[00:00:00] James Breese: Strength Matters Media. Video. Print. Podcasts.
[00:00:06] Josh Kennedy: Today's
[00:00:06] topic is the website myth. Do personal trainers even need one? And, uh, on today's podcast, we've got a new face and a new voice. It is our business strategist, Andrew Wallace. Uh, so welcome to the podcast, Andrew. So yeah, do personal trainers need a website?
[00:00:21] I think, uh, even today, the debate is still going on. Uh, back when I was a personal trainer doing one to ones in London a good 10 years or more ago, I thought, I didn't have a website, but I always wanted one. I thought it was, you know, out of my price range. And, uh, like I said, that debate is still going on today.
[00:00:36] James, what are your, what are your thoughts?
[00:00:38] James Breese: Honestly, I can't believe this debate is even happening. It is 2023 right now. And you've got to build a brand in some respects for yourself because there's so, there's a million and one personal trainers out there and I'm seeing so many people just use Facebook, use Tik Tok.
[00:00:54] And yeah, it works great for, uh, the influencers of this world. However, a [00:01:00] website is your professional image. It is the backdrop of who you are. It is the essence of who you are and the quality that you deliver. If you have a half assed website at all. What do people do when they want to find out more about you if they hear you?
[00:01:13] Okay, like this on here, but it's great trainer. What are they going to do? They're going to go to google and try and search you if you have an unprofessional website or none at all That's how they make judgements about you very quickly. So if you haven't got one, you really need to get one. And pretty quickly because it is your professional image, your brand image that you're trying to portray to make you stand out in comparison to the next person.
[00:01:34] So in a very short answer, yes, you absolutely need to get a website, uh, an ASAP if you haven't got one. Counter
[00:01:43] Andrew Wallace: arguments could be, I just don't have the money, I don't have the budget to invest into, into a website, uh, there's a, there's a common belief, uh, that they, they can cost many thousands of pounds, many thousands of dollars, and yes, that can be true, but, [00:02:00] uh, as we'll show, there, there are other options out there, um, so that's a key counter argument for sure.
[00:02:06] Here's a
[00:02:07] Josh Kennedy: special message from our sponsor.
[00:02:09] James Breese: One more client. So that breaking the bank on ads, Google is your ticket. Imagine being the first name clients see when they Google your services near them. Sound impossible. It's not when you've got strength matters on your side, we'll build your website and get you ranked high on Google for free.
[00:02:23] You'll save thousands on ads, web design, and SEO services. Plus get a suite of business tools to help you grow your business effortlessly. All you cover is our bulletproof hosting that comes with a full 90 day money back guarantee. Ever wonder how many new clients are losing? When not being Google's number one, don't wonder, act now, book your free strategy call at strengthmatters.
[00:02:41] com forward slash website today. What I can say to you that there's multiple ways for you to do your own website. If you wanted to have something out there on your own, which is super cost effective and that is you spend the day, you just put aside a day. It's a weekend. Make sure it's your weekend. Good.
[00:02:55] If you cut your training clients Monday through Friday. Yes. I get it. You'd be tired on the weekend. [00:03:00] However. Having that initial setup, you're saving yourself time and money in the future by just getting it done. So yes, it'll take a day. But will it be beneficial in the long run? Absolutely, or alternatively you hire out to somebody else who can help you create a website, which then comes into the cost aspect, um, which in today's world, you know, back, I think 10 years ago, it would have been really expensive to build a website.
[00:03:23] It was all custom built and custom designed. However, there are much more cost effective ways in doing it. Now you have Wix, you have Squarespace, which are great things to get you started that a lot of trainers go down the line with to begin with. However, it actually proves, um, not very cost efficient in the long run because they set it themselves without having the technical expertise to get it found in Google.
[00:03:46] Like Mike Hickman's a good example. This recently we've been started working with him building his website that he never knew that he had to set up Google Search Console, Google Analytics, all these things to help Google actually find you. So there's a big work in progress. Problem in that aspect of like, yes, there's one thing creating a [00:04:00] website, but another one is actually getting it found in Google.
