Guide

Do personal trainers need social media to get clients?

By Jason Odell, founder of RiseForIt

No, not to get some clients: plenty of local trainers fill their book with referrals and Google reviews. But referrals cap you at the people who already know you. Content is how strangers start trusting you before they meet you, and it's the only way to get clients online.

Where the no-social trainers are right

Some trainers have been independent for ten years and never posted. They win on referrals, a strong Google Business Profile, reviews and the gym floor. If you train locally and your book is full, that can be enough.

Where it runs out

Referrals depend on the people you already train. When you want more clients, higher prices or online clients, you need strangers to trust you, and they can't if they've never seen you teach. Content does that while you're training someone else.

Do both, in order

• Set up your Google Business Profile and ask every happy client for a review.
• Ask for referrals at the moment a client hits a win.
• Post one useful long video a week and cut it into Shorts.
• Point the content at one kind of client, so the right strangers find you.

Common questions