How To Start A Fitness Boot Camp Business

It’s a great time to consider starting a fitness boot camp business, as they’re a growing trend in the fitness industry.

We’re going to guide you through eight steps to help you get started:

• Step 1 - Starting A Fitness Boot Camp Business Begins With The Right Qualifications
• Step 2 - Gain Practical Experience Before Running A Fitness Boot Camp
• Step 3 - Conduct Effective Market Research To Inform Your Fitness Boot Camp Business
• Step 4 - Decide On Where You’ll Be Running Your Fitness Boot Camp
• Step 5 - Create A Strong Business Plan When Starting A Boot Camp Fitness Business
• Step 6 - Secure The Right Legal Coverage For Your Fitness Boot Camp Business
• Step 7 - Establish An Effective Pricing Strategy To Help Your Fitness Boot Camp Thrive
• Step 8 - How To Get Clients When Starting A Fitness Boot Camp Business

Before starting a fitness boot camp, you can get qualified and start earning with our Personal Trainer Diploma in as little as 4 weeks. Enquire now to find out more or download our course prospectus.

Step 1 - Starting A Fitness Boot Camp Business Begins With The Right Qualifications

What qualifications do you need to run a fitness boot camp? Well, it’s essential to hold a Level 2 qualification to teach boot camps, but qualifying as a personal trainer offers huge benefits, which we’ll discuss more in this section.   

If you have both of these qualifications, you’re more than welcome to read about gaining practical experience in Step 2.

However, if you hold neither of these qualifications, we’ll explain why achieving your Level 2 gym instructor qualification is an essential first step.

This qualification teaches you the basic skills of fitness training by teaching you how to:

• Motivate individuals and groups by offering workouts that are challenging and varied compared to classes found in a traditional gym setting.
• Create engaging training sessions with intense workouts that are completed in a short period.

By having these skills, you will better manage your boot camps, create engaging classes with your anatomical knowledge, and advertise your programs effectively.

Not to mention, without this qualification, you won't be able to get insured to run your boot camp business - but more on that later.

Once you’re qualified as a gym instructor, you’ll be able to develop specialist skills with a CPD or advance your skill set by becoming a personal trainer.

Origym’s CPD courses are great qualifications to undertake as they can be completed in one day and cover a wide range of subjects that include: 

• Kettlebell Training
• Bodyweight Training
• Medicine Ball Training
• Hydration

Undertaking a Kettlebell CPD, for example, can strengthen your abilities to manage the large number of people and Kettlebell Instructors. It teaches you:

• The benefits of training in groups that will allow you to create fun workouts that benefit all attendees, regardless of the skill level.      
• Different training phases and periodisation will teach you how to implement progressive workouts. This will be particularly effective if you’re running a 6-week weight loss program. 

All of Origym’s CPDs are professional qualifications, enabling you to deliver a professional boot camp that complements your area of expertise.

Alternatively, you can expand your knowledge with a Level 3 personal trainer course.

It’s a hugely beneficial qualification, providing you with a new revenue stream which allows you to: 

• Hold 1-to-1 personal training sessions with a client
• Assess the fitness levels of new clients
• Create bespoke workouts
• Set SMART fitness goals

If you’re running successful fitness boot camps, holding a Level 3 personal trainer certificate will allow you to convert members of your boot camps into clients for personal training sessions.

Finally, achieving a first aid certificate is a great way to improve your professional standing whilst protecting your clients at the same time.

This qualification will be useful if you’re wondering how to start a fitness boot camp outside and need the training to provide medical assistance to a client.

First aid courses can be found online, such as these on the St John’s Ambulance website.

Now that you understand the key qualifications for running a fitness boot camp, let’s explore the practical experience you need to run one.

Step 2 - Gain Practical Experience Before Running A Fitness Boot Camp

Gaining practical experience is a great way for you to understand how to start a boot camp fitness business. There are two ways you can get practical experience: 

• Attend local fitness boot camps as a client
• Shadow fitness classes run by another teacher

Let’s explore these options in more detail.

Attend Local Classes To Understand How To Run A Fitness Boot Camp

A great way to understand how a fitness boot camp franchise operates is by attending them as a client in your area.  

