Andrea Oh has written a couple of business books for personal trainers. Her first one, The Business of Personal Training, covered topics like getting certified and the first 90 days. However, this second one is solely dedicated to marketing strategies. 

In this article – we review ‘The Business Of Personal Training: Marketing Strategies’ by Andrea Oh.

This was one of the first personal training books we read that focused on the business side. It’s divided into four sections; marketing 101, strategies on a budget, digital channels, and sample campaigns.

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The Business of Personal Training: Marketing Strategies for the Profitable Personal Trainer is available from Amazon or local bookstores.

The first section provides an introductory overview to marketing concepts, with the following sections going into more detail on actual strategies. Here are our top takeaways from each of the chapters in the book…

Grassroots Marketing

Traditional grassroots marketing includes activities like local events, targeting nearby businesses, and community partnerships. However, the author takes a different perspective in this book.

She combines a local approach with personal recommendations, utilising email, social media, YouTube, special offers, and giveaways. She suggests that these approaches work well because people have become immune to adverts and automatically block them out.

Community Outreach

The community outreach section piqued our interest – it’s refreshing to read a marketing book that doesn’t focus solely on digital channels.

It suggests providing services to people who might not otherwise have access. It recommends sharing your knowledge and expertise with groups who can benefit the most (free of charge).

Now we’re big supporters of community interest projects, but would add a word of caution… You still need to pay your bills, so combine this approach with a follow-up strategy that generates paying leads.

Website

This chapter suggests that websites are something best left to professionals. If you’re an established PT with the funds to invest then this absolutely makes sense – your time is better spent elsewhere.

But if you’re newly qualified or just starting out, then you probably don’t have the money to spend on a web developer. In this situation we’d recommend a drag and drop web builder like Wix or Weebly.

At one point the book states that “trust… is seldom attained reading through a brochure or browsing through the pages of your website”. However this is contradicted in a later chapter on trust, reputation, and authority. Although we understand the sentiment, it’s not one we share.

Whilst it may be easier to establish trust in person, this isn’t always a viable option (especially with online training). Video, podcasts, and blogging are all ways that PTs can develop genuine client relationships and establish trust online.

Digital Marketing

This section addresses content marketing, keywords, social media, and search engine optimisation (SEO). It covers what they are and how they work at a high level, but doesn’t necessarily explain how PTs can apply this knowledge in practice.

However one topic it DOES do this for is writing killer content. It provides actionable ideas for fleshing out articles or blog posts, such as using…

  • Examples
  • Studies
  • Opinions
  • Quotes
  • Further reading
  • Illustrations
  • Charts
  • Infographics

This section also provides guidance on creating blog titles that are impactful and attention-grabbing. It even includes ideas for blog posts such as checklists, interviews, and reviews. One thing we especially loved was the handy blog post outline template.

Social Media

This chapter would probably be useful for absolute beginners, but we’re not sure about anyone else (sorry). It spends a lot of time justifying why to use social media, and unnecessarily explaining what Facebook is. We think it’s safe to assume that everyone knows what Facebook is these days.

It does explain how to set up your social media accounts for Facebook, Instagram, and X/Twitter with step-by-step instructions. However, it doesn’t go into much detail about what to do with these accounts once they’re set up.

We’d like to have seen more advice on what to post to get more clients or keep existing ones loyal. But perhaps that was just too broad of a topic to cover in one chapter. There is however some very useful info on how often to post and when the best times are.

Sample Campaigns

The last section of the book includes three examples of fitness marketing campaigns. Each one includes detailed sample content, such as flyers, email text, and social posts.

This is great for putting some of the previous chapters into context, and showing their real-world applications. They’re also a useful basis for your own marketing, enabling you to adapt your own content from the sample outlines.

Overall Opinion

Our overall opinion was that this is a solid read but won’t suit everyone. Some chapters are much stronger than others, which left us feeling that it’s a bit inconsistent.

We’d suggest reading it for free with Kindle Unlimited rather than purchasing it outright. If you find the info valuable and think you’ll refer to it again, then you can go all in and buy the book.

The Business of Personal Training: Marketing Strategies for the Profitable Personal Trainer is available from Amazon or local bookstores.

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