Introduction Have you ever considered how your clients found you? In the competitive personal training industry, recognising the customer journey can be valuable in creating a competitive advantage for Personal Training lead generation. How do people find you? How can you use that information in combination with the traditional customer journey? What can you do with that information to attract and retain your clients?
Awareness
In the awareness phase, a potential client realises they have an issue. However, at this stage, that individual might not recognise how best to solve their problem or what they seek. The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) is the world’s leading professional body for marketing. Their recommendation during this phase is to deliver educational information on the issue that your client is facing, suggesting possible solutions that could be beneficial.
Educational content that might be useful to people includes ‘How To’ guides, e-books, Videos, Blog posts, and newsletters. Understanding your client’s problems and the pain points that they’re facing is a great way to demonstrate your expertise and build trust. Channel selection can also be necessary during this process; you want to create and publish your information so that the right person can find it. An obvious starting point is to consider your social media platforms: is Instagram or LinkedIn most appropriate for your target market? Do your clients engage with content like yours on their social media, or is it essential to make them easily discoverable on search engines? Could paid ads help you get in front of the right client? Last month’s newsletter touched on re-engaging clients who purchased through more personal communication channels like email or telephone.
As a working example, one of the biggest problems that PTs face is the added cost of our product from gym rental or commission-only structures. This is something that we are seeking to address at TWN. Therefore, the information we produce highlights a new business practice for trainers to get a fairer deal. We underline this position to solve an issue that we feel is challenging to all personal trainers and a risk to how we can best perform and run a business. We have aimed to communicate this clearly on our social media channels (feedback welcome) and make sure that we are discoverable through appropriate keywords on search engines while simultaneously using advertising so that new trainers can find us through channels we believe are most effective.
Central to our digital presence are the 4 Ps:
Product – low cost, flexible booking, private personal training studio for hire.
Place—We rank highest on search engines in our most accurate location, Monument. However, we also try to make ourselves visible in the surrounding City of London, Bank, and Fenchurch Street.
Price transparency is crucial to us, so saying we're a low-cost option for details seems disingenuous. We clearly state how much it costs (from £18, by the way). Promotion—new trainers will have a first free trial session to ensure this studio is right for them and their business so that no one commits to something that is not right for them.se through Meta and without provide. We also advertise on Google.
Understanding the awareness phase is crucial to the success of your business. Without understanding your client’s problem and helping them solve it by positioning your content, website, and product in a manner that is easily accessible to them, you will not manage to move on to the next phase, consideration.
Consideration
Your potential clients will have researched enough to understand their problem by this point. Next, the client begins the process of evaluating the solutions. Understanding the competitive landscape and how you create a differentiated solution is essential. One way to do this could be to highlight customer success stories and how you have helped people in similar positions. This gives potential clients a clear understanding that you’re competent in resolving the issue they’re facing whilst offering customers insight into what they can expect from your service. They can create a clear image of what to expect with information about you, your competency service, and you. Having more information at this point can help them progress to decision-making.
Decision stage
Assuming that you have provided all the necessary information about yourself and your work on websites, social media, or other effective communication channels, it’s now important to send a call to action to any potential client, ideally highlighting a low barrier to entry.
Ensuring a low barrier to entry is pivotal, particularly when clients are making high-involvement purchases, whether in terms of time or cost. Generally, personal training is such a commitment. It's crucial to counteract the inclination to walk away and say “no”. By instituting a low entry point, such as offering a complimentary sample session, the aim is to transform the default response into a "yes."
At The Workout Network, a free personal training session is an effective strategy. Trainers can assess whether we are right for them, and the session offers a tangible preview of our services. RetentionWe can often get swept into the notion that marketing is about new business. New client acquisition is six times more expensive than retention, so one of the most critical considerations in “marketing” to your clients is never to forget the importance of the people already integrated with your service, current and former clients. How you do that is up to you and may be done during your session. Maybe it’s checking in with clients between sessions to help them hit agreed targets. Perhaps it’s a newsletter or providing extra digital content. Whatever it is, you are the secret sauce; what you do with your clients binds them to your service and hopefully progresses them to the next phase.
Loyalty
The pinnacle of the customer journey is loyalty. Personal trainers who consistently deliver results, adapt to evolving client needs and provide a unique and enjoyable experience cultivate loyalty. Loyal clients not only stay with you for the long haul but also become your brand ambassadors, attracting new leads through their success stories and recommendations. A clear understanding of the customer journey lets you think strategically and puts you in the consumer's shoes. By consciously navigating each stage – from creating awareness to fostering loyalty – personal trainers can retain clients and attract new leads organically.
If TWN can help you find a personal training business in the City, please reach out below. It is always wonderful to hear your feedback, so if you have any general questions, criticisms, or suggestions, please let me know.
Remember your Customer Journey checklist: Understand your client's pain points. Provide them with information that can help them to improve their situation.
Are you communicating your product on a channel that they use? Are you search engine optimised?
And don’t forget your current clients!
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