There are many ways to market your personal training business – or the classes you run as a fitness instructor – and one of the most effective is sending out a regular newsletter.
WHO IS THE PERSONAL TRAINING NEWSLETTER AIMED AT?
This is an important question to consider, as it will affect both what you put in the newsletter and the style of writing.
Fitness newsletters are usually aimed at your current and potential clients, so it’s a good idea to first jot down a few thoughts about who your ideal client might be.
Your tone should be professional to back up your credentials as a qualified fitness professional, but also friendly and warm, as if you were chatting to your clients in person. People buy from people – and this is especially true when you are selling your skills as a personal trainer.
WHAT SHOULD GO IN A FITNESS NEWSLETTER?
Your newsletter should be a mix of the following:
1. General articles on personal training, fitness, etc
2. News stories
3. Offers, competitions
4. Images
5. Contact information
1. General articles on personal training – these should be informative and professional. Think about the kind of subjects your clients might find useful and enjoy reading about; these might be about specific exercise techniques or on related topics, such as nutrition and general health. Don’t make your articles too technical; try to use easy-to-understand terminology.
Look at how others structure their articles, ie: 5 top tips, What you’ve always wanted to know about… etc. You can also theme your features around particular times of year, for example, getting fit for summer or preparing for a fun run (see our blog on Preparing for a fitness challenge).
2. News – this might cover general news about new industry trends that could be of interest to clients, or news about your own business, for example new classes you are introducing.
3. Offers, competitions – if you are running a special offer, for example 10 classes for the price of nine, your newsletter is a good place to promote it. You can also include a discount voucher to bring the first time they attend your fitness classes or a free voucher for the first personal training session they take with you.
4. Images – If your newsletter is packed full of dense paragraphs of text, you are only going to put off your potential readers. Make sure the layout is attractive, with plenty of appropriate images to break up the text and add interest. A fitness newsletter is something that clients will want to dip into when they get a moment, so the articles and features should be bite sized rather than lengthy essays.
5. Contact information – every piece of marketing material you produce should have your full contact details and a call to action.
ANY PITFALLS TO LOOK OUT FOR?
Poor spelling and grammar can put off your readers so don’t just do a spell check – get someone else to look over your fitness newsletter before it gets sent out.
Because you are writing about fitness and health, make sure you can back up any claims you make in the newsletter. Be aware of advertising standards and try to keep the tone positive (see our blog on Personal trainers and ethical conduct) – never criticise other personal trainers by name.
SHOULD A FITNESS NEWSLETTER BE PRINTED OR EMAILED OUT?
Why not do both? Collect a list of customer names and create a mailing list on MailChimp (www.mailchimp.com) or a similar platform – it’s easy to do and free. You can also use one of their templates for your personal training newsletter. You can track how many people open it – but don’t worry if not everyone does; a 20% open rate would be reasonable.
DON’T use your own email to send bulk mail outs of your newsletter to lots of customers in one go as this can be seen as spam and you might find your email account is suspended as a result.
Once created, the newsletter can also be printed to post out or hand out to customers when you see them. If you only need a few, you can print them off on a home printer, but for larger amounts talk to few local printing firms and they should be able to offer you a reasonable price.
PERSONAL TRAINING WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA
If you have your own website up and running – which you should! – then you can also offer the newsletter as a downloadable file. Equally you could start a blog on your website and add the newsletter articles to your blog. This will also help with your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), which dictates where your website appears when people search for the services – for example, first page on Google.
If you are active on social media, don’t forget to Tweet a link or add it to Facebook or any other social media platform you use.
HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOUR FITNESS NEWSLETTER BE PRODUCED?
Before you start, plan how often you intend to send out your personal training newsletter. Be realistic about the work involved and make sure you stick to your schedule by planning ahead for the year.
The frequency of your fitness newsletter may depend on how long you want to make it. For example, a short newsletter could be sent out weekly or monthly, whereas a more detailed newsletter with several articles could go out bimonthly (twice a month) or once a quarter (every three months).
Whatever you choose, a newsletter is an effective way to regularly remind people of the services you offer and your expertise in your field.
For other ways to market your business, why not take a look at our blog on Personal training – how to attract new clients
