Building your personal trainer brand is essential. A strong personal brand will help you attract new clients, increase your income, and make it easier for prospective clients to find you online. But In this post, we’ll cover how to build a personal trainer brand online. We’ll cover:
- Why it’s important to build a brand for your fitness business
- What makes up a strong brand for personal trainers?
- The different platforms you can use to build your personal training brand
And most importantly, how to build a personal trainer brand online
Key components of building your personal trainer brand online
Branding is a big deal in the personal training world, as it should be. A good brand is the first step to building a successful business and becoming an industry leader. It basically gives your clients confidence that they are getting what they pay for while also reflecting the experience you bring to the table.
However, branding isn’t just about creating a logo or purchasing fancy marketing materials—it’s about making promises about who you are and how you do business.
When someone decides to hire you as their personal trainer, they’re investing in more than just an hour of exercise; they’re investing in themselves—and if your branding isn’t clear on this point from day one, then all the money spent on marketing won’t help sell that vision of success to prospective clients!
In other words: there’s no point in having a great logo if it doesn’t accurately represent who you are as an individual or how much value you can provide for others (your potential customers).
So, how do you create a personal training brand that speaks to your clients and helps them see the value in hiring you? Let’s start with the basics:
Know your niche
One of the most important things you can do to build your personal trainer brand is to know your niche. Individuals looking to become successful personal trainers know that it’s important to focus on helping people achieve their fitness goals.
In order to be successful as a personal trainer, you need to pay close attention to the type of clientele you’re looking for and the kind of personal trainer your potential clients want.
You also need a clear understanding of what services they want from their trainers and how they expect them delivered.
To find out if there is enough demand for this type of service in your area, ask yourself these questions:
- What are my strengths?
- Are these strengths related or unrelated?
- What does the market value look like now for this skill? How about in 5 and 10 years’ time?
Pick your social media platforms
You’re going to have to pick your social media platforms. Even though it’s possible to exist on all the platforms, you’d be spreading yourself too thin without generating impact on any one.
You should also pick platforms that your target audience uses – if you are targeting new moms, Instagram is probably a better choice than Facebook (unless all other things are equal).
While it is important not to spread yourself too thin when building a brand online for your personal training business, it is equally important not to pick just one platform (especially if that platform isn’t ideal for growing your personal trainer brand).
Share your story and be authentic
Make sure you’re sharing the story of how you got into fitness, why it’s so important to you, and what makes your approach unique. Your audience will connect with a more personal brand that resonates on a deeper level—and believe me; this is much better than just being another clone of every other PT out there!
Sharing your story will also put you aside from the larger-than-life Instagram influencers who aren’t at all relatable to the average person. You want your target audience to feel like they know you and that they will feel comfortable around you in person.
It’s also critical to be authentically yourself, especially in the fitness industry. People here can smell inauthenticity from a mile away.
Here’s a great example of what this looks like. Say you just landed your first personal trainer job. Unless you’re the kind of person who celebrates by sharing their accomplishments with the whole world, posting it with some humblebrag caption will come across as inauthentic to nearly everyone, even if they’ve never met you in person.
People have developed a sixth sense of what’s real online, and as a result, they can quickly weed out genuine posts from inauthentic ones. They’ll see right through your facade, which will make them question everything else about your fitness business too.
Being genuine means being honest with yourself as well as others—not just on social media but also offline too!
Make it easy for people to find you
Have a website that tells your story and showcases your work. The first step to building an online personal trainer brand is creating a website where you can share your story, connect with clients, and showcase your expertise.
A personal training business website should have the following features
- A blog where you write about fitness-related topics of interest to clients. Since it’s a part of your personal trainer website, use Search Engine Optimization to generate traffic.
- A contact form so potential clients can reach out directly through email, and a link to your online calendar so people can book a virtual consultation with you.
- A photo gallery of some of your client training session routines. You want people to see what it’s like to work with you.
When trying to make it easier for people to find you, consider placing your social links in visible places on your website and linking to your website from your social media accounts.
Create a unique and easily recognized style online
Your personal trainer brand needs to stand out from the rest. There are a thousand and one personal trainers online, so how do you make yours unique?
To start with, think about your image. A great option is to use your face as your brand identity. Since clients will be interacting with you, it makes sense that they see your face enough to recognize and work with you.
Think also about how content is presented on your site and socials. Are there pictures accompanying each exercise? Are videos included? Do they all look professional and high quality?
Once you’ve figured this out, make sure your image is consistent across all your online channels, from your personal trainer website to your social media platforms. You want to show potential clients that your online personal training business is consistent and coherent.
Personalize your personal training brand
When you build your online personal training brand, it’s important to do so from the heart. You want your audience to see you as a person—not just another Workout Pro.
That means showing them who you are and what makes you unique. A great way to showcase this passion is by joining online communities and staying active. You could host and join Twitter spaces and talk about exercise, fitness and lifestyle tips.
You could groom younger personal trainers, showing them how to avoid common mistakes that many personal trainers make and demonstrating some of the skills that set personal trainers apart from other professionals in the industry.
Putting in the work in this way goes beyond just getting you recognition with your target audience. It can also help build respect for your fitness brand from others in the community, and that’s a great way to build a personal brand.
Tips to grow your personal trainer brand quickly
As someone who provides personal training services, you have the opportunity to grow your brand quickly because we’ve seen it done so many times before in the industry.
Here are some tips that can help you replicate the same results.
