Q (Robbi): I’m the marketing manager at a hospital fitness center. We went to your Magic Triangle Seminar in San Diego and now we’re totally rethinking our website. It’s kind of overwhelming and we’re wondering where to start. Mostly what we have on there right now is about the center with pictures, a map, and contact information.
A: Robbi, if you were at the Magic Triangle Seminar I can see what prompted you to think about changes! I would do two “foundational” things. First, you need to capture email addresses for everyone that visits your site, so you can communicate with them later.
Second thing is to get intelligible website statistics so you can see what site visitors are doing (or not) on your site. We did an article on this and it’s free and pretty easy to do yourself.
The next thing to do is look at your home page – it is about you and your business, or is it focused on your customer and their thoughts, feelings, goals, concerns, etc. A rule of thumb: no more than 25% of your home page should be about you. 75% should be about your customer’s interests. So, if you’re talking about how great your programs, people, etc. are, don’t’ do that on your home page!
One thing you could do is add some articles to your website on different aspects of starting to get active, deciding whether to do it at home, alone, or in a group and so forth. Also, ask prospects about their concerns and anxieties about starting to workout, join a club, etc. and then we would do an FAQ on our site.
Q: (Sharon): I’m a partner in a yoga studio here in Cincinnati. We are sending a weekly email promo to our list. Do you think that’s too often? Every week we send a discount coupon to attend a free class. Also, our retention is pretty low, but I just don’t think people here are that into yoga.
A: Sharon, one issue I see is that you’re probably offering free classes every week to your current students – that’s probably who makes up the bulk of your mailing list.
Couple of thoughts: keep the weekly frequency, but make every other email informational/inspirational rather than a sales pitch.
If retention is low, I doubt it’s because people in Cincy aren’t that into yoga. It’s probably something about their experience when they come to your studio. Also, if you haven’t added anything to the site in the last 6 months, I’d suggest talking to your students and getting feedback on what they like and think could be better about their experience with your studio. Might be good to add some new stuff – but listen to what they’re telling you before you make any new product decision.
Also, I think you probably need to focus on marketing to people who AREN’T already customers versus your email list of current customers. If you want to focus on email, we just did a two part article with ideas on how to get non-customers to subscribe.
If you decide to add a new class, you could use one of your weekly emails to share an “in their own words” story from one of your students who’s taken the hot yoga class, versus just saying “sign up now” or “free class”.
Q (Mikel): I have read that getting links from other companies is good for your website. Is that true? I get emails wanting to swap links all the time. Most of my personal training is in-person, but I want to use the website to get new clients.
A: Mikel, if you can swap link with reputable local businesses – or reputable online businesses that’s fine, if they are logically related somehow to what you’re doing.
Most folks don’t find trainers off the web, but through local visibility (not paid ads) and word of mouth. So, I would recommend against focusing on link swaps other than with reputable and related local businesses. A better strategy would be to do some things locally to enhance visibility. For example, we’ve had several clients that partnered up with radio stations to do a several-week or several-month program where they worked with selected listeners and then reported back live on the air periodically. No money changed hands – it was just good PR for the wellness professionals and a good event for the radio station.
Another thought for you (and anyone else who sells locally vs online) is this how-to article on optimizing your site for local search.
I think everything in that article is free, too. Always cool.
Also, the challenge is that the web is easy, but not very effective for local personal training –so it feels good and like you’re doing good stuff, but I bet you’re not seeing great results. Spending 25-30% of your time marketing is not unrealistic for relatively new businesses. Now, marketing doesn’t have to mean sales pitches – it can be a free seminar for 50 people, too, which is both efficient and effective.
Mikel, you might take a look at the email marketing articles as well – 50 Ways To Get Email Newsletter Subscribers Part 1 and 2.
Something like “Hey human resources (city gov, county gov, neighbor business) we’d like to offer a lunch and learn for your employees. Something like “How To Lose Body Fat”. It’s a topic that has (nearly) universal appeal to both women, men, all ages, etc. Just be sure that you don’t just show up and present – get their business cards or pass around a sign-up sheet and put them on your email list so you can stay in touch! And a lot of people don’t sign in/up when they walk through the door. But, at the end of the seminar say, “be sure to sign in if you would like a copy of the slides/tips/etc. that we presented.” - after you’ve earned them by providing useful info. Up front they won’t do it because they think you’re going to deliver a sales pitch.
And, of course, actually send them emails. Not kidding – this is where a lot of marketing breaks down and why we encourage an informational newsletter for just about everyone.
Q (Lee): We want to send health reminder emails (like medication reminders, lifestyle modification reminders for exercise, smoking, etc.) to our employee, but I am worried about privacy rules. How are other companies doing this?
A: Lee, you’re right to be careful, because HIPAA privacy rules could definitely apply here, I think.
We’ve seen several approaches: 1) see if employers will sign a HIPAA waiver – then you can do whatever’s administratively easy. This is a good idea, regardless; 2) Only send reminders to their personal email, never to their work email; 3) Use what’s called “secure email”. This is similar to what big banks and financial firms do – you don’t’ send an actual detailed email. Instead you send a link to an online message, and the recipient has to enter a password that only they know to retrieve the message.
Q (ghfcadmin): Taking customers contact in a different direction: is there a text message marketing service that you are familiar with or would recommend, say, for reminding folks of their exercise goals?
A: GHFC, yes, I know exactly what you’re talking about and we do know of some companies that can work with you on this…give me a few minutes to see if we can get the names.
We posted the mobile messaging answer on our blog after the chat…go here to get our suggestions.
Q (Sharon): What about sending out postcards?
A: Someone recently told me they weren’t sending postcards anymore because they “didn’t work”. I don’t buy that. I think oversized postcards are a great and inexpensive marketing tool – BUT don’t put the “same old same old” on there about trying a free class. That’s not how most brand new customers make health/wellness decisions. You need to create an interesting experience that you invite people to so they can get a feel for your business – then they’re likelier to buy.