If you’re a personal trainer or small gym owner, you’re probably keen to increase attendance at your fitness classes. Different classes attract different target audiences. To find out more about how to target your marketing to promote your weights classes, spin classes, HIIT workouts, or boot camps, keep scrolling for loads of tips and ideas on how to increase fitness class participation.

We start below by looking at social media ideas for fitness and how to grow your fitness following. Then we’ll offer some email marketing and word-of-mouth referrals hints and tips to make you stand out in the crowd.

Social media for fitness class promotion

Social media is one of the easiest promotion tools to get started with, and its potential reach can go a long way. With most people in Australia on more than one social media platform, and with full saturation for some generations, it can be a cost-effective and target-connecting solution. But, you don’t want to spend time looking after more accounts than you need. In this section we look at how to choose your channels wisely.

Which social media is best for fitness?

When evaluating the pros and cons of using communication platforms for marketing, you’ll want to look at the big three – Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. You might also consider some newer, up-and-coming platforms, such as Signal and Telegram. For health and fitness providers, it’s all about your target audience.

TikTok used to be the most popular platform for short, punchy, music-backed video content. TikTok has a young and online-active audience, but it has also attracted controversy around its user data practices, and the way its algorithm can promote content that may distort a user’s body image.

Facebook recently introduced their Watch tab, creating an area for easy sharing of video content to engage their loyal audience and keep them from clicking away to another platform. For health and fitness promotions, Facebook is a great platform for reaching Gen Xs and older audiences (and Gen Ys do use it to keep in touch with their older relatives). Promote your fitness classes with regular posts that will get your existing and potential clients motivated.

Instagram was the preferred channel for health and fitness influencers (in fact all influencers) in 2021 according to Digital Information World, a platform that monitors internet search and social media trends. However, the same report shows that TikTok had the most engagement of the big four.

To help you decide which social media platform to use to promote your fitness classes, consider if you want to be a micro-influencer within a local target area, or go big and go global for a constantly growing audience. To target your specific local area, consider Nextdoor, a social-connection channel that your community might be using to cut through all the content found on other social media. At Nextdoor, the focus is local services and local community building.

Whichever channels you choose to put your efforts into, the best social media channels for your fitness marketing will be the ones that most of your current clientele and potential customers are already on.

Social media marketing for training and workout classes

There are loads of engaging and attention-grabbing ideas for marketing your fitness classes on social media. We’ve studied how some of our most successful Eventbrite super-event creators do it and have come up with the following tips.

Post class photos and videos – post videos (with permission) after the class is over, along with a schedule of the next or regular classes. Be present on your platforms and engage your audience by re-posting and reacting to everything from your attendees.

Ask questions – create conversations with your followers. Perhaps take a poll about when classes would be most suitable or test the waters for a new type of class or location.

Use social media paid ads – the algorithms behind social media’s paid ads connect your product to the preferences of your audience. If you’re looking for the best way to advertise personal training and fitness classes, Facebook had the best average conversion rate for all industries in 2020 at around the 9% mark, according to market analysts Instapage by PostClick. And for the fitness sector, paid ads on Facebook had the highest average conversion rate across all industries.

How to grow a fitness Instagram

Grow a fitness Instagram and engage your followers with these proven techniques:

  • Use the right hashtags – search for your competitors to see what keywords, location tags, and strengths they are using. Then position yourself in the market with the best-fit ones for your fitness services. You don’t have to use the entire hashtag limit because too many tags can dilute your messaging. Instead, limit your tags to those that appeal most to your target audience.
  • Brand consistency – build your brand with relevant and local content.
  • Tag class locations – you just might hit some locals who will become drop-ins when they have the time.
  • Post behind-the-scenes content – make your followers feel special by showing off how you bring it all together. Before-and-after shots are always popular.
  • Use Instagram Stories – these vertical photos or short videos are only available for one day after posting and there is a limit of ten hashtags. If you time your stories and choose your hashtags wisely, you will be top-of-mind in the banners at the top for those tags, but only for 24 hours. Try running a series based on a fitness or seasonal theme.
  • Post polls – get the most out of your social media by engaging with your community. Listen to their feedback to improve your client services and their satisfaction, at the same time.