Attending boot camps will help you understand:

• How the teacher interacts with clients 
• The number of people that attend
• The equipment that is used
• The time and locations of the boot camps 
• Teacher’s feedback to clients
• Male-to-female ratio (if applicable)

If your schedule allows it, you would benefit from attending different boot camps specialising in your area of expertise. This will inform you of the different teaching styles that are taught. 

For instance, you might have boxing class ideas to supercharge a boot camp in London. If that’s the case, then Chris B PT’s boxing boot camp in Greater London would be a useful class to attend:

Chris’ boxing boot camp can offer insight into the teaching techniques employed to help beginners interested in the sport. 

This would help you learn how to instruct clients who attend your boot camp as beginners themselves.

Additionally, you would learn how successful this time slot was and, if you spoke to other people that attended, you could get an understanding of how enjoyable they found the boot camp.

Shadowing A Teacher Will Teach You How To Run A Fitness Boot Camp

Another way to gain practical experience to help you start a fitness boot camp is to shadow an existing boot camp teacher.

You could achieve this by identifying a boot camp provider that runs a class you would like to run in the future.

Preferably, this should be in an area where you don’t plan to run a class. It will prevent conflicts of interest from arising.

If you were planning to run a boot camp in London that improves general fitness, then Miracle Fitness would be a great company to contact:

By clicking on the ‘Contact’ tab at the top of their website, you will be given contact details to speak with them:

We’d suggest emailing, rather than speaking over the phone. In your email, you should address: 

• Who you are
• Your professional qualifications
• Reasons for contacting them
• Length of time you wish to shadow them
• How it would benefit them

Here’s an example of how your email could read: 

Hello Miracle Fitness, 

I hope you’re doing well. My name is Ted Smith, and I’m a Level 3 personal trainer with 2 CPD qualifications in body weight training and kettlebell training. 

I am looking to start a fitness boot camp in another part of London and would like to understand how it is done by a professional company, such as yourself.

This will help me understand how you teach and the results your clients get. I aim to attend your classes for 6 weeks to get full of understanding of how you run these classes.

In return, I’m happy to offer my professional knowledge to answer questions your class members might have, and use my group training skills to help manage any large turnouts you might encounter.

Please feel free to respond to my email address listed above with any questions you might have and I’ll be happy to answer them.

Have a great day, 

Ted

Don’t be afraid to email multiple boot camps until you receive an offer that will help you get the right experience.

Step 3 - Conduct Effective Market Research To Inform Your Fitness Boot Camp Business

After achieving your qualification, you’ll want to start a fitness boot camp. Before you do, it’s important to carry out research and perform a SWOT analysis on competition in your local area. 

To understand your competition there are many factors you need to consider. Let’s explore a few of them: 

• How Much Do Your Competitors Charge? - How are they pricing their services? What do they offer that justifies their price tag? Use this to inform your own pricing, too.
• Where Do Your Competitors Train Their Clients? - Do they operate in a park or outdoor area you're considering using? Have they got a specifically designed facility?
• Who Is Their Demographic? - Is there any crossover with the clients you're targeting? Could you provide a more comprehensive service if there is an overlap?
• How Well-Established Are Your Competitors? - Do they have a reputation in the area, or are they relatively new?
• How Do Your Competitors Market Themselves? - Are your competitors taking advantage of social media advertising, or using Google Ads to boost their position on the search engine?

When researching your competition, it’s important to understand how many boot camps are running in your area.

If several boot camps run in a concentrated area, you may find it difficult to get clients. Understanding what boot camps your competitors run can help you find a more niche market. 

To guarantee success, it makes sense to run your boot camp outside any competitive areas. This will reduce competition and increase demand for your services.

To illustrate this point, we performed a Google search on boot camps operating in the Liverpool area. This is what the competition looked like:

Several boot camps appeared on the first page of this Google search. Next, we’ll look at one of these competitors in the Liverpool area and how you can perform an efficient analysis.

Train with Payne has a qualified PT that offers one-to-one PT sessions alongside their boot camp. 

The boot camps provided are for women only, aimed at those who want to ‘Burn Fat, Feel Stronger and enhance their sense of well-being.’

