How personal trainers can generate website traffic
In order to generate more website traffic, personal trainers need to know the specific details of how to improve their fitness marketing strategy. There are some simple methods that you can apply, and which generate great results.
One of the best ways that personal trainers can generate websites traffic is with videos. This works especially well for fitness marketing, as it is something that people search for in Google. If you upload your videos to YouTube then they will often be ranked very highly in the organic search results.
This means that anyone who searches for a certain type of fitness video is likely to find yours. Once they watch the video, you can offer a number of ways that they can visit your website. You can talk about your website on the video itself. You can also add a link across the bottom of the video, which is displayed throughout the video. You can also link to your website from the video profile.
Another great method of generating website traffic is to write articles. These articles don’t need to be long, and in most cases, 400 to 500 words is enough. You can write about a specific set of exercises, or focus on one particular topic inside the article. At the bottom of the article, you have the chance to link to your website. Articles are free to write and publish, and they can generate a lot of free traffic. They also get passed around the Internet, so they have a viral element to them.
One of the best things that you can do is to create a blog. Blogs are great ways to update your subscribers on a daily basis. This will ensure that your content is found in the search engines on a regular basis (as Google loves blogs). Once you link to your website, the search engines will also index your website on a regular basis. Not only that but blogs encourage people to comment on the content that you create. It is therefore very easy to generate a community atmosphere with a blog. If you do this, people will come back to your blog often. You can also add an opt-in form to your blog so that more prospects sign up.
The next thing that generates website traffic is simply communication with other fitness marketers in your industry. You can find many other people that sell to the same customers as your own. For example, you may find a yoga teacher or a nutritional expert in your local area. You should contact these people and offer to do an exchange.
Create a deal that lets you promote your newsletter to their subscriber list. This is a great way to tap into an existing list of prospective clients in your local area. This is a much more effective method than randomly trying to generating website traffic (which may or may not be targeted to your local area).
If you use the fitness marketing strategies that have been outlined above, you will notice that your website traffic increases at a rapid rate.
It’s game time! Tips for understanding costs of customer acquisition.
We’re now just past the first week in January, the beginning of the ultra peak season in the world of fitness. How has your business performed this week? Did you meet or exceed targets? Do you have targets?
2013 has had a very exciting start for One-to-1 Fitness, in just 8 business days we’ve seen more active leads than all of January 2012, and we’re nearly 70% of the way to our sales goal for the month (I should have set an even bigger goal.)
Why the big change this year?
Truth is we all become complacent (yep even me.) My marketing in the past has been solid using well written copy and appropriate offers but usually still organized only a couple weeks before and not coordinating mediums very well. (Not to mention relying heavily on just one or two.)
The difference this year is that I organized much earlier. I eliminated emotion by planning my strategy in advance with none of that pressure that resides in the back of your head saying, “oh shit, it’s January I really should try to get a bunch of clients.”
Well in advance it was easy to see how to overlap mediums, it was easier to plan and budget making the utilization of email, facebook, email, print and even direct mail all possible and all work together.
I don’t know about you but I don’t like spending money on advertising, yet if you knew it would always work wouldn’t you spend whatever amount was necessary to attract as many clients as you want?
One of the big changes for me is I started to consider the costs associated with attracting a new client. It’s not necessarily super accurate and it doesn’t have to be but it’s easy to figure out.
Consider how much money you’ve spent on marketing in the last 90 days or last year. Add everything up. For things like email campaigns where it seems like there is no cost try estimating the number of hours it took to run the promo and complete the sales process and imagine paying someone to do it; consider those costs as part of your marketing costs.
Now simply divide the number of new clients you attracted by the amount you spent on marketing and you have a basic idea how much it costs you to attract each new client.
Here’s the opportunity…January to March is the biggest quarter in our industry, awareness for our services is at an all time high. There’s no better time to test campaigns and see if you can match or reduce your cost of customer acquisition than now.
