Here’s my thoughts on a personal training business site.  I think you’ll be able to pick up some good tips from this if you run a local business (or a training studio)

The site: Mike Hanley’s Studio that offers Personal Training in New Jersey (TheTrainingStudioNJ.com)

Initial thoughts

Ok where did he get this designer and why haven’t I hired him yet?  Seriously this is a great, clean design that has pretty much everything you could need for a local business.

I’m split on designs a lot.  Being a big blog reader and also a big fan of direct marketing, its tough to combine the two.  I do however think there can be a middle ground where a good design meets great copy and this will bring in you in some customers…

Problems I see with the site…

• The copy sounds like it was written by an exercise scientist, not a real human being.  This is killer #1, when trying to connect with your audience.  If your audience says over and over that they want to lose body fat, then don’t try and tell them about your stability training, core activation and corrective exercises.  Your client wants to hear that you have the solution for their problem.  Don’t shove your agenda down their throat.

• The SEO on the site could be improved a lot.  On the programs/services page each of those services needs its own seperate page.  So for example, he should have a page on Nurtrition, Powerlifting, Bodybuilding etc…  This way he’ll be bale to rank in the search engines for each of those phrases…

ex… New Jersey Nutritionist, Powerlifting in New Jersey etc….

• The call to action needs to be better.  Just putting a link to your email is not gonna cut it.  You need to get in their face and tell them exactly what you want them to do.  John Carlton calls this “selling from your heels” and it’s a major mistake.  When it comes time you need to give a big ole phone number for them to call or a huge button to click on to send you an email.  Don’t hold back when it comes time to take action…

• Testimonials need to be featured on the homepage.  I think I found a few testimonials on some other pages, but we need to get them right up in the front and center.  Testimonials are the lifeblood of a local business site.  You could sell a personal training package with nothing more than before and after pictures if you had to.  Before and after pics are absolutely necessary when it comes to selling a fitness product. My business partner Vic who runs Fitness Bootcamps in Columbus also has made this mistake.  He has testimonials on his personal training page, but not on his bootcamp page.

• The title tags need keywords.  One of the biggest factors in ranking well in the search engines are the keywords in your title tags.  Mike’s site has some pretty general title tags, and has no local keywords in them.  His target should be to rank for local keywords like New Jersey Personal Trainer or New Jersey Nutritionist.  Having things like Programs/Services in the title tag is doing him no good.

There ya go, those are some of the biggest mistakes on his site.  If you are making any of these, you should probably get them switched up as soon as possible

- Justin

Traffic.  It’s kinda like sex, everyone seems to just want more of it (and we all want GOOD traffic, not one-shot junk

If you have GREAT content, getting traffic is much easier.  People will be more more inclined to link to you if you’re putting out solid content that stands the test of time.

Here are my top five strategies for driving continuous traffic to your blog…

1.  Create killer flagship content

• Flagship content is content that will be great a year from now.  It’s a source, or guide or something similar that people will want to continuously check out.  You should focus on making 2-3 flagship content pages.  These will probabaly take you a while to make, but they are WELL worth it.  It’s not just like writing a 500 word article.  Here are some good examples of flagship content…

• The Gym Junkies Exercise Library
• Copyblogger’s Copywriting 101 page

2.  Connect and help out other bloggers

• If you want to get traffic to your blog, you need to connect with other bloggers. Comment on their blogs, send them an email, and help them out in any way you can.  An average writer with average content who knows 100 bloggers, is going to get more traffic than a great writer who knows no one.  Get out their and connect!

3.  Get links, links, links!

• Links provide direct traffic, get your name out and also boost your search engine rankings.  Find anyway you can to get links.  Here are some great ideas that WORK…

• Answer questions on Yahoo Answers
• Get your site into directories like DMOZ, Yahoo Directory and Best of the Web.
• Submit to social media sites like Digg, YouTube, Propellr, StumbleUpon and Health Ranker

4.  Ask for links to GREAT content

• Just because you have great content doesn’t mean people are going to link to it.  There’s millions of websites in the health industry, you can’t expect everyone to come across your content.  When you make a great page or post, beg borrow and plead for links to it.  Email all of your contacts, ask on Twitter and Facebook.  Do everything you can to grab some good links!