We’re also able to learn information about the packages they provide when you click on their boot camps tabs:

If you were planning to run a boot camp in Liverpool, you could see the services and prices Train with Payne would offer to attract new clients. 

This information would help you create your packages and set prices to compete with them.

Searching for reviews is also a great way to understand how your competitor’s clients rate the services they receive.

A review of Train with Payne highlighted the high level of communication, professionalism and quality provided by the company:

These analytical techniques should be applied to every competitor you’ve identified from your research.

Providing something unique and appealing to your fitness target market is essential if you want to start up a boot camp in a competitive area.

You can also take a winning formula from another provider and turn it into your brand if you’re planning to open a boot camp in an area that lacks these kinds of classes.

Step 4 - Decide On Where You’ll Be Running Your Fitness Boot Camp

After you’ve conducted your research, you’ll need to find the ideal location to run your fitness boot camp franchise. These include:

• Transport - Are there good public transportation routes surrounding the area you intend to operate from? You’ll also need to consider whether there is sufficient parking at the site or neighbouring area. 
• Terrain - Since most boot camps take place outside, incorporating the natural surroundings are a great way to give your boot camp a competitive edge. Your research will help you find ways to make use of dunes, trees and other natural elements.
• Weather - Adverse weather conditions can create hazards, so it’s important to eliminate uneven surfaces and areas prone to flooding to help you run an ideal boot camp.
• Local Authority - You may need to contact the local authority and ask them whether you need permission to run a boot camp in a public park you’ve discovered from your research.

The location depends on the type of fitness boot camps you wish to run. Let’s break this down into two areas: inside and outside classes.

Things To Consider When Planning An Indoor Boot Camp

If you’re wondering how to start a boot camp fitness program indoors, you’ll first need to consider the size of the venue you require. 

Running a circuit boot camp, for example, means you’ll need to make sure you have plenty of space to accommodate the people attending, along with room for your equipment.

You would need to make sure the equipment is spaced out to reflect the numbers attending. An example of this can be found in Stephanie Gilles’ circuit boot camp:

Stephanie’s boot camp caters to the number of people, along with the space required for equipment. The space allows clients to move around without compromising their safety.

Another key factor to think about when running indoor boot camps is to make sure the equipment you require is readily available.

If you were running a kettlebell boot camp, for example, you would need to run to make sure enough kettlebells are accessible.

What To Consider When Starting A Fitness Boot Camp Outside

If you’re wondering how to start a boot camp fitness program outside, there are several factors you need to consider

Safety is crucial for your outdoor fitness boot camp because it will protect your clients and yourself from danger.  One way to promote safety is by carrying out a fitness risk assessment to mitigate any potential hazards. 

If you’re running an aerobic endurance boot camp around Hyde Park in London, for instance, you could draw out a route using On The Go Map that avoids traffic, keeping clients as safe as possible:

With any outdoor boot camp, it’s important to make sure that you have the right permissions, as most areas would be considered public property and may require permission from the council.

If you wanted to use a public park for your boot camps, you would need to apply for a group fitness licence.

This would require you to apply for a licence, such as this service from Lambeth Council, where prices change depending on the number of clients you have: 

Finally, for any outdoor class, you would need to make sure your class is carried out on terrain that is not difficult and could cause injury.

If you planned to hold a trail running boot camp around Merseyside as a reward for clients, you could use the Hale Park and River Mersey Route route found on All Trails:

The route is susceptible to becoming muddy, creating uneven terrain. This would require you to check the weather in advance so you could complete a risk assessment to keep your clients safe.

You could check the weather forecasts 24 hours in advance to predict whether these types of running conditions are likely to occur.

Step 5 - Create A Strong Business Plan When Starting A Boot Camp Fitness Business

Through your research, you’ll understand the fitness boot camp businesses that your competitors run, but also the boot camp you want to offer.

To help your boot camp’s success, you’ll need to develop a business plan to put your ideas into practice.

This will stop you from overcomplicating your business operations, and mean you can easily visualise your goals.

Goals To Consider When Running A Fitness Boot Camp

You can make your business successful by setting short-term and long-term goals. It will be easier to achieve your fitness business goals if you create a detailed report on the concept of the boot camp you're looking to open.

