Minding Your Business: Personal Marketing in a Digital World
Building a successful Training business takes time, consistency, and an appropriate amount of "face time". In order for people to hire you, they have to know you are actually available to work! People need to physically see you working with people.
Remember, Personal Training is as much about look and feel, as it is about hard work, nutrition, and discipline. You need to be the SIZZLE not the STEAK. Simply posting and sharing fitness related items is not enough.
1. This is still a Personal business
DVD's are delightful. Pinterest is pretty. Snapchat is snappy. YouTube is wonderful! YouTube ruined some amazing wordplay... (sigh).
Personal Trainers have used many different avenues to deliver their unique style of working out to the masses. As early as the 1950's we came to you through any medium we could.
I remember as a kid waking up early in the morning on summer vacation to check out ESPN's morning workout shows! Remember those?
With all the new and different ways there are for people to receive training, you would think my job would be constantly at risk. Yet I am still at work Monday through Friday starting @ 5am.
That is because no matter how you approach fitness, it will always be a PERSONAL business. The connection from a Trainer to their Client simply cannot be erased.
Be visible to your Clients and potential Clients. The more one on one face time you can manage to put in, the bigger your book of business will grow. Develop relationships and get to know the people where you lift.
2. Posts, Views, Likes, and Shares < 1 Conversation
No matter what form of social media you choose to participate in, make sure to always keep the human element. I believe it is important to have a social media presence to spread your particular style of training. However, remember that while you may share an image, write the next viral post, or get 10000 views, calculating the ROI (return on investment) for those items is darn near impossible! And besides that:
Liking, Posting, Viewing, and Sharing is not actually WORKING.
Whoa Baes! Them is fighting words!
Work is defined as the exchange of money for goods and/or services. As much as I would like to think I am investing my time writing these articles, the truth is I have no idea if they will do anything to BUILD my business.
Having real, one-on-one conversations and meetings with people you will be training is ALWAYS more valuable than anything comparable on social media.
Before you spend the majority of your time getting likes and views, make sure you are booking up your actual Training schedule up daily!
3. Clients First. Always First.
When you begin to pick up steam in your Training business, you will be working some strange hours. 5am is not simply a wake up call, it's work time! So is 11am, 2pm, and 8pm. You may see each of these times as you strive to build your clientele.
Each and every time you see a client, they are your ONLY client. Their session is for them and nothing else should matter. You are not there to discuss how tired you are, how frustrating your day has been, or how you cannot wait to be done for the day.
Your client hired you to help them be the best version of themselves than can be. You must deliver them the best version of you every. Single. Time.
4. You are your best Client.
A surprising, yet not-so-surprising fact you may not think of is that YOU NEED TO STAY IN SHAPE. In the fitness industry, looks will still reign supreme.
You can have more knowledge than the next 10 Trainers after you, but if they LOOK the way a client wants to look, you will be passed over in under a minute.
Spend some time following your own advice and work hard. Let your potential clientele SEE you working out hard! Let them see you sticking to the nutrition plan you expect them to follow. If they see you walking the walk, they will be even more inspired to train with you.
Looking like a Trainer will go a LONG way to convincing someone to hire you.
