Snapshot:

• Once you’ve created an account, work on optimizing your profile to let potential clients know who you are and why your personal training business is a good fit for them.
• Consistency is key. Posting consistently will help you build rapport with your followers and establish your online presence.
• Build relationships through genuine engagement. Once you start building real relationships, you’ll have a lot more opportunities for referrals.
• If a potential client has gone silent, it doesn’t mean that they’re not interested in working with you. It’s your responsibility to follow up and keep the conversation going.

How to Use LinkedIn to Get New Personal Training Clients

As the owner of your personal training business, you wear many different hats. From managing your business finances to maintaining relationships with current and prospective clients, you have a lot on your plate. For many small business owners, managing and successfully executing a successful social media strategy can be a daunting task, but it’s doable and can be a great way to bring in new clients.

Not sure which social media platform to start with? LinkedIn is a great place to expand your professional network. With 740 million members, you’re going to need effective strategies to break through and communicate why potential clients should work with you. In this article, we’re breaking down key strategies to help you leverage LinkedIn to reach new personal training clients.

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Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile

Before you can really get to work on LinkedIn, you need to set up and optimize your profile. When potential clients visit your page on LinkedIn, this is your first chance to let them know who you are and why you’re a good fit for them. In other words, you need to make it count.

To start, a professional headshot can go a long way. Your headshot doesn’t need to be taken by a professional. The higher quality the better. You might be surprised at what some natural light, self timer, and smartphone can accomplish together!

Next, you want your profile to answer the essential questions potential clients might have when viewing your account. When in doubt, be specific. Here are a few questions to consider as you build out our account:

• Who are you? (Include any relevant certifications, professional experiences that set you apart, and a few personal facts that help potential clients get to know you)
• What do you do with clients? (What type of training do you specialize in? Do you work out a gym, a studio, or your home?)
• How can someone work with you? (Do they need to reach out via email? Do you have a website to direct them to? Can they reach you through LinkedIn direct messages?)

A great way to round out your profile is to work on getting endorsed for skills such as personal training, strength training, corrective exercise, or anything that is relevant to your business and practice. Ask your friends and network to endorse these skills, and let those endorsements speak for themselves!

Once potential clients get to know you, it’s important that you provide clear directions on how to get in touch with you. Include your website address, social media handles, or email––whichever option you choose, make sure it’s one that makes it easy for you to easily access and reply to inquiries.

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Be Consistent in Posting Content

Across all social media platforms, consistency is key. Consistency in your voice, tone and posting habits will help you build rapport with your followers and establish your online presence. When it comes to your LinkedIn posts, think about what value you can provide to potential clients. Spend time thinking about how your content can alleviate their pain points and answer some of their questions.

Your content should also explain your personal training philosophy to allow your network and potential clients to learn more about you and how you train. You don’t want to give too much away–– your posts should provide them with actionable takeaways but leave them wanting more and always drive them to get in contact with you through your website, social channels, email, etc.

Need an example to get started? Consider creating a free guide highlighting a mobility program that is tailored for people who sit at a desk for work and don’t have many opportunities for movement during the day. The most important thing to keep in mind when drafting content: keep it engaging.

No one wants to follow and engage with a brand or person on social media if their content isn’t interesting, helpful, and thought provoking. Ask questions and encourage your followers to comment their answers. Share training tips and tricks, interesting articles, and fun fitness challenges. Think about how you change up your type of posts too. You can share standard posts that include an image and supporting text, short videos of yourself speaking or training clients (with their permission, of course), or text only posts.

While a text-only post might seem counterintuitive when trying to engage with followers, it can actually serve as a great way to break up an image and video heavy platform. If you’re trying out a text-only post, keep it short and sweet, and consider adding a few emojis or laying out the text in a list.

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Build Genuine Connections through Engagement

So you’ve created your account and you’re cranking out highly engaging content, what’s left to do? It’s time for you to engage within the platform itself. If you message someone on LinkedIn and ask if they’re interested in training with you, without any prior communication or engagement, you’ll likely get a no. You need to build relationships and create value before you’re in a good spot to sell your services and brand.

Engagement isn’t just a singular task. It can look like engaging with people who comment on your posts by reacting to their comments and replying to them. You can also engage by reacting and commenting on others’ posts. Joining LinkedIn groups that interest you or are related to your personal training business is a great way to build relationships.

Next, connect with potential clients through direct messages. This will require time and effort on your part. Automated messages will not drive genuine connection. Set aside time to personalize your messages that will really resonate with potential clients. Once you start building real relationships, you have a lot more opportunities for referrals. Instead of relying on only you to sell your business and services, your customers will naturally become champions of your services.

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Develop Creative Ways to Promote Your Services

When you get to a place where you’ve built a solid relationship with prospective clients, you can offer them the chance to buy into your services. Consider creating a special offer such as a free consultation or assessment. If you have set packages, think about offering a discount to new clients.

Next, you need to get the word out! Share this information with the community you’ve built and ask them to share it too. You can even take a targeted approach and reach out to people with customized messaging. The more personalized the better. Don’t forget to be a human! While you’re selling your services and your brand, a human approach always resonates over canned outreach.

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Follow up and Keep the Conversation Going

At the end of the day, we’re all bombarded with a lot of messaging––whether on LinkedIn, email, or a different social media platform. The people you connect with on LinkedIn are busy people (just like you) and won’t have time to think about scheduling with you.

If a potential client has gone silent, it doesn’t mean that they’re not interested in working with you. It’s your responsibility to follow up. This is not a suggestion to bombard them every day for weeks on end (this would easily get overwhelming and turn them off from wanting to work with you). Instead, a friendly follow up once or twice, a week apart is a great way to help you stay top of mind.

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