What I’ve taken to doing is creating a spreadsheet and laying out all my promotions based on the weeks of the year and using different colours in columns to represent different mediums and then start planning how they’ll overlap. By doing this I can estimate costs and start building instruction sets.
Once I decide on the promo I systemize it in the following manner:
1) Write the copy. (Ad, emails)
2) Create an instruction set on how to sell the promo ie. Basic presentation language, instructions for entering in the CRM system and any applicable upsells.
3) If it’s short term I setup an immediate conversion offer and the format which it’s to be presented in.
4) OH SHIT! I try to imagine what could go wrong, what disconnects could occur that could leave a lead frustrated and in turn brainstorm solutions to make great customer service easy.
These instructions are given to my admin team to execute, but honestly even if you’re on your own you’ll save time, headaches and increase consistent service if you develop this plan for yourself.
Before you is an amazing opportunity to utilize this strategy for February, March and beyond. If my studio that’s already known to be very successful can see such a dramatic bump from using a system like this imagine what you can do!
The “Clean Slate” Mentality
I know we’re just heading into Christmas but have you considered your personal training marketing for January? If not truly now is an ideal time. We all know there is not a bigger opportunity in the fitness industry than the first portion of each new year. With consumer awareness at an all time high you would think it would be easy, but our services are expensive.
If you think about it logically the consumer behaviours make perfect sense, in fact you yourself are likely much the same in your own actions. Watch this short video to learn what I call “clean slate” mentality and how it may affect your the success of your personal trainer marketing in the new year.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/XbrbWRAsF4E [/youtube]
Done-For-You Fitness Marketing: Project 515
The average adult over 35 in North America is carrying around this extra 20lbs of fat why not help them lose it?
This is a great fitness marketing promotion to run as a “gap stop” at those times between promotions or when you’re not on target for monthly objectives. It follows a consistent email promotion sequence to grab the attention of the impulse buyer, the analytical consumer and the procrastinator.
The final sold out email should be a valuable component of most if not all of your campaigns, if things fall short of plan and it’s not any where near full (doesn’t happen often but can) then don’t send the sold out email otherwise we may as well end on a note of conditioning the consumer to more promptly respond to the next promotion.
I’ve written the emails in a way that I hope most people can use them as is, just a simple cut and paste. It can always help to add more personal relevant details so don’t be afraid to edit those areas as well. Good things to add might be: projected workout session times, make sure they’re during peak times and always try to run the program as small group (like 3-4 participants per session). If you’re a brand new trainer trying to grow quickly flexibility is the key so in that situation I personally would even use it in a one-on-one training environment. You’re not going to make a lot of money in that situation but the end goal is to work toward converting the prospect to a long-term paying client rather than short-term gain.
As I write this it’s November heading into the Christmas season. I find this is the ideal time of year to run a promotion like this, even a little earlier like the week immediately following Halloween. Many people begin to feel guilty about eating candy in and around Halloween. Additionally they’re not yet distracted by Christmas shopping, Christmas bills or Christmas parties but might be thinking about that little black dress that doesn’t fit the way they’d like.
The one thing that is for certain if we push for a long-term commitment at this time of year we’re likely to be met with disinterest. In the back of their mind they’ll be thinking about all the missed appointments and the difficulties of eating well etc. during the holiday season. To the consumer this just feels like a wasted investment.
Instead let’s focus on making it an exciting holiday season by getting them in shape for those holiday events to come so they can enjoy them with peace of mind and guilt free. By really showing them the value of what you offer you will have their trust to make it easy to convert them prior to the holidays for a commitment starting early in the new year when fitness will be at the forefront of their mind.
But that’s just this situation; beta programs like this can be used at a variety of other times throughout the year and can form a great foundation piece for your fitness marketing calendar.
Email 1: Monday AM week prior to start.
Subject: Secret Project 515 (Are you in?)
I’m writing you today to let you in on a little secret. As people we’re all the same we all want the best results in the shortest time and we’re always looking for an easier way still.
