In recent years, health and wellness content has absolutely exploded on the internet. From YouTube HIIT classes to virtual yoga sessions, even TikToks of nutrition tips – there’s more about fitness online than ever before. In fact, the virtual fitness market size is expected to grow to a sizable $16.15 billion in 2022.
It’s no wonder that online personal training has been on an upward trend. And for good reason! It’s affordable, flexible, and it offered a safe way to train even during a global pandemic.
And if you’re a personal trainer, offering online services can really help you grow your fitness business bigger and faster than traditional personal training.
But, for all its many benefits, 100% online personal training is not the right fit for everyone. There will always be clients who prefer a little bit more hand-holding and want personal interaction.
So, is it possible to deliver all the advantages of online training and still provide the in-person support a large number of people need?
You bet.
Hybrid personal training combines in-person and online training. With hybrid personal training you can meet with clients weekly or biweekly and provide the rest of their training program remotely. This allows you to offer the in-person support of traditional personal training and the flexibility and affordability of online personal training.
In this article, we’ll talk about how to use hybrid personal training to grow your fitness business, and we’ll go over everything you need to know to start offering it to clients.
Table of Contents:
- Chapter 1: Why You Should Offer Hybrid Personal Training
- Chapter 2: How To Package And Price Hybrid Training
- Chapter 3: How To Get Your First Hybrid Personal Training Clients
- Chapter 4: Do You Need A System?
Why You Should Offer Hybrid Personal Training
In traditional personal training, you might meet with a client 3 times a week or more. In fully online personal training, you don’t ever meet with a client in person. Hybrid personal training is different because you meet with clients weekly or biweekly. It’s more flexible and customizable for clients than traditional in-person training, and also allows you to provide that important in-person support for those that need it. You could say that it’s the best of both worlds!
Let’s get a little more detailed about how and why hybrid personal training can be so beneficial.
Hybrid Personal Training is More Affordable.
For many people, the average gym membership doesn’t meet their needs or provide the personalized experience they are looking for. However, since traditional personal training can be expensive, they find themselves stuck somewhere in the middle. They have a little more money to spend on fitness, but still fall short on being able to afford a personal trainer 2-3 times per week.
As you can imagine, there are a lot of people that fall in this middle ground. That’s a gap in the market not served by traditional personal training. Tapping into this segment of the population can be extremely profitable.
Hybrid personal training can help you provide the personalized experience that people are looking for, without the price tag of traditional in-person training. It can help you customize your programs for those that are looking for an affordable solution that helps them meet their fitness goals.
Hybrid Personal Training is More Flexible.
Another segment of the population that benefits from hybrid training, are people that need a more flexible personal training option.
A busy CEO or new mom could benefit from the ability to do most of their personal training on their own time. Additionally, there are people that simply prefer to work out from home or spend a lot of time traveling. They, too, can fit personal training into their scheduleles by joining a hybrid personal training program.
Hybrid personal training can also help you serve people that live a bit further from your gym or fitness business. It’s much easier to drive the distance to meet in-person once a week or less than it is to make it happen multiple times a week.
Hybrid Personal Training Gives Your Business A Competitive Edge.
By catering to the many types of people not well-served by the traditional personal training model, you can give your business a competitive edge. It also allows you to make better use of one of your most precious resources: time. This allows you to scale much more quickly and bring many more clients better results.
Even though more things are moving online, not many businesses are offering hybrid training yet. Incorporating this into your business now will help you reach many more people and scale your business fast.
How To Package And Price Hybrid Trainings
Packaging in-person training sessions are very straightforward; you usually just set a price for each session. In hybrid personal training, you are meeting with clients less often. In your in-person meetings, instead of taking your clients through a workout, you would use the time to do things like: go over exercise form, take assessments, and review progress. The rest of your personal training program is delivered online through a personal training software like TrainerFu.
Because of the nature of hybrid training, pricing your services can take a little more consideration. However, it doesn’t have to be complicated! Here are the steps we recommend:
- List everything you want to include in your service.
- Create two different packages: one with a weekly in-person session and another one with a biweekly session.
- Determine the minimum you need to offer in your package to deliver clients results.
- Calculate how much time it would take to deliver what you have listed. Don’t forget to account for admin, marketing, and other miscellaneous tasks that will take up your time.
- Multiply that by your hourly rate, then calculate your monthly price.
- Offer additional in-person sessions at your normal in-person session rates.
You can choose to charge the online and in-person components separately. To do this, sell online components at a monthly subscription price and the in-person sessions by the number of sessions bought.
However, a monthly subscription pricing that includes everything makes the most sense for this model. It is easier to explain to clients, and you don’t have to do separate bookkeeping.
Be sure to leverage online training capabilities to increase your profit. Offer these add-ons at an additional charge:
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* Nutrition coaching
* Habit coaching
* Community support
* Supplementary content like recipe guides and meal plans
How To Get Your First Hybrid Personal Training Clients
So you’re probably feeling pretty excited about using hybrid personal training to grow your business and get more clients!
