One of the most common questions I get is “How do I get more personal training leads?” The answer is much more complex than just buying advertising or creating partnerships with other local businesses. Let me first present you with this question, would you rather have 30 leads per month or 15 high quality leads per month?
If you are new to personal training you will need to be more comfortable with terms like “conversion rate” and “CPL” (cost per lead) In simple terms, if you spend 100 on an ad and you get 2 leads, your cost per lead is $50. If you know that you profit $250 from each new client on average, you have a winning campaign.
Now that we have that out of the way, here are a few tips for getting more leads. Use as many of these strategies as you can as long as you are tracking whether or not they are producing a positive ROI (return on investment)
Blog Ads
Referral Partners
Publicity / Free Press
Sponsorship
PPC - Pay Per Click
Local Papers
Online Directories
Search Engine Optimization
Contests
Facebook
Craigslist
Review Sites (ex Yelp.com)
If you have tested any of these methods, please leave a comment and let me know…
A physical therapist friend of mine begged me to sit down with him and go over his marketing plan. He’s a good friend so I agreed to do so. His material was solid but when I looked at his website I almost lost it. It was missing all of the key elements that I talk about on this blog; easy navigation, strong benefit based copy, and irresistible calls to action. That’s when I knew it was going to be a long lunch.
The first thing I told him was that he needed to start from scratch. Starting from his domain name, in order to respect his privacy I will not disclose his business name or city. I told him he needs to say “what his business is”, like MiamiPhysicalTherapy.com, it will help potential patients identify with your website right off the bat.
I happen to own a bunch of domain names like that. Here is a list of domain names that I have that are great examples of great domain names for physical therapy companies.
In every market there is at least on trainer that “gets it”. He dominates the market for personal training in his or her area. He makes it difficult for all other trainers to compete? So how does he do it? (im not being sexist here but for the sake of simplicity lets just say it is a he)
First, he takes his business very seriously. It is not a hobby, it is not treated like a job, he understands that his efforts and decision making make all the difference in whether or not his personal training business thrives or dies.
He understands marketing and is not cheap. I do not know a single ultra successful business owner that is “cheap”. In fact Donald Trump was being fined for displaying huge billboards in NYC that sayed “You’re Fired”. He was doing to promote the apprentice to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars per day in fines. He didn’t care, because he know that the money he spent on fines would be a drop in the bucket compared to the money he would rake in from the publicity if it all.
Hopefully, you are the one trainer in your area that “gets it”. One of my friends and personal trainer clients is doing a great job using video in his marketing and is doing a great job running a personal training business in MD.
For the sake of keepin gthis post short and to the point. Your domain name is not your time to try and be cute. If I see one more terrible domain name, im going hurl. Hint: Your domain name is as important as your business name itself. If you pick a domain name that is irrelevent, weird, or hard to spell or pronounce you are making a mistake. Here is an ecample, if someone types in personal trainer chicago and they are looking for a trainer to help them get into shape, and they are presented with 2 ads…
One says…
PrimalPhysiques.com and the other says…. www.personal-trainer-chicago.com
Which one would have a better response. Some people may click on the PrimalPhysiques to see what the heck that means:)
I hope this helps you the next time you think about buying a domain name. Sometimes you may need to be creative when choosing personal trainer domain names, use dashes if you can’t get the regular url like chandler personal trainer
I had a brief discussion the other day with a friend who was impressed by my knowledge of marketing but insisted his business was different and I couldn’t help him. Then I told him about one of my other client success stories, Thea, who uses my marketing domination techniques to dominate in her surf lesson business. She offers surf lessons in ventura and also surf camps in oxnard / ventura. So by the way if you are ever looking to learn how to ride the waves, check out her site:)
My point is, it doesn’t matter what business you are in, all the principle are the same. From surf lessons, to Salsa Dancing, to Car Sales, I challenge you to find a niche where my strategies won’t work.
Don’t be stuck with the “my business is different” mentallity, it will hold you back forever.
