The Trackster

The Trackster is online software that helps Personal Trainers communicate with and motivate their clients.

Just came across a really interesting use of video on a Personal Trainers website.  A really simple way to help your clients.

The PT is a guy called Pete Tansley, and he is based on the Gold Coast here in Australia.  His website is called Fitness with Pete.

I’ve embedded the video below so you can have a look.  It only runs for 2 minutes, so check it out.

The video is just a quick and simple review of a local cafe in Pete’s area, and highlighting one of their really healthy meals, in this case a delicious looking Salmon!

Why is this a great idea?

• Pete is helping his training clients out with great information on how to eat healthy and still be able to go out.
• It’s relevant to his clients because they probably all live in the local area.
• Pete is building his referral network in the local area by highlighting a great local cafe.
• Maybe getting some links back from the cafe’s website to Pete’s website.  Important for Pete’s SEO work.

A really simple and inexpensive way to help out his clients, and also help him get known in the local area.

One of the best marketing tools you can use in your Personal Training business is your website.  A website can help you  explain who you are,  your services and how to contact you.  More importantly a website can help you to keep in contact with your clients and keep your PT business front of mind.

I found a great example of a well put together website for a Personal Training business in Orange County, California, USA.  The business is called Innovative Results.  I’m going to go through a few pages of their site and pick out a couple of things I think they have done really well and that you might be able to add to your Personal Training website.

Home Page

One of the first things I noticed is that they have their telephone number on the top left of the site.  I think this is a great move.  When people look for PT’s their first point is usually the internet (if they haven’t been referred by a friend), but once they are comfortable they are always going to want to talk to a person on the phone or face to face.  By having that phone number clearly displayed, Innovative Results are making it really easy for someone to make a call.

As a person looking for a PT, the other things that I would notice on the front page is the great testimonial photos.  They say a picture says a thousand words and having great “before and after” photos of previous clients is absolute gold.  I would nearly suggest making it more prominent on the home page.  Show prospective clients what can happen.  It’s really powerful.

About Us

For a PT I think the About Us page is just about the most important page on your site.  And these guys do a good job, with lots of information about what they do, and how they do it, also some information about press mentions and some awards they have won.  One of the best things they have done is put up photos of their trainers.  It shows prospective clients that there are real people behind the website.  When you call them on the phone, you’ll probably be talking to one of these guys.  The only thing I’d add is maybe a small bio of each of the trainers, just to personalise it a bit more.  Maybe even link up the before and after photos of their clients with the trainer that produced the result.

Our Services

Another page on their site that is done well.  They have a few different specialties and they explain each one clearly on this page.  If you are good at one type of training than this is the place to talk about it.  Really sell yourself and what you can do.

Blog

There are a lot of reasons for having a blog on your site, including Search Engine Optimisation, communicating with your clients and personalising your website.  The Innovative Results guys have a great blog.  It’s constantly updated with relevant posts that their clients would want to read. They have exercise of the day videos, posts about motivation and goal setting and even a post about healthy snacks to eat while watching the Super Bowl.  This type of content is what will make their clients come back to the website, and the more times they come back to the site, the more times they are thinking about Innovative Results, and more likely they are to keep training with them.

And at the end of the day, that’s a primary goal of the website.  Happy clients.

One thing I will mention is the fantastic professional video that they have produced about their business.  It’s only on the blog page, and I would recommend that it might be a great thing to have on the home page, and even the contact page.  It’s a really good, short video that gives you an idea of the type of business they run.

Testimonials

I already mentioned the testimonials that are on the front page of the website, but they also have a lot of photos and testimonials on the the, you guessed it – testimonial page.  This is really powerful stuff.  And if I was a Personal Trainer this is exactly the sort of content I would try and get on my website.  This page tells people that Innovative Results know what they are doing and can help people get to where they want to be.  These photos sell their services for them.

The Innovative Results guys know what they are doing with their website.  Now obviously you can’t steal their ideas directly or their content, but there are a few basic principles that every Personal Trainer can do like getting great testimonials from your clients, having a blog that is updated regularly and allow your personality to come through with photos and bios etc. and also make sure your phone number is easy to find.

