Expert Advice on Starting a Personal Trainer Marketing Plan

If you’ve been training clients one-on-one for a while, or even if you own a boot camp business, a high end personal training studio, or fitness center then chances are you know how important personal trainer marketing is. But important doesn’t even begin to cut it because marketing is the lifeblood of any fitness business. At least smart marketing is.

What I mean is that you need to think seriously think about how to market your personal training business or you’ll sink before you even learn how to swim. I’ve seen it happen to way too many trainers.

See, I’ve been in the fitness industry for a long time and I’ve made every mistake you can think of when it comes to starting and growing a personal training business or a fitness center. There weren’t very many resources for me to rely on back then and good quality business advice wasn’t just a Google search away, like it is today. So, I sought out the best, most successful fitness professionals in the business (at the time) and soaked up everything I could so I could out and grow my own personal businesses.


After years of developing and testing out different and unconventional personal training and fitness center marketing, I discovered a lot of really easy and low cost fitness marketing strategies that I feel every personal trainer with a little ambition can pull off.

Personal Trainer Advertising Budget

Okay, so… I know I said I have some free and low cost personal trainer marketing strategies for you guys, but you still have to figure out how much you are willing to spend on getting new clients.

To do this, think about your average client, what you charge them, and how long they usually stay on board with your services. How much money do they bring in overall? For instance, if you charge a client about $250/month and they stay on for an average of 10 months then that’s about $2500 you get from one client. Granted, you have to consider payroll and overhead, which will probably leave you with about 60%.

Looking at the numbers, it would make sense to spend about a month’s worth of payment ($250) to sign on a new client. Also, it’s very likely that your clients will refer at least one prospect during their stay with you. So, if you think about it… that’s two clients for every $250 that you’re willing to spend.

It’s important to keep track of any and all spending in your personal training business, otherwise it’s hard to tell if you’re earning or burning.

Personal Trainer Sales

The average person who holds a personal trainer certification doesn’t earn a whole lot. In fact, the average personal trainer salary is only about $30,000 to $40,000 a year. Not a lot of payoff for the work that goes into becoming a personal trainer.

The reason that personal trainer salaries are so low is because of the way they go about selling personal training. In order to really grow your fitness business, you have to stop one-on-one personal training. Seriously.

I’m only sharing this with you because I truly believe that one-on-one personal training is a thing of the past. Stop selling single personal training sessions and small fitness training packages. They’re simply not worth the effort.

Group training and fitness boot camps are the number one way to increase your personal trainer salary. What I mean is that unless you are selling one-on-one personal training packages to the really affluent people in your area then you are missing out on your true earning potential.

Think about it, by training more people and charging them less you are more likely to gain a bigger following and grow your personal training business to numbers you couldn’t achieve with one-on-one personal training. You can cut your training sessions in half and offer an intense 30 minute workout and still make more than you could with one-on-one. It’s just an all around smart business move.

Become a Local Fitness Expert

There is a lot of hard work that goes into becoming a personal trainer like taking personal training courses and getting certified, but that’s only the beginning. Being a personal trainer means that you are your business and that requires fitness and personal trainer marketing knowledge.

One really easy, but commonly overlooked personal trainer marketing trick is to become a fitness expert. It really is that simple.

Learning how to position yourself as the personal training expert in your community is a really good idea. Why? Because if you are perceived as the fitness know-it-all in your local area then you have a better chance of grabbing the attention of your target market. It’s all about the know, like, and trust factor. The more a prospect knows about you or your business, the more likely they are to trust what you and your personal training services.

Get your name out there. Use social media sites to introduce yourself to your local community. Start a website and learn a little SEO to get a higher Google ranking. Make it a goal to dominate your local area so that YOU are the only personal trainer that people think of when they think of fitness in your city.

These are just a few personal training marketing ideas to get you started on the right path to growing your fitness business. Check back for more advice, tips, tricks, and secret on personal trainer marketing.