SMS Marketing for Personal Fitness Instructors

For many, Christmas is traditionally a time of overindulgence and under activity. It is no surprise then that getting fit and active is one of the most popular New Year’s resolutions. Indeed, according to a ComRes poll conducted in January 2017, health and fitness represented four out of the five most popular resolutions. At number one was exercise more (38%), closely followed by losing weight (33%), eat more healthily (32%) and in fourth place, take a more active approach to health (15%). All this is great news for the UK’s growing number of personal fitness instructors who can expect a surge in demand in the new year – provided of course that people know where to find them. SMS Marketing is a simple, low-cost solution that is perfect for managing both existing clients and new leads to ensure a fully booked start to 2018.

Why SMS Marketing is ideal for Personal Fitness Instructors

By their very nature, personal fitness instructors have a very personal and intimate relationship with their clients, who have often chosen to use a PT instructor on a one to one basis rather than go to a crowded gym or group classes in order to get closer to reaching their specific goals through tailored training. Consequently, it makes perfect sense to use the most personal communications channel available. With SMS Marketing, you are able to strike up a customer relationship in a way that simply isn’t possible through mass marketing channels such as email.

Customer relationships aside, SMS Marketing is also highly attractive when you look at the numbers. 97% of SMS messages are reported to be read within just 3 minutes of receipt, and almost every UK adult has a mobile phone. SMS Marketing messages also have a significantly higher response rate of 45% compared to just 6% for emails. The result – higher conversions at a much lower overall cost.

How to use SMS Marketing

Have you made your New Year’s resolution?

You don’t always need to start the customer relationship with a direct sale. In fact, when it comes to tailored personal fitness it is logical to build a picture of the customer as an individual and get an understanding of their needs and goals before pitching or proposing. A great way to initiate the conversation is with a simple question –

“Have you made your New Year’s resolution yet? It’s not too late to choose one..”

This can be built on with a follow-up message along the lines of:

“Thinking about improving your health and fitness in the New Year? Let’s talk!”

Consultations

Another approach similar to the above is to offer expert advice to those seeking to improve their health and fitness. A simple approach might be to offer a free half-hour consultation for prospective clients. Not only will this likely result in a high proportion of conversions, it also allows you to make sure that the individual is a good fit for your approach to training. Try a message such as:

“Planning to get fitter this New Year? Book a free consultation with me now and get set for the right start.”

Programmes and pricing

If you provide some standard packages and fixed pricing, it makes perfect sense to share this with your customers so that they can make an informed decision. The Fastsms system allows you to send a total of 459 characters by joining messages, which gives you plenty of scope to get the key information across. SMS messages also support links, so using a link shortener such as bitly.com allows you to easily direct people to your website for more information. Use keywords such as free, save or discount to arouse interest. To learn more about the most effective power words, read our article here.

Available spaces

If you know that you have certain time slots available in the new year, share these with your customers in an SMS message. If they know exactly when you are free, they may be ready to commit to the available slot and get themselves booked in with you. Try to convey a sense of urgency to help improve response rates. Use words such as ‘limited spaces’ or ‘last chance’ that will also indicate you are in high demand.

Booking reminders

As humans, we are not always great at remembering things – especially when we go back to our normal hectic lifestyles post-Christmas. It follows that most people will appreciate an SMS message to remind them of their next session – in fact, it may well be seen as a gesture of your commitment to them achieving their goals, further enhancing your reputation as an excellent fitness instructor.

News and information

Sharing the latest relevant news and information with your clients is another great way to enhance your professional credibility. If you write a blog of your own, don’t rely on email and social media alone – use SMS to share it too and make sure that your customers log on and read what you have to share. SMS is equally well suited to sharing other news and updates from the industry.

The ideas presented above are just some of the ways that Personal Fitness Instructors can use SMS Marketing to get the New Year off to a great start. Check out our other blog articles for a wealth of other ideas that you may be able to use or adapt.

To start using SMS Marketing now, call our team of friendly experts on 0800 954 5305 and we’ll get you up and running in no time. Got a question? Don’t hesitate to ask and we’ll be sure to find you the answer.