How to market CPR classes and fill every seat

1. Claim and complete your Google Business Profile

Your Business Profile is the listing that shows in Google Maps and in local results. Claim it, pick the category that fits best, add your phone number, website and photos of real classes, and list the courses you teach. Add opening hours only if you keep regular customer-facing hours: Google’s guidelines say businesses that run on a class schedule shouldn’t list them.

Google’s guidelines are strict on two points that trip up training businesses. Use your real business name, the one on your website and signs, with no added keywords such as “CPR Classes Chicago”; unnecessary words in the name can get a profile suspended. And if you teach at your customers’ workplaces rather than at a location of your own, set the profile up as a service-area business with the area you cover. Google expects any address you show to be staffed and open to customers during your stated hours.

2. Give every course its own page, with dates and prices

A student searching for “BLS class” wants a page about BLS, with the next dates, the price and a way to book, not a general schedule. Give each course its own page that names the course and your city, says how long it takes and how long the certification lasts, and lists the upcoming dates.

Mark up each class as an event, too. Google’s event markup can make a page about a single event eligible for its event results, which is why each class works best with its own page. JoinCPR’s booking website builds these course pages, event markup and a sitemap for you. For the details of local search, see how to get your CPR classes to show up on Google.

3. Ask every student for a review

Ask at the end of every class, while the students are still in the room, with a QR code on the screen or a card; Google lets you create a review link and QR code from your Business Profile. Ask everyone, not only the students you think are happy: Google prohibits selectively asking for positive reviews, and it removes reviews that were posted in exchange for a discount, a freebie or payment.

Federal rules add to this. The FTC’s rule on consumer reviews, in effect since October 21, 2024, bans fake reviews, incentives that depend on a review being positive, and suppressing negative ones. Reply to every review, good or bad, briefly and politely.

4. Get your classes into your certifying organization’s class finder

People looking for an AHA or Red Cross class can search that organization’s own class finder, so put your classes there. The AHA lets instructors and Training Centers post class dates and times in its Atlas system to reach students through its public class search; ask your Training Center how it lists classes. Red Cross Licensed Training Providers can promote their classes on redcross.org through the Red Cross’s Class Posting Service, where they appear in the class search next to the Red Cross’s own classes; ask the Red Cross what it costs.

5. List your business on Bing and Apple Maps too

Bing Places for Business and Apple Business Connect are the business listings behind Bing and Apple Maps. Copy your Google profile across with the same name, address or service area, phone number and hours, so every listing agrees.

6. Put together a simple group training offer

Decide what you will offer before anyone asks: which courses you run at an employer’s site, the smallest group you will travel for, whether you charge per student or per class, and what you bring. A one-page offer you can email the same day beats a custom quote that takes a week.

7. Pitch the employers that need trained staff

Start with employers whose staff commonly need a current card for their jobs, such as childcare centers, schools, fitness centers and dental and medical offices, and with workplaces covered by OSHA’s first aid rules, such as construction sites and factories. OSHA’s general industry standard requires that where no infirmary, clinic or hospital is in near proximity to the workplace, someone at work is adequately trained to give first aid (29 CFR 1910.151(b)). OSHA reads “near proximity” as emergency care within 3 to 4 minutes where serious injuries are possible, and recommends, without requiring, that every workplace have employees trained and certified in first aid, including CPR.

Call or visit the person who books training, usually the owner, office manager or safety lead, and make the next step easy: a date, a price and a form. For the whole process, see how to sell corporate CPR training.

8. Make it easy to ask for a quote

Put a group training request form on your website that asks for the course, the number of people, the preferred dates and where the training should happen, then answer every request the same day. A fast, specific reply can be what wins a group booking over the next result.

9. Remind students before their certification expires

Send each student a reminder a month or so before their expiration date, and again a week before, with a direct link to your next renewal class. The date has to be right: AHA cards run to the end of the month, while Red Cross certificates end on the exact date, as how long CPR certification is good for explains.

10. Schedule renewal classes where students can find them

Keep renewal classes on your schedule every month, at times working people can make, and link each reminder straight to them. An employer whose staff all certified together will need a renewal class together, so contact them before the date too.

11. Partner with schools, childcare, gyms and nursing programs

Offer each partner something simple: a class on their site, a set date each term for their students, or a link to a private class they can pass on. Ask each one which certification its students or staff need and by when, then schedule classes that fit its calendar, such as before a new term or a placement begins.

Give partners a link or QR code for their own class, so their people book in a minute and you can see which partner sent whom.

12. Run small search ads for your area

Search ads let you appear when someone near you types phrases such as “CPR class” or “BLS certification” and a city. Limit them to the area you serve, send each ad to the matching course page rather than your home page, and stop any keyword that brings clicks but no registrations. If you teach Red Cross courses, don’t bid on “Red Cross” itself: the Red Cross’s guide for Training Providers prohibits keyword search advertising on its name. In the US, Google’s Local Services Ads also have a first aid training category, where it’s available in your area.

13. Promote your next few dates to people nearby

Social media ads suit a specific date with seats left, shown to people within driving distance. Keep the ad about one class: the course, the date, the place, the price and a link to register.

14. Post short videos of real classes

Film a minute of compressions on a feedback manikin, an AED practice or the room set up before class, with permission from anyone who appears. Answer the questions students ask you most often, such as what to wear, how long the class takes and whether the card is accepted by their employer.

15. Ask every student how they heard about you

Add a required “How did you hear about us?” question to registration, with choices such as Google, a friend, an employer, a partner or an ad. Add tracking tags to the links in your ads and social posts, and check your Business Profile’s performance figures each month.

Then compare what each channel cost with the registrations it brought. Keep the channels that pay for themselves, and let the rest go. If you use an email tool such as Mailchimp, see JoinCPR’s integrations for keeping your student list in sync.