Are you scratching your head, trying to work out how to bring more people into your gym through personal training services?

You might be the best personal trainer in the world, but if you don’t market yourself well, you will always limit how many potential clients come knocking on your door.

That’s where a great lead magnet comes into play. With the right one in place, you can greatly increase your volume of leads, improving your client base and also allowing you to increase your prices due to more demand.

What is a Lead, and Why are They Crucial for Personal Trainers

Firstly, before we get started, let’s quickly touch on what a lead is. Essentially, a lead is a potential client who may be interested in your personal training services.

They are in the market for a personal trainer, or maybe in the near future, and it is your job to promote yourself as the perfect option for your needs.

Leads are vital for personal trainers as they allow you to build up your client base, charge more for your services, and increase your skills and credibility in the fitness space.

What is a Lead Magnet?

The lead magnet serves as a strategic tool within the fitness industry. It is a complimentary resource or incentive that personal trainers offer to engage and captivate potential clients, providing them with a glimpse into the expertise and value they bring. 

It could be anything from a handy workout cheat sheet to a tantalizing recipe collection of guilt-free desserts. 

Basically, it’s a little taste of what you have to offer, designed to make your potential clients go, “Wow, this person knows their stuff!” 

The Benefits of an Excellent Lead Magnet

Attracting qualified leads effortlessly

As any personal trainer knows, your business isn’t successful without a constant flow of qualified leads. Without new customers, any personal training business will struggle to be successful.

The goal is always to keep as many clients as possible for long periods, but sometimes situations change, and you find yourself with more space in your diary, space that a new lead could perfectly fill.

Plus, the higher the demand for your services, the more you can charge per hour, increasing your profits.

Establishing credibility and expertise

A personal trainer’s craft is often defined by their credibility and expertise. By having a high-quality lead magnet that you can offer to new potential customers, you can easily show off your skills and show just how much you know about the subject matter.

This show of knowledge makes you a much more attractive prospect for potential clients who are looking for a fitness and health expert to employ as their personal trainer.

Building a strong email list

In many instances, you can keep your digital lead magnet locked behind an email address gate, allowing potential clients access to it, but only if they part with their highly-valued email address.

Many people will start shopping around for a personal trainer before they are ready to get started. Without a lead magnet, you hope you made a good enough first impression that they come back to you when the time is right, but that leaves a lot up to chance.

However, if your lead magnet offers an email address for you to contact, you can use this to share valuable and insightful content each week, keeping your name at the forefront of their mind, furthering your relationship, and highlighting your expertise with each email send.

Types of Lead Magnet that Work

Free workout guides or exercise routines

The most popular form of lead magnet for personal trainers is free workout guides or exercise routines.

And this makes sense when you think about it, as most potential clients are interested in improving their current exercise routine!

By providing high-quality workout guides that have plenty of options depending on the consumer’s current fitness levels, you show off your fitness expertise and adaptability and make yourself a more credible and trustworthy option for potential clients to start working with.

Nutritional meal plans or recipes

Another large part of health and fitness that many personal trainers dismiss or ignore is nutrition, and this information can help you make a high-quality lead magnet that your audience will enjoy.

Nutritional meal plans or recipes provide real support for potential clients and also show that your skills and expertise go further than just on the gym floor, which is a large selling point for many potential clients.

Ebook on fitness tips and tricks

If you like creating content that provides your potential clients with the most support and guidance, you could opt to write a fitness-based eBook.

Many people are interested in writing eBooks to try and sell them on Amazon, but by giving it away for free, in return for the reader’s email address, you show off your expertise while also gaining plenty of email addresses to contact in the future.

However, the main downside of this option is that it takes so long to create a high-quality eBook! Some personal trainers may be tempted to use AI tools to generate their content, but the results will be generic and a culmination of information that potential clients can find online, which will actually work against you rather than for you!

You could employ the support of a freelance copywriter to help if you have the funds available, but it might be worth opting for a different lead magnet while the eBook is getting created.

Webinar or online workshop on a fitness topic

If you are searching for online clients or want to talk to more leads at once, an online workshop or webinar could be an excellent option. By providing a workshop, you can provide your potential clients with valuable information, all while showing off your expertise and personality in the process.

This is also an excellent option for anyone who prefers verbal communication rather than spending hours writing out content to share.

Access to a private online community or support group

What is the one thing that most people are searching for when they look for a new personal trainer? 

Accountability.

While your expertise and motivation are certainly valued, many people opt for a personal trainer because they simply aren’t training as frequently or as effectively as they want to.