Be consistent
Consistency is definitely one of the top skills you need to be a successful PT anyway, but when you’re trying to build an online brand, it becomes even more important.
It may feel like a lot of work, but once you have a plan on what you want your brand to look like and how it should flow—from your socials to your personal training website—everything else becomes a little easier.
You just have to remember to keep showing up, posting, and continuing your activities as you normally would. Otherwise, you risk losing everything you’ve built so far.
Be authentic
You want to be clear about who you are and what you do. Take this as an opportunity to show your personality, but don’t get too quirky or weird.
You want to be consistent with how much information you share about yourself and your services, so people know what they can expect from a potential client experience with you.
Be consistent in your messaging, tone of voice, style and message across all social media channels. This will help build trust in customers because they won’t feel like they are getting inconsistent messages or conflicting information.
Be tech savvy
The internet is a huge part of our lives, so it should be no surprise that online marketing is an important part of building your online personal training brand.
In fact, the majority of people in the U.S. use social media daily, and up to 89% will check their phones within 15 minutes after waking up (IDS research). This means that if you’re not actively using these platforms to promote yourself as a personal trainer and build clientele, you’re missing out on an incredible opportunity.
Be active
You’re a fitness professional, so you should be active online. That means posting regularly on social media and engaging with the community.
It’s also important to give back to the community by sharing information, news stories, and other helpful information related to fitness—not only will it help build your reputation as an expert in your field but it will also provide value for others.
Here are some ideas on how you can be active:
- Create potentially viral content: There’s no way to make sure content goes viral, but if you make sure it’s useful and actionable but also make it fun and shareable, you’ll be well on your way.
- Collaborate with other popular trainers in your field: You can use this as an opportunity to get more exposure for yourself while presenting yourself as a team player.
- Create new and unique content that offers value to your audience: Examples here would be articles or videos that aren’t just about exercise but also about eating habits or sleep patterns that affect fitness goals.
- Plan ahead: Write down what kind of conversation topics would work well for each social media platform so when posting goes wrong (it happens!), there are backups already waiting in reserve
- Show your worth: If you specialize in training older clients, make sure that’s mentioned in your online posts, so people know what you do. Another great strategy along this line is sharing your strategy for working with new clients as a PT, so your audience knows exactly what to expect.
Top 5 Successful Personal Trainer Brands Online
1. Anna Victoria
Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Website
Having had unfortunate personal experiences with health problems, Anna Victoria describes having to change her habits as she started her journey back in 2012 without any online fitness guides or applications, which in turn, pushed her to research scientific studies and personal stories, with the help of her own experience as well. This motivated her to follow her passion – helping women love themselves from beginning to end.
Anna Victoria has developed the Fit Body App, which focuses on one’s physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Since 2015, her brand has helped thousands of women meet their fitness goals as they continue working towards feeling healthy and happy.
2. Joe Wicks
Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Website
Joe Wicks began his journey handing out flyers at the local train station in an attempt to get customers for the fitness boot-camps he held in the park. Since then, after overcoming numerous hurdles, he has had over 600,000 clients and is pursuing his dream of helping millions to surpass their goals to feel fit, healthy, and happy.
His application, The Body Coach, has an overall 4.8/5 rating, which also provides over 500 recipes for healthy food. Joe’s Instagram following saw a hike as he began to post 15-second recipe videos, eventually allowing him to create a strong fitness brand.
3. Kaisa Keranen
Kaisa Keranen has extensive experience and expertise when it comes to fitness and health. She has an M.S. in Exercise Science, Sports Performance, and Injury Prevention. Her education and personal journey with sports has certainly helped her build an international fitness and wellness community.
Currently, she is the owner of KaisaFit, and has created her own way to promote movement, with the motto that ‘Health is a feeling, not a look’. She was asked by Michelle Obama to be one of her go-to trainers as part of the Let’s Move campaign. Her dedication to her mission inspires hundreds of thousands world-wide.
4. Kayla Itsines
Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Website
As one of the most influential trainers in the world, Kayla Itsines has helped many women achieve their ideal level of fitness. She has created signature programs like High Intensity with Kayla, Low Impact with Kayla, and a Post-Pregnancy program. Such accessible and relevant routines have helped her reach many women internationally.
Kayla Itsines participated in sports from a young age, and graduated from the Australian Institute of Fitness as a Master Trainer. She rose to prominence as the director of Bikini Body Guides. Her education and experience helped her expand her reach, cementing her brand as a personal fitness trainer.
5. Melissa Alcantara
Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Website
Melissa Alcantara is a prominent athlete, who works as a personal trainer for Kim Kardashian, creating dietary regimens and fitness guides for her website. Her personal experience was losing 40 pounds in 60 days, which led her to train for bodybuilding competitions alongside sharing her own health and fitness journey on Instagram.
She attributes her success to having full control over her body and mind, being disciplined and diligently maintaining her social media presence.
Although she described herself as an “unfit, super broke” waitress back in 2013, she has created an enduring brand as a celebrity trainer as of late; not to mention the thousands of women she directly motivates to embark on their own fitness journeys.
Conclusion
Building your personal brand online is an important part of growing your business and creating a successful career as a personal trainer.
And even though you’ll feel like you see a fitness business with a successful brand everywhere, it’s not something that happens overnight. Don’t get frustrated if you don’t see results right away.
Once you make the decision to invest in yourself as a professional, there are many resources available to help you get started on social media or with other online tools like WordPress sites or email marketing campaigns.
