With so many people looking to live happier, healthier lives with the help of personal trainers, it can be hard for personal trainers to stand out from the crowd. Digital marketing is long past its stages of infancy and has become one of the best ways to reach out to new and prospective clients, so why not use it to its full potential?
Think of it this way: digital marketing costs you time and effort upfront with no guarantee of immediate reward, but it bears strong dividends over time that can boost your profitability and extend your brand beyond word of mouth and to specific audiences. Below are a few digital marketing tips that can help any personal trainer achieve great results:
Gain Traction with Clever SEO
Getting a website up and running these days is a lot easier thanks to drag-and-drop website builders and innovations in web design, but it won’t do any good if potential clients can’t find you online in the first place. This is where search engine optimisation (SEO) comes in. By adjusting features such as metadata, providing quality content on a regular basis (blogs, for example), and ensuring that visitors are engaged whilst browsing your website.
Moreover, with so much website traffic coming from mobile devices it’s absolutely essential that websites are optimised to look great on smartphones just as much as on laptop or PC. In fact, websites that do not seek to create responsiveness and compatibility on mobile devices won’t rank as well on search engines such as Google.
In terms of content, quality is always preferred. There’s so much content online to consume and so much rubbish that turns off readers. Well written and well thought out content is rewarded by search algorithms such as Google’s, so it will not only engage your readers more and make them more interested in what you have to say (and what you do) but it’ll also help you rank higher in Google more consistently. An example could be a short and sweet blog post or ‘top 5’ list of healthy snacks on a keto diet. This content will bring in readers, and it’s even better if you’ve got original photos and recipes that add your own authenticity.
Leverage Social Media Presence
Social media platforms vary in their use and reach, but all have great potential to reach current clients and generate new leads for little cost (often for free). Whether it’s through a business Twitter handle sharing occasional tips for workout routines or dietary advice or a Pinterest profile showcasing the results from your own personal training success stories, social media presence is no longer optional but rather a necessary means to reach out to different audiences.
Leveraging social media to your advantage, however, requires a little more effort that’s certainly worth the time put in. Make use of analytics on your posts, tweets, videos, or any other content to determine your key audience demographics. Some social media analytics tools can filter and display demographics such as age, gender, or perhaps a diet many of your followers are interested in, for example. If your personal training regimen is more broad or you prefer to focus on specific key areas such as weight loss or muscle gain, knowing your audience segmentation through social media is critical.
Broaden Audience Reach with PPC Advertising
Generating and publishing content on website blogs and social media doesn’t cost much aside from time and effort, but sometimes even with your best efforts you won’t be reaching out to as many potential leads as you could be. Personal trainers don’t often have the luxury of being able to advertise on a storefront as retailers do, so how can you attract people to your services consistently outside of SEO and social media?
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising does have a cost, but it’s often far more effective at driving traffic to your website and thus generating leads than organic searches. There’s no guaranteed way to consistently rank your website at the top of the search engine (good SEO does help you rank better, however), but it is possible to show up at the top of any search you desire if you’re willing to pay for the service.
PPC through Google Ads is a common marketing tactic that’s worthy of investing into. Whenever a user types in ‘personal trainer in [your city]’ wouldn’t it be useful to promote yourself as the first result that user sees? Unfortunately, the cost of advertising (measured often in cost-per-clicks) goes up for short, simple queries since so many more people are prone to seeing that result. Instead, carefully tailor your advertising campaign to focus on a few long-tail keyword searches which will cost much less, yet if done correctly will still bring in plenty of traffic.
Use Digital Marketing to Your Advantage
Personal trainers offer an important service to their clients: healthy living and achieving fitness goals. That’s all the more reason to put in the effort of developing a digital marketing strategy that not only boosts your brand and showcases the best of what you do but also draws in new clients effectively.
By using SEO wisely, improving social media presence, and putting together long-tail keywords in PPC campaigns, personal trainers can significantly boost their business with a little time and effort in the beginning.
This article was written by Patrick Hanley of APC Physio. Patrick is a firm believer in digital marketing and it has helped him grow his personal training business.
