I bet the last thing you expected to be doing when you became a personal trainer was writing content, learning about SEO, creating social media strategies and managing your personal trainer website.
What if there was a way to outsource everything so you can just do what you do best.. train your clients.
In this post, I'll outline the top systems we personally use here at My Personal Trainer Website, why they're awesome and a few alternatives, just in case.
1. Content
Content is now the backbone of most successful personal training businesses. Whether that's blogs like this one, video or podcast, more and more personal trainers understand the value and ROI of quality content.
When we’re short in time or I’m not feeling particularly inspired to write, we use Go Dot Media. While the content is OK, it still gets a massive overhaul by both myself and Eszter. But having the framework and most of the content cuts time invested by half.
Other service providers to consider
Fat Joe:
The Hoth
When we’re short in time or I’m not feeling particularly inspired to write, we use Go Dot Media. While the content is OK, it still gets a massive overhaul by both myself and Eszter. But having the framework and most of the content cuts time invested by half.
Other service providers to consider
Fat Joe:
- Quality: OK but will require a personal touch and links to references
- Pricing: $50 per 1,000 words
- Website: https://fatjoe.co/content-writing/
The Hoth
- Quality: Good but you'd need to add links to references and more images
- Pricing: $70 per 1,000 words
- Website: https://www.thehoth.com/blogger/
2. Facebook
Recurpost. We add all of our blogs, memes, quotes and downloadable resources to categories and they get published all year round.
But don't third party apps reduce Facebook reach? There’s still no evidence to suggest that using a third party app reduces reach.
While using an app like Recurpost takes time to set up, it's easy to maintain after that and saves us hours each week.
But don't third party apps reduce Facebook reach? There’s still no evidence to suggest that using a third party app reduces reach.
While using an app like Recurpost takes time to set up, it's easy to maintain after that and saves us hours each week.
What about Facebook ads? We don’t use ads because we rank number 1-3 on Google for pretty much every relevant search term. On the rare occasion we do switch them on we use retargeting ads only.
Our retargeting pixel is constantly collecting the data of our website visitors. The visitors we get from the content we create which ranks in Google and gets traffic from social and email. This saves both time and money in building the right audience.
Other service to consider:
3. Email
We only send one email per week which is a roundup of all the content, resources and best posts from the site and group. You can get that and a free guide on business systems for personal trainers here:
The Ultimate Guide to Business Systems
The Ultimate Guide to Business Systems
Other than a welcome message, we don’t follow up with these subscribers because the chances of someone subscribing to that and wanting a personal trainer website are pretty slim.
We do follow up with subscribers to our Cost of a Fitness Website lead magnet though because they’re “hot” leads.
We use Campaign Monitor for this. Not because it’s awesome but because we have a white label account to manage dozens of our clients' email accounts for them.
Other service providers to consider
Mailchimp
- Quality: Good
- Pricing: Free to $199/month
- Website: https://mailchimp.com/pricing/
Aweber
- Quality: Good
- Pricing: $19 to $149/month
- Website: www.aweber.com/pricing
4. SEO
Search Engine Optimisation isn’t something you can automate. It requires knowledge and time to do it right. Outside of My PT Website, this is the main service I provide to 6 and 7 figure companies.
Anyone can do it. But it seems that you need some kind of weird love for it to be truly great at it. Outsource this if that’s not the case for you.
If you really can't afford to outsource SEO, you might have some luck ranking your website locally on your own. This can be worth the investment alone. Time spent now is much less time spent later trying to acquire new leads.
One of our clients invested £450 per month for 6 months in SEO. A total investment of £2700.
It took around 6 months to rank his website on page one. 18 months later he's had 278 leads come through his website, which is 1 lead every 1.9 days.
Keep in mind this client does almost zero blogging. He'd need to make £9 off of each lead to get his money back.
Or £18 if only half signed up.
Which is highly likely considering they found him after literally searching for a personal trainer on Google.
Resources to consider:
Anyone can do it. But it seems that you need some kind of weird love for it to be truly great at it. Outsource this if that’s not the case for you.
If you really can't afford to outsource SEO, you might have some luck ranking your website locally on your own. This can be worth the investment alone. Time spent now is much less time spent later trying to acquire new leads.
One of our clients invested £450 per month for 6 months in SEO. A total investment of £2700.
It took around 6 months to rank his website on page one. 18 months later he's had 278 leads come through his website, which is 1 lead every 1.9 days.
Keep in mind this client does almost zero blogging. He'd need to make £9 off of each lead to get his money back.
Or £18 if only half signed up.
Which is highly likely considering they found him after literally searching for a personal trainer on Google.
Resources to consider:
5. Instagram
We’re currently testing Instagram as a source of leads. Mainly due to the decrease in reach for Facebook business pages and I’m terrible at maintaining my personal page (you can connect with me here if you like seeing dogs, babies, sunburn, motorbikes and cake).
I intend to spend a few thousand dollars and use a few companies to see what the landscape is like. We've already started on some designs which you can see below:
I intend to spend a few thousand dollars and use a few companies to see what the landscape is like. We've already started on some designs which you can see below:
6. Payments
Payments are personal. Handing over money you sacrificed your time and energy for is a personal experience. Especially when you’re buying a service. So we don’t automate this process.
Also, almost all payments are preceded by a conversation.
"Is this right for me? Do you offer x? Etc."
So we send a PayPal payment link as part of the natural flow of the conversation. We created this page to make that process simpler:
www.mypersonaltrainerwebsite.com/sign-up
There are loads of payment service providers. We use PayPal because everyone knows it, they trust it and they protect both the buyer and us.
Also, almost all payments are preceded by a conversation.
"Is this right for me? Do you offer x? Etc."
So we send a PayPal payment link as part of the natural flow of the conversation. We created this page to make that process simpler:
www.mypersonaltrainerwebsite.com/sign-up
There are loads of payment service providers. We use PayPal because everyone knows it, they trust it and they protect both the buyer and us.
7. Client Management
To date, I’ve never found an app that’s as affordable and simple to use as 17Hats. It onboards our clients after they pay, manages questionnaires, testimonials, invoices, email templates workflows and more.
17Hats was originally built for wedding/photography type businesses but they’ve ventured out in to all small businesses and I think they’d be a viable option for personal trainers too.
Other resources to consider:
Summing Up
The systems we use aren't PT specific, but they're also not web design specific. They're just the best we've found after years of switching, testing and switching again.
My advice when it comes to systems is to systemise anything you can that isn't client facing. The purpose of a system isn't to manage your clients so you spend less time with them, it's to manage your business so your can spend more time on clients.
My advice when it comes to systems is to systemise anything you can that isn't client facing. The purpose of a system isn't to manage your clients so you spend less time with them, it's to manage your business so your can spend more time on clients.
