How to Quickly Get Online Personal Training Clients
Online personal training has become incredibly popular recently, with thousands starting to use this service. Online personal training offers clients many benefits, and it’s a convenient solution that fits their schedule and lifestyle. However, if you’ve recently experienced a drop off in bookings, you’ll want to consider improving your marketing and attracting new clients who will remain with you for the upcoming months. Let’s take a look at some of the easiest ways to quickly get online personal training clients.
1. Sign Up For a Basic Profile on ukfitness.pro
The best way for anyone looking to gain more online exposure and attract new online clients is to create a profile on ukfitness.pro. When a client is looking for a new online personal trainer, they can just head to the site and search for someone in their local area or anywhere in the country. They’ll then be able to look through the personal trainers that appeal to them and message any that they are interested in working with. Take the time to craft an attractive profile, and you are bound to experience an increased number of enquiries in no time at all. Our site is visited by thousands of people each month, so you’ll soon increase the number of bookings you get for your online training sessions. If you'd like to continue with in-person sessions alongside online sessions, you can list your location so that you receive enquiries from prospects in your local community.
Tip: If you're a qualified personal fitness trainer, you can sign up for a 1-month free trial on our site and can cancel at any time.
2. Upgrade to a Verified Account
Once you’ve set up your basic account on ukfitness.pro, we encourage you to check out the benefits of a Verified Account for your online personal training business. There’s no denying that the online fitness industry is highly competitive, so this will help you rank at the top of the search results and stand out from your competition. Your profile will have a verified badge, which inspires trust in potential clients. You’ll quickly notice the number of enquiries you receive increases thanks to this, filling up your diary more than ever before.
Tip: Use the Specialties section when editing your profile so that you appear in search results related to specific fitness goals (e.g., weight loss).
3. Social Media Platforms and Websites
On top of setting up your profile on ukfitness.pro, you can then link this to your personal website and social media accounts. If you don’t already have either of these in place, you want to ensure you get these set up as soon as possible. This is particularly important for online personal trainers, as clients are far more likely to judge your services based on your online presence. You can then add a link to your personal website and social media channels to your profile, where clients will be able to click through and learn more about your services. Having a facebook account will also enable you to access useful facebook groups, such as that of the Institute of Personal Trainers.
Tip: If you have a YouTube channel, create videos to demonstrate exercises and talk about the pros and cons of different diets, thereby conveying to prospective clients the type of expertise that you could share with them as an online trainer.
4. Training Equipment and Setup for Online Personal Training
When it comes to online training, things are a little bit different to in-person sessions. We recommend you take the time to think about how your sessions look on the screen. There’s nothing worse than a personal trainer working from a cramped space where they can’t properly demonstrate the exercises. Ensure you have a clear floor and walls behind you and that the focus on the screen is on the equipment and your form. You’ll want to use modern equipment, such as dumbbells and exercise mats, which will look vibrant and professional on the screen. Treat your home training location in the same way as you would a gym and try to offer professional sessions at all times.
Tip: You're welcome to share any contact info you like on your ukfitness.pro profile so that new leads can reach out to you directly. However, your profile will also feature a Contact button that is linked to your email address. Our team manually filters messages sent this way to ensure that you only receive enquiries from genuine prospects (and not spam).
5. A Free Online Trial Session
When clients haven’t tried online training, they are often a little wary about transitioning to online sessions. For that reason, we highly encourage you to offer a trial session. If you don’t have the time to do this one-on-one with each client, you could consider pre-filming a sample training session and sharing it on YouTube. This will allow you to offer a freebie to anyone who enquires about your service, and it will show your potential clients your training style and the quality of your personal training services. They’ll be excited about training with you and will soon book their first session. Bear in mind that free sessions can be an excellent investment for you. Sure, you won't be paid immediately, but a single free session could be enough to turn a lead into a long-term client who ultimately pays you thousands of pounds!
Tip: Before committing to providing a free trial session, try to establish whether the lead is interested in hiring someone long-term or whether they're just looking for fitness professionals who will provide them with a plan that they can follow by themselves. If the latter, a free session might not be a good idea. If the former, a free session could be used to demonstrate your expertise and convince them to hire you long-term.
6. Use Your Current Clients to Promote Your Services Online
The great thing about social media and online training is that it’s much easier to promote your services than it is for in-person classes. Encourage those in your current client base to take progress shots, which they can then share on their Instagram or Facebook pages. You’ll find that they find this extremely motivating on their journey, and then it will encourage their friends and family members to start on their fitness or weight-loss journey. Consider using hashtags and setting up online challenges with your current clients, which will also help to build your community. Sometimes it can feel lonely training online, so this will offer clients a connection and a fun way to interact in between their sessions with you.
Tip: Social media posts featuring happy clients will convey to potential customers that they would benefit from and enjoy your services. Sharing photos of your existing clients may also help with client retention as they'll be able to see how much progress they've made while working with you.
7. Convert Current In-Person Clients Into Online Clients
Perhaps the fastest way is get online personal training clients is to convert your existing in-person clients into online clients. If you're able to do this, you'll save on travel time and expenses. Consequently, as an incentive, you may be able to offer a small discount to your client, who would also benefit from not having to spend time or money on travel. However, the most important thing is that your client is happy; they probably look forward to seeing you in person, so don't push the online option if they don't seem into it.
Tip: A good first step is to propose an online session as a one-off. For instance, you could suggest this option if you know that the weather is going to be bad. In your first online session, you'll be able to demonstrate that virtual training really can be a great way for the client to progress on their fitness journey without leaving the house. Therefore, when you propose having online sessions more often, your client will be more receptive to the idea.
