15 Email Marketing Secrets for Health Coaches and Personal Trainers

Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to market your health services online. 

But with the rise in social media, many health coaches and personal trainers have shifted their online marketing efforts away from this sales channel under the assumption that email marketing is a waste of time. 

Interestingly, reports from Adobe show that 83 percent of consumers actually prefer email over social media for brand communication. This same study found that there are more active email accounts now than ever before. 

In this article, I’m going to share a few of the top email marketing strategies for personal trainers and coaches to help you convert prospects into long-term customers.

15 Email Marketing Secrets for Health Coaches and Personal Trainers

Email is still one of the most effective strategies to get people to know, like, and trust you and your services. With the seemingly endless sea of competition out on social media, email marketing provides you with the opportunity to establish a much more intimate relationship with future prospects. 

Want to grow your email list? Check out this blog post. 

Here are 15 strategies that will help you get the most out of your email list: 

#1: Send Emails Frequently

Whether you’re a thriving health coach or a new personal trainer, sending regular emails is a great way to stay in constant contact with prospects and regular clients. 

One of the most common misconceptions about email marketing is that sending too many emails to your readers will steer customers away from you. This is only true if you don’t provide valuable information or entertaining content. 

Regularly sending emails to your list will keep you top of mind so that when the time comes and your reader is browsing for a health coach or personal trainer, you’ll be the first person the reader thinks about. 

These emails don’t have to be strictly promotional either! A great way to establish a close relationship and gain the trust of your readers is by providing valuable information before you promote your services.

For example, you can write an educational email about crafting an effective workout plan. Then at the end of the email, provide a short call to action to your services. By doing so, readers already get value out of your email, so even if they don’t work with you immediately—they’ll see you as an authority in case they decide to work with you in the future.

#2: Write Captivating Subject Lines 

No matter what people say, people do judge emails by the subject line.

Successful email marketers like testing various different subject lines to optimize their emails’ performance. While it may seem like a small part of your email marketing efforts, subject lines are one of the very first impressions you have on your list.

In addition, prospects or clients can’t take the action you want them to take unless they first open and read the email. That’s why creating captivating subject lines is so important. 

To write compelling subject lines, consider adding a few of the following elements:

• Urgency – Whether it’s “48 hours left” or “2 client openings remaining,” adding a sense of urgency to your emails will motivate the readers to click on and read your email.
• Curiosity – People are naturally curious, and writing a subject line that piques their interest can help increase your click-rate. 
• Short and sweet – Try to keep your subject lines fewer than 50 characters to make sure the people scanning your emails read the entire subject line. Anything longer and the message could get lost in translation, which ultimately ends in your email being ignored.

#3: Demonstrate Your Expertise

What can you possibly write about 3 to 4 times a week to your list? For people who aren’t great at writing in general, just know that this is actually one of the easiest parts of your email marketing efforts! 

Demonstrating your expertise to your list is a great way to get started. For example, if you’re a personal trainer, you can write an email about a specific exercise and even go over the steps in detail on how to do it properly. 

If you’re a health coach, consider writing an email about the benefits of cutting sugar out of your diet. You can even include a short meal plan to encourage them to take action on your advice right away!

Any valuable tips and tricks you can give your clients to help them reach their health and fitness goals is a great place to start if you don’t know where to begin. 

#4: Write Action-Driven Emails

What action do you want your readers to take after reading your message? 

It may be signing up for a one-to-one consultation, purchasing your new workout program or recipe book, or simply asking them to hit “reply” for feedback about their experiences working with you. 

Whatever the goal, you’ll want to write your email in a way that inspires and motivates the reader to take the specific action.

For example, let’s assume you’re a personal trainer who just started hosting group sessions and you want more people to start filling up your class. The action you want them to take is to click the link at the end of your email to sign up for it. 

The simpler and clearer the action you want them to take is, the higher the chances they will follow through with your request.

#5: Write Good Copy 

Writing the body copy is just as important as having a strong subject line. 

Once readers have clicked on your email, the main focus of the rest of your email is to keep their attention until the end. 

A great way to improve your email copy is by thinking of every sentence as a tiny cliff hanger. Think of each line as having one specific goal—to get them to read the next line.

Writing in this way keeps readers interested in your message throughout the entirety of the email and ultimately encourages them to want to take action by the time they arrive at your specific request. 

#6: Be Authentic in Your Message

To stand out in a sea of soulless business promotional emails, it’s important that you write in a way that shows your true personality to readers.

Your prospects and clients want to hear your story written in your own voice, not mindless robotic talk. All too often, health coaches and personal trainers make the mistake of trying to craft emails that have no “life” to them.

Readers have a better connection with those who are willing to share their personal story. Emails sharing life lessons and stories they can relate to will lead to a closer relationship with prospects and will inspire them to want to work with you. 