How do personal trainers get clients on Instagram?

Lots of personal trainers use Instagram to connect with potential clients and convert as many as possible into business through the door. To be really attractive to your target audience, the important components are:

  • high-quality photos and videos
  • decent editing
  • relevant topics and hashtags
  • network with and tag fitness brands and influencers
  • keep reminding your happy customers to tag you and give you a review (but don’t nag and overdo it!)

Eight fitness class marketing strategies

Now that you have the appealing content worked out, it’s time to promote your fitness class online. This section takes a deep dive into marketing strategies including optimising your internet presence, blogging, SERP and SEO.

1. First, consider your target market

It’s important to develop an understanding of the various characteristics of your potential clientele. As well as the location and general fitness needs of your target attendees, demographics such as age and gender, and also how far they are willing to travel to get to you, are all relevant.

2. Then, build or optimise your website

While you can easily organise all of your event ticketing and marketing on Eventbrite, having your own website projects professionalism and credibility. Your website is a more static, longer-term resource for your clients. It needs a strong brand identity and web governance to ensure it continues to meet the needs of your clients.

Here are some things you could include:

  • A dedicated landing page
  • Appealing graphics
  • Clear overall structure (headings, lists, links to more info)
  • Your bio – you are your brand
  • Your contact details
  • Locations where you operate
  • Class schedules – online and/or in-person
  • Detailed descriptions of what’s on offer – with links to your calls-to-action!
  • Client testimonials and before-and-after photos

3. Work on improving your SEO

There are many ways to improve your SEO (search engine optimisation), however, when search engines change the algorithms used to generate search results, SEO rules also change. Google generally makes small changes to its algorithm once or twice a day. And then there are the big changes, like a few years ago when Google changed its algorithm to favour websites that are optimised for viewing on mobile phones.

Here are just some of the ways that you can improve your SEO:

  • Optimise your graphics for fast downloading
  • Optimise your SEO Title and Meta Descriptions
  • Optimise your website for viewing on mobile devices as well as computers
  • Use geo-targeting keywords – search engines generate results tagged to an area because people want local options
  • Experiment – change the keywords slightly and see if you get more hits
  • Google yourself – if you’re not turning up on the first Search Engine Response Page (SERP), then tailor your content to appear in the People also ask box
  • Be different – stand out in the crowd

4. Start a fitness blog – and keep it current

As a personal trainer, having a blog can help to position you as an expert in your field. Not only will your followers check in regularly for the latest and greatest fitness and nutrition information, but they will also get to know you and your brand. With empathy and understanding, you can build their confidence and improve their comfort levels.

The ideas for fitness blog topics are infinite. Here are some hints to keep you relevant:

  • Keep up with current trends through social media and your industry networks (LinkedIn is a popular business networking platform)
  • Focus on sharing your expertise, but also include your unique personality
  • Formulate a series so that you can link each blog to the next one as a teaser

5. Corporate offers that will increase your fitness clientele

You’ve been putting in extra effort to land a few, individual clients. But what about bulk advertising your fitness classes to corporate clients who want to improve the health and wellbeing of their employees?

There could be opportunities right in front of you for approaching businesses and office buildings near you – think about and explore places where the business owners, managers, and staff might want and need your services. With group discounts and corporate bundles, you could scale it up and attract some new, big business.

6. Encourage word-of-mouth referrals

Word-of-mouth marketing attracts business because it is credible. People believe what they hear from their family, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances. One easy tactic is a simple referral program to encourage your attendees to tell others about your classes. Your program could be as simple as ‘bring a friend for free’ or ‘share or react ten times for a discount’.

