Becoming a personal trainer has never been easier, thanks to our internationally recognised personal training courses and certificates. Once you receive your personal trainer qualifications, you might assume that you’ve done everything that you need to grow your business. 

However, being a personal trainer means running a business. Getting your first few clients is great news, and you should celebrate. What you shouldn’t do is sit back and relax. Don’t rely on word of mouth and happy clients to help you grow your business model. 

If you want to grow an in-person or online fitness business with your personal training qualifications from The Fitness Group, here’s what you need to know.

1. Get the Basics Right

When starting a business, you need to lay the right foundations. For personal trainers, that will mean following all the rules of getting started that every other business model needs to stick to. So before you try to grow your business in the fitness industry, make sure that you have a business plan and the necessary finances to get you started.

That business plan is going to be the key to growing your offline and online fitness business, and it should contain your future plans, as well as a breakdown of your target customers and your main competitors. That research is vital for all business owners, not just those in the face-to-face or online fitness business niche.

Once you have those setup, you will have a much clearer idea of how to grow your online personal training business brand in the fitness industry. Next, it’s time to take the steps that will truly make you stand out and get seen by potential new clients.

2. Social Media and Online Presence

We live in a time where the real world and the digital are more integrated than ever. If you’re planning on running your sessions solely as an online fitness business or you’re also planning to use in-person training sessions, you need to be online.

The first step is to have a dedicated website. Don’t panic about having to learn an entirely new skillset (you don’t have to learn how to code!). Instead, there are plenty of website building platforms available that make building a website for your online personal training business easier than ever. Look at Wix, WordPress, GoDaddy, or Squarespace, but make sure you pick the one that allows for the most scaling.

Of course, social media has become a must-have for all businesses, and the fitness industry is no different. However, there are right and wrong ways to promote your personal trainer business on social media. The occasional picture of your improved physique is simply not enough. Provide value to your audience by giving them information that will help them get fit and healthy. 

Don’t forget to post regularly on social media, but try to focus on the right ones. Not all social platforms are a good choice for the personal trainer business model. Instagram and Facebook, both of which are very image-based, are usually the best option for personal trainers. But don’t overlook Twitter or Snapchat if that’s where your target audience spends their time.

3. Using Video

Creating content on your website is one of the best ways to get yourself to the top of search engine results pages. That’s why having a blog is such a good idea. When someone does a search engine check of local personal trainers looking for fitness advice, you want to show up as high as possible on those results pages. 

There are many different ways to perfect content marketing to get your online personal training business more visible, but don’t dismiss video content. Video is one of the most viewed types of online content, so you need to get in on that demand.

You can use video as an online personal trainer in a variety of ways. Q&A sessions over live chat on social media are always fun and a great way to showcase the expertise you have learned from The Fitness Group in-person lessons or online training. Alternatively, create workout and instructional videos that provide valuable information and post them straight to YouTube. Don’t forget to share them with your social media audience and on your website. They may even turn into a source of passive income!

4. Develop Personal Trainer Branding

You might think that the concept of branding is only of value to globe-spanning corporations like Coca-Cola or McDonalds. The fact is that business branding can elevate your online fitness business more than you might think and help you attract more clients. Branding can do a lot of hard work for you when it comes to growing your in-person or online personal trainer business. 

Not only will the right branding make it much easier to stand out and be remembered, but it can also give you a much-needed credibility boost. When your branding is consistent, it makes you look more professional, which means you can charge professional prices. That branding also leads to more awareness, more returning customers, and more referrals.

Think about what makes you different from your competitors. Are you targeting a unique customer niche? Do you have an approach to your online fitness business that’s different from your competition? Look at your unique selling points (USPs) and build your brand around those, aligning colour schemes and logos to reflect them.

When you perfect the branding for your personal fitness business, you give potential customers instant insights into how you work. It creates an immediate identity for your personal training business, making you more memorable. When a potential customer decides to start in-person or online training, robust branding will make them think of you first.

When it comes to branding for a personal trainer, it’s you and your approach that is the immediate and existing brand. People that want to get fit aren’t generally looking for specific training. Instead, they are looking at specific personal trainers. So make sure that your branding reflects your personality, drive, and approach to the fitness industry.

5. Combine Virtual Training and In-Person Training

When you first started your personal training qualifications, you likely focused primarily on in-person training sessions. Thanks to advances in tech and the sheer state of the world right now, online personal training is more popular than ever. Like everything with running your own business, the intention should be to reflect your clients’ needs.

Don’t dismiss virtual training sessions for individual clients or online personal training for groups. You don’t have to forgo in-person training sessions, but they don’t have to be your only focus. If you’re trying to grow your online training business, you want to provide the training options that potential clients are looking for.

Some clients will even want to combine different kinds of sessions. One of your customers may want virtual training sessions midweek, with in-person training sessions on the weekends. Others will want only online coaching, while plenty will stick to in-person personal training. Those personal trainers that match their training session types to the needs of their group clients and individual clients are simply going to attract more attention.

Grow Your Personal Trainer Business Today

If you already have your personal trainer qualifications, you’ve already got the right foundation for starting and growing your online fitness business. Don’t rush into the next steps, and take your time to build on those foundations. No online personal training business owner can launch into action on day one and have any hope of success.

Instead, make sure that you have everything in place before you think about launching and then growing your personal fitness brand. Get it right, and your online fitness business could end up growing faster than you ever dreamed possible.

If you’re interested in starting your own personal trainer online fitness business, get started by looking at our range of internationally recognised courses. With our rock-solid 100% money-back guarantee, we have helped find careers for a wide range of people interested in and passionate about the health and fitness industry. Get the confidence and the skills you need to start and grow your personal trainer fitness business.

Get in touch with The Fitness Group today for more information and find out how you can make personal fitness your dream career.