If you’re a professional in the fitness industry, chances are you love working with people, and you believe that helping them achieve their fitness goals is a fulfilling experience. The truth is, there is a massive opportunity for fitness experts right now – to expand their expertise into the digital space.
The recent pandemic prompted many fitness instructors to use virtual fitness training to keep their businesses open. In the last couple of years, online fitness has really seen a spike. In fact, the online fitness market is growing at an alarming rate; by 2026, it’s expected to reach $79 billion.
This rate of growth shows that fitness students are ready for online experiences. They want instructors to be able to teach fitness classes online so that they can easily build sessions into their already-busy schedules.
So, if you’re a fitness professional looking to start your fitness business online, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll share the benefits of selling fitness courses online and six simple steps to launch your fitness business online.
Let’s get started!
What are the Benefits of Selling Fitness Programs Virtually?
The most significant benefit of selling fitness courses online is that there is already an established market and consumer demand for this service. People already want to train in their own space whenever it’s convenient. All you have to do is provide them with a premium fitness training experience.
There are also some additional benefits to selling fitness programs virtually. Trainers can:
- Boost their brand awareness
- Expand their client base
- Increase revenue
- Introduce various revenue streams
- Start to have a flexible schedule
- Have a good work/life balance
How to Launch Your Online Fitness Training Business in 6 Simple Steps
Are you feeling intrigued about launching your own online fitness business? Fantastic! We’ve drawn up a few key steps you need to take while planning your business launch. These modest steps will help you set your fitness business up for success in no time.
Let’s get straight to it!
1. Find your niche
First and foremost – find a fitness niche. This may sound a bit too detailed, but trust that you need a niche to help you stand out from the crowd. As we saw earlier, the online fitness industry is growing at a rapid rate. This means more potential customers – but more competition, too. If you want to stay ahead of the pack, you need to find a niche.
This niche will help you identify your unique selling point (USP) and sell that to a particular customer segment. The more “funneled” your customer segment is, the better for you. It may sound like too few people to target, but if you’re targeting consumers actively looking for your niche, the chances of conversion to customers are high.
Below are some fitness niche examples from clients we’ve worked with:
- Muscle building
- Spinning
- Yoga
- Transformational training
- Aerobics
- Pilates
- Dance fitness training
- Bodybuilding
2. Establish your audience within your niche
If you really want to take your niche to the next level, you can create an offering specific to a very targeted audience. For example, if you’re a Pilates instructor, you may offer specific Pilates exercises based on a demographic of people who are:
- Suffering with scoliosis, or
- Are over 50 years old, or
- Are pregnant.
These three examples are some of many that you could choose to specialize in. Once you have your targeted consumer in mind, it’s time to really start understanding their needs.
To do so, ask yourself these questions:
- What does my ideal customer look like?
- What are their hobbies and interests?
- What are their preferences? (For example, do they prefer group or one-on-one training?)
- How old are they?
- Where are they located? (Remember, you don’t have location limitations with online fitness training!)
- How much are they willing to pay for a fitness training service?
- What did they like or dislike from previous training programs they’ve done?
When you have the answers to these questions, you can quickly build a profile of who your customer is. This “persona” will help you create relatable content for them in the coming months and years, thereby attracting them with minimal effort.
3. Get an online fitness training platform
Build a website
It’s time to start building all the digital assets for your online fitness business. The first element you’ll need is a website. This website will be available to all consumers and will be the space where you’ll showcase your fitness services and pricing.
But as we know, websites can become expensive very quickly. Thanks to video on-demand platforms, your website will be included in your online gym membership software plan. This way, you won’t need to invest in another website building software, and you can house all your content in one place.
In addition to a website being included, often video on-demand platforms offer you website templates. Simply choose what style of website you want, and customize it. Ensure that you sign up with a white label video on-demand platform that allows you to customize templates to match your branding, color scheme, and desired font.
Your website should include information such as:
- A description of who you are and your background.
- A description of your fitness niche and your services.
- An area which shares your pricing (e.g., membership plan pricing) and payment processing techniques (via PayPal, Stripe, or RazorPay).
- A promotion such as “sign up for a free trial” or “get a membership and enjoy the first month free.”
- A CTA (call-to-action) which prompts consumers to do something specific like “sign up” or “chat with someone to learn more.”
Upload, organize, and manage fitness content
Once you have planned your single-page or a full website, it’s time to create, upload and manage your fitness content. Creating content is something that you will be doing for the bulk of your time while running fitness classes. This is because VOD (video on-demand) libraries are included with fitness platforms online. Libraries are a great feature because they allow you to offer members instructional fitness videos that they can access at any time (think Netflix) and live fitness classes.
