and share appealing posters strategically across a facility. Choose busy touchpoints, like the entrance, locker rooms, workout areas, etc. Make sure these posters highlight the benefits of training with you and include a strong CTA. 

Here’s a good poster template to follow:

• Rollups: Place rollups outside multiple gyms or high-traffic areas to capture attention. Use this collateral to promote special discounts or highlight your past results. Invite people to your free first class and attract more clients. 

Done right, these offline marketing tactics can bring massive ROI from your local areas. 

5.   Build a promotion network to get more visibility 

Like with every other profession, building a strong network is always helpful in getting more clients. If you want to get new customers, start building relationships with relevant professionals to promote or refer your services. 

Think of people who can recommend your personal training service to their clients. These can include:

• Chiropractors
• Sports coaches
• Physical therapists 
• Medical professionals
• Nutritionists and dieticians
• Yoga and Pilates instructors

The goal is to connect with folks in complementary professions who help people manage their health and fitness. You can create a referral program with these people in your network and get more clients.

6.   Leverage social media to establish a strong online presence

Besides advertising your services locally, social media can open a lucrative channel for lead generation and make you more discoverable among a bigger audience. You can start from scratch with Instagram growth services and build your following gradually. 

While Instagram is the most popular platform for fitness content creators, you can also build your brand on YouTube and TikTok. 

No matter which platform you choose, these tips will come in handy to nail your social media game:

• Create a video marketing strategy to share tips and advice in bite-sized videos
• Dedicate a fixed time slot every day to engage and interact with your followers
• Prepare a content calendar to organize all your ideas and maintain consistency
• Collaborate with other content creators to offer value-packed content to your audience
• Build your tool stack for Instagram and other platforms to speed up content creation and publishing 

Focus on educating your audience with informative content and entertaining them with relatable content. 

Here's an example of social media video marketing by fitness coaches, Sierra Nielson and Kelsey Heenan. The two trainers collaborated for this Instagram reel, where they share a glimpse of their workout routines. 

Moreover, platforms like Facebook offer specialized tools for lead generation. Facebook lead ads offer a streamlined way for personal trainers to capture potential clients' information directly within the platform. By creating targeted ads showcasing your training services, coupled with an enticing call-to-action, you can efficiently gather inquiries from individuals interested in improving their fitness journey.

7.   Build an email list of subscribers for running promotional discounts

You can also maintain a regular revenue stream and get repeat clients for personal training by offering discounts every now and then. An email marketing plan can be effective for distributing these discounts and increasing your bookings.

Start building your email list with all your current and past clients. Since they already know you, they’re more likely to open your emails and click on offers. 

Additionally, you can add an option for interested customers to subscribe to your email. With TIMIFY, it’s easy to collect people’s emails and directly add them to your list. Then share regular updates and promotional offers whenever you have them. 

8.   Leverage customer reviews to build credibility and attract new clients

Personal training relies heavily on trust. People don’t want to take risks with their personal health and physical fitness. 

So, if you want to win this trust and convert more customers, you need good social proof with reviews and customer advocacy.

One way to collect social proof is by encouraging your customers to create video testimonials in your facility. This is a low-effort task for them, and it can produce great content for you to share on social media, your website, and other channels.

Check out how Hector Guadalupe has a dedicated landing page for video testimonials from his clients:
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Besides videos, you can also nudge your new customers to leave a review after their first month with you. Create triggered emails requesting every new client to make a text or video review one month from their joining date. 

Win more personal training clients with this strategy

Building a successful business as a personal trainer ultimately comes down to how effectively you market yourself. If you have the expertise but don't have a strong marketing game, your lead-generation efforts can take a hit.

That’s why I curated this list of tried-and-tested tactics on how to get more clients for personal training.

Once you put everything in place, remember to sign up on TIMIFY and create a streamlined workflow for your booking management process to maximize customer satisfaction.