5.  Partner with someone who has a big blog/newsletter list

• Chris Knight of Ezine Articles once told me that the best way to get more newsletter subscribers is to collaborate with someone who has a big newsletter list BECAUSE the people on their list are already subscribers, which makes them more likely to subscribe to another list. A good way to partner with someone is to offer somethign to their readers that they can’t give them.  If their list is about ab workouts and theyve never done any videos, then make a video with the 10 best ab exercises.  Find what they dont have and fill it for em!!!!

I’d like to get a discussion going below about some of the best traffic driving tips you have…  I’ll share some more secret tips that Ive been using to drive 40-90 people a day to my site if we get a good discussion

-Justin

P.S. If you’re learning some new things from my blog posts, make sure to signup for my newsletter it’s even more indepth!  It’s free

Bootcamps seem to be all the rage lately, and with good reason.  They allow trainers to work with a group of 6-20 people in a span of about 45 minutes.  This means more money for the trainer, and less time spent training clients.

If you think about it, bootcamps are a great service because the majority of people are busy and tight on money so they can’t afford what it would cost for personal training.

Here’s what I would do today to market a fitness bootcamp…

Fitness bootcamp marketing angles

• Exciting group workouts – One of the biggest reasons people dont work out is because it’s boring!  By pushing the fun and excitingness of a bootcamp, you’ll be able to alleviate them of that objection.  The best way to do that would be through pictures and videos if you have them.  I know I’ve seen in the bootcamps I was at, people working with each other and motivationg one another to finish the workout.  It was a great team effort.  Everyone deep down wants to be part of a tribe it makes us feel like we belong… your bootcamp can be their tribe.  I would also be sure to implement the idea that it’s crucial to surround yourself with like minded, positive people to lose weight.  In a normal gym, you wont get this kind of group support.

• Proven results – If you’ve run bootcamps before and have testimonials you’re already ahead of the game.  You need before and after pictures of each person, and also things like weight, age, name, jean size, body fat will all help as well.  Be as specific as possible when talking about results.  Just saying Jen lost a bunch of weight isnt going to cut it.  But saying “Jen lost 14 lbs, dropped 2 jean sizes and made all her friends jealous”  now you have something…..

• $1 trial class – Most people when they offer trial classes, they make them free.  By doing this you’re psychologically changing the value of the bootcamp class in your prospect’s mind.   Claude Hopkins in Scientific Advertising wrote that it’s very hard to pay for something once it has been free.  It’s vastly different to pay 15 cents and let you try an article than to simply say its free.  So if you plan on offering a free class, just change it to $1 for a trial class.  If they aren’t gonna pony up $1, they never would have paid you $150 a month for the bootcamp.

I think if you implement all three of those angles, you’ll see an increased signup rate in your bootcamps.  Now you’re prolly saying, well how do I get customers for my bootcamps.  Let’s look at a few ways…

Getting clients for fitness bootcamps

• Target existing clients (and their family/friends) – If you have existing clients, they already have a decent amount of trust in you.  This is key.  Now you can start to market your bootcamps toward them and their family and friends.  If you’re training a group of 10 year olds for a Saturday morning class, guess what?  They all have parents that probably workout as well.  Don’t hesitate to give these people a $1 trial class certificate and invite them to come by.  They’ll be glad you did.

• Setup a PPC campaign – Target people in your area through Google PPC campaigns.  Make sure to use keywords like bootcamps, group exercise classes, gym, fitness center, fitness bootcamp… and also make sure you target keywords for your city.  So Dallas bootcamps, bootcamps in Dallas Texas, bootcamps in (area code) etc….

• Run Facebook ads – Facebook has upgraded their advertising platform recently.  It allows you to specifically target people based on their location, age, sex and many other factors.  You could run the ad offering the $1 trial class and bring leads in left and right.  If they are willing to click on the ad, giev you their info, pay the $1 for the class, then you probably have a pretty good shot at landing them as a client.

• Target your ex-clients – This is a tip I picked up from Jay Abraham.  Im sure you’ve had clients who have left and you havent seen them for a while.  Well guess what?  Im sure a lot of them havent joined another gym yet.  They’re looking for a reason to start working out, so why not give them one.  Offer their whole family the $1 trial class, and tell them you’d like to see them back in your gym.  As ex clients, they’ll prolly be an easier sell than most.

Start putting these into place as soon as you can, and let me know how your results are turning out.  Take action today!

-Justin

P.S. If you’re learning some new things from my blog posts, make sure to signup for my newsletter it’s even more indepth!  It’s free