Fishing for Clients for Your Personal Training Business

I’m a successful fisherman as you can see from these photos below. It finally got consistently warm here in Northern, VA so I did what probably my favorite activity in the world to do is; I got my kayak out and went fishing. That’s really two activities, but one is dependent on the other. Regardless, I love them both. My point in this is that marketing for new personal training clients is very much the same as what it took to catch these fish (pretty decent ones too, I might add). Granted, you can catch fish on accident or luck, but you don’t want to depend on it. You’ll want to follow this formula if you hope to be successful fishing for new clients.

First of all, you’ve got to know what you are going for. For you, what is your niche or target market?

I was going for large mouth bass.
You should be aiming for (fill in the blank). Is it stay at home Moms, women in general, skinny guys who want muscle, geriatric clients, etc.

Then you’ve got to know where they are. For you, where do your best clients eat, go to the doctor, chiropractor, hang out, get their hair done, what do they read?

I went to the same spot 2 days in a row. I saw some fish action on the first day and knew exactly where to go the second day. Sure enough, I got ‘em in the same locations.

You should be making friends with local businesses your clients use, getting in touch with their medical professionals, set up a referral partnership with a hair dresser, etc.

Then you have to know what is going to attract them to make them bite. For you, what are you going to say to this target person and how are you going to deliver the message to them?

I knew from the first day that they ate a certain kind of bait that I used and my fishing partner and client, Marc, had also used. The second day, I used that same kind of bait and similar looking ones and it worked!You should be looking at marketing to this target in low or no cost ways that are likely to have a powerful effect and a positive return for you. You can create partnerships with those local businesses, place business cards and flyers everywhere you are able, writing letters of introduction, holding contests, getting charity involved in your business, holding seminars or workshops, webinars or eclasses, etc. Generally, your going to want to tell them who you are, what you do, and what problem (that keeps them up at night) you can solve for them. If it’s a postcard for example, you’ll want to include a catchy title, maybe a subtitle, a testimonial or two (before and after pics are great), what your special offer is, and probably most importantly, a call to action. A call to action is telling them they need to call or email or register NOW possibly because there is only XX number of spots. Placing a set number on it is called creating scarcity. People value things that are scarce (gold, diamonds, YOU). You could direct mail these post cards (expensive and only expect a 2-3% return) or just have them printed and use them to hand out or place in various locations.

It’s really pretty simple. Make sure it is simple and ridiculously easy for your target market to understand. It takes some practice, but in time you’ll recognize the patterns as you track your efforts and you can more effectively target your big fish!

Speaking of that, I’m opening my

Check out these monsters!

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