This can be done by answering the following questions: 

• Who are you trying to target? 
• What problem does it solve? 
• Why would someone want to join your fitness boot camp over another?
• Where do you see your business going in the future?

You could be set on developing a new fitness craze for your boot camp fitness business, such as those seen from CrossFit or Zumba classes. 

Alternatively, you may want to just keep your boot camp as a side business to supplement your PT income and maximise its popularity. Either path requires you to plan to achieve your goals.

Your Fitness Boot Camp Business Model Will Require Investment

You may need to take out a business loan or invest a portion of your savings into boot camp fitness equipment to deliver a professional service.

If you’re investing your own money, budgeting your finances will help you secure new equipment, along with funds for other expenditures.

QuickBooks is a great app that helps you manage your finances in real-time. Using this app can help you calculate the expenditures you require to keep your boot camps functioning properly and keep your company profitable.

Using this app can help you calculate the expenditures you require to keep your boot camps functioning properly and keep your company profitable. 

Understand Your Demographic Before Starting a Fitness Boot Camp

Understanding how to set up a fitness boot camp requires your business plan to identify your target market. 

Once you’ve performed a thorough competitor analysis, this should be relatively easy. To help you identify your target market, there are questions you should be asking such as:

• Who are you aiming your boot camp business at? Men, women or both? 
• Are you targeting kids, the elderly or working commercials? 

This will help you define who your target market is and deliver an effective boot camp for them.

It is advisable to aim for a target market between the ages of 18-50 to increase uptake and broad appeal for your boot camp.

It's always good to have a unique selling point (USP) that gives you a competitive edge but also makes you stand out to your target market. 

For example, you might: 

• Include nutrition plans for your clients
• Offer competitive prices
• Offer an innovative style

You will need to think about what type of exercises you could do with your class and what the training format needs to be. 

It is also important to consider how many participants each session will have. Having a large turnout for your boot camp is great, but each session should be engaging and able to focus on one client at a time. 

If you need to assist more than one person at a time, you could split your boot camp sessions into two for different activity levels. 

You could have one boot camp for beginners, and another for more advanced trainers. Alternatively, you could have one fitness boot camp for the over-50s demographic and then for adults under this age barrier.

—---

If you’re enjoying this article, we think you’ll enjoy these too:

• Top Progression Opportunities for a Personal Trainer 
• 11 Boot camp Ideas for Personal Trainers

Step 6 - Secure The Right Legal Coverage For Your Fitness Boot Camp Business

Part of your business model should include securing insurance for your fitness boot camp. If you’re already working as a PT or fitness instructor, then you’ll already have secured insurance to work with the correct coverage.  

Working as a fitness professional can be a demanding job. When your clients are pushing to improve their physical health, injuries can happen.

Fitness professionals need insurance as it covers them in case claims of negligence result in a client’s injury.

You could, for example, get the fitness insurance you need, alongside boot camp-specific insurance, from Insure4Sport:

When choosing a provider you want to be covered in every possible way. Comparing and contrasting the packages between competitors is a great way to make sure you get the right coverage for a price that works with your budget. 

Your next step should be to register your business as a sole trader if you earned over £1,000, so you can start making national insurance contributions.

This can be done through the UK Government by following the instructions listed on their website:

Finally, you need to complete a basic DBS check before you carry out any fitness boot camps, this will apply to any businesses that hire your services as a freelancer:

This will confirm you hold no criminal records and are safe to work in a freelance capacity from anyone hiring your services.

Hiring An Accountant Ensures You’re Running Your Fitness Boot Camp Smoothly

Finally, you’ll need to have an accountant to help you with your finances. They carry many benefits when you hire them, including: 

• Reducing the chances of receiving fines for missing tax deadlines
• Saving you time by completing financial paperwork
• Finding new ways to boost profits
• Ensuring you’re aware of any potential fitness tax deductions

For example, Ross Brooke will be a great accountant to assist you with your finances whilst you’re running boot camps, as they help fitness professionals with their accounts:

Ultimately, while an accountant will carry an associated cost, the money and time you’ll save more than make up for any outgoings.