As a trainer I’m always learning, and just like you I always want to figure out how I can help you get “there” faster and easier. Recently I stumbled across something that will do just that. In fact I began applying it with a few of my clients immediately, the improvements were immediately clear.
(If you can include names and results of recent clients here could be even more powerful.)
I’m so excited about this I want to give it a real unbiased test (you know very scientific and all) so I need your help. In fact I need the help of a small group of people to help me fully test this idea. Are you in? All you have to do is be excited about losing between 5 and 15 lbs (that’s why it’s Project 515) in the next 28 days, willing to follow my specific instructions and really put this new little training secret to the test.
Can I count on you?
Here’s the deal.
Since this isn’t 100% tested and proven (that’s what you’re gonna help me do) that’s why I need people not within my current training program. Additionally to make it a win-win you won’t pay my regular price, instead it’s only going to cost you a measly $97 bucks! Just like everything I do it’s guaranteed, so if it doesn’t work or your not happy with the result I’ll 100% refund your money.
Now because this is a test project I’m going to keep the group small so you can have my maximum attention. I’m looking for only 9 committed individuals that are serious about losing 5-15lbs in the next 28 days.
- Training will be 3 days a week.
- You may be required to complete additional workouts on your own that I’ll provide.
- You must be super committed.
- You must not have any specific travel plans that could cause you to miss sessions or make eating consistently really difficult.
- You must not be a current client.
- And to be fair to everyone so I can help as many people as possible you must not have taken advantage of any sale promotion in the last 60 days. (Sorry.)
If this sounds like you then hit reply right away because Project 515 is going to start next Monday and I suspect these spots are going to fill pretty quickly!
Always here to help,
(your name)
Email 2: Send Wed morning.
Subject: Project 515 Nearly Full! (wow!)
Wow! Ok I didn’t quite expect that kind of response. Within a few hours Project 515 caused a ruckus. It seems a lot of people love the idea of testing out this new belly-busting secret to lose between 5 and 15lbs in the next 28 days.
I did get a couple of questions though…
Many people are wondering if it requires they have a certain level of fitness to start this program. The answer, no, it’s good for all levels.
Others have been asking what exactly the workout secret is. Honestly, I’m sorry I can’t tell you; it would actually ruin the test. It’s 100% safe no crazy gimmick, not a supplement or anything like that. In fact it’s so simple you may not even realize it’s different at first so you just have to trust me. In 28 days I promise you will both see and feel the difference.
So here’s the skinny, at this point 6 of the 9 available spots for Project 515 are filled. If you missed the last email definitely hit reply right now or call (your number) and let’s get you registered before the last couple spots are gone.
If you did miss the last email here’s the details again:
- Starts next Monday (insert the date)
- Runs for 28 days, 3 workouts a week.
- You may be required to do a few additional things at home, which I’ll detail.
- You must not be a current client. I need this to be independent of my current training methods to really judge its effect.
- You won’t pay anywhere near full price, it’s a fraction of the normal cost at $97 and still covered by my full money back guarantee for the whole program. (What on earth do you have to lose?)
- You must be excited about the idea of losing 5-15lbs in 28 days.
- You must not have any specific plans that will cause you to miss workouts or make it difficult to eat consistently. (I understand things can change so just no 2 week vacations please.)
- If you were part of a recent promotion (in the last 60 days) sorry you’re not eligible, I want to help as many people as possible.
So with just 3 spots remaining hit reply or call (your number) and I’ll get you setup right away.
Always here to help,
(Your name)
P.S. (Add a comment about timing, as I write this we’re heading to the Christmas season so my PS might be “Project 515 is the perfect solution for fitting into that little black Christmas party dress, and it’s guaranteed, are you crazy? What are you waiting for? Just kidding, hit reply if you’re ready for change.”)
Email 3: Send Thursday afternoon.
Subject: Last chance (Urgent, attn. required)
There’s just 1 spot left for Project 515 for some dedicated and determined person to lose 5-15lbs in the next 28 days. Is that you?
I need just one more person to add to my special test group for this new workout strategy that I’ve already seen melt fat like crazy in some of my current clients.
