Q (Owenb): When I search for us on the website one of the other fitness centers here shows up. How did they make that happen? We’re in a pretty small town in the South.
A: Owen, you can do several things to help people find you. Make sure your city, state, zip and phone number with area code are shown in text (not image) on your site. Get local groups like your Chamber of Commerce to link to your site. The 1st websavvy article was actually on this topic and it's got quite a few tips also.
Q (HealthyNow): I’m the GM of RegionOne we are a hospital fitness center. We have a printed newsletter but want to start an email one. Can you give us some ideas. Our printed newsletter is usually 12 pages and we send it once every three months to about 3500 people. We usually have 20 - 30 different things in every newsletter, like contests or staff profiles or new promotions. I’m wondering which ones would be the best to include?
A: HealthyNow, a couple of thoughts: 1) you'll save a lot of money switching to email! Paper and postage have really gotten pricey! 2) it would be better to send a lot less content (no more than 3 items say), a lot more frequently than every 3 months. We usually suggest weekly or at least monthly.
Most of your 12 pages is probably not that interesting to your members. Newsletters should offer useful/interesting info to readers, and marketing should be secondary. Plus, your readers probably don't really want to read about your business as much as they would like to read about other customers and what's working for them, how they're overcoming hurdles, etc.
If you do it weekly, you get good at it fast. Probably part of the reason you have so many articles is because you want things that will appeal to different kinds of customers. So one thing that might work is focusing on a different target audience each week - week 1 is families, week 2 is seniors, etc.
Q (Fitnessgrrrl): I’m a wellness coach (I’m a RD with a personal training certification) and I specialize in women's health issues. I paid a designer to make my site and it’s gorgeous, but I don't think I’m getting very many clients as a result. I just get most of my new clients when someone hears about me.
A: Fitnessgrrrl, the Internet is like a library full of books. Unless you read about a book in a newspaper, or on CNN's website, or see someone mention it, you'd never know a particular book existed. So how would anyone even know your site is out there?
With your expertise you've got lots of PR opportunities that would help make your site (and business) more visible to future clients. Start asking your clients who their docs are - you could give them a short summary of progress to take to their next appointment. You could also reach out to the local newspaper with any really inspiring human interest stories about your clients (get their permission first). Also, free short seminars (lunch and learn kind of thing) can be very effective - talk to women-focused groups.
One last thought one your site - make sure it's got interesting and useful content that would appeal to your future clients. Some sites look great, but if the "meat" isn't there, they won't produce business results. We just did an article on getting statistics about how visitors experience your site so you know what to change.
Once you have Google Analytics on your site (super-easy to do), start by looking at the bounce rate. I bet it's really high, which is a sign that visitors are underwhelmed by the content. We've also got some tips on website design for wellness business.
Q (FoodFirst): We want to add ecommerce and are thinking about having a .pdf order form that people can print out and fax to us. Do you think this will work? Right now we sell nutrition products and we would also like to sell some ebooks and maybe podcasts or CDs.
A: I would not recommend this approach. Having to open and print and then fax a .pdf is a pain for customers. Some will have trouble opening the .pdf, more and more people don't have a fax. This method only works if you have REALLY motivated customers! We suggest using what's called a "hosted shopping cart". Basically, it's a service that lets you list your products on your website with a unique link for each one that takes the customer to a secure online area where they place their order.
It’s extremely easy and quick to implement, costs around $300/year whether you sell a little or a lot. If you already have a merchant account you can be set up and running within a couple of hours. One we recommend is www.marketerschoice.com. Their support is good if you have a question and they have lots of different features. There are other good ones out there, too.
We recommend against buying the actual shopping cart software yourself. It’s much harder to add/change products, you'll be very dependent on your web developer, and most people don't keep their software updated which exposes customers to security problems over time. And, if you know how to create a hyperlink you can do it yourself. The good shopping cart services all have online and phone help + free "how-to" webinars and it's really pretty easy.
FoodFirst, when someone buys something on your site, they'll click on the link to the shopping cart, they can pay by CC, and then you and they both get an email notification so you know to ship whatever they ordered, etc. It's really pretty slick :)
Q (Owenb): What is “bounce rate”?
A: Owen, the bounce rate shows how many visitors showed up at your site and immediately either went to another site or closed their browser. It's a major red flag if it's high (like 60-70%, for example) because it says people aren't finding anything even remotely interesting to them on your site!
Q (Marc): I’m the marketing manager for a wellness center here in St Louis. I really liked the site statistics article. We are getting lots of visitors to our site but not much happens with them. I’m wanting site visitors to sign up for membership. What should we do?
A: Marc, customers usually go through several steps before they buy. They research and evaluate different options, for example. So you need to have info on your website that helps your future customer at every step in their buying process. Just having a membership signup is not going to work without those other steps in place, plus I think virtually everyone will want to see your people and facility before they commit anyway. Maybe a good goal for your website would be to encourage visitors to call and schedule a tour, or call to register for a free workshop on "healthy lifestyles don't have to hurt" or similar. Another thing to keep in mind is that people want to see the people that go to the gym and see if they would be comfortable there.