Step 7 - Establish An Effective Pricing Strategy To Help Your Fitness Boot Camp Thrive

To help your fitness boot camp thrive, it’s essential to set up an effective pricing strategy to help your business grow. 

This would be no different from setting online personal trainer prices, if you had previously set prices for your services.

Pricing your services can be determined by several factors, including: 

• Boot camp plans you offer
• How many clients you’re anticipating
• Wages you’ll pay yourself/prices you’ll sell the boot camp places for
• Equipment costs and bills

Let’s take a look at some of these areas in greater detail.

Plans You Can Offer Whilst Running a Fitness Boot Camp Business

How you market your services to the public can help you determine the plans you offer to them. For instance, you might be interested in offering blocked services, because you can require a set period to achieve the results you wish to get with your clients.

While it might be tempting to offer one-off sessions as part of your boot camp business, we’d recommend offering larger commitment plans which increase your revenue and client retention.

This also prevents you from overbooking and taking on more clients than you can accommodate. Parkfit followed this practice which they introduced with their block blockings:

This service plan would require clients to pay between £45 - £85 depending on the number of sessions they would wish to receive. 

An alternative to setting up a block session service is by creating a diverse range of boot camps that run for different lengths of time.

This would give clients greater flexibility to choose the best programme that works for them and also increase their commitment to the courses.

Northern Bootcamp, for example, offers 1-14 day boot camps to cater to a wider range of people that reflect their commitments. 

A one-day boot camp would cost £110 whereas a 7-day boot camp would cost £1350:

For example, if you were looking to do a fast-track boot camp to get quick weight loss results for your clients, you could get them to commit to a 7-day camp.

Alternatively, if you do just want to focus on delivering one-day sessions, instead of getting people to commit financially to a long-term plan, you could introduce a monthly subscription model.

UK Outdoor Fitness provide a payment model based on these options: 

This gives people the option to commit to a monthly subscription generating profits for themselves, but their training cancellation policy means there’s no financial penalties if they provide sufficient notice. 

Pricing Equipment Costs and Bills Will Help Your Fitness Boot Camp Franchise Succeed

Equipment costs and bills are other things you will need to consider when you’re creating a pricing strategy to help your business thrive. 

When it comes to purchasing boot camp equipment on a budget, you may need to consider what is the most cost-effective way for you to secure the equipment you need.

Purchasing second-hand equipment is a great way to start up your business, particularly if you’re operating with limited funds. 

Let’s say you were looking for kettlebells for your boot camp. FitKit UK is a great second-hand website to secure the equipment that you need at a reduced price:

You could secure three different kettlebells from this site that would allow you to run a 6 person boot camp.

Whatever speciality you deliver for your fitness boot camp, it’s important to shop around until you find the best option for you.

You could also use businesses that hire gym equipment if this proves to be cost-effective for you, or if you’ve got limited time before you get started with your boot camp business.

Alternatively, you could find a gym that already provides you with the equipment along with the venue space you require. 

If you were looking for the best of both worlds when it comes to receiving equipment and venue hire, then TX Group would be a great option for you: 

Opting for a kitted-out venue like this one can help to alleviate some of the costs of equipment, and offers a great option for those just starting out.

However, we’d advise buying your own equipment to ensure you can keep this up in the long run, especially as that same space isn’t likely to always be available.

One key thing to note is that some venues require you to rent the space for 4 hours at a minimum. These were the conditions offered by TX Group we’ve just mentioned.

You may need to utilise this time, either by running two classes during an optimal period for yourself or one class at 5 pm and 7 pm for example.

You could use this time to your advantage by building a strong rapport with your clients by answering questions they have after the class. 

Understanding The Costs Of Travel To Your Classes Will Help Your Fitness Boot Camp Business Thrive

Another consideration is that you would need to consider how you’re transporting yourself to the location of your fitness boot camp.

The likelihood is that you’re using your car, which is something that you would need to factor in from the price of petrol, along with the legal requirement for insurance and taxation to keep your car operational for your business.

You will also need to include any parking you would need to pay for when you’re teaching the class.

