Formosa Fitness

I'm seeing more and more of anti-marketing sentiment in the fitness blogosphere. The idea is that maybe too many trainers are focusing on marketing instead of providing quality service. The unspoken assumption seems to be that if you provide top quality service, the clients will just flock to your door. I agree with providing quality training for clients, and my guess is that people who care enough to be reading trainer blogs and otherwise are trying to stay informed also care enough to provide quality service.

But the fact of the matter is that you can't be a fantastic trainer without clients. You could have the best service in the world, but if no one knows about you, then it won't matter. So marketing is essential.

Second, a lot of this sentiment is coming from the strength training community that have had fixed programs in place for a long, long time. Training athletic teams requires a hell of a lot less marketing than personal training. Working for high school, university or pro teams isn't the same. You're likely part of a team of coaches and the program is attached to an institution. You have a fixed salary. Most personal trainers are on their own.

Third, personal trainers must compete with all the other distractions that could attract client's discretionary income and that's where client's gym fees come from -- discretionary income. That means we have to compete with the marketing those other distractions use and they have much larger budgets. We personal trainers often have to compete with the new PS3 the client may be eyeing or the new set of wheels they want. And I think we can all agree it's a media-saturated marketplace.

These limitations can hinder promising trainers from setting up quality programs because they can't attract enough clients, let alone quality clients. So the relationship between marketing, clients and quality is a complex one.