SMS Marketing – An Easy Set for Fitness Coaches

​Whether you’re a local fitness coach or celebrity personal trainer one thing that’s common is that you have little time to think about marketing. While Instagram and other social media have taken over as the “go to” tactics for building your audience, these channels can consume a lot of your time. Recording those workout routines at the local gym requires equipment, possibly a partner if you want dynamic shots, and then there is the video editing and posting to your channels. And if you’re building your client base, you will need to spend additional time answering all the posts that come as a result of your video uploads. Multiply this several times a month, if not per week, and it’s easy to forget that your primary goal needs to be on building your body and mind.

SMS text message marketing can be an alternative, or at a minimum, supplement what you’re already doing on social media. Text messaging is extremely personal, and is almost too easy to abuse. No one wants a message from a stranger popping up as a text alert on their smartphone, especially in the middle of work or late at night while on a date with your significant other. For this reason, many businesses have shied away from using bulk text messaging as a marketing tactic. Today, the only businesses that will use it regularly are often doctors and dentists who don’t want you to miss your appointment that was made 6 months ago.

But there is a huge opportunity that is being missed by many service-based businesses that have less than say, 100 customers or clients. SMS marketing is a very cost effective way to reach these customers and say top of mind when done properly. No one needs a sales alert every week when they only shop at your store twice per year, but if you’re a trainer, you should be engaging with your client base at least 1-2x per month, if not weekly, in person.

In between those one-on-one in person training sessions text marketing can shine. It doesn’t require you to constantly be “on” with a camera in your face to catch every workout. Text marketing is quick, requires no additional equipment other than access to your account, and you can even schedule when you want your text messages to go out. Here’s just a few ways personal trainers can use text message marketing to enhance their business:

• Create a text subscriber list – remind your clients when you’ll be out of town or unavailable for in-person training workouts.
• Send out recipes – as the old saying goes, “Abs are made in the kitchen.” If you like cooking or helping your clients eat better, sending out links to recipes on your website are a great way to keep your clients engaged in between workouts.
• Social media alerts – not every person wants to check Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube every day for your workout videos. If you already have this as part of your marketing routine then text messaging allows you to send little reminders to your client base about what you are doing online. Maybe they’re not interested in the chest workout, but don’t want to miss your new leg routine. You can simply send a bulk message to all your clients saying, “Hey, new leg routine just posted online.”
• Community events – if you’re going to be at a community health fair, or walk-a-thon, SMS marketing is a great way to get the word out extremely fast. Tell all your clients about the next fitness challenge happening in your community.
• One-on-one communication – with today’s SMS text messaging systems, you can still communicate one-on-one with subscribers. Maybe one of your clients needs more motivation, or they haven’t been showing up to your classes regularly. An SMS text message is a great way to give them that nudge and say, “Hey, I’m thinking about you, hope to workout with you soon.”

The key to making text marketing work is understanding that simplicity and moderation is key. Keep messages short and to the point, and for most fitness coaches, 1-2 bulk SMS messages sent to all your clients each month is more than enough communication to stay engaged. Weekly may be too much unless your whole service is about pushing clients each week. Another thing to remember is that building your list is a slow process where your tell clients to text a keyword to your special number. It's not about loading all their mobile numbers into your platform when they didn't ask to opt-in. This is a quick way to annoy people.

If you’re interested in learning more about SMS text message marketing, checkout TXTsigns.com. Not only can personal trainers get access to a great text marketing platform in the cloud, but TXTsigns will even manage those communications if the trainer wants a completely hands-off approach – all for a very low rate.