Fitness Marketing: Targeting the right clients for your business
Successful marketing is all about branding your personal trainer business. Your personal trainer business brand depends on who your target market is. Who is your ideal client? These are questions you need to answer in order to develop a solid marketing plan.
Defining Your Ideal Client
Defining your brand starts with identifying who your ideal client is. If you already have a client base, consider which clients you enjoy working with most. Why do you prefer them? Which do you enjoy the least, and why? Chances are, you prefer the clients who show up for their scheduled appointments, take your advice to heart and follow it, and pay in full and on time. In other words, your ideal client is reliable and serious about his or her fitness goals. If your ideal client fits another description, that’s fine; you should work on a market plan that targets your own ideal client. This post will focus on attracting reliable clients.
A Brand That Attracts The Reliable Client
If you’re the easygoing type, you may enjoy maintaining a relaxed relationship with your clients. Maybe flexibility is your middle name. Maybe that six o’clock appointment routinely starts around six ten. Maybe that invoice that’s due by the first of the month shows up on the second or third, and that’s pretty much okay with you. If this is the face your clients see, then flexibility is your brand. A brand of flexibility is likely to generate loyalty among your clients, but it is not likely to generate reliability.
If you want reliable clients, you need to establish a brand of reliability for your business. Six o’clock appointments start at six o’clock – on the dot.
Your Personal Brand Versus Your Business Brand
If you are indeed the easygoing type, you’re probably cringing. You’re thinking that punctuality isn’t your style, it’ll never be your style, and nothing I can say will ever convince you otherwise. Maybe you prefer loyalty over reliability. You may decide that your flexibility makes you competitive. That’s fine. Remember, this is *your* brand we’re talking about. Only you get to decide how to market your business.
But if you’re tired of late payments and clients walking all over you, consider separating your personal brand from your business brand. You may personally be the flexible type, but you don’t have to sell your soul to attract reliable clients. You can still establish a business model built on a brand of reliability and market accordingly. You might call on the talents of your fitness staff to support the brand. For example, if you’re a softy, ask your uptight office manager to handle the billing.
Marketing Reliability
If you choose the reliability brand, use it in your fitness marketing strategy . Words that imply reliability, such as “punctual” and “results-oriented,” are likely to attract clients who value those traits. So will a structured fitness program with goals and target dates. And as a final test before establishing a formal trainer-client relationship, ask a client to sign and date your policy statement. You might even want the client to initial specific policy points such as appointment rescheduling and payment requirements. Even if you choose to be more flexible later, you might weed out clients early on who are afraid to sign a legally-binding document promising to be reliable.
Ultimately, you have to decide if reliability is the right brand for you. It’s one way to maximize income and minimize hours.
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