A professional looking personal trainer website is a way to stand out against the competition in the field and can also be a crucial method of generating leads for your fitness business. But without throwing money into paid advertising, how do you drive traffic to your pages?
Website traffic is the lifeblood for a fitness website. It's the most critical ingredient to making your website work for your business. No traffic, dead website. Paid advertising can be one way to get eyes on your fitness website but if you currently don't have the budget or you are planning your strategy for the long haul, there are many free ways to promote your personal trainer website to increase traffic.
#1. Write Guest Blogs for Other Websites
If you're a personal trainer in a particular niche, there are going to be websites that you depend on for specific information. Writing for their blog can be a great way to reach a bigger audience full of your ideal clients. This does a few things to drive traffic to your website.
First, it establishes you as a trusted authority in your niche. It allows your ideal audience to develop familiarity with your fitness brand and to come to know, like and trust you.
Secondly, it builds relationships with other industry leaders in your niche. This could be a source of direct referrals from them to you. Finally and most significantly, it creates a catalogue of backlinks between your website, and the authority website. Google loves backlinks and will push your website closer to those front-page rankings when you're associated with industry leaders.
Here's how to approach this strategy and find authority websites that will help to boost your fitness website's visitor numbers:
First, it establishes you as a trusted authority in your niche. It allows your ideal audience to develop familiarity with your fitness brand and to come to know, like and trust you.
Secondly, it builds relationships with other industry leaders in your niche. This could be a source of direct referrals from them to you. Finally and most significantly, it creates a catalogue of backlinks between your website, and the authority website. Google loves backlinks and will push your website closer to those front-page rankings when you're associated with industry leaders.
Here's how to approach this strategy and find authority websites that will help to boost your fitness website's visitor numbers:
- Identify the right target websites. Writing outside your given niche won't be a good strategy for traffic, so researching this carefully before starting is time well spent.
- Write an individualised pitch. After exploring the blog and the content written by guest bloggers, contact the editor directly. Make the email sound personal, highlight what you can contribute and why you think you both will benefit. Avoid being spammy, though.
- Write your guest post. Follow the preferred style of the existing articles in terms of formatting and structure. Feel free to ask the editor if they have any expectations then go through the review process with the editor. Ensure that the backlinks to your website link to specific content relevant to the topic of the blog.
#2. Blogger Outreach
Blogger outreach is different from guest blogging because you reach out to the editor of a blog in your niche and ask them personally to link back to relevant content on your blog from articles already published on their website. They are only likely to do if your content is providing genuine value to their audience.
First of all, you need a great article of your own that goes into details on a topic they mention but don't go into too many details. You also need to be persuasive and personable in your outreach to the editor of the website so they can see how that will benefit them. For example, if their readers want to learn more about that specific problem, and they show them a direction to reliable info they can trust, they will value their website even more.
#3. Search Engine Optimisation
SEO is how you get your website ranked on the first page of Google. All it costs is a bit of time to learn how it's done and it brings a steady stream of traffic to your personal trainer website. While fully optimising your website is an involved process, you can start with some basic principles.
Outside of optmising the main pages of your site, you'll need to write content that your target audience is searching for, not only what you think you should write about. Then take that idea, and research the keywords for that general topic.
You'll have lots of ideas from this research, so keep a list. As you write your blog, include links to other high authority websites. These backlinks will help Google to understand that your writing is part of a larger, authoritative network of trusted resources.
#4. Help People, For Free
In places like Reddit and Quora, people are asking questions about problems they don't think can solve on their own. Not only can you answer these questions and help the people that need help, but you can also establish yourself as an expert. However, you mustn't use these platforms as a sales resource, as they will shut your account down for being spammy.
But authentically joining those communities, becoming part of them, and making a genuine contribution will give people the chance to reach out to you when they want your support. Then you can direct them to your website resources if it feels ethical to do so, in a private message to them. Do be aware though that each of the subreddits will have their own rules and breaking these rules can get you kicked out of that group.
Another opportunity for helping out prospective clients is when your social media circles ask a question in the comments of your very own social media posts (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter being excellent examples).
