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.

ATLANTAPHYSICALTHERAPY.ORG
AUSTINPHYSICALTHERAPY.ORG
CHICAGOPHYSICALTHERAPY.ORG
DALLASPHYSICALTHERAPY.ORG
FTLAUDERDALEPHYSICALTHERAPY.COM
LAPHYSICALTHERAPY.ORG
LOUISVILLEPHYSICALTHERAPY.ORG
MARYLANDPHYSICALTHERAPY.COM
MIAMIPHYSICALTHERAPY.ORG
ORLANDOPHYSICALTHERAPY.ORG
PHOENIXPHYSICALTHERAPY.ORG
PHYSICALTHERAPYBOCA.COM
PHYSICALTHERAPYCHARLESTON.COM
PHYSICALTHERAPYDC.COM
PHYSICALTHERAPYHOUSTONTX.COM
PHYSICALTHERAPYLONGBEACH.COM
PHYSICALTHERAPYORANGECOUNTY.COM
PHYSICALTHERAPYPHILADELPHIA.COM
PHYSICALTHERAPYVEGAS.COM
ROCKVILLEPHYSICALTHERAPY.COM
SANDIEGOPHYSICALTHERAPY.ORG
SANFRANCISCOPHYSICALTHERAPY.ORG
SCOTTSDALEPHYSICALTHERAPY.ORG
VIRGINIAPHYSICALTHERAPY.ORG

We are in the process of building his new website now so I will update you after we have made some progress.

Keith

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.

Personal Trainer Germantown Maryland

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

Keith

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.

Keith

If you are not taking advantage of web video in your marketing, you seriously need to stop what you are doing and think about this. You can easily make short commercials for your business for a few hundred dollars. Heck you can even do it yourself if you can learn some simple software.

I know how important it is to use videos, and I use them in all my marketing. I mean what better way to get your message a crossed. Why rely on the hope that they actually read what you wrote on your website. I got news for you, they won’t..

Let’s take a look at a great personal training video that I made for some of my gold clients.

Charleston Personal Trainer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D55-UO_2DNE

Chandler Personal Trainer

You will see the video covers the benefits of personal training and targets the emotional “hot buttons” that your potential clients respond to.

The video ends with a great call to action, telling prospective leads to contact them for a free personal training session.

That’s it folks. What used to costs thousands, now cost hundreds or less. Don’t put it off any longer, your competitors will beat you to the punch.

Keith