SMS Marketing for Instructors and Personal Trainers

A lot of the time, personal training can be one of the most rewarding jobs you could possibly pursue. Yet at other times, it can be dispiriting.

When all goes well, you get to watch your clients make rapid progress towards their goals, becoming fitter, healthier and generally happier people as a result. But when people start dropping out, don’t turn up for classes and don’t put enough effort in, the whole process can become a little frustrating.

Naturally, this is all part and parcel of the industry, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t changes you can make to your everyday work habits that will boost the benefits and mitigate the downsides. And top of the list of those changes are SMS marketing strategies.

Firstly, here’s a quick lowdown on what we’re talking about here.

Business SMS texting involves the sending and receiving of text messages either between individuals (one-to-one) or large groups of people (one-to-many) all at once. Do it regularly as part of a long-term, coordinated strategy and it could improve your work life in many different ways.

The number of people who turn up for classes; how dedicated your clients are to their programmes; how aware they are of changes in the industry and to your plans; and any other information that could help them make progress towards their goals. All of this can be transmitted quickly, efficiently and conveniently via text messages.

You could just use your personal mobile for this, but you’re running a business, right? So you should use a professional service, one that gives you the features to manage your messages effectively whilst keeping it separate from your personal device. Which SMS provider you choose is up to you (we think we’re pretty good) but it’s those processes that you put in place that will make the biggest difference to your everyday working life. (Check out our SMS Buyers Guide to see what to look out for)

Now let’s look at the various ways in which they could help your business move forward.

There are hundreds of different classes a personal trainer could run for their clients, with countless variations within each one. Although you’ll have certain approaches you prefer, that doesn’t mean you’ll never want to shake things up with something new.

Alongside telling each and every person individually about your new classes – which would be time-consuming, not to mention ineffective for those you wouldn’t get a chance to see face-to-face – you could also text message everyone the latest details to ensure they all have a chance to attend.

Similar to the point above, trainers can sometimes face the prospect of having to move their sessions to another location. This could be due to factors beyond their control – such as a burst pipe in their usual gym, or the rent rising at their local sports centre – or their own preferences changing, such as a desire to hold a session in an outdoor space – this could be weather dependent, so you might need to get the word out on the day.

If you ever decide or are forced to make such a change in-between classes, then it can be very time-consuming to call all clients to make them aware of it. Such an approach could also be seen as overly intrusive, not to mention ineffective as you won’t get through to many of them. A text message, however, is far more subtle and will be left waiting on their phone the next time they look at it.

Sticking to a diet plan isn’t easy for most clients, not unless they love every food item in it (and let’s face it, that’s rarely the case with new customers!). It helps them to get regular reminders whenever they go to classes, as well as receiving advice on how to keep themselves motivated throughout each day.

But unfortunately, the majority of times they eat aren’t close to workout sessions, not to mention that even the most coherent plan can’t guarantee 24/7 motivation every day. That’s why a friendly reminder sent by text every now and again can keep them on track, just when their guard is at risk of going down.

“New” things in terms of personal training mainly fall into one of two categories: equipment or staff. The former involves getting new apparatus, machines or tools in, whereas the latter can mean someone new joining the team.

Of course, you could wait until your clients attend their upcoming session to let them know about these changes. Or you could be ahead of the competition and let them know the second they happen. After all, text messaging is as much about the service as it is about the convenience.

Classes have to be cancelled every now and again for unforeseeable reasons, such as a medical emergency or severe traffic problems. Not only can mass texting enable you to alert all your clients as soon as possible about these developments, it could also allow you to quickly re-schedule classes and make everyone aware of them too.

There are only a few hours left before class starts and you still have some free places available. Usually you’d either have to hope that your clients bring along some friends – or that someone walks in from the street – or you’d just have to accept the empty spaces for now.

Yet with an SMS marketing service, you could send a quick message to anyone currently not attending to make them aware that there are places available. In this sense, an SMS service could potentially boost your income, while providing an extra service to your clients.

One of the hardest parts of a workout routine for many people is the getting out of bed earlier than usual bit. This can be a real struggle for people who have a lifelong habit of sleeping in already embedded into their subconscious mind. Although a text message won’t be able to overhaul this on its own, it could help guilt-trip them into making the extra effort more often than usual.

If you’re looking for an SMS provider UK-based and already knows your business, then look no further than Fastsms.

Providing our services to personal trainers across the country, we can use our cloud-based platform to send and receive messages with your clients as part of a wider, long-term strategy. You can also view our free Health Club SMS Guide for a wealth of ideas relevant to you.

Contact us today to see how we can put the benefits mentioned in this article into practice for you.