Personal Trainer Marketing Plan Template (+ Examples & Guide)

Writing a marketing plan for your personal training business can help you generate leads, sales, and income consistently. Many trainers experience a ‘feast and famine’ cycle, where they have lots of clients one month and suddenly just a few the next. But just having a simple plan can help you avoid this and enjoy predictable revenue all year round.

In this article, learn how to write your own personal trainer marketing plan by following our simple step-by-step guide (with templates and examples).

We’re a specialist fitness marketing agency with 15+ years of industry experience. We help personal trainers and online fitness coaches market themselves effectively. Check out our marketing consulting services for one-to-one help with your strategy.

A marketing plan can sound a bit formal and complicated to some people. If you don’t have a background in business (which most PTs don’t) then the idea of writing one might feel a bit daunting. But in reality, it’s actually quite easy when you know how… 

Writing marketing plans is something we do regularly for our clients, so over the years we’ve created lots of them. The approach we share here can be used for lots of different fitness businesses, from gym clubs to yoga studios, so you’ll find this useful whatever your setup. 

What Should a Personal Trainer Marketing Plan Cover?

A personal trainer marketing plan should include five basic elements…

1. Overall business goal
2. Marketing objectives
3. Strategies
4. Marketing tactics
5. Measurements

We recommend outlining all five elements on one page so that you can see everything in one place. It doesn’t need to be complicated to be effective. And if you’re creating it as part of a wider PT business plan, then it’s good to keep this concise. It’s often the process of coming up with marketing ideas that’s more important than the piece of paper itself.

Here’s an example personal trainer marketing plan template that you can get for free…

You can also get editable templates and a done-for-you PT marketing plan example as part of our easy Fitness Marketing Kit. It’ll save you time and give you a proven framework to follow.

But if you prefer to create your own version, here’s what to include…

#1 – Business Goal

This is the number one thing you want to achieve in your personal training business. For most fitness trainers, this will either be related to financial income or the number of people you help. Once you’ve settled on your big overarching goal, insert that along the top of the template. 

#2 – Marketing Objectives

Now think about how you’ll achieve this goal using marketing. Can you break it down into smaller parts? For example, if your goal is to make more money as a fitness trainer, then you could…

• Charge more for your services (increase pricing)
• Get more clients
• Sell additional products or services to current clients (like nutritional programs or supplements)

Examples of marketing objectives for a personal trainer could include attracting 5 new clients per month or raising prices by 10%.

#3 – Strategies

So, how will you meet these objectives? By outlining some simple marketing strategies that break down exactly what you’ll do.

For example, if your marketing objective is to position yourself as a premium trainer and command higher prices, then you could…

• Identify and research a target market with high disposable income
• Build your authority and credibility in a specialist area of fitness training
• Develop premium branding for your business
• Increase your hourly rate by 20%
• Introduce new training packages or bundles

Strategies should be high-level so will focus on things like your target market, branding, and increasing leads, sales, and loyalty.

#4 – Tactics

Tactics is where you can go into detail about how you’ll execute your marketing strategies. This is often the part that comes most easily to PTs since it’s all about ‘doing’. 

It can be helpful to consider the marketing mix for personal trainers when coming up with your tactics. So, think about…

• Product or service – what you’ll offer and how you’ll package it to be appealing.
• Place – where you’ll promote your services.
• Promotion – how you’ll promote them.
• Price – what and how you’ll charge to make your training compelling.

What methods can you use to communicate with your potential clients? Will you focus on digital marketing and online channels, or in-person events and printed materials? Define what your outputs will be (e.g. website, podcast interviews, business cards, leaflets) and messaging channels (social media, Google ads, email).

This comprehensive list of effective marketing ideas for personal trainers will help you with tactics.

#5 – Measurement

The final part of your marketing plan involves defining how you’ll measure each activity. How will you know if your promotional efforts are generating results? Or which ones are most effective?

Think back to your objectives and make sure you measure against them. Although clicks, reach, and attendee numbers are interesting, if they don’t reflect your objective then they aren’t relevant. 

So, if your goal is to sign up 10 new PT clients, then the measure of success should focus on the number of leads you generate and how many are converted into customers. 

Done-For-You Personal Trainer Marketing Plan & Templates

By following these steps, it’s easy to create a marketing plan for your PT business that’ll help you achieve your goals. Summarising your goal, objectives, strategies, tactics, and measurements on one page makes it easy to refer to and use often. This will help keep your marketing activities on track and focused on delivering for your business. 

To help guide you, we created ready-made personal trainer marketing plan templates. They include a sample plan for a PT business along with examples for gym and fitness studios too. You’ll also get blank editable templates so it’s easy to create your own plan.

Get it as part of our Fitness Marketing bundle, which includes a step-by-step guide and done-for-you examples.

Get more leads, sign-ups, and revenue for your gym, studio, or coaching business by using professional marketing templates.

You’ll get 40+ time-saving templates, done-for-you marketing materials, checklists, cheat sheets, planners, trackers, and other practical resources covering…

These are the same resources we use with our own clients. Learn more here.