Fitness Marketing: A Quick Guide Using Sales Funnels & Email Marketing [2024]

The fitness industry has been growing rapidly in the past few years, with more and more people becoming motivated to stay fit. And if you are a personal fitness trainer, you, too, have the opportunity to get more clients.

However, fitness marketing is not easy. Competition is high, and the number of trainers out there is growing every day.

So, you have to devise a proper marketing strategy that will help reach more potential prospects easily and convert as many of them as possible.

Today, I’ll discuss one such strategy that is proven to help personal fitness trainers get more clients real quick – the fitness sales funnel.

After reading this article, you will

• Learn to plan a fitness program that most people will love.
• Plan a funnel strategy that will help you actively convert clients.
• Craft a fitness sales funnel on your website using reliable tools.

Eventually, you will have a complete fitness funnel in place to get more qualified leads and convert them into your clients, enhanced by strategic fitness advertising

So let’s begin.

What is Fitness Marketing?

Fitness marketing is your way of reaching out to people who want to get in shape and stay healthy. It’s about sharing what makes your fitness services or products special and how they can help someone meet their health goals. Whether you’re a personal trainer, own a gym, or sell fitness gear, it’s your job to let potential customers know why they should choose you.

Let’s say you own a local gym. You might use fitness marketing to show off the friendly, supportive atmosphere your gym offers, highlight member success stories, and run promotions for free trial memberships. It’s about making a connection with people who are looking to make a positive change in their lives, helping them see how your gym can be part of their fitness journey.

Types of Fitness Marketing

Now that you’re familiar with what fitness marketing is, let’s look at the different types that can help you reach more people and grow your business. Each type has its own way of connecting with potential clients, and you can mix and match them to suit your goals.

i. Social Media Marketing

Social media, a key platform for fitness advertising, is where you spark conversations and guide potential clients into your fitness funnels. It’s a straightforward way to keep your community active and involved.

ii. Content Marketing

Your blog or YouTube channel can be a valuable resource for those looking to improve their fitness. By consistently sharing useful information, like workout tips or health advice, you help your audience while establishing your expertise in the fitness field.

iii. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is about making sure people find you when they’re looking for fitness options online. Using the right keywords and creating valuable content helps you appear higher in search results, making it easier for potential clients to find your business.

iv. Email Marketing

Email marketing serves as a critical component of your fitness funnels, allowing you to maintain contact with clients and subscribers through regular updates, tips, and promotions. It’s a personal way to stay connected and ensure your audience stays informed about what you offer.

These types of marketing each have their strengths, and when used together, they can significantly enhance your ability to attract and retain clients in the competitive fitness industry.

Creating A Conversion-Optimized Fitness Marketing Sales Funnel

To create an effective fitness sales funnel, you need to follow these 3 steps:

1. Plan Your Training Programs
2. Plan Your Sales Funnel Journey
3. Create A Fitness Funnel In Your WordPress Site

Let us look at how you may execute each of them.

Step 1 – Planning Your Fitness Training Programs

Getting fitness clients or selling personal training services is not as simple as selling household products.

People tend to do a lot of research before choosing the right fitness trainer as it will affect their health and daily lifestyles.

So, the first step of your funnel is to plan training programs your prospects will love.

Following are three 12-week training programs you may consider planning:

1. Endurance Training
2. Flexibility Improvement Program
3. Cardiac Rehabilitation Program

Once you have decided what programs you have created, you have to plan the activities you want people to follow each week.

Basically, you need to plan what activities should be done each week.

Next, record videos for each week with instructions and demonstrations of what to do.

You will have a total of 12 videos ready, which will be the key resources of your training program.

Do the same for each of your programs and decide how much you want to charge for each of your programs.

You may then arrange them in a course using LearnDash or host them on pages on your website, with private access to yourself only. (We will see how later in this guide.)

Creating A Course Using Your Videos With LearnDash

1. First, create a course in LearnDash and give its name as the program name. As per our example, name it “Flexibility Improvement Program.”
2. Add each of your videos as a lesson to create 12 lessons under this course. Include the week number and a suitable name for each lesson.
3. Change the course type to “Buy Now” and assign a price to your program.
4. Use RestrictContent Pro to make each lesson visible 5 days after the previous lesson is completed, but keep the 1st lesson visible since the day of enrollment.