These are a few easy ways that you might be able to improve your own PT website.  If you have any other suggestions or some more great examples then let us know in the comments below.

When talking about PR (public relations), I am talking about articles or mentions in mass media publications like newspapers, magazines, TV shows and trade magazines.  Although directly these things might not bring you a lot of clients,  it can help to give you perceived expertise in your field.

A newspaper article about you or your business can be a great thing to put on the front page of your website.  It might be just the thing that makes a potential client go to you for personal training, instead of your competitor down the road.  I mean if the newspaper thought you were worthy of an article you must know what you are talking about!

One great site that I have come across in the last couple of weeks is Source Bottle.  This site provides a way for Journalists to post “call outs” for stories they are trying to write.  If a “call out” matches something that you know about it, then you can respond directly to the journalist.

They have an about page that explains the process a little better.  But the best thing is that it’s free to use.

After a quick search I found that SBS television is currently looking for stories about good and bad Personal Trainers.  Maybe you have a long term client that you have worked with that would be only too happy to talk on TV about you?  Or maybe you are a Mum running her own PT business, well there is someone that wants to talk to you.

Have a look around the site and see if there are other stories that you might be able to help with.

There are plenty of PR experts around and I suggest if you really want to get into it, you try and get the help of someone with more experience and know how.  But Source Bottle is a great free service, and who knows you might end up on TV one day.

Recently I have come across a few mentions of TrainerFind.com.au on the internet.  Thought it might be useful to do an interview with Chris from Trainer Find and discover a bit about his business and how it helps Personal Trainers.

Can you give us a brief overview of trainerfind.com.au and how it’s useful to Personal Trainers?
Sure Craig.  Trainer Find is an online Personal Trainer directory.  We help Personal Trainers connect with clients instantly through SMS and email.  If the budget is tight we also have a free listing option too.  Our advanced listings have inbuilt lead generation features and show more Trainer information.  Basically, we help increase your chance of being found online and then give clients a definite way to get in touch so you can start training.

Why do we need a product like Trainer Find?
Clients are increasingly turning to the Internet to find and commence training with Personal Trainers.  Potential clients now use directories and search engines to find local Trainers.  Trainer Find puts you right in front of your potential clients and helps increase your chances of being hired.

We have broken the country into many areas and regions to help make our search engine work great.  Basically, if a client lives or works in your area, you will be found.  We are Trainer “Find” not Trainer “Search”.

It looks like you essentially have two clients – Personal Trainers and people looking for trainers.  Which is the most important?
That’s kind of like “what comes first, the chicken or the egg” huh?  You can’t have one without the other.

Right now our focus is on getting trainers registered and listed on Trainer Find.  So first up we are spreading the word to Trainers and ironing out the kinks in our website.  Since launching our Beta website we have had great feedback from Trainers around the country.

In a few weeks we take of the “Beta” tag and start heavily promoting the website to potential clients.  Ultimately, getting visitors to the website is just as important as creating great content.  Clients come flocking to directory websites with significant relevant content.  The content of our website is made up of Personal Trainers from all around Australia.

In Australia there are a couple of competitors who offer a similar service, how are you different?
Unlike other website directories, we offer SMS connectivity to Personal Trainers with advanced listings.  This allows you to be out on the road and get a lead sent straight to your phone.  You may miss an email lead, how professional does that make you look! Not very!!  So getting a lead sent straight to your mobile instantly is like getting a leg up on your competition because your potential client will be blown away by your speedy response.  They will know you mean business.  They will be pumped.  Imagine that!

Plus, we are actually current Personal Trainers ourselves.  We are still in the game and Personal Training is how we make our living.  We don’t need to overcharge you for an advanced listing so we won’t.  We know what clients like because we actually deal with them day to day.  We know what Personal Trainers want because we are Personal Trainers.  We just want to offer a service that Trainers will find effective and useful and that clients will find helpful.