7. Advertise your fitness classes through live streams

Explore the benefits of livestreaming your fitness classes through a series of virtual events on Eventbrite. Using Eventbrite, you can monetise your classes and charge a small fee. With the potential for thousands of attendees, it could be worth your while to get set up and established online. Maintaining a strong online presence will also encourage new people to show up for your in-person classes.

8. Increase class attendance with local marketing

To market your classes locally:

  • Post in local Facebook groups and community sites like Nextdoor
  • Add listings to local or venue online noticeboards
  • Submit schedules to local websites and radio stations
  • Submit schedules to printed What’s On brochures and find What’s On freebie ads in daily and regional newspapers and newsletters
  • Partner with local healthy food eateries for shared discounts
  • Use geo-targeted keywords and local hashtags on Insta

Email marketing for your fitness business

Email marketing is another tool in your marketing toolbox – and another channel to communicate with your audience. To resonate with your email recipients, take time to craft emails that catch their attention. Get it right, and you’ll be rewarded with increased opens, clicks, and ticket sales to your classes. In this section, we’ve gathered some insights around email fitness business marketing.

Provide discounts for email subscribers

Your email contact lists will grow over time. Always remember to BCC your email marketing because you don’t want to give away your contacts by showing them to everyone. To grow your email contact lists, offer an incentive to people who provide their contact details; perhaps a discount for your services or a give-away raffle.

Send special invitations to new classes

To keep things new and exciting for your readers, change things up with a new class or collaboration with a fellow instructor. Build some hype around your newest offerings.

When you receive a new email, the primary subject line is always bolded. The preheader (or secondary subject line) is the unbolded text that follows. Leverage the preheader to add to the number of words you have to grab people’s attention so they open your email. This is recommended to be between 30-130 characters, but keep in mind that mobile preview text will generally only show between 40-50 characters, depending on the mail client your audience is using.

Segment your audience

Email audiences can be segmented in many ways. Create different emails for subscribers who haven’t been to a class yet, for people who haven’t been for a while and for your regulars.

For more on email marketing, check out these five email marketing must-dos.

How to increase fitness class participation

Once you have yourself set up with marketing and organised your data, your next task is to increase overall participation and build your income stream. This final section looks at how to attract more people to fitness classes.

Survey participants to find out their needs

You want to build up an understanding of what keeps your existing customers happy and what will be attractive to new clientele. Survey fatigue is a thing, though. If you add an incentive such as the opportunity to win a prize or discounted service for responding to your surveys, you will certainly increase the number of responses.

Create Facebook groups or WhatsApp chats to build a community

As well as following social media groups relevant to your audience, establish your own Facebook group or chat threads dedicated to developing a strong following for your brand. You can then engage with your followers, using messaging that makes them feel more special and exclusive than the broader messaging you use for your entire audience. Follow Eventbrite’s advice on how to promote classes to really maximise attendance.

Set fitness challenges and offer tap-into sessions

The chance to win a prize can motivate people. Your incentive programs needn’t be expensive to run. They could be as simple as Bring a Buddy for Free on Tuesday afternoons – or whenever your quietest time is.

People love flexibility. An afternoon of drop-in sessions where people can turn up and leave when they want to could be motivating.

Send reminders by email, SMS, or group message

While it’s important not to overdo your communication, people do want to plan ahead to slot in some time for health and fitness training. Your clientele will appreciate short, friendly reminders that help them stay on track to meet their fitness goals.

Encourage participants to book in advance instead of registering on the day

Eventbrite helps you manage your clients and understand your market. For example, if you want to know how many people to expect at your events, you can easily encourage them to pre-register by offering an incentive. With different types of tickets available on Eventbrite, you could also offer early-bird discount.

You’re ready to start advertising fitness classes!

Now that you have some great ideas and understand more about how to market fitness classes, head to Eventbrite to make it happen. We have intuitive and flexible technology to help you create, promote, manage, and post your events with ease.