As a trainer and entrepreneur we have to wear a whole array of different hats. We have to be accountants, designers, marketers and of course trainers, among other things, and even though this gives us full control over our business, it can also become complicated to juggle, focus and prioritize.

The reality is that your business should start with what you do best and that is being the best coach you can be so you can then build on top of that. Having an incredible marketing strategy, a beautiful brand and the financial acumen of a CFO is worthless if your core service—training people, impacting lives and supporting your clients goals—isn’t the best it can possibly be.

Why? Because being passionate, authentic and dedicated to your service will generate marketing in the ways of testimonials, results, referrals and more.

📝 FREE RESOURCE: The Ultimate Marketing Cheat Sheet for Personal Trainers and Fitness Pros

Making time for marketing is about creating systems that are repeatable, proven and that truly represent what your training and your brand is all about. The goal isn’t to take the maximum number of actions, but to take the right actions.

Creating a sustainable and repeatable strategy will streamline your marketing. I’m not going to talk about what type of marketing you should be focusing on but rather, how to make time to market your business.

The Starting Point

The marketing of your business has a bottom line. Some things to consider here are:

• What is the minimum amount of marketing that you need in order for your business to succeed?
• What’s the most streamlined way for people to find you, know about you and your business and be able to contact you?

Once you land on that, you can move on to the next step in the creation of your marketing strategy and systems. Just start—with a Facebook page, a website or simply an Instagram account.

Systems Are Key

Just like in my training, I’m a fan of structure and consistency. I created systems to get my brand out to the world. This has seriously reduced the actual amount of time and effort that I have to put into my marketing.

Automation is your friend. Deploy tools, like for scheduling posts, gathering repeatable content and creating templates that you can easily modify. At Train HRDR, every Monday we send out an email blast with a workout that we typically bulk-schedule in advance.

Not only does this allow us to have a continuous marketing system weekly that gives us peace of mind once it’s scheduled, but it also creates a value proposition for people to sign up to our email list and get exposed to our brand weekly.

We also lean on some of the integrations that Trainerize offers to systemize our offers and free trials. Using Zapier to deliver free trials has been great for us. It’s a constant offer for prospective clients to test our services and get a peek into the experience of training with us.

The beauty of systems is that even though most of the leg work is done in the beginning, it then becomes very easy to repeat, modify and adjust as the needs of the business start evolving.

Paralysis by Analysis

With your system and plan in place, it’s now time to decide what elements, products, or services offered by your or your brand are worth talking about. You need to have something to market and someone to market to, so finding out what you stand for, what your niche is, who the ideal customer is and what their interests are, is key in creating marketing that works.

Then, have fun with the creation and implementation of your marketing content! More often than not, something is better than nothing and the best way to learn about what works and what doesn’t is to try things out, analyze the results and make informed decisions.

Whether this is posting testimonials on Instagram, sending exclusive offers to your mailing list or sharing transformation pictures on Facebook, you cannot allow perfection to get in your way. At the end of the day, it’s your business what we’re talking about so ask your existing clients what drew them to train with you, focus on a couple of strategies as opposed to several and have fun with it. If you’re not enjoying it, then why do it?

Look At Other Options

If you are too busy, if these things do not come naturally to you, and if you currently have extra funds, it may be worth considering outsourcing a portion or all of your marketing work for a period of time. Maybe you have a big group challenge coming up and could invest in some professional help to ease the workload or maybe you have a friend or a relative that can volunteer their time to help you create some content.

Some other things to consider when thinking about this option are your specific marketing needs. Photos and videos? Email marketing campaigns? A website? Ads on social? Knowing all this will help you determine the scope of work that lies ahead, and what can be outsourced. Don’t think that you absolutely need to do everything yourself!

Have fun with the process and learn as you move forward! Be the best coach you can be for your clients! They came to you for that!