What sort of things is Trainer Find doing to get more normal people searching for Personal Trainers?  Why should PT’s be interested in what you are doing?
As I mentioned, we will start pumping up the promotion for clients in a few weeks.  We’ll do this using some online and offline methods.  Right now we are focussing on building awareness of the website within the fitness industry in Australia and helping Trainers to get listed.

Trainer Find will help your clients to find you, contact you and start training with you.  You will project a professional image in the mind of your client because of the speed at which you can connect with them.  The leads you get are always qualified, because of the information you can place on your listing.

And like I said, if budget is an issue, you can always place a free listing which other directories don’t offer.

Do you have plans to expand into other countries?
At this stage we’re just sticking to the Australian market.  We’ll see how we go.  We could do it easily enough as our backend is extremely portable and flexible.  We just want to offer a good service here and focus on that for the time being.

What is the one best marketing tip you have for Personal Trainers?
Get a website up and running.  There are some easy peezy ways to do it.  It doesn’t have to be super duper flashy or look spectacular, but try to make it match your brand image.  Get the colours to match, the words, the slogan, the prices, etc.  Creating an online presence is essential for lead generation and giving clients a way to get to know you.  Think about it.  How do you find more information about products or services you want to buy or use?  One word – Google.  Creating a website allows potential clients to find you using Google or any other search engine.  They’ll find your website directly or via a directory like Trainer Find.  If you don’t have a website – get one asap!  If you have a website – get listed in as many directories as you can!  Make sure Trainer Find is one of them of course ;o)

Thanks a lot for your time Chris, appreciate you answering a few questions.  Check out TrainerFind.com.au and see if it could help you get more leads for your Personal Training business.

If you have any suggestions for interviewees please let me know in the comments below.

Just read this interesting article by Rick Watson on the PT Business in a Box website about what Personal Trainers really make.  It’s an informative read with plenty of tips for new trainers and what to look for and experienced trainers and some of the things they can do to increase business.

Looks like Rick has some good posts and information on his site for all Personal Trainers.

Here’s a couple of interesting links that I found this week.

1. I’ve been listening to a podcast called Small Business Big Marketing lately and one of the guys that presents it, Tim Reid, has also been answering some marketing questions on twitter.  His answers come in the form of YouTube videos.  One of his latest ones was about marketing tactics for Personal Trainers.
2. This article is about Andrew Simmons, the guy behind Vision Personal Training and his story and future plans.
3. Some more marketing advice for Personal Trainers, with 19 marketing tips.  Also highlights some of the ones that didn’t work which I like as well.
4. Lastly this week, one which I think just looks pretty cool and that’s some of the latest photo’s from the Hubble Telescope. Who doesn’t think space is cool??

Google has launched a new tool called the Google Local Business Center that allows you to easily put your Personal Training business on Google Maps and be top of the searches when someone does a local search in your area.

It is a simple sign up process that allows you to put detailed information including photos and video about your business and gives you access to detailed stats and information about how many people are doing local searches.  All extremely valuable to a Personal Training business that relies on local clients and local searches on the web.  When someone does a google search for “personal trainer (insert your suburb)” you want to be top of list and you want to know about it.

It’s an absolute no brainer.  If you run a Personal Training business and you want people in your area to know about you, then you have to sign up for this free service.  Head on over to the Google Local Business Center, spend 5 minutes setting up your account and do it now.

Update: Here’s a quick (1 minute 38 sec) video introducing the Google Local search dashboard.

Came across a great article on Personal Fitness Professional website by Kaiser Serajuddin about keeping in contact with your clients.

I was especially keen on reading about Kaiser’s ideas on keeping in contact with current and old clients.  In his article Kaiser says “Staying in touch with them will cause them to adhere to their regimens, leading to better results (which is what it’s all about, anyway). This naturally brings higher value to your training experience, which justifies higher rates without taking up any more of your time.” This sums up what we are on about with The Trackster, and why we built it.

Kaiser offers up some great advice about new leads as well, with some simple tools to add to your website.  Well worth a read.

Kaiser also has his own blog Super-Trainer.com that offers some great advice for Personal Trainers.