Digital Marketing for Personal Trainers

Designs Desk

You may be known as the best personal trainer in town or just be getting started in this exciting career. Either way, you really need a digital marketing campaign to help you expand your client list. All the benefits of a digital strategy have already been listed by HIVE Digital Strategy, so instead of talking about why this is an essential business tool, let’s dive into how you can best use digital marketing to your advantage.

Social Media

The main social media channels to be active on are Facebook and Instagram. These are channels that allow you to create direct, personal connections with current clients and potential future clients. To get the most out of your social media accounts, you have to:\

  • Create a content calendar
  • Know how to use social ads
  • Keep channel-specific functions and tools in mind

A content calendar ensures you’re always publishing fresh, relevant information. Think of it like you would a workout routine. Just as you don’t show up to the gym on any given day and decide which sets to do at random, you shouldn’t be signing in to your social media account trying to come up with something to post. Have posts ready to go at least two weeks in advance instead.

When you’re planning your posts, think in terms of page updates as well as ads. Page updates are posts you create and publish on your own profile, which show up on the timelines of people who follow you. Ads are how you reach the followers you don’t yet have. The business page settings for Facebook and Instagram can help you target your primary market and best allocate the funds for these ads. By the way, you can budget as little as $5 for an ad, although the more money you source, the better the reach.

The final social media best practice is the use of app-specific tools. Hashtags, for example, are just becoming to be used for search on Facebook. But, they’ve long dominated Instagram. You can include website links on Facebook posts, but not within Instagram posts. For the latter, the only way to get click-throughs is by having a website on your Instagram bio or including it in Instagram stories. Oh yeah, stories are huge. Use them on both Facebook and Instagram to create authentic moments with your audience. To best do this, go Live!

SEO

Social media best practices can boost your SEO performance. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization – it’s the way platforms like Google and Bing connect consumers to the businesses they’re looking for. The more you work to build a better SEO ranking, the higher your chances of being noticed by potential new clients to train.

The catch is, there are many “fundamental” tools to SEO. From web design tricks to page loading to mobile search and local SEO, there are a lot of ways to approach this part of a digital marketing campaign. Here are some ways to start using SEO:

  • Research relevant keywords
  • Customize your URLs
  • Build out your landing pages

Keywords are one of the most basic SEO tools out there, and an easy one to learn how to use. Start by researching relevant search terms in the personal training industry, particularly within your niche. A yoga studio is not going to have the same keywords as a Crossfit gym, for example. Once you’ve found what your target market searches for the most, find ways to include these terms into your website copywriting and social media posts. Use them naturally, in a conversational manner, not in a way that feels forced or fluffy.

The same keywords you use for your on-site optimization should be used for your URLs. Search bots and regular people don’t like to see a bunch of random numbers and letters after your domain name. They want to know exactly what the page they’re clicking on is about, and a custom URL tells them just that.

Speaking of URLs, how many landing pages do you have? If you only have one homepage, where all of your site’s information is available via scrolling, you have a problem. Break up your contact information, trainer bio, and service offerings into different pages. This expands your online presence much more than a single page can do alone.

Lead Generation, Link Building, and More

Building a social media following and learning how to optimize your web pages are the first steps to creating a strong digital presence. From there, you can start to incorporate your search campaign with lead generation strategies. Not to mention, you can learn how to use link building, custom visuals, and blogging to establish even better search rankings.

Building a strong digital campaign is exactly like building strength and endurance – you need consistency, determination, and a little bit of knowledge to start seeing the results you’re looking for. Have you tried any of the tools above already? What kind of success have you seen?