#7: Each Email Exists for One Reason

Regardless of what marketing channel, keeping your message singularly focused increases the chances that a prospect will want to work with you.

A great way to write emails with a laser-targeted message is by first defining the goal of your message. For example, if the purpose of your email is to educate and inform your list on a specific topic, then you’ll want to keep the message focused on that subject matter. 

Conversely, if the purpose of your email is to promote your new group classes, write your message in a way that motivates readers to sign up. 

Don’t forget to add a call-to-action at the end of your email to really crystallize the message for your readers. Encourage them to “click here to sign up” so they know exactly what to do after reading your email.

#8: Speak to One Person

A common mistake many people make when writing to their email list is trying to craft their message in a way that pleases everyone. 

Similar to specializing in a niche, successful email marketing follows the same principle. 

No matter what health business you’re in, you most likely have a very specific audience. Young bodybuilders who want to gain muscle mass require a completely different tone of voice compared to older women looking to improve their health.

Having one specific person in mind when writing your message will allow you to build a stronger connection and more trust with your reader. 

#9: Personalize Your Message 

With the increasingly advanced email marketing technology available to us, personalizing your email message is easier now than ever before. 

Personalization refers to segmenting your emails and creating funnels that are specific to a certain demographic based on age, location, occupation, interests, and gender. 

Personalizing emails helps increase engagement and open rates by crafting a message that speaks directly to the reader. For example, if you specialize in helping older men fix their back pain, you can filter your list and create an email sequence that targets that exact demographic.

As a health coach or personal trainer, catering to your audience’s specific problems and providing a solution is extremely important. Personalization allows you to sympathize with that specific audience without having to water down your message. 

#10: Greet Your New Subscribers

Your welcome email sets the tone for a closer client relationship. A great way to start establishing a better connection with new subscribers is with a simple introduction email about yourself. 

Consider sharing information about what led you to become a health coach or personal trainer, offer testimonials from previous satisfied clients, and provide readers with a sneak peek to show them the value they will get from working with you.

#11: Offer Valuable Content as an Opt-In 

If you’re just starting out with your email marketing efforts, gathering new subscribers is likely a top priority. 

A great way to start building your email list is by creating a simple opt-in page where you provide a valuable piece of content in exchange for email addresses. A few great examples of this include: 

• Giving a free eBook away that demonstrates your expertise as a health coach or personal trainer
• Giving a free recipe book away to subscribers who showed interest in weight loss
• Giving a free workout program to prospects who want to build muscle

Here’s an opt-in page we’ve created to share a downloadable PDF about our Holistic Nutrition program:

#12: Offer Giveaways 

Another great way to entice prospects into purchasing your services is by offering giveaways. You don’t necessarily have to giveaway an entire coaching package, but a trial session or even a discount works great. 

You can also gift small items or provide a subscriber-only sale to help retain old clients and encourage them to continue working with you. 

There are various apps online you can use to help set up the giveaway. For example, King Sumo has a comprehensive giveaway software that allows prospects to enter the giveaway and share it on their social media for a higher chance of winning. This can work wonders for increasing the subscribers on your list. 

#13: Create an Autoresponder

Since health coaching can be a somewhat lengthy sales cycle, setting up an email autoresponder is a great way to continue your sales message without any additional work.

An email autoresponder is simply messages that go out automatically after someone subscribes to your list. You can even create month-long sequences so every time readers sign up to your list, they are automatically taken through a trust-building sales sequence. 

#14: Create Urgency 

Emails that have a strict deadline is a great way to persuade clients to take action.

Adding urgency elements into your emails is a great way to craft more profitable email sales promotions. Some strategies that work well for health coaches and personal trainers include: 

• Limited client sessions available
• Available for a limited time only
• Special bonus if you sign up by the deadline

#15: Promote Your List Across All Social Media Channels

Whether you’re just starting out with email marketing or you’re a seasoned veteran, promoting your list on social media is a fantastic way to start getting new subscribers without any extra advertising budget. 

To start promoting your list, create an opt-in page, also known as a squeeze page, that provides a piece of free valuable content in exchange for readers’ email addresses. Then, you can link out to this page on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Youtube. For example, you can create an Instagram story with a short “swipe up” call-to-action that directs them to your opt-in page. 

If you have a passion for health and wellness, becoming a health coach through AFPA can be a fulfilling and rewarding career path.

Maximize Your Client Retention and Acquisition With These Effective Email Marketing Strategies

The evidence is clear that email marketing is one of the most effective ways to establish a closer one-to-one relationship and increase sales with your prospects. In addition, it’s a great way to continuously promote your services to past clients.

Email marketing will not only allow you to continue building trust with prospects, but it’s also an extremely cost-effective way to promote your services. 

By personalizing your messages, emailing your list regularly, and speaking in a conversational manner, email marketing can become an extremely valuable asset for your health coach or personal training business. 

Take your career to the next level with a certification from AFPA.