You have the skills but you just can’t pay the bills ?

Just because your a fantastic Personal Trainer does not mean you will get clients.

Fact. . .

There are many poor personal trainers out there who have a large following and a large client base!

Fact. . .

There are also many PTs out there with mind blowing knowledge who fail to pick up clientèle, pay the bills, and are always chasing their tales!

How is this so?

Fitness Qualifications…

I started out in the fitness industry with enough qualifications to fill Santa’s’ sack! I earned a sports science degree and completed more training courses than I can remember!

I had the knowledge and ability to help others get in ‘head turning shape’ but I failed to pick up many clients because I sucked at marketing and had 0 knowledge of all the free tools available to me which could generate new leads.

As soon as I started to invest more time in marketing what happened? I made more sales and grew my business from 5 sessions per week to 50 session per week + a waiting list of clients!

It was pretty cool to be honest but the novelty soon wore of when I realised I had a 1 way ticket to the planet…Burnout!

I had 0 time to do anything but fitness sessions. I was miserable. With all the life sucked out of me I decided a change of plan.

I cut my sessions down by 50% and delved into new projects with a multiple revenue stream ambition. I needed to take a step back to move forward. It was a long term goal. I wanted more free time.

I came up with a Custom Meal Plan service which would serve customised meal plans to clients online. I hired a business coach and we came up with an internet marketing strategy. I was astonished to realise how many free resources were available and how quickly you could build an online business and generate leads providing you had a strategy.

To develop your skills as a personal trainer should always be your number 1 priority! your skills as a PT are absolutely imperative and you need to be a great coach if you are to keep clients happy and achieve results. But you also need to be more than a trainer, you need to be a businessman with a plan.

The Secrets to A Succesful PT Business…

I want to share with you 5 Golden Nuggets of info which have helped me and will have you picking up clients faster than you can say . . . .

“Bobs your Uncle!”

You will increase your sales and improve your business revenue without needing to spend a dollar/penny. The only thing you need to get going is a website.

You don’t have to have the best website in the world, but it should be easy to navigate and convey the message you want to deliver. Why you do what you do? (check out the Simon Sinek book ‘Start with Why’). Your website is your shop, where people come to buy. If your shop sucks, few people will buy.

WARNING . . .

Having a good website is not enough. You need traffic. It’s like having the best looking shop in the world plonked in the middle of the dessert. It may look good but nobody is going to see it because it’s in the middle of nowhere! You need ways to bring traffic to your shop so you can generate leads and make sales.

Here’s 5 easy ways to start rocketing traffic to your site so you can generate leads and pick up more clients:

1) Write A Blog 

You need to be regularly blogging, writing content for your website will increase traffic and boost your Google rankings. Here’s some tips:

• Write articles with a minimum of 300 words
• Pick and focus on a Keyword/Phrase to write about i.e. 10 Fatloss Tips for College Students on a Budget.
• Include your keyword at least 3x throughout the article
• Include a call to action button (Social Share, comment, or link to another blog)
• Include helpful external links to other sites
• Most important….Write good content!

2) Set up a Google+ Page

Set up a Google + Page for your business and ask clients to review your services. This will help improve your Google rankings, 58.4% of people click on the top 3 page rankings (https://goo.gl/QBjX8W).  Nearly 40% of Internet Time is spent on mobile devices (https://goo.gl/Cwvpd3). Google if used properly will help boost your reputation and provide social proof to others that you are a good coach well worth contacting.

3) Buffer Your Posts

In the United Kingdom there is a saying . . .

“2 birds with 1 stone”

Which means you get double on your return of investment. Using the Buffer App www.bufferapp.com enables you to schedule your social media posts to be published on set days and times across multiple platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Linked In, etc, etc). You can reach more people in less time and have posts going out whilst you sleep! Write and Share interesting content with your audience, encourage engagement and build trust with prospective clients to generate new leads.

4) Mail Chimp

It’s extremely important to start building your mailing list. Mailchimp allows you to store client information (e-mail, name, address, etc), allowing you to send out e-mailing campaigns to your audience. Most of the leading fitness entrepreneurs use e-mail marketing strategies to connect on a personal level with prospective clients. Using Mail Chimp you can give away free content and build equity with potential clients. And guess what? If you continue to deliver quality content and build trust who will be the person they contact when they need to get in shape? You.

5) Sniply 

Wowza! I came across this cool tool a few months back and it’s literally transformed my business in leads and sales. Sniply allows you to insert a . . . ‘Call to Action Button’ on any link you share

You can link through this button to a page you want to drive your readers to next. A basic strategy would be to:

Share your blog post with link => Reader clicks link => Reads page => Clicks Sniply link => Convert to sale, mail list, e-book, another article 

BONUS TIP . . .

Create a spreadsheet in Google docs with the links to all your articles and sniplys, you then have an easy to active database with all your links stored in one place. You can then use link databases into your Buffer App and build a growing database of content and lead generation.

Don’t forget the basics. . . 

Use Google Analytics to keep an eye on how people are finding you on the internet.

How To Grow Your Personal Training Business : A Simple & Practical Framework

Okay . . . so how do I link the tips provided into some sort of marketing strategy?

1) What do I want to sell? What’s my niche? Who are my audience? (dads? mums? students?male? female?)

2) Write great content for that audience

3) How can I reach my audience? where do they hang out online? find away to get your content to your audience.

4) Share Your content across the web (social platforms – Buffer App, guest blog post for other sites, etc)

5) Generate leads by collecting e-mail addresses (mail chimp, sniply, buffer) – give away e-books and free training plans in return for data

6) Talk to your leads regularly give them free content, hold webinars, answer questions, do free Skype sessions, build trust

7) Don’t be afraid to try new things!

8) Watch your Personal Training business grow!

The beauty of using these tools is that you can put your own spin on each. You have a unique personality and there are people out there wanting your help. No one does what you do like you do it. Embrace your uniqueness. You you can use these tools today and start to grow your business!

3 Resources You MUST Check Out If You Want To Grow Your PT Business:

I owe a lot to to the following resources for helping me the past year :

1) Paul Mort : Podcasts : Paul has a personality that lights up any room, he provides some sh*t hot content and cool business advice. If your looking to learn and nurture your pt business without sticking your head in a book tune into his podcasts series on I-Tunes. You will not be disappointed! And you’ll probably have a laugh!

2) Personal Trainer Business Tips : I subscribed to their FB page 12 months ago and every week I learn something new to help my business. I downloaded their free PT book, which was pretty cool! It made me think about my business differently + I ordered a ton of new books thank to the recommendations in the book (still got a few to read!). Whenever I e-mail in questions I always get a quick and helpful response. Instead of scrolling through FB news feeds and hearing about the latest happenings in Corrie and Eastenders you really have to check out their page instead (It’s full of useful, practical tips).

3) Ben Coomber : Podcasts : Again another awesome resource full of helpful content ranging from training, nutrition to psychology and business. Ben is a very likeable chap that happens to know a hec of a lot about training and business. This lethal concoction will help you grow your business faster than you can see “Roberts Your Fathers Brother!”.

Hope you learned a thing or two . . .

Any questions just give me a holla!

Nick

Resources:

https://www.facebook.com/personaltrainerbusinesstips?fref=ts