~ Here is a guide on how to use LearnDash to create courses.

Hosting The Videos On Your Website

This one is a bit tricky, so do it with concentration.

1. Create a page and embed the 1st video on it.
2. Use PPWP plugin to password-protect this page.
3. Do the same for the rest of your videos in the program.
4. You may then send each page via email with the password to access the video.

Step 2 – Planning The Fitness Sales Funnel Journey

Now that your training program is decided and recorded, it’s time to plan the funnel journey you want to create for your prospects.

Following is a good Fitness funnel journey you may use to generate leads and close more sales.

1. Create a landing page with a quiz (for lead generation)
2. Generate Traffic via Ads
3. Create separate funnels for each training program.
4. Redirect to respective funnels based on answers in the quiz.
5. Set Re-targeting Ads and lead nurturing.
6. Automate the training program access

Let us learn about these in detail.

1. Create A Landing Page With A Quiz

Offering your training program directly to prospects won’t work. You first need to find a way to gain their trust.

The best way to grab the attention of potential buyers is to use a Quiz.

People love quizzes that can help them determine their fitness condition, what exercises they may require, what diet they should follow, and so on.

You may create a quiz to ask a few basic questions to determine which training program your prospect is suitable for.

The quiz could include questions as simple as:

1. What is your current level of physical activity?
2. What are your fitness goals?
3. Do you have any specific health conditions or injuries?
4. How many days will you be able to train for your fitness?

The answers should be in a dropdown list or on radio buttons to choose from.

Place this quiz on a landing page and promote in the copy that, based on the quiz, you will suggest the best training programs for them.

2. Generate Traffic via Ads & Social Media

You must decide how to drive traffic to your quiz landing page.

The best way would be to run Paid Ads on Google, Facebook, and Instagram, where you will be able to target audiences who have either joined any fitness centers or have shown interest in fitness-related topics.

Bonus hack:
People who need fitness training are obsessed with good advice videos on certain exercises or activities. You may create one such video and release it on your Facebook Page. Then boost it on a low budget. It will get a lot of views and engagements. You may then run Facebook Ads for people who engaged with this video. This usually helps to get high-quality leads, as people who have engaged probably need your help.

But you must make sure the Ads are about promoting the quiz and not your training programs.

The main call to action would be “Take The Quiz!” while the image will entail why they should take this quiz.

3. Create Separate Funnels For Each Training Program

Now, for each training program, create a sales funnel journey with 4 pages – Landing Page, Checkout, Upsell, & Thank You.

• Landing Page Of A Training Program
  Structure the landing page in the following way:
  – A VSL (video) on the first section along with a benefit-rich Headline.
  – Followed by 3 sections of why this training program is beneficial
  – Next, 2 sections of Testimonials & case studies
  – 1 Section about extra resources people will get with this training program.
  – A good offer on your training program.

The landing page will be a sales letter where you show the value of your training program and make a good offer, let’s say $300 instead of $800 (i.e., a $500 discount).

• Checkout Page For Your Course
  Make a simplified checkout process to enroll in the training program.
  Exclude all unnecessary fields, such as Address fields, and use the Express checkout layout.

• Upsell Offer Page
  Offer fitness equipment or supplements (as a side hustle) that may be useful for your trainees at a discount.

• Thank You Page
  Confirm the order and instruct them on how to gain access to your training program materials.
  Plus, request them to join your Facebook group or like/follow your other social channels.

Once you have the 3 funnels ready, let’s move to the next step.

4. Redirect To Respective Funnels Based On Answers In The Quiz

Now, set up conditions in your quiz so that the prospect will be redirected to a certain training program funnel landing page depending on the answers to specific questions in the quiz.

For example, based on the answer you set,

• Individuals who wish to improve their cardiovascular fitness, muscular endurance, and overall health will be redirected to the Endurance Training program funnel.
• People who want to increase their range of motion, reduce stiffness, and improve their overall flexibility will be taken to the Flexibility Improvement program.
• Anyone who have experienced a cardiac event, such as a heart attack, bypass surgery, or heart failure, and have completed medical treatment, may be re-directed to the cardiac rehabilitation program.

This will make the journey more personalized and increase your conversion rates.