A Successful Fitness Boot Camp Franchise Requires a Good Marketing Strategy

Another consideration you would have to analyse is how you would promote your business. You may be familiar with this process, particularly when promoting yourself as a personal trainer before.

To attract clients, for instance, you might have 500 DL Flyers printed by Solopress would cost you £34.91:

These can then be distributed at local shops and gyms to promote your business to the public.

You may also have bills you need to budget for digital adverts, this can be done through Google Ads to promote your business to the correct people.

This could cost you in the region of £200-300 to begin with, as Done For Your PPC states: 

It’s certainly possible to achieve success with a small (say £200 – £300pm) budget in a lowish competition market, although once costs per click move into the £1.00 to £3.00 bracket, then your monthly spend could easily be £500 – £1000, depending on a wide range of differing factors.

Digital marketing as a fitness professional doesn’t have to be an ongoing fee you pay but instead, can be targeted to maximise your reach.

During the summer season, for example, you could create adverts that attract people to your outdoor boot camps.

You May Need To Purchase A Uniform To Help Your Fitness Boot Camp Franchise Look Professional

Finally, if you’re looking to project a professional appearance for your clients, you may wish to consider a uniform with your logo.

Depending on the number of boot camps you run, you may need to purchase several t-shirts with your logo on them.

For instance, 10 t-shirts with your logo from BIZAY will cost £46.50:

Settling on one of your fitness uniform ideas can help you promote your brand recognition, looks professional, and means you can passively market yourself to a wider audience.

You’ll Need To Consider Wages You Pay Yourself When Starting A Fitness Boot Camp

To make your fitness boot camp successful, you’ll need to consider the wages you’ll set yourself to make your business profitable.

There are two ways you can do this:

• How much the average wage is for a fitness boot camp instructor
• How much your competitors charge for their services

Let’s take a deep dive into these two areas:

How Much The Average Wage Is For A Fitness Boot Camp Instructor

Data for fitness boot camp instructors' wages is difficult to find. However, since you’re already qualified as a fitness instructor to carry out these classes, you can at least charge the minimum wage of £14.27 that is listed as this professional minimum wage on Indeed for this profession.

This doesn’t have to be the wage you set for all your class types, particularly if you’re running personal training session classes with clients which can be set at a higher rate. 

You can also increase your hourly rate if you’re delivering a fitness boot camp instructor class that is in demand in your area.

Understanding Your Competitors’ Charges Will Help Your Fitness Boot Camp Business Plan

Another factor you need to consider is the amount you will sell places on your boot camps for. This will help regulate your wages too.

One way you can do this is by researching your competitors' prices and matching them or underselling them to become competitive. 

Let’s say you were wanting to run a HIIT boot camp in London. Through your research, you’d find that Train Dirty London charges £12.50pp for a 45-minute session:

If you were running this, and 12 people attended, that is £150 you would have earned that hour. So if you charged £14.27 per hour that is just under 10% of your revenue going to yourself as wages.

How Many Clients You’re Anticipating Will Help You Create a Strong Boot Camp Fitness Business Plan

Another factor you would need to consider to make your fitness boot camp thrive is to make sure you predict the numbers you would expect to make the class profitable.

For instance, you would need to make sure the numbers you anticipate can be accommodated through the classroom size. 

This would have been checked when you were hiring a room space for your class and making sure it was large enough to bring in the clients you wanted. 

It’s also important to make sure you get the correct public park license which will depend on the number of people you teach and the frequency you run your classes.

Choose The Right Day Of The Week To Attract Clients To Your Fitness Boot Camp Business

Another tactic you could use to get the maximum number of people through your door is by deciding on the optimal day of the week to run the class. 

Research by Class Pass indicated that the most popular day of the week to run a class was Tuesday:

So if you were looking for your boot camp class to succeed, you would need to make sure it runs on a popular day for fitness to be carried out. 

Step 8 - How To Get Clients When Starting A Fitness Boot Camp Business

Now that you’ve got everything in place to start your fitness boot camp business, the final step is to market your venture successfully. 

We’ve outlined a few simple strategies you can use to maximise your investment, and ensure you reach your target demographic.

Create A Website To Help You Start A Fitness Boot Camp

Building a website is a great way to promote your business because it creates a digital location where new and current clients can learn about the services you offer.

