Do You Have A Personal Marketing Plan?

My Business Is Fitness is predominantly geared toward helping personal trainers and fitness professionals develop marketing and promotional plans for their businesses, but today I'd like to talk about setting up a personal marketing plan for yourself.

Some people only market themselves when they're looking for a new job or if they're looking for business investors, but the reality is, you should be marketing yourself 24/7.

Nobody can market you better than you; you are your business regardless if you're self employed or working as an employee.

So why should you market yourself?

You are constantly being judged in the professional world, by the way you dress, speak, wear your hair and even your handshake.

If you're training clients in a gym, rest assured that your colleagues and/or employers are watching you, not to mention potential clients that might be working out nearby.

You always need to present a professional package. I've seen personal trainers text messaging during appointments and while their immediate client may not be aware of it, their future ones most definitely taking a mental note.

Your personal marketing plan should cover the following:

• What you wear. Are you a walking billboard branding your business? Make sure you are always well groomed from your shirts to your shoes. If you train where you work, consider getting some t-shirts or tank tops made up with your business information on them. Don't train in a t-shirt with a satanic band on it or an offensive slogan.
• Your physical appearance: Do you look athletic? Have you shaved or done your makeup?
• Material objects: Do you have professional business cards, is your car washed, is your workbook organised and neat?
• Your professional personality: While I encourage individuality, if you don't appear enthusiastic, happy and approachable then you might as well get a job in IT. If you're having a bad day, leave it at the door.
• The way you laugh, speak, smile, if you look people in the eye that you're speaking to, nervous twitches; pretty much anything that you can think of, you're being judged on.

Hard to believe, but this is only a small list of things that the public notice and different people notice different things so it's best to cover everything!

So what do you do?

You need to identify who you are and how you can best represent yourself within your personal means. You need to control the message that you send to people.

• Consider your personal point of difference. What can you market about yourself to stand out?
• Consider your target market and what they expect from a personal trainer.
• Find successful fitness professionals who are working in a similar environment to you and notice what they're doing and integrate that into your image.
• Decide on your goals, both short term and long term and incorporate that into your personal message.
• Update your testimonials regularly to reflect your personal growth as a professional.

 As long as you realise that there is ALWAYS someone watching you you're halfway there, you just need to capitalize on that and use it to your advantage.

Ben

Additional Reading: How To Plan Your Success