How-to Suck as Many New Leads From Your Website as Possible

Just this morning I was reviewing a website change for one of my coaching clients, a new website offer to generate more leads for their training studio and bootcamp. As I was writing the email response it dawned on me how often I’m discussing this same thing with many fitness professionals, it seemed the ideal topic for today.

We’re all in a position where we need our websites to convert in the best way possible, it has to produce the maximum number of leads there’s no if’s ands or buts about it. The question is what offers are best for your website?

I think the larger your operation (particularly with multiple locations) the answer to this varies slightly, but I think the majority of you are one location owners, a situation where every potential prospect counts.

By now you may have tried free reports and things of that nature to build your list and realize they are dead. You may have tried $1 trials in an effort to get payment information from the get go to ensure conversion, well in most cases as some of you may already know, consumers have figured this out. No one wants to enter their credit card online more than they have to and especially not for a buck, if you doubt this just go look in the mirror and ask yourself about this.

Now higher value trial offers are often used to cross this perception gap with the trial usually for 1-2 weeks or some short term, which makes perfect sense for us but does it for the consumer?

Finally there is the classic request a free consultation opt-in that some are for and many are against. So what should your website opt-ins and offers look like? Well here’s my opinion and the logic as to why.

The Free Consult

Yes it’s old, sure you can say it’s no-obligation, no-risk, no-pressure but of course no one is going to believe you, heck you wouldn’t believe someone if they told you. None the less this is still my go-to offer and here’s why…there are actually people that will visit your website that are just genuinely interested in your service. If you’re like me I know that the best chance I have of helping you become my client is if I can meet you face to face, show you that you will be comfortable, learn about your goals, and explain the program options for you to make it easy. Therefore the consult is my most wanted response and the best option for those that are serious about taking their fitness future in their hands and finding the best available solution.

The Free Option

Next because of all the super SEO tactics many of us now employ (and the understanding that content is king and with all the great information we make available) we’re ending up with a lot of website traffic of people that are just cruising around looking for answers. The answers they’re seeking are not necessarily your services; they’re not there yet.

These individuals are just looking for a solution to a personal problem or pain, they’re not in the shape they want to be in and they don’t know what to do about it. Who’s to say that exercise is the best answer for a woman’s “saddlebags” the latest infomercial might have them believing it’s fat loss cream, pills, supplements or standing on their head!

The best way to convert these visitors is first with information, your flare and opinion hopefully on their matter of pain. These people are not likely ready to jump in the pool and meet with you to discuss spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on training, they don’t trust you (and if they did they’d sign up for the free consult.) This is why we need something free they can access that allows them to get to know you with no risk obligation or worry.

A lot of people are still using free reports, ebooks or something of that nature (in fact even I was until recently.) Truth is I don’t know about you but ebooks and optins of that nature really haven’t seemed to be that effective for growing my list recently.

I encourage you to over deliver, my favourite offer presently is the 3 Week Home Fat Loss course. I can’t take credit for this as it came about as an idea on a coaching call with a client sometime ago. When he first implemented it the response was crazy, more than a dozen opt-ins over night with no promotion and without a huge traffic base, since I’ve seen others successfully apply it as well. But here’s why I think it works so well.

It gives the visitor real value and no obligation whatsoever they never have to contact you again and could unsubscribe tomorrow is they wanted, it also allows me to develop a relationship with them over time (especially if you use video which you should) and honestly educate them that the magic is in the accountability and support that comes from our continual service. The result is hopefully that you gain their trust in fully automated way and that you lead them to contact you for the help they will inevitably need.

The Low Cost Trial

Many have tried various forms of a low cost trial, these opt-ins are great because they come with payment information that automates the whole sales process and EFT growth, unfortunately it takes a lot of traffic to really experience the magic of this process. The trial amount is important, and again just simply ask yourself what you fell comfortable with. A $1 trial is useless in my opinion, no one wants to put their credit card information online for a measly buck. A higher amount is likely better for that reason is that it needs to provide significant value to the customer yet warrant or somewhat justify the risk of sharing secure information. Quite often I see 1-2 week trials, but if we’re to consider our own consumer behavior for a moment perhaps a 4 week trial might convert better. We want people to come in, feel the love and sign up, but our consumer’s BS metre picks this up a mile away, in turn the consumer wants an opportunity to buy a ‘kick-start’ time period where they can then proceed and do it on their own. You and I both know people can’t get in shape in 4 weeks, but likely 4 weeks is just enough time for them to feel it would give them the ‘kick-start’ they’re looking for, in turn this should significantly increase the opt-in rate.

These three offers should be represented on your website for every visitor to see, hopefully you understand my logic as to why it should be these 3 offers and how to present them. It won’t always work but it should help to optimize your website leads over time.

The real magic is that the offers are being presented to meet the perception or needs of three distinct visitor groups and each situation provides a specific measure of value for that audience, it’s this synergism that I believe makes these three opt-ins so powerful.

On a final note…

Where these opt-ins are located on your website is equally critical. Two of the three, or all if possible should be located above the fold. They should be placed in the right hand column because of the natural direction our eyes travel when we read a page.

Because most of us use a banner at the top of our page as the visual introduction the Free Home Course opt-in should be located on the right side of the banner. It’s the lowest barrier offer that should be immediately appealing to the largest segment of our audience.

Your Free Consult should come next, it should basically be placed on the right side at the top of what I call the content header. Essentially just below your site header many people will have a content zone (or you should) this is best space for a video but text and the like can be useful. At any rate it’s here that your visitor will first become engaged, if they like what they see their eye’s lead them to your most wanted response.

Finally the low cost trial should be lower on the right side, possibly in part above the fold but it likely doesn’t matter as much. This audience has to make an active decision to purchase they will have spent enough time on your site to validate that decision, as long as this opt-in is clear, stands out and concise they’ll find it.

That’s my take on effectively generating more leads from your website based on the simple logic of how we all think as consumers. Hopefully it makes sense, this is working well for many of my coaching client so I know it can work for you.