When creating fitness content, remember to ensure the following boxes are checked:
- Do your videos have a high resolution?
- Is the audio good quality on the videos?
- Are you filming in a stable and spacious location?
- Do you have the right type of natural light in your filming location?
- Are you using the correct type of equipment (cameras, microphones, etc.)?
Now onto organization and management. The truth is content management can get tricky if you’re trying to do it from your desktop. But once you begin uploading all your videos and posts to one of the best online fitness training platforms out there, you’ll see that content management isn’t as difficult as it may seem.
Video on-demand platforms allow you to bulk upload content to the platform in minutes. You can also categorize your content and allocate them to specific fitness learning programs. Videos, posts, and programs can also have certain permissions set to them. This way, only certain membership tiers can access specific pieces of content – and that planning is all in your hands.
Having an online fitness video platform helps you stay on top of each piece of content, its permissions, and its performance via reporting.
4. Pick a monetization model and price your services
Now that you have your website and content ready, it’s time to start formulating how you’ll be selling this content to clients. One way you can do so is by choosing an ideal video monetization model. There are three core video monetization models that you can choose from:
SVOD (subscription-based video on-demand): This is when a consumer purchases a monthly or annual membership from you to gain access to your fitness content. This is the most popular video monetization method amongst fitness instructors today.
TVOD (transactional video on-demand): This is more of a “once-off” transaction where a consumer will pay you a singular set fee to access a particular fitness learning program, video, or course. TVOD is often used as a complementary revenue stream.
AVOD (advertising-based video on-demand): This model is where viewers are actually not paying you directly. But in order to watch a broadcast, they do have to sit through ads. This is the least intensive but least favored video monetization model as fitness professionals prefer to have a recurring revenue model in place.
As you can see, it’s evident why the SVOD model is the favored video monetization model. It gives you access to consumers willing to pay a recurring fee for your expertise. More so, it allows you to start building a community with these members to retain them and build long-term relationships.
5. Market your fitness services
Well done, you’ve made it this far! Now it’s time to market your fitness business. But you should know that you can do a few things besides the usual “shout-out” on social media channels. Let’s take a look at them now:
Build awareness strategically
Start to get people excited about your brand and fitness business using various digital channels. You can do this by encouraging people to subscribe to your emails. Then pre-launch exclusive courses to your email subscribers. When using social media to push people to your website, host a giveaway to get the hype up. Also, consider using social media influencers to boost your brand name and get more people intrigued by your service.
Focus on your email subscribers
Once you have a list of email subscribers on your hands, don’t hold back – email them exclusive promotions, a preview of your fitness course content, and more. These people have already invested in your brand; now is the time to try and entice them enough to sign up for a fitness membership with you. But remember not to send emails too often.
Share behind-the-scenes content
Take some time to share behind-the-scenes content with your audiences. This could be done via email or social media. No matter which digital platform you choose to share on, make sure it’s one where you will be able to engage with your audience. You’re already starting to build relationships with prospective members by keeping the conversation going.
Talk about yourself
This is often a point that instructors don’t like to make – but it holds so much value! When you’re marketing your business, you’re marketing yourself as well. Try to introduce yourself, host a Q&A, and share your story with others. People resonate with people; getting them excited about your background and personality is important.
6. Adjust your services according to results
The final step of launching your fitness business online is to ensure that your paid or free membership software provides you with reports and analytics. You should be able to view your top-performing content at any given time. But more than anything else, your reports should be automated and customizable. This way, you can tell just how well a video is doing and whether you should tweak it or leave it in your fitness program. Your members’ reactions speak volumes – let them dictate where you go next.
Discover the Best Online Fitness Training Platforms in 2023
Launching an online fitness training business can feel like a truly daunting task. But when you use a premium fitness training platform, it isn’t necessarily so tough. If you follow the six steps above and you take the time to plan your fitness business upfront, the rest will flow easily.
We’ve learned from our fitness clients that a successful online training program comes with adaptation and perseverance. Your video monetization platform manages the rest. If you’re ready to learn more about how these video on-demand platforms can streamline your online teaching business, why not reach out to one of our team members here at Mastera?
Our platform does a lot more than manage your content. In fact, we offer you unlimited content, video hosting, and customers. Enjoy seamless live streaming with Zoom integration and make payments easy with automation. We have a lot to offer you – and we hope you’re ready to start this journey with us!
Schedule a demo with our expert team to find out how to get your online fitness business started with the right foot forward.
Co-Founder, Gleantap & Mastera