5. Set Re-targeting Ads and Lead Nurturing

Whoever doesn’t end up enrolling in the program, you may initiate re-targeting Ads on Facebook to win some of them back.

Plus, you have leads, thanks to the quiz. So you may initiate an email series to nurture your leads before making them an offer again.

6. Automate The Training Program Access

The moment a person makes a payment, initiate an email automation flow where a link to the first lesson or video embed page will be sent right away. Then, set up delays to send the next lesson or training video after 7 days. So, you will have a series of 12 emails starting with the day the person enrolled in your training program.

If you have used the method of hosting it on your site, then your emails should include the password to view the video.

And that’s it. Your fitness sales funnel is ready.

Guide To Creating A Fitness Quiz Funnel In WordPress

To create and automate your fitness marketing funnel, you will need the following tools.

1. Forminator – a form builder to create the quiz
2. WPFunnels – a funnel builder to create fitness funnels
3. Mail Mint/ Fluent CRM– automate your fitness sales funnel

So, let’s go ahead with the step-by-step procedure.

Step: 1- Create the Separate Sales Funnels

1. In WPFunnels, you can easily create a 1-step funnel with a landing page. Make sure to put up a convincing copy on the landing page so that people find it interesting to take the quiz.

Step: 2- Create the Quiz with Conditions

1. To build the quiz, create a form that includes questions with a radio button using Forminator.

2. Input the question in the Label & name three options with your services.

3. Once the form is ready, set up the conditions to redirect to the respective funnels based on the responses using its conditional behavior & publish the quiz.

4. Then embed the quiz you created in Forminator to the landing page & save the funnel.

Suppose someone chooses the Improving Flexibility Program. He has to be redirected to the sales funnels you created for your fitness training programs.

Step 3 – Create Your Training Program Sales Funnels

Now, create 3 more funnels in WPFunnels and set up each of them as per instructions in one of the previous sections. And link this to the conditions you set in the quiz form.

And that’s it. You now have a full fitness sales funnel on your WordPress site.

5 Unique Fitness Marketing Ideas To Implement Right Away

Before we wrap up, let’s dive into five unique fitness marketing ideas you can start implementing today to enhance your client engagement and boost your business growth.

1. Leverage Instagram Stories for Real-Time Engagement: Instagram is a visual platform perfect for fitness marketing, and its Stories feature is excellent for real-time engagement. Start by sharing daily fitness tips, quick workout videos, or behind-the-scenes looks at your training sessions.
   
   Use polls and question features to interact directly with your followers, making them feel part of your fitness journey.
   
2. Host Virtual Fitness Challenges: With more people working out from home, virtual fitness challenges can be a powerful tool to keep your clients motivated. Set up a 30-day challenge with specific workouts to complete each day.
   
   Use your website or a dedicated app to track participant progress, and offer incentives for the winners, such as discounts on future training sessions or free merchandise.
   
3. Create a Referral Program: Word-of-mouth is incredibly effective in the fitness industry. Develop a referral program that rewards current clients for bringing in new ones.
   
   For example, offer a free personal training session or a discounted membership plan for every new client they refer who signs up for a monthly or annual membership.
   
4. Develop Downloadable Fitness Guides: Offer downloadable content as a way to provide value and collect email addresses. These can be comprehensive guides on nutrition, workout plans for different fitness levels, or tips for achieving specific fitness goals.
   
   Once downloaded, you have a direct line to communicate with potential clients through email marketing.
   
5. Partner with Local Businesses: Collaborate with local health-focused businesses such as juice bars, health food stores, or sports equipment shops. You can offer exclusive workshops or fitness classes for their customers and in return, get access to their customer base for direct marketing.
   
   This not only increases your visibility but also builds community relationships that can lead to sustained growth.

By incorporating these strategies into your marketing plan, you’re not just selling a service; you’re creating an engaging fitness community. These ideas are straightforward to start and can significantly impact how you connect with current and potential clients, keeping your fitness business thriving.

Final Thoughts

If you are able to run this fitness marketing funnel properly, then you will be able to sell personal training and other high-ticket fitness services easily.

The key to the success of this fitness funnel is how well your VSLs are in your training program landing pages. Hence, you will need some expertise in copywriting and video promotions to pull this off.

So go ahead and create your own fitness sales funnel and start getting more clients easily.

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