They could also book them through your website and contact you if required. Many website builders (such as SquareSpace) can help you create a professional website:

However, if you can afford to invest, we would recommend paying a professional web developer to build you a website from scratch. 

Whatever route you choose to go down with the initial, the most important content points your website should include are: 

• Boot camp package cost 
• Style of boot camp you will be running
• Ability levels (beginner’s a class/intermediate class) 
• Any promotions
• Your credentials
• Dates and times of boot camps

Having a website is not just giving prospective clients some background information about your services but to ensure that you show in Google rankings, especially for your local area.

SEO Optimisation Can Help Your Website Rank Better When Starting A Fitness Boot Camp

Once you begin to rank through proper SEO optimisation, you’ll start to get a good amount of enquiries via your website and overtake any competitors in the area! 

If you want to generate even more traffic and leads, you can also invest in PPC marketing. This will drive more leads to your website through online adverts instead of organic leads:

Essentially, PPC marketing involves paying for your business to be displayed in the top 4 positions of Google for search terms that directly relate to your boot camp business. 

If you’ve just set up your fitness boot camp business in Leeds, for example, PPC marketing will help you get your boot camp business to show at the top of Google for terms such as:

• "Fitness boot camp Leeds" 
• "Military boot camp Leeds" 
• "Boot camp for kids Leeds"
• "Boot camp for the elderly Leeds" 

This is an essential fitness marketing strategy for anyone looking to make their fitness boot camp successful.

Start Dedicated Social Media Accounts To Help Your Fitness Boot Camp Franchise Grow In Popularity

If you’re looking to create a fitness boot camp in the UK, social media is one of the best available tools to promote your business. 

There is one main rule when it comes to social media: the more active you are, the more engagement you’ll get. 

Therefore, if you’re active on social media you will have a much better chance of gaining potential clients. 

You should make it your goal to turn like-minded individuals into followers, such as those who are interested in group training or fitness in general. 

Bootcamp UK is a great example of this as they provide photos of the style of boot camps they run, along with who the boot camps are targeted for:

By doing this, not only do you increase your follower base or engagement but you also increase your chances of bagging yourself some leads. 

You should: 

• Choose a handle that is consistent with your brand
• Ensure that your content is original & unique 
• Post often!

If you’re not familiar with setting up social media accounts, we can teach you how to start a fitness instagram.

Running Adverts On Social Media To Help Your Fitness Boot Camp Grow

You could use social media to target prospective clients who live within the vicinity of your boot camp by creating targeted Facebook, Instagram or Twitter ads as well as boosted posts. 

Let’s say you wanted to run ad to promote your cardio-based boot camp in Liverpool. You would need to follow these steps: 

• Choose an objective for your boot camp - that would be creating brand awareness because it promotes your business, drives traffic to your website and increases sales.
• Choose your audience - this would require you to choose an age group (18-60), location (Liverpool) and demographic (fitness enthusiasts).
• Set your budget - if you’re a new business then you would want to allocate just over 10% of your revenue to help with your marketing campaigns, you would need to consider the length of time you wanted to run the advert.
• Create your ad for your cardio boot camp - it's important to make sure your advert contains colourful imagery that is also relevant to your business. In this instance, you could have people running in a park.You would also need to make sure the text you use is short and simple such as a brief overview of what your boot camp entails but it's a date, time and location.
• Analyse performance metrics - you could run two similar adverts simultaneously (same information but different images) through A/B testing to see how each advert performs. This would allow you to increase investment in the advert that reaches a wider audience.
• Analyse analytics - this will help you understand the reach your advert had, its click rate and engagement for example. 

This information can then help you adjust future marketing campaigns as you have accurate data to optimise your adverts performances.

Prices may differ when it comes to creating location-based ads. The more popular a certain place is, the higher the cost would be. 

Managing your marketing expenditures will help you manage your budget and prevent you from overspending.

Social media marketing can be a vital tool to help your business succeed as it can help you target leads in your local area. 

You can use social media to direct traffic to your website with offers and competitions that have value for users, incentivising them for followers to inquire about your services.

If those who don’t yet follow you can see that you’re active in creating promotions for your followers, then they will also be more likely to follow and connect with you.