8. Get Client Referrals
The best thing about putting in hard work with existing clients is that they're likely to refer you to their friends and family. This is a great place to be as those looking for health professionals are much more likely to reach out to someone who has been recommended to them instead of a random personal trainer on the internet.
Tip: Offer your existing clients an incentive (e.g., a free session) for referring you to people interested in online personal training sessions.
9. Start a Blog to Get Online Personal Training Clients
Once your website is set up, a fun way to attract new clients to your site is by sharing your top training tips in blog posts. This is an easy way to share client testimonials and information about your services and will offer new clients more connection to you when they visit your site for the first time. Incorporate SEO into your website to help you organically attract more visitors to your site, which should hopefully convert to new clients. When used with your social media accounts and your profile on our site, these should all work together to build more interest in your site and services.
Ensure that your blog posts contain truly valuable content and that they are specific to the type of online training services you provide. If the content doesn't contain valuable information, visitors to your site will soon click "back", which sends a message to search engines that people don't like the content and it's less likely to appear in the search results in the future. Similarly, if your blog posts are too general (e.g., with a title like "virtual training"), they'll face more competition from bigger, more established websites and may never appear on the first page of Google. Therefore, aim for more niche topics that are specific to the services you provide (e.g., "Online Kettlebell Personal Training UK"). If you're able to generate a good amount of traffic to your website, you could consider starting an email list; the most effective way of selling something is to present it to people who have already expressed interest.
Tip: If you really want to create great content, look at what others in your niche have produced and then try to do even better. For example, you could compile a list of the topics covered in the pages listed on the first page of Google when you complete a given search (e.g., "online fat loss personal trainer") and then try to produce a piece of content that covers all these topics and more.
10. Advertise Yourself as an Online Personal Trainer
In addition to signing up as a qualified personal trainer on ukfitness.pro, your online marketing strategy could involve using Facebook ads or Google ads. Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram) provides a powerful tool for creating ads that can be targeted to specific demographics and to those with specific interests. Google ads are potentially even more useful as they enable you to bid on specific keywords so that you appear at the top of the search results when a specific keyword is used. Of course, ads cost money, though you could at least experiment with them for a while to see whether they can be used to generate enough enquiries to justify the cost. You could also experiment with ads in traditional media, such as your local newspaper. Since this isn't such an obvious option these days, there's less demand for ad space, so you could find yourself a good deal.
Tip: Bidding on broad search terms on Google is going to be expensive. Therefore, rather than bidding on something like "online personal trainer", think about what your ideal clients would search for and then bid on related keywords. For instance, if enjoy teaching people about bodyweight training, you could bid on keywords like "online bodyweight personal training UK".
11. Showcase Your Qualifications
Whether it's on your profile on ukfitness.pro or on your personal website, the easiest way of conveying your expertise to potential clients is by showcasing your qualifications. Of course, you should indicate on your profile and website that you've completed a personal trainer certification. If you've completed any fitness-related CPD courses (e.g., in sports psychology, yoga, or nutrition), you could also mention these. Additionally, if you've completed a relevant degree (e.g., sports science, exercise physiology), ensure you display this prominently on online platforms to communicate to your target audience that you are a great option if they're looking for someone with in-depth knowledge of how the body responds to different training regimes.
Tip: You can quickly and easily develop your online CV by completing affordable courses related to health and fitness with a provider like the Centre of Excellence. For instance, they have courses focused on ketogenic diets, eating for weight loss, and eating disorders. A lot of people looking for an online personal trainer will ultimately make their decision about who to work with based on whether they have expertise specific to their needs. Therefore, courses likely these could help your online fitness business to stand out from the rest. If you're interested in providing a more holistic service to your online clients (i.e., not just helping them with their health and fitness), you could also look into completing an online coaching certification.
12. Set Up Payment Methods
If you and your clients have UK bank accounts, you can normally just share your account number and sort code with them in order to receive payments. If you have accounts from different countries, you'll likely need your IBAN and BIC. You should be able to find all of these numbers in your bank's app. Alternatively, you could use PayPal, in which case you'd only need to share your email address with your clients. In short, there's no need for any complicated payment systems.
Tip: PayPal may charge for converting currencies, which is something to bear in mind if you're working with international clients. They may also charge a small fee when you withdraw money. Therefore, you might want to consider adding a small extra fee to your standard fee if your client wants to pay with PayPal. Alternatively, you could encourage them to make a bank transfer.
13. Think About Your Taxes
As a business owner, you'll know that it's important to keep on top of your expenses so that you don't pay more tax than you should. A potential benefit of starting an online business is that any personal training software, email marketing services, or online tools that you pay for may be tax-deductible. For instance, if you paid a marketing expert to increase your brand awareness through email campaigns directed at potential online personal training clients, you may be able to list the expert's services as an expense when completing your taxes.
Tip: If you're focused on growing an online audience through platforms like YouTube, you could ask your accountant whether you could claim devices like cameras, microphones, and laptops as expenses.
Final Words on How to Get Online Personal Training Clients
If you're struggling to fill up your diary currently, follow all of these tips listed above, and you’ll soon find you attract new clients. Ensure you are always offering high-quality sessions and that your internet connection is strong and stable, so you don’t have any quality issues with your current clients. Online personal training offers so many benefits, so by sharing these with your clients, they are much more likely to continue training with you in the future.
You might also like these articles on how to get personal training jobs, PT accreditation, and online PT insurance.