Marketing For Personal Trainers

Introduction

Marketing is an essential activity for all businesses. As a personal trainer you need to plan your marketing carefully in order to make a success of your business.The 7Ps within marketing are an ideal way of focusing on these activities. The 7Ps are made up of:

• Product or Service you offer.
• Price or fee.
• Place - Where the service is offered.
• Promotion - How will you get your message across.
• People – Your customer service skills
• Process –How easy it is to contract.
• Physical Environment – Layout and setup of where you offer the service.

Product

What is the service you as a personal trainer are going to provide? Do you want to offer a service that is different from that which is already offered within the market? At this stage it is important to define what you want to provide, so you do not waste your precious time and resources. When deciding your service delivery try to think about what will make your service unique. For example is it that you are focusing on 1-2-1 sessions, latest fitness techniques or the use of the state of the art fitness equipment? The factors that make your service unique are known as your Unique Selling Point (USP).

Pricing

When trying to find out what price to charge, research what your competitors are charging and examine the reasons behind the prices charged by other personal trainers. Is the price due to the trainers experience, reputation, location or client base?

Calculate how much it will cost to produce your service based on how much your competitors are offering; decide what price will allow you to achieve a realistic profit. When deciding price, think about the perception you will create for example if you price your service too low it may cause clients to question the quality of the service you offer, conversely if you charge a high price the service maybe outside the budget of many clients, especially in light of the current economic conditions.

Promotion

There are many ways to promote your service. The first step is to calculate your marketing budget then decide how you can get the best value from this budget. If your marketing budget is limited, explore free promotional activities such as taster sessions, providing talks at health centres, or adding your name to free listing in directories. There are websites that allow people to create their business page for free. A quick Google search will reveal how you can obtain free business cards. For all promotional activities remember to reinforce your business name and USP.