Here’s the details of the program from the last email one more time:
- Starts next Monday (insert the date)
- Runs for 28 days, 3 workouts a week.
- You may be required to do a few additional things at home, which I’ll detail.
- You must not be a current client. I need this to be independent of my current training methods to really judge its effect.
- You won’t pay anywhere near full price, it’s a fraction of the normal cost at $97 and still covered by my full money back guarantee for the whole program. (What on earth do you have to lose?)
- You must be excited about the idea of losing 5-15lbs in 28 days.
- You must not have any specific plans that will cause you to miss workouts or make it difficult to eat consistently. (I understand things can change so just no 2 week vacations please.)
- If you were part of a recent promotion (in the last 60 days) sorry you’re not eligible, I want to help as many people as possible.
With just one spot remaining this is totally first come first serve, so hit reply immediately, I’ll be looking at the time the email came in to see who gets the spot or you can call me directly at (your number.)
For everyone else already registered I’m pumped to see you on Monday!
Always here to help,
(your name)
Email 4: Send latish Friday evening
Subject: Project 515 Sold Out!
It’s official Project 515 is totally sold out! Thank you to everyone who has jumped on board, I look forward to seeing you all next week and we’re gonna kick butt!
If you missed out on Project 515 I am so sorry (I had a few additional emails after that were sent after the final spot was filled) but don’t worry I’ll be in touch.
I always want to help everyone if I can and though this program is completely full I might be able to squeeze a few more people into my other programs. I’ll be in touch with something special for you or if you thinking now you’d really like to get started just hit reply and I can fill you in on the details.
Thanks everyone, you’re awesome!
(your name)
What’s New With The Goo-Gle
I just returned home from Calgary where I was hosting my private mastermind for my rockstar coaching clients.
My good friend Bedros Keuilian was up to visit Canadia and as always had a few cutting edge secrets to share.
One of the things I always end up talking about to fitness professionals is about content. You see I have always believed that every trainer and their dog is in a frenzy to fight over the handful of people that have already made a clear decision to buy your services.
You see most personal trainer websites I see basically are a personal profile about the trainer, the certifications that have, maybe a few testimonials and then the services that they offer. There’s only two kinds of people that care about any of this, YOU and the person that has already decided to buy personal training.
Meanwhile…
There are billions of overweight people in the world, billions of people that are looking for the solution to their pain, their problem and don’t yet know what to do. So what are they doing?
Well naturally, they’re googling, looking for solutions.
I’ve always believed that if I keep publishing education and opinions on the hot fitness and weight loss topics of today that many of these googlers are going to land on my website long before they ever find any of my competitors. (And a little secret and subtle boasting, this strategy has served me pretty well for a number of years.)
But here’s what’s new. Google now has some method of looking at images on your website and getting a sense of where they’ve come from and if they exist elsewhere on the Internet.
If you have a blog I bet at some point you’ve “borrowed” a random image that you found on Google images or some other place. Doing so now can actually negatively affect your site rankings.
I think in many ways this is great news, because it just encourages us all to be more creative, to put our smartphones to work and in essence create even more original content. Seems to me that falls in line with Google’s mission and creates a further opportunity to enhance your website rankings in an easy manner. Of course it also means you might see a lot more pictures like this.
Some final things you should know.
1) When you upload a photo, make sure it has keyword file name before you upload it. (ex. Personal-Trainer-Business-Tips-CM.jpg)
2) Try to complete the descriptions using a keyword sentence.
3) Add a couple of logical “tags” like your business name, main keyword phrase, and your name.
SEO tips and tricks for personal trainers and fitness professionals
In order to increase the number of visitors that come to your website, you need to use one or more methods of traffic generation.
Search engine optimization is a great way to get tons of free traffic to your website. If you don’t want to spend any money then you need to understand this strategy for traffic generation in your personal trainer business.
The best way to use SEO is to optimize your website so that it gets ranked in the search engines (yahoo, Google and msn). This can be done very quickly and easily. Some of the best SEO tips and tricks are done with the simple application of on page and off page factors.