We’re sure you’ve seen how competitions work on social media before, but in case you’re not familiar with them, here is a post from South Coast Gym:

This is a great PPC advertisement because it encourages sharing from users that see the page, allowing it to be promoted to a wider audience that would not ordinarily see it.

Set Up A Google My Business Page So Your Fitness Bootcamp Business Is Easy To Find

Finally, you should also make use of a Google Business Profile to help you market your business:

Creating a Google Business Profile can help you appear on maps when people search for you. 

This will be useful if you decide to run any fitness boot camps outside because people will be able to use your address on Google to find the quickest route there. 

Bootcamp UK Mill Hill run outdoor classes and thanks to their business account on Google can easily be found by clients attending their boot camp:

A Google Business Profile also gives your client’s the chance to write a review of your class, which, if positively reviewed, boosts your credibility, highlights your professionalism and attracts new clients.

You can see how Bootcamp UK Mill Hill was positively viewed by clients who left reviews on their Google Business Profile:

Your profile can also be used to provide analytics to understand the views your posts are receiving but also how often your business is being searched for.

Explore our step-by-step guide to GoogleMyBusiness for fitness professionals here.

Encourage Class Members To Try Your Boot Camp Services

If you’re working at a gym, you might be looking at turning a boot camp into a fitness side hustle to help boost your yearly salary.

A great way you could do this is by encouraging the members of your current gym classes to attend one of your boot camp classes at a discounted rate. 

You could also list the benefits to members, for instance, some members might be working towards a target weight in the next couple of months and you’re planning to run a circuit boot camp.

You could mention to these members that not only will they lose weight during your boot camp, helping them achieve their target weight but they can also build their muscular strength too. 

You could offer them a free taster session to thank them as a reward for their progress so far in your classes and later introduce a basic charge to encourage them to attend. 

This is something Vibe Personal Training promoted for their 6 week boot camps, offering taster sessions before people commit:

You could even offer your taster class as part of a several week program, allowing people to feel invested in the taster session and commit to the rest of the program.

Ask People To Refer Their Friends & Family To Your Fitness Boot Camp Business

Another way you could get clients when starting a fitness boot camp is by asking your friends and family to refer people they know to your classes. 

This is a great way to promote awareness of your business, get people to your classes and start generating revenue for your business. 

One way you could incentivise friends and family to refer people is by offering a cash incentive. 

Since your funds might be limited, one way you could present this cash prize is in the form of credit they can use at your boot camp.

This brings in more people to your boot camps and limits your expenditures during the campaign. 

If you’ve got a website, then creating a landing page that you can share with people can help promote your referral scheme. 

This is something that the Barn Boot Camp use to bring in new clients to their business:

When you run your referral campaign, it’s important to establish an expiry date on the offer, this will prevent classes becoming overcrowded. 

If you’re new to the boot camp sector, you may want to run this campaign for several months until you’ve got a consistent number attending your classes.

Ask For Reviews To Promote Your Fitness Boot Camp Business

After you’ve run a couple of classes you would benefit from asking your current clients to write a review of your boot camp.

This can help promote your boot camp to new clients and provide them with an insight into what they involve. 

There are several ways you can ask them to write a review, using: 

• Trustpilot
• Google Reviews
• Social Media 
• Your website

You might want to utilise Trustpilot if you want people to see verified reviews of your business, such as the one that appears for Bootcamp UK on the site: 

This will help readers see that these reviews are authentic and not created by yourself for self-promotion.

Alternatively, if you want your reviews to reach as many people as possible, then you’ll benefit from utilising social media.

For example, Fitness Bootcamp in Dublin, has received 102 reviews that gave them a 4.8 rating on Facebook:

The consistency of these reviews demonstrates that the boot camp is active and receiving positive feedback from their clients. So don’t be afraid to utilise social media’s popularity to promote your own business.   

Before You Go!

We hope you’ve got all the information on how to start a fitness boot camp, as well as how to successfully market yourself to ensure your business is a success!

Ready to take the first step towards turning this dream into your reality? Enquire about our industry-leading Personal Trainer Diploma now our download a free course prospectus for more information.