Hey,

Joshua here, and I have a very special post for you today.

See, I’m so busy helping health clubs nationwide with their marketing, that I have to hire outside help for marketing my own business! To do this, I looked no further than expert marketers Louisa (Lou) Levit and David Tendrich.

They are complete experts when it comes to making your website a profitable, client-grabbing machine. And they’ve agreed to share some of their secrets right here.

Make sure you read to the end for a special free offer from them (it’s really cool)…

So, without further interruption, here they are:

Hey there,

We’re Lou Levit and David Tendrich, and we’re here today to talk to you about 5 key things that make a website successful. And by successful we mean that it brings you clients day and night – even when you’re on vacation. Pretty cool, right?

*Note: the word ‘copy’ is used quite a bit throughout this article. If you’re not familiar with copywriting, here’s a definition for you: it’s the art of writing words that make people want to take action. So copy is what copywriters write.

So let’s get started…

1. Research

Knowing what to put on your website isn’t guesswork. It comes down to finding out what your customers want, and giving it to them.

Talk to your ideal customers (you know, the kind you want more of) and find out in their own words what they’re getting out of being a member, why they joined,  what problems they’ve resolves, and how this impacts various areas of their lives (work, personal, etc.). Also find out what objections or fears they had before joining.

Write down or record everything they tell you. These are gold mines. When you write copy for your site, include the most common points you’ve gathered from all the conversations and use the same phrases and terms your members used. It only makes sense that to get more people like your ideal customers you’d use the same language they use when they speak.

When you do your research, also pay attention to your clients’ personalities. Are they mostly girly girls? Athletes? Moms?  Ask them what colors they like, what kind of things appeal to them, etc. Copy and design for house moms, for example, will be very different from copy and design for male athletes. Take these things into consideration when deciding what your site will look like and what you say on it.

Remember – find out what your customers want, and give it to them.

2. Clear focus / message

A lot of sites fall short because they have so much going on. Keep it simple – decide on one clear goal for your site, and make sure every page you add contributes to that goal. For health clubs that goal is usually to get more customers.

Take, for example, the about page. Prospects don’t want to know that you’ve been in business for 30 years – they want to know what they will get out of that. They don’t want to know how many certifications you have – they want to know why that benefits them.

If you mainly offer one service, we’ve found that, especially for fitness professionals, long copy sales pages work significantly better than regular websites. If you’re not familiar with what a long copy sales page is, you can take a look at one here. Basically, they’re those long pages, without navigation, that keep you scrolling down until you reach an ‘add to cart’ button or sign up option at the bottom.

Now, you may be thinking “who’s going to read all that?” – but when done right, these pages are extremely powerful since they draw the reader in, without distractions, and lead them to signing up.

To sum it up – always keep your goal in mind.

3. Attention grabbing headlines

When someone first opens your home page, you want to capture their attention and start making the sale right away. The most powerful way to do this is with an attention-grabbing headline that shows them the benefits they’ll get from joining your club, and tell them what makes your club so unique.

To make sure it gets noticed write it in big, bold letters at the top of your home page, and infuse it with benefits, excitement, and personality.

Here are a few examples to get you started:

“How this New York health club is helping people lose up to 12 pounds every month!”

“How this Atlanta health club can help you instantly boost your energy so you’re awake and alert all day long…”

“It’s not just the incredible fat loss you’ll get that makes this Detroit health club so powerful…”

As you can see, all three headlines describe the benefits someone will get from joining in an excited and energetic way. They really get your prospects pumped up about the changes they can start seeing in their lives, and give you a perfect lead-in to talk about all of the awesome features of your club like your equipment, supportive staff, friendly members who encourage each other and become friends, etc.

4. Testimonials

Testimonials are an absolute requirement. It’s good to have them on a testimonials page, but also make sure you include them on other areas of your site. The home page is a great place for that, since it’s your first contact with your prospects, and it’s where you make that first impression.

If you look on our website you’ll see that we have testimonials practically on every page. That’s because when people read what our clients took upon themselves to write about us, they’re much more likely to want to do business with us.

You want to feature testimonials that:

• Show quantity (i.e. lost 5 pounds in 2 weeks).
• Describe the environment. (i.e. everyone was supportive and friendly)
• Counter objections (i.e. I never thought I could lose the weight, but… I never thought a gym environment was for me, but…)
• Validate the price (i.e. this was a great deal considering how much it changed my life)

If you don’t have any testimonials yet, getting great ones is as easy as asking your favorite customers. You can also offer a free training session or a free month of membership, give something else away, or enter them in a raffle in exchange.

5. Call to Action

Earlier in this post we talked about having a single, clear focus/goal for your site, and making sure all of your copy and design lead to that goal. Your call to action is the last thing between you and your visitors - this is the goal your entire website is building up to.

A call to action is extremely simple to write. That’s probably why it’s so often done wrong! All you need to do is tell your visitors exactly what you want them to do next – in clear, concise language. That’s it.

For example… a lot of people will just have their phone number placed throughout their site, or say “call now 1.800.111.2222”. But we want to get a bit more specific. We want to give people a good reason to call too.
Here’s an example:

“Call 1.800.222.3344 right now to start your completely FREE week at Awesome Bodies Health Club!”

As you can see there’s a free offer in that call to action. If you don’t already, we highly recommend having a free trial period for your club: it lowers the barrier of entry into doing business with you. You want to make it as easy as possible for prospects to become members, so ask yourself this question: what makes joining this health club a no-brainer? Free or one dollar trials definitely answer that question.
Now, here’s another cool tip…

Take your call to action a step further. For example, tell people what will happen when they call you. See, sometimes people subconsciously fear what will happen when they call. In the back of their heads they think that somehow they’ll be charged for something, sold something, dragged into a long conversation.. etc. By letting them know what will happen you dissolve this fear.

For example:

“Call 1.800.222.3344 right now to start your completely FREE week at Awesome Bodies Health Club!

“Our wonderful receptionist, Martha, will answer the phone, take down your name, and set up a time for you to get a tour of the club.

“Then you can come on in, and start getting in shape as early as today!”

See how inviting and approachable that is? It completely takes the mystery out of the picture. People know what to expect – so they feel safer about calling.

So there you have it!

We hope these tips help bring you even more business, and see even greater success. Feel free to ask questions in the comments below.

Lou and David are the founders of an advertising and marketing firm in Atlanta, GA called Unexpected Ways LLC. In the past year they’ve helped literally dozens of fitness professionals all over the world achieve results they once thought impossible – both in online and offline marketing.

You can find out more about them, and get in touch with them personally, by visiting their website: http://www.unexpectedways.net.

One more thing!

Lou and David have been kind enough to offer a FREE 10 min. website critique for the first 10 people who contact them at support@unexpectedways.net.

Make sure you mention my blog to get your FREE critique.

Have a great one,

Joshua

PS. I have a GREAT new tool that I will be telling you about on the next post so make sure you opt-in to receive my “Sales Sniper Newsletter NOW“