For example, changing the title of the page so that each page contains the main keyword phrase of that particular page. If you have a list of 10 keywords that you want to rank high for in the search engines, then each page should contain one of the those keywords in the title tags.
The H1 tag is also very important, even thought it is just a piece of code that search engine robots scan when they visit your site. It is seen by the search engines as the headline of the site, and gives the robot an idea of what the web page is about.
You should also use the personal trainer keywords that most people search for. Many marketers and search engine optimists recommend you use the keyword or phrase at least another three to five times over the course of the web page, and this is a good ratio to keep in mind. Re-read the pages that you have created and see if you can improve this aspect of the pages.
The off page SEO factors are sometimes considered even more important and are usually based on incoming links. In simple terms, the more links that you have the better, providing they are high quality. The key is to increase your websites link popularity by getting links from other personal trainer websites.
Always try to get one way links as these are much more valuable and will help your website a lot more than reciprocal links. The search engines are known to prefer one-way links so aim to get more of these by contacting other websites in your marketplace.
When websites link to your website, you need to ensure they use your main keyword in the link text. You also need to tell them to link to your main page. This could be your home page, or another important internal page on the website.
Reciprocal linking is still a good idea and you should still use it. It can really increase your website traffic and improve your rankings in search engines, but try to gain as many one-way links as possible.
Use as many of the SEO tips above as you can in order to increase your personal training website rankings in the search engines.
Easy-to-Create Personal Trainer Marketing System
Being the kind of methodical analytical individuals that we are; it’s my opinion that we make everything too complicated. When it comes to effectively marketing your personal training business the most important thing you can initially do is eliminate your tendency to market emotionally. You mightbe wondering what I mean. Well, in my experience (both personally and coaching other fitness professionals) we all fall prey to the same traps.
How most personal trainers market:
1) Realize the need more clients.
2) Dream up an idea to attract new clients, a promotion, special or end up being sold by a salesman representing an advertising medium.
PROBLEM: No idea whether it’s going to work, “feels” right at the time.
3) Maybe get lucky, promotion works.
4) Deal with the stress of all the new clients, but feel good, like business is working.
5) Realize you again need more clients.
6) Dream up a new idea, making new mistakes or the same mistakes previously because it’s a new idea.
PROBLEM: Always creating is in-efficient, can’t provide better and better customer service because you’re continually executing something new.
7) Promotion fails, frustrated because of potential wasted resources and stressed because still need more clients.
PROBLEM: Emotions lead you a stray, can’t properly evaluate the situation and no logistics to determine what you really need to reach your business goals. Do you have defined business goals? We spend all day helping others set and achieve goals and yet often are not properly managing our own.
Yes this is simplified but I’m sure many of you can relate to similar situations. Below is a short video inspired by one of my mentors internet supermarketer Craig Balantyne on just how easily you can have months of marketing planned ahead and a instant picture on how you might evaluate the results and plan for the future to predictably reach your personal training business goals.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/fXAG-6IjNBc[/youtube]
The Top 10 11 Reasons I Train Older Adults
Today we have a great guest post on Profitable Personal Trainer from Cody Sipe, PhD. Cody and my good friend Dan Ritchie run a personal training studio specifically catering to the older adult population. The work that they’re doing changing peoples lives really lives up to their name “Miracles Fitness.” All of us can learn from them when it comes to considering the business side of personal training as doesn’t it make sense to cater to the wealthiest population segment with the most flexible schedule?
Take it away Cody…
I’ve spent the past 20 years focusing on older adult exercise and I’ve learned a lot during that time, especially when it comes to why I do it. Mainly it’s because I love it which is why I’ve stayed with this group for so long and why I plan on continuing to work with seniors. After all, if you’ve got to work 40+ hours per week it better be doing something you absolutely love or you are going to plod through life miserable. If you’ve been thinking of making the break and specializing in fitness for older adults then maybe this will inspire you to get off your duff and do it already.