By providing an online community or support group for potential clients, you can show them an insight into your other clients who all keep each other accountable and champion each other’s wins.

If potential clients hear just how great your services are from other clients, that can heavily influence whether or not they opt to choose your services.

This option can be very effective, but it does require you to build out a strong support group in advance so that potential leads can seamlessly join and get the best experience before deciding to work with you.

Printable fitness trackers or workout logs

Another simple option you can create is a templated fitness tracker or workout log. There isn’t much opportunity here to show off your expertise, but sharing a high-quality, well-designed, and heavily branded workout log can pay off in the future, as it builds credibility and keeps your brand at the forefront of a potential client’s mind.

Plus, if they train with friends, it also helps get your branding in front of other potential leads. You could also offer a small discount on someone’s first personal training session if they bring their workout log with them to help seal the deal.

Personalized fitness assessment or consultation

Finally, we have one of the most common lead magnets personal trainers opt for, and for a good reason. Not only does a personalized fitness assessment or consultation offer you a chance to engage with potential clients one-on-one and show off your expertise and personality, but it also saves you plenty of time trying to write a high-quality and detailed recipe or fitness book.

Within your consultation, take the opportunity to try and understand their needs and tailor the assessment to suit them. Always follow up after a consultation, asking for their feedback and setting up potential training sessions.

How to Create Your Lead Magnet

Define your target audience and their needs

Before you jump straight into creating your chosen lead magnet, you need to assess what your target audience is and what their needs are.

For example, if you are targeting an older demographic of gym-goer, your content needs to reflect that, and the tone of voice, images used, and marketing approach will differ to someone targeting a younger demographic.

Equally, how you write will differ if you are targeting online clients or clients on the gym floor.

Create high-quality content

Once you’ve identified your audience, you need to produce high-quality content. The content you create for your lead magnet needs to be your best possible work, as it is often the first engagement that a potential client will have with your brand. 

If you create a half-baked lead magnet that lacks key information, it may give potential clients the impression you are lazy or lack knowledge, and they might opt for another trainer instead.

Format your lead magnet appropriately

Alongside producing excellent content, it also needs to be formatted correctly and in a friendly manner. Content should be easy to digest, clear, and formatted in a professional manner that makes you seem more professional and trustworthy.

Add branding elements

Next, it’s important to add your own branding to your chosen lead magnet. Regardless of whether it is print or digital content, it’s important to showcase your brand wherever possible. 

Strong branding is not only striking and memorable, but it shows off your professionalism and could even get noticed by other potential leads.

Promote your lead magnet

Now you need to get your lead magnet into as many potential clients as possible. If it is a digital lead magnet, you can do this via carefully targeted social media or Google Ads. 

As a printed lead magnet, you could set up a table within the gym you work in, in a position that garners plenty of footfall.

Measure and optimize

Finally, once you have built your lead magnet, don’t think your job is done! Once created, measure how effective your lead magnet is, and make changes where possible to improve it even further.

If it is a digital lead magnet, it is easy to monitor performance and make changes, whereas it’s a little trickier to do with a printed lead magnet.

However, it is still possible by following up on your leads and asking for feedback from those that said no to your services and even to those who said yes.

Conclusion: Building the Perfect Lead Magnet

As you can see, there are a ton of benefits to crafting a high-quality lead magnet. It can generate more quality leads, improve your credibility, and help you charge more for your services.

However, creating a high-quality lead magnet does not happen overnight and can take up much of your time and effort!

To create more time to build your perfect lead magnet, why not try out the Gymdesk gym management software? Built to free up your time and help you grow, the Gymdesk management software simplifies billing, enrollment, member management, and marketing features, and you can test it out for free for 30 days.

Lead Magnet FAQs

How do you make an amazing lead magnet?

1. Targeted audience analysis
2. Valuable content creation
3. Irresistible offer design
4. Engaging visuals
5. Clear call-to-action

How do you structure a lead magnet?

A well-structured lead magnet typically consists of an attention-grabbing title, an introduction that establishes credibility and captures interest, a clear outline of the benefits or value provided, valuable content with actionable insights or solutions, and a strong call-to-action that encourages further engagement or conversion.

How do you attract personal training clients?

• Targeted marketing
• Online presence
• Referral network
• Client testimonials
• Special promotions

What makes a great lead magnet?

A great lead magnet for personal trainers is one that offers valuable fitness or nutrition information, such as a free workout guide or a healthy recipe ebook, providing immediate value and showcasing expertise.