Hot take that shouldn’t be a hot take: advertising is good. When you’re a personal trainer, advertising is actually a core part of your job. You might have the skills to train clients, but if you don’t have the ability to promote your personal training business, you’ll never help as many athletes as you could.
At ABC Trainerize, we’re well-versed in effective personal training advertising—and build tools to help you live up to what you promise. So let’s demystify things, and explore all the core ways to advertise personal training services. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to scale up your training roster, we’ve got you covered.
We’ll start by exploring why personal training advertising is so important, before diving into organic (i.e. completely free!) and paid strategies you can use to put your services in the spotlight. So come on, let’s dive in!
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Why should you advertise your personal training services?
Personal trainer marketing is a necessity, not a luxury. Without it, you’re stuck in the word-of-mouth trap, which makes it impossible to scale up your offerings and untether your income from your real-time labor.
When you craft and share a narrative that resonates with potential clients, you’ll start to build an audience. You need some sort of audience to successfully launch new types of fitness products (like on-demand content) and keep a full training roster, so that’s the crucial part. But of course, effective fitness advertising isn’t just about getting noticed (although that is important), it’s also about education. Every client needs different types of support, and your advertising should teach potential prospects why you just might have the skills to help them.
Let’s think about it a different way—through a comparison. Imagine two trainers, one who embraces a little bit of tasteful advertising, and the other who relies only on word-of-mouth. Over time, that ad-friendly trainer will expand their reach, attract a more diverse clientele, and build a brand that speaks for them before they walk in the room. That means less explaining “hey, this is what I’m all about” and more time making an impact.
And the ad-shy trainer? They might be skilled too, but they’ll stay a hidden gem and miss out on opportunities to make a bigger impact. That, my friend, is why personal personal trainers should advertise themselves. (Including you, too!)
How to advertise personal training without paying a cent
Tight budgets aren’t a deal-breaker with fitness advertising. You can build your brand and attract more fitness clients through effective organic personal trainer marketing—that is, using free strategies. Let’s talk about some of the core ones.
1. Guest blog for high-authority sites
Getting your byline on a high-authority fitness and health websites is a smart strategic move. Imagine you write an article for an outlet like Men’s Health (a popular health publication). They get content and insights from you,, and you get your full name linked to a domain people trust—which helps with establishing you as an authority, search engine optimization (SEO), and direct lead generation. Basically, it’s the greenest of green flags.
2. Get active on social media
This should almost go without saying, but we’ll say it: social media is effective. Your social media channels should showcase your personality, your fitness expertise, and your results. That in and of itself is advertising, and many times, that’s all you need to build a clientele—and your reputation. But social media also offers you the ability to promote posts and get awareness you could never earn without a little juice. So from paid posts to organic content, you should be active on social as much as possible.
3. Send consistent marketing emails
Every email address is gold. So if you’ve got a little client email list, send out regular check-ins and updates. Nutrition tips, the occasional workout plan, and recent success stories are all valuable, and all warrant an email. Email marketing is great for keeping existing clients active, and for reactivating clients who’ve fallen off the grid. Start slow, and try publishing a monthly newsletter to keep folks in the loop.
4. Pitch to local news
No, we’re not talking about CNN or the BBC—we’re talking about genuinely local news. Papers near you are always looking for interesting stories. As a personal trainer, you might want to consider pitching a segment on staying fit during the winter or working out at home. That local byline will enhance your SEO, and serve as content marketing for your audience nearby.
5. Guest on fitness podcasts (or start your own!)
Appearing as a guest on health and fitness podcasts is a great way for trainers like you to reach new audiences. Popular ones like Results Not Typical and The Black Girl Fit Files dive deep into fitness concepts—and make instant authorities of the hosts. Make sure to record video when you’re taping your podcast, and you can cut them up and turn them into short-form video for your social media pages. (Our CEO Sharad Mohan does this, too!)
6. Host a free workshop or event
Organizing free fitness workshops in your community is a super smart way to get leads. Pull together a Sunday yoga in the park or a Weightlifting 101 and you’ll build a stronger presence—and make valuable connections with folks in your target audience. They’ll get to experience your expertise first-hand, and be that much more likely to sign up. (Remember to collect participants’ contact information, it’s valuable!)
7. Partner with local businesses
Teaming up with local health-related businesses, such as health food stores or yoga studios can be a win-win. Shoot the owner a DM with a clear offer: for example, you could offer a free training session at a local juice bar’s anniversary event, bringing visibility to both your businesses. Bring a few business cards, and you’ll expand your community and professional connections, with little cost.
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How to advertise personal training using paid advertising
Organic advertising methods are great, but investing in paid advertising is how you exponentially increase your reach and impact. And put simply, the best way to advertise personal training is on social media. So let’s talk about how to do it right!
1. Pinpoint your target audience
Before you start running paid advertising, think about who you want to reach. As a personal trainer, consider factors like age, location, fitness level, and interests. For example, if you specialize in yoga for the elderly, your ads might target individuals over age 65 interested in wellness and mindfulness in your local area.
2. Create engaging content
Your ad content should be engaging and relevant. For trainers like you, this might mean showing a high-quality video of a workout session, an inspiring transformation story, or tips for a healthy lifestyle. Hook people early with the visuals, and keep them around with the story—so they get to know you and your services fully.
3. Include a clear call-to-action (CTA)
Every ad needs a strong call-to-action, meaning the part where you tell people what to do next. Your CTA could be “comment ‘FIT’ to get a free guide”, “go to the link in bio to sign up”, or “DM me to schedule your free trial.” So long as it’s simple and instructive, you’re winning. (‘Cause confusing ads aren’t effective.)
4. Test it out with organic posts
Before deciding to put money behind a specific post, test your content organically on your social channels. See which posts naturally pick up the most engagement, since effective organic content tends to perform equally well with paid advertising behind it. This’s a low-cost way to test your audience’s preferences and make the most of your advertising budget.
5. Boost the popular ones
Once one of your posts starts taking off with your existing audience, try using the ‘boost post’ feature—which is integrated directly into many platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. This makes it easy to turn successful organic content into paid ads, giving you the ability to target a wider audience with content you know works.
6. Monitor and adjust your campaigns
Track, track, track, then tweak. The success (or lack thereof) of past campaigns should guide your future efforts, from content creation all the way through to promotion. Make sure you’re using a business account, so you can take full advantage of all the analytics features the major social platforms give you.
So, what’s next?
Now that you know all the important strategies for fitness marketing, you’re ready to start scaling up your personal training services. ABC Trainerize makes that ultra-simple, from membership management through to delivering bespoke features like nutrition plans and custom workouts.
You’ll have all your client information inside Trainerize, so managing your quickly-growing client roster will go from a headache to a total breeze. Plus, your public Trainerize.me profile will help you connect to over 100 million global users. When you’re ready, we’re right here.