- It’s rewarding. To see someone’s entire life improve because you are training them is very satisfying. And not just because they’ve dropped a few pounds or look better in their jeans but because they can now go to the store by themselves or play with their grandchildren without getting tired. That’s good stuff. These people really, really need our help.
- Drop your ego at the door. Older clients just don’t have the same ego as many younger clients. They are very pleasant to work and get along with. They aren’t there to try to impress you or make themselves look good. They are there to get your help.
- Meaningful results. Adding 10 lbs to someone’s bench press might be meaningful to some trainers but I prefer results that really matter to life. Someone stands up for the first time in 6 months. Someone stumbles and doesn’t fall (finally). Someone can now garden again without pain. Those kinds of results are meaningful to me because they are meaningful to them.
- They appreciate you. I’ve been given cards, cookies, food, trinkets, kisses (you bet), etc. from my older clients just because they are appreciative of what I’ve done for them. It is nice to feel appreciated.
- Loyalty. While younger clients tend to be fickle and hop from fad to fad older clients tend to remain more loyal to those they have developed a relationship with. So older clients stay longer and pay longer than most younger clients do. Plus their lives are more stable so they are less likely to move out of the area, get a new job or have other events get in their way of training. Treat them warmly and fairly and they will be your clients for years and years.
- Humor. They’re funny. Flat out funny. There are always a few guys who want to be the life of the party and have a new joke every time they come to the gym. I can almost guarantee a couple really good laughs every day.
- Life stories. Older adults have led interesting lives and I really enjoy hearing about their life experiences and the wisdom some of them have to share. It makes my life that much richer.
- Giving back. I believe in giving back to the community as do most older adults. We run charity events all the time and our clients participate well in those events. It unites us and gives us a common bond because we share some of the same values.
- Huge potential clientele (and growing every day). Face it, if you want job security then train older clients. They are the fastest-growing segment of the population and will dominate the market for the next 20+ years (and there aren’t a lot of trainers dedicated to serving them). Plus they have a huge interest in staying healthy and they have the money to pay for training. That is why our fitness business has been so successful. We have focused on the largely ignored and completely misunderstood older market while purposefully ignoring the 20-30 year old client that everyone else is going after. In so doing we have dominated this “niche” market and become the “go to” local experts.
- I feel at ease. Honestly, I just feel more at ease with older adults. I really don’t prefer to train younger women (which my wife appreciates) and younger men bore me. I can just be myself and transparent with older clients. It is so nice not to have to impress your clients with your physique or your knowledge or your cool clothes. I can just relax and do my thing.
- Make full use of my expertise. Training older adults isn’t easy. There are a lot of factors to consider such as medical conditions/diseases, medications, injuries, age-related changes, exercise preferences, etc. But I don’t want easy. I want to be challenged and use the expertise I’ve developed over the years and older adults provide a great outlet for that energy.
Interview the Expert
I have something I call the “5 Pillars of Strategic Partnerships” that many of my coaching clients are becoming very familiar with. It’s a very low cost (basically no-cost) way to gain a huge audience in any community and have top professionals in your area excited to promote your personal training business.
This short video covers the first and most important step, it’s old skool meets new school but it is working amazingly well so I decided I wanted to share it with as many people in our personal training business community. Watch the video and I’d love to hear what you think.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/h0nfp4cyrrY[/youtube]
You’re on Facebook Anyways…
If you’re reading this fitness marketing strategy post I can pretty much guarantee you have a Facebook account. Now since you’re on Facebook anyways why not put it to work for you to grow your business? In this short video I explain how I started my Facebook audience and the little things I do in just a few minutes a day that turn it into a source of consistent leads for our personal training studio.
Now this may not produce a landslide of clients over night but over time it’s an easy way that will produce that 4-10 extra leads per month in addition to continually enhancing your relationship with your audience, increasing your perceived credibility to your immediate audience and you community. So though it may not seem like much these few minutes are a very important component of our foundation fitness marketing program.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/zoKWcZf0hSg[/youtube]
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