You’re ready to grow your personal training business, and you may have your eyes set on millennial clients. According to research from IHRSA, 45% of millennials (which IHRSA defines as those born between 1980 and 1999) want to be more physically active. Millennials are also entering their peak earning years.
It seems like the perfect environment for bringing on more millennial clients — but how do you reach them? In this blog article, we’ve got three tips for reaching this influential generation, including leveraging mobile technology, social media, and video content.
Get to Know What Millennials Want in Fitness
According to research by IHRSA, millennials spread their loyalty around a variety of fitness businesses, preferring boutique studios over chains. A love of studios comes from millennials’ love of popular fitness trends:
- Yoga
- HIIT
- CrossFit
- Barre
- Bootcamps
- Pilates
Although they have one of the shortest membership tenures of all generations and tend to be more price conscious than other generations, millennials are willing to pay a premium for fitness. According to The Health Club Consumer Report, millennials pay an average of $11.83 to $15.66 per club visit compared to an average of $4.53 to $8.99 per visit for full-service facilities.
Furthermore, 37% of millennial gym-goers participate in personal training and 39% engage in small group training sessions. Now is a perfect time to reach and onboard more millennial consumers as personal training clients.
1. Make Sure You’ve Got an App
One of the best ways to pull in more millennial clients is to meet them where they are: on their mobile devices! Millennials unlock their devices an average of 63 times per day and report being online “almost constantly.”
“It’s critical to offer digital content for Millennials,” said Melissa Rodriguez, IHRSA’s senior research manager, reflecting on the 2020 IHRSA Health Club Consumer Report. “Booking classes or gym floor reservations on their smartphone, streaming live workouts, and accessing on-demand training sessions are must-haves for this generation.”
Here are some of the features your app should offer your millennial personal training clients:
- Customized workouts and nutrition programs
- Online billing and payment management
- Two-way chat to discuss progress, get feedback, and celebrate wins
- Integration with wearable tech, like Apple Watch and Fitbit
Millennials, more than any other generation, pay for an online fitness service (35%), which is why it’s important to offer them personal training services from anywhere. The more digital options you can offer to help clients get fit and healthy, the more likely you’ll end up with happy, long-term clients who bring in referrals.
2. Get Active on Social Media
Millennials spend 2 hours and 34 minutes per day on social media, according to a study of more than 60,000 millennials. That’s more than the time they spend on any other form of media, including audio or television, and more than the average internet user spends on social media.
Additionally, the study found that 29% of female millennial respondents follow trainers and fitness bloggers on social media. It’s no surprise, then, that personal trainer Jay Dang reported in an interview with Canva that he achieved a six-figure fitness business using social media. According to Dang, 50% of his clients come from Facebook, 30% from Instagram, and 20% from referrals.
“When choosing a platform,” he said, “you have to know where your ideal clients hang online or in person. More millennials are on Instagram right now, which is mostly my market.”
To get started reaching more millennial personal training clients, start building out a Facebook Page and an Instagram account for your business. If you have personal accounts on social media, that’s great, but to attract more clients you need to create accounts for your training business so millennials know you’re serious and trustworthy.
On social media, fitness professionals can come across as superficial, so post images and content that are real and honest and portray who you are as a personal trainer. Here are some ideas of what to share on social media:
- Inspirational content (#MotivationMonday)
- Before-and-after client photos (#TransformationTuesday)
- Food photos or cooking videos (#What’sCookinWednesday)
- Workout photos or videos (#FlexItFriday)
- Lifestyle photos or videos
- Q&As and Success Stories
Don’t forget to engage with your followers! If you just post content and don’t respond to comments or messages you receive, you’re just spinning your wheels. Also, interact with your clients, fitness brands, influencers, local residents, and trainers on social media. The more active and engaged you are, the more likely people are to believe that you’re genuine and passionate about what you do.
3. Embrace Video
The GWI study found that video — especially video on social media — is an effective way to inspire millennials to make a purchase of a product or service. In fact, US- and UK-based respondents were more likely than the average internet user to report being inspired to make a purchase after viewing a live video or video posted by an influencer or brand. Here are a few video ideas:
- Ask your clients if they’re willing to go live or participate in an on-demand video of one of their personal training sessions or Q&A sessions.
- You can also ask clients if they’re willing to talk about their experience with your fitness business for testimonial-style videos.
- Go live or post videos of you performing some of your favorite training exercises or explaining your approach to health, wellness, and fitness.
If you’re not sure what to post or you’re worried about offering the right type of video content that will pull in the right type of clients, ask your clients and followers what they want to see. Also, keep tabs on TikTok fitness trends and how other personal trainers are using video to grow their businesses.
Get More Millennial Clients and Grow Your Business
Millennials will continue to shape the fitness and personal training industries for years to come, particularly as they enter their peak earning years. Millennials want personalized, customized, and boutique-style experience, which is great news for personal trainers. As long as you have the right technology in place to reach them anytime from anywhere, your personal training business is bound to succeed.
For more tips and strategies for mastering the art of marketing and running a successful personal training business, check out other articles on the My PT Hub blog.