Too many fitness professionals and business owners end up going down a rabbit hole when putting together a website. They waste a lot of time doing unnecessary things. Worse, they often don't take many actions that are required. Should certified personal trainers launch their website? If so, what's the best way to do it? Read on to learn more.
As you progress in your career as a Certified Personal Trainer, you're going to ask yourself soon if you should create your website.
And that’s a question that can swiftly lead you down a rabbit hole. Here’s why: you can lose a lot of valuable time with few results.
Worse, you can miss the important stuff you need to do.
Should you launch your website?
How much should you put on your website now? What should you use it for?
And what’s the best way to execute?
We’ll cover each of these questions in this article.
Should you launch a website?
First up: Should you launch your website?
In almost all cases, the answer is yes. You should have an online presence.
Unless you can live your dream lifestyle on word-of-mouth referrals, you need to have an essential website up and running. People expect it. If they cannot find you, they wonder why (for a few seconds, then look elsewhere).
A professional, confident presentation of your services will go a long way to attracting clients–and encouraging them to reach out to you.
What should you put on your website?
At a minimum, you need to have a place online for your prospective clients to:
- Get your contact information
- Learn more about the services you provide
- Read reviews, success stories, and receive some reassurance you can deliver as promised
- Be directed on how to take the next step in learning more about working with you
Even though that sounds simple, it’s deceptively complicated.
Because once you start discussing WHAT to put on your website, you’re looking at your messaging strategy.
No matter how small, you need to have a plan for your website, and then you need to work the plan.
You don’t just randomly pick up weights and start lifting–you need programming for results. The same is true with a website, so start with your messaging plan.
Get your messaging straight
We recommend you keep your plan very simple at first, but create it in a way that you can expand, tweak, and adjust as needed.
Start with the bare bones. And that's your primary messaging. No matter how small a website you have, you have to have messaging that resonates with your prospective clients.
Here's where most people go wrong. You go to a domain name registrar, and you start plugging in names. You try the name you love, and that's not available. You try another, and that's not available, either. The same goes for a third. You get frustrated and bored.
So you start plugging in more and more complicated formulas, and before you know it, your domain name is jennysfitnessindenver.example.com.
What you’ve done is allowed the domain name to determine your branding and messaging. That’s not good. You need to make your choices about your messaging first, then go shopping for domain names.
Answer these questions:
- 1. WHO are you trying to help? Messages to everyone do not attract anyone. You have to have an idea of what we call your "Ideal Client Avatar." Keep it simple. Consider basic demographics, psychographics, and geography. Who are they, what are they like, and where are they?
- What problem will you help them solve? “I help women over 50 in Volusia County lose weight.”
- What is the benefit to the ideal client if the problem is solved? This will be your headline messaging. “Look great.” “Feel great.” “Have more energy.”
- How will you solve it? This can be as easy as “Pilates group classes and semi-private training with nutritional support.”
- What reassurance can you provide? Your certifications, years of experience, before and after success story pics, a testimonial or two, and you’re ready.
- What do you want them to do next? Call … use a scheduler … send you an email … have ONE place where they are to go.
Once you’ve answered these questions, you have your basic template. Put your messaging in that order:
Attention women over 50 in Volusia County: Look Great. Feel Great. Have more energy. How? With our Pilates group classes, semi-private training, and nutritional support. NASM-certified … etc. Call us at …
After you have your messaging, then you can start to look for a website URL (your web address, also known as a domain name.)
These are just the bare bones of what you need to do with messaging. We teach a variety of systems, tools, and templates that allow you to go far more in-depth in each of these categories and rapidly execute them. Your ideal client, for example, is something you will revisit again and again as you grow. By the time you get to 6- and 7-figures, you'll need to be living in your ideal client's head.
Launch Your Website
Next, it’s time to launch. You will need to:
Choose and register your domain name
Go to https://domains.google/#/ or www.godaddy.com to register. Try to take your name, your niche, your location, and your industry, and put something together.
Again, don't let the availability of domain names choose your branding strategy. The simpler, the better. Ideally, it should be your business's name. And use a .com if you can (or your country extension of you can't grab it, like .ca (Canada) .co.uk (Great Britain) or .com.au (Australia), for example.
Choose a web hosting service
A website-template service that hosts your website, such as WordPress and Squarespace, is helpful. But before you take this step… consider if you need a custom site or WordPress site OR if you would benefit from an all-in-one WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor solution.
We find for most businesses under 50-100 clients, the best time vs. financial investment vs. ROI solution often is a simple page editing solution like ClickFunnels, Leadpages, or all-in-one page builder/sales management/CRM all-in-one solutions like Ontraport or Keap.
Use the messaging you’ve created to fill in the templates provided by your service to create your web page.
Warning: It might tempt you to have a picture of yourself by yourself or with a team looking directly at the camera. Avoid this. Show your clients, with you to the side guiding them. This positions you as the guide helping them achieve their goals, which is the message you want to send.
NOTE: we include done-for-you templates (and more) for all NPE clients with all our programs.
Summary
Yes, you should have a website. Don't just toss something up on the Web, or you will turn off more people than you'll attract. Your plan needs to start with messaging, and you must choose your branding, not the domain name registrar. Create your primary messaging, and then select your domain name and hosting service. Then add your content and start driving prospective clients to your website!
Would you like to learn more about marketing yourself as a personal trainer?
If so, register for NPE’s free eCourse: Make Money as a Personal Trainer: How to find clients and earn an additional $1-3k+/month (online or offline). You’ll learn how to set yourself up for success in your fitness career, price and package for results and profit, and take the guesswork out of attracting the right clients. Click here to learn more.