So how do you get started?
When marketing and selling your hybrid plan, always keep in mind what makes hybrid training so enticing: affordability and flexibility.
Do you sometimes get prospects who get cold feet after hearing your in-person package rates? Approach them about hybrid training.
Do you have a list of people who came to you for your services but didn’t join because of price? Send them an email about your new hybrid plan offering.
Offer Hybrid Training To Existing Clients
One of the best ways to begin offering hybrid personal training is actually to start with your existing clients.
Do you have a client that you think would do well with less in-person support and that could benefit from a hybrid plan? Ask them to transition to hybrid personal training. Offer an incentive or discount to encourage them to make the switch.
There’s another bonus to working with a client that you already have a relationship with. It will help you get important feedback so that you can refine your hybrid plan. You can even ask for a testimonial from this client if they have a good experience, then use that testimonial in your marketing materials to help bring you other clients.
Sales Script To Explain Hybrid Personal Training To New Prospects
Of course, you’ll also want to sell hybrid training to brand new prospects. These people will be weighing the benefits of a hybrid plan with traditional personal training. They need to be convinced that hybrid training meets their needs.
Not sure what to say? We can help.
“With hybrid personal training, you’ll get more access to me than you would with strictly in-person training. I’ll be able to provide you with support and accountability not only during our in-person sessions, but also all week long.
Plus, to get you the best results, it’s important that we work on all aspects of your lifestyle – not just your workouts. Hybrid personal training enables me to do just that. We’ll use the in-person session to perform assessments, review your progress, and demonstrate new exercises and correct form. I’ll deliver the rest of the training to your app.
In the app, you’ll be able to see your workouts along with exercise videos, and you can complete them whenever and wherever you’d like. We’ll also work on changing a few habits at a time, and I’ll check-in with messages, reminders and educational material through the app to help you build lifelong healthy habits.
We also have a great community built right inside the app. They’ll make your training fun and provide you with additional support and accountability to achieve your goals even faster.
Hybrid training is the best I have to offer and I’m sure you’ll love it.”
Feel free to use this script as is or revise it to meet your needs.
Offering A Discounted Trial As A Backup Strategy
You may find that some prospects are very interested but a little unsure of how the online aspect of hybrid training works. You can combat this by offering a little taste of your online personal training in the form of an online fitness challenge.
An automated fitness challenge is a short, online challenge that automatically delivers one or two small benefits to the client. Essentially, it’s like giving your client a free trial of your training. You can easily set up an online challenge in Trainerfu.
Once most clients experience how easily online training fits into their schedule and the results that are possible, they’ll be more than happy to commit full term!
After you get one or two hybrid training clients, your momentum will build. Since hybrid personal training meets the needs of more people, you can expect to get more referrals with this model, helping you expand your reach.
Do You Need A System?
If you want to successfully offer hybrid personal training, you’ll definitely want a system that makes it easier and more effective.
To make the most of hybrid training, you should be able to train your clients in less time. This will make hybrid training both affordable for clients and profitable for your business. You also need to be able to keep clients accountable in an easy way. Because of this, organization and automation are your friends when it comes to hybrid training. That’s why we created TrainerFu.
Use the app to build out your hybrid program and keep clients on track. Train and retain more clients with our efficient platform built for personal trainers. You can even try the app for free!
We already rely on the internet for so much these days. Why not leverage it as a way to grow your fitness business? If you’re ready to branch out, make more money, and help more clients, offering hybrid personal training through TrainerFu is the way to go.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is hybrid personal training?
Hybrid personal training combines in-person and online training sessions. Clients meet with their trainers periodically—such as weekly or biweekly—for face-to-face sessions, while the remainder of the training program is delivered remotely. This approach offers the personalized support of traditional training alongside the flexibility of online coaching
2. How does hybrid personal training differ from traditional personal training?
Traditional personal training involves multiple in-person sessions each week. In contrast, hybrid training reduces the frequency of face-to-face meetings, supplementing them with online program delivery and communication. This model provides greater flexibility and can be more cost-effective for clients
3. How should hybrid personal training be packaged and priced?
Trainers can create packages that include a set number of in-person sessions combined with online support and program delivery. Pricing should reflect the reduced in-person time while accounting for the value of personalized online coaching. Offering various packages can cater to different client needs and budgets
4. What types of clients are best suited for hybrid personal training?
Hybrid training is ideal for clients who desire personalized guidance but require flexibility due to busy schedules, travel, or preference for home workouts. It also suits those seeking a more affordable alternative to traditional personal training.
5. Is hybrid personal training suitable for beginners?
Yes, hybrid training can be adapted for beginners by scheduling more frequent in-person sessions initially to teach proper form and technique, gradually increasing the online component as the client becomes more confident.