3 Ways to Get More Clients as a Fitness Coach in 2024

As a health and fitness coach or personal trainer, you have to recognize that your client's wants aren't always the same as their needs. 

The worst part of being an evidence-based coach who truly wants to help people is that marketing gurus will tell you to make Instagram posts that speak to exact timelines, with “named” diet systems that guarantee specific results⁣.

For example, a marketer might recommend that you make a post saying, “LOSE 30 POUNDS IN 90 DAYS WITH MY PROVEN FAT-TO-FIT SYSTEM!!”⁣

Sure, this type of marketing will work to bring in new clients, but it's also problematic.

In this blog post, I will share how you can attract clients without relying on diet scams or gimmicky marketing language.

My methods will help you build better relationships with your clients, increase your client retention, boost your credibility, get better results for clients, and create a long-term strategy to grow your fitness coaching business.

Traditional Marketing to Get More Clients in the Fitness Industry

Fitness marketing can help you get more clients, but it can also be harmful.

Yes, a super punchy and promising post like the one above might bring in clients, but it lacks morals, integrity, and truth.⁣

This kind of content and marketing is why we often hear from our clients that the nutrition and fitness industry has become untrustworthy.⁣ It's also why many potential clients are skeptical about your coaching services even though you're an evidence-based coach. 

And I can't say that I blame them. 

After all, tons of fitness coaches out there claim to have “easy and proven methods,” but that's just a marketing ploy they use to drive sales. 

Sure, some may help their clients, but the question is whether they deliver sustainable, long-term results. The answer is often no. 

Many of your potential clients are looking for quick weight loss programs and promises such as “shed 2-3 pounds per week!”

What they need, though, is a slower rate of weight loss over time to achieve those results sustainably and then maintain them long-term.

This is where your evidence-based expertise comes into play. You know that the only way to create lasting change is to help your clients create behavior change, such as through adopting a growth mindset.

The term "quick" is a marketing term, not a path to success, and we know that fast weight loss is most likely water loss rather than the fat loss your client is looking to achieve. 

Although these "quick results" may make for a, seemingly, fast transformation, they won't be good for the long-term success of your business as people regain that weight just as quickly as they lost it.

Why am I Struggling to Get New Clients?

If your business is struggling and you can't seem to get clients, it may be because of your marketing.

The services you offer aren't that different from other evidence-based coaches, your expertise is at par, but you still aren't getting customers. It's because people are smart.

Your ideal customers are likely highly intelligent individuals who are sick and tired of diet scams and can see right through things like, "Do these 6 exercises for abs in 30 days!"

They want to know if you can actually help them lose weight, feel better, and change their behaviors (for good this time). 

They want to know that you will guide them to creating long-term change and not need to rely on you forever.

How to Sell to Win Clients vs. How to Help Clients Create Change

Marketing yourself as a fitness coach who can “help clients lose 30 pounds in 90 days” works because it uses the “give the people what they want” angle.⁣⁣

If you want to sell, make your coaching and program require little effort, guarantee their results, and promise a fast pass to success.⁣

Because that's what people want.⁣

BUT⁣!

If you want to honestly help people, have clients that stick around, and refer more clients to you, then you need to be transparent with people (aka the BEST long-term business success strategy!). 

You can make money without being a scam artist!

You can get big clients without relying on scams, and the more clients you get and help through ethical means, the more your business will grow as you develop a reputation as an evidence-based coach who delivers long-lasting results.

That is how you can find clients without having to turn your social media profiles into clickbaity scam pages.

Here are three ways to get more clients and improve your client retention without tricking people into working with you.

1. Don't Make Promises You Can't Keep

Make part of your sales process that you tell potential clients that you can't guarantee how their bodies will respond to a diet, so you can't give an exact timeline.⁣

Although they may want guaranteed results, such as losing 10–15 pounds in 60 days, it's important to teach clients to embrace trial and error because you will have to see how things go and how their body responds.

The industry is full of coaches making false promises, so your clients will appreciate your honesty and will trust you more if you don't make promises you can't keep.

Don't focus on what every other coaching team is promising. Focus on what you can do for your customers and how you can use your expertise to help them create real change.

2. Teach Your Clients the Habits That Lead to Success

Tell potential clients you don't want to just tell them what to do. You want them to learn how to do these things on their own so eventually, they won't need a coach. 

And tell them that developing that skill and knowledge will require effort.⁣

If they want clear rules (such as “no sugar allowed”), it's important to teach them flexible guidelines. 

While telling them to “eat this” and “avoid that” may seem easier, it doesn't help your clients. Their daily routine will change, they won't always have full control over their food, and they'll want to color outside the lines. You will not be doing your clients or community a service by laying it all out for them in a black-and-white manner.

Rules leave your client with no choice but to fail in those situations. Flexible guidelines provide them with choices on how to remain successful.

And when you find clients who say things like, "I just want somebody to tell me what to do!" remind them of how much more successful they will be long-term if they learn healthy habits rather than rely on someone to tell them what to do every day.

Teaching new clients to develop healthy habits also means you will have to answer questions so they can fully embrace what you are teaching them.

You may also want to check out this blog post, which questions to ask your client during their check-ins.

3. Look at Things Long-Term

Tell potential clients that losing a specific amount of weight isn't a good goal for long-term weight loss maintenance. Teach them what it takes to maintain weight loss so they don't return to yo-yo dieting.

As fitness coaches, we don't want our clients to constantly be attempting to diet. They should eventually get to a point where they're happy with where they are and want to maintain that long-term. 

Once you shift your client's focus from short-term goals to long-term lifestyle changes, they will become more likely to succeed in their goals and trust you more.

Not to mention, their mental health and overall life will be better if they aren't thinking about dieting and weight loss 24/7.

Honest Coaching Sells, Too!

Of course, the quick-fix angle will sell, get you your first client, and some short-term social proof, but in my experience, so will honesty and integrity.⁣

At KJO Coaching, we're determined to help as many people as possible by teaching them how to achieve sustainable fat loss, improve their relationships with food, and increase their strength. 

And we do this without making promises we can't keep. This has served as an excellent business model for us and helped us create a community of satisfied customers.

We build trust with our community, which makes them want to talk about our services to others, which then leads to even more customers.

If you want to learn how to incorporate HONEST marketing and psychology into your coaching business, you're in the right place! I can teach you how to cultivate a growth mindset in your clients and guide them to sustained behavior change using evidence-based practices in psychology.

With the Health Mindset Coaching Certification, you'll feel more confident in your abilities to help clients with psychological aspects of health and fitness, so you don't have to rely on scamming people into working with you. 

You can grab 5 FREE lessons in behavior change and psychology from me by joining the waitlist for the Health Mindset Coaching Certification — click here!

Your clients will thank you for helping them create change that doesn't make them rely on your services forever and your business will thank you by bringing in more clients without making you feel icky.

See my original Instagram post here.

Connect with us!

Email: [email protected]  

IG: @coachkaseyjo @healthmindsetcert ⁣