Answering those questions in the comments section helps the person asking about the problem, and other people see you answering those questions and may come to you with questions of their own. It allows you to start a conversation with people that have the exact problems your fitness services are designed to solve.
#5. Give People a Reason To Visit
The majority of your website doesn't change much from week to week. The exception to this is your blog, which should be updated at least weekly to maximise your treatment by Google. Giving people regular blog content is essential, and making it easy for people to share that content is even more critical.
First, create useful and relevant content people want to read. Then add a "share" button to the post, and ask people as a "call to action" to share it with a friend that they think would find it helpful.
You can also add some value to your visitors by creating additional free resources, often called lead magnets. These are any unique, valuable content that your ideal audience would consume. For example, a downloadable resource, like a checklist or an eBook, it could be a series of emails delivering workouts or nutrition tips, or even a video series on the technical performance of a lift.
How to decide what your lead magnet should be? It will come down to your ideal clients' unique problems they are looking to solve. The more specific, the more likely it will attract the right audience. The purpose of a lead magnet, also called as an ethical bribe, is to collect email addresses from these prospective clients in exchange for the resource.
First, create useful and relevant content people want to read. Then add a "share" button to the post, and ask people as a "call to action" to share it with a friend that they think would find it helpful.
You can also add some value to your visitors by creating additional free resources, often called lead magnets. These are any unique, valuable content that your ideal audience would consume. For example, a downloadable resource, like a checklist or an eBook, it could be a series of emails delivering workouts or nutrition tips, or even a video series on the technical performance of a lift.
How to decide what your lead magnet should be? It will come down to your ideal clients' unique problems they are looking to solve. The more specific, the more likely it will attract the right audience. The purpose of a lead magnet, also called as an ethical bribe, is to collect email addresses from these prospective clients in exchange for the resource.
#6. Email Marketing
Email marketing is another online marketing channel you can use to provide value to your audience and gives you another opportunity to build your reputation as a trusted resource of fitness news and advice.
You can create separate lists for subscribers in the different stages of their buyer's journey and tailor the content you send out to them based on their behaviour.
Those that become a subscriber by downloading a lead magnet are people who are looking to solve their problem with some external help on their own. They will be looking to see more free advice, so regularly emailing them about your blog updates and other free resources is what will keep them engaged with your fitness business.
Others that respond to a campaign for a free challenge are at a stage where they think they need expert help but still looking for who to trust. That's your window to wow them during the challenge and then persuade them to join one of your programs for long-term results.
Once you're regularly emailing your lists, you can direct them back to the most relevant content on your website with links to related blogs. This way, you can breathe new life into older articles, and get them in front of a new audience.
You can create separate lists for subscribers in the different stages of their buyer's journey and tailor the content you send out to them based on their behaviour.
Those that become a subscriber by downloading a lead magnet are people who are looking to solve their problem with some external help on their own. They will be looking to see more free advice, so regularly emailing them about your blog updates and other free resources is what will keep them engaged with your fitness business.
Others that respond to a campaign for a free challenge are at a stage where they think they need expert help but still looking for who to trust. That's your window to wow them during the challenge and then persuade them to join one of your programs for long-term results.
Once you're regularly emailing your lists, you can direct them back to the most relevant content on your website with links to related blogs. This way, you can breathe new life into older articles, and get them in front of a new audience.
Summing Up
There are many ways you can promote your website for free. While PPC ads might bring you in traffic quickly when you need it, unless you keep assigning a budget to paid advertising, they are temporary solutions.
If you'd like to build a long-term online marketing strategy that needs little work hours invested in the long run, focusing on the free options will be crucial. Granted, these strategies require a lot of time commitment at the start, but once you have established a follower base, it will require much less to maintain it, or you can outsource the tasks you don't enjoy as much. If you're interested in our done-for-you blog writing services, you can see more information here.
If you'd like to build a long-term online marketing strategy that needs little work hours invested in the long run, focusing on the free options will be crucial. Granted, these strategies require a lot of time commitment at the start, but once you have established a follower base, it will require much less to maintain it, or you can outsource the tasks you don't enjoy as much. If you're interested in our done-for-you blog writing services, you can see more information here.