[00:04:03] So those are, if you are super cheap, you can go down the Wix and Squarespace option. I was
[00:04:07] Josh Kennedy: going to say, cause obviously, you know, I am a technotard. Would that be a good thing? Would someone like me, who's not great with technology, would it be worth doing Wix and Squarespace? As you say, cause you've got to optimize it and all that.
[00:04:18] Uh,
[00:04:19] James Breese: yes, yes. And no, it depends on your budget and what you want to do. Um, there are obviously, um, this is a massive plug into what we're doing now in Strength Matters and creating websites for free for personal trainers. But the idea is like if Wix and Squares was a good starting point, you're spending 25, 30 or pounds a month on having that space, but it doesn't create leads and set up systems long term.
[00:04:43] Now, in terms of Strength Matters, what we're doing is we're now offering free website design. So I think there's a big problem with this. I didn't realize. My technical ability in my master's in computer science has never come in useful, but I'm seeing so many times making a massive mistake and getting frustrated with their website, essentially, or they [00:05:00] go into really expensive web design and they're still not doing the technical expertise to get them found into Google.
[00:05:04] So that's kind of where we're going into at the moment is our space. So it is a slight promotional push here. I do apologize, but it's more of a case of drawing awareness around it that, you know, what we've seen recently from many conversations is that it's one thing creating a website, it's another thing getting it found.
[00:05:19] And there's a big problem in the industry, both in terms of website development, where they don't do the SEO and get you found in Google. And also the fact that the technical expertise needed by trainers to get you found at the same time too. Yeah,
[00:05:31] Josh Kennedy: well, we'll go on to spend a minute or two talking about case study in a second, but Andrew, are there times when it may not be necessary?
[00:05:38] Like we're talking, you know, if you get, if you already have a great referral process, maybe you have, you know, use other social media, uh, platforms, anything like that?
[00:05:48] Andrew Wallace: There is a potential argument there. Um, I'm a big fan of local. Uh, local community, uh, getting referrals from clients from from [00:06:00] complimentary businesses and so on and so forth.
[00:06:02] But the sooner that you can get your own home digital storefront, your own website, as James says, we can we can really then benefit from. Um, working closely with Google to being found so it can, you know, amplify, uh, the, the outreach that we
[00:06:22] James Breese: get then I think it's the other thing as well is that in terms of like, I think the most important supporting important marketing lesson I ever learned is you need to own your own traffic because you can't rely on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter or X as it's now called because they change the algorithms all the time.
[00:06:40] So again, TikTok is a great example. This time last year, you can get Thousands, hundreds of thousands of views on your videos pretty quickly. You're lucky to get 200 these days because they've changed their algorithm into focusing on better quality content. So you're always at their, at their beck and control essentially.
[00:06:55] Whereas if you have your own website in Google, Google has one thing to help you get found and promote [00:07:00] business and service. That's their business model. So you have a website online, you then control that traffic coming into you as best as you possibly can. Yes, it does SEO updates and Google algorithm updates, but it's more controlled and you know what's coming.
[00:07:13] But then you try and get that traffic off of Google into your email, into your platform there that you can control and start to nurture and looking afterwards. So it's, you know, it's great. All these influencers with no websites or they're doing little websites because they're influencers. But that's a very different market.
[00:07:27] That's short term focused, not for the more, you know, the better professional, I think, is the better way to put
[00:07:33] Josh Kennedy: it. Yeah. Can you have a quick quick real world example of what we've done with one of our clients, Sasky? Yeah, just
[00:07:40] James Breese: really quick with Sasky. Sasky was, Uh, one of our living legends here at Strength Matters.
[00:07:44] And she came to us in April, May saying she's struggling to get clients. And the first thing I saw was that she hasn't got a website. Like she hasn't got a website. No one could find where she is or no one could really portray her authority. Cause she was a great massage therapist and personal trainer.
[00:07:57] So this is kind of the whole idea. Started about [00:08:00] and came about. Well, we, we built a website in less than a week and in within a week, not only did she have a website, she had a booking system, a payment system, and she also had, uh, or she reached the top of Google, both in terms of sports massage therapy and that when you search that into, into her local town, but also into the, what we call the Google map pack as well, which is where most traffic you get to your local business comes from.
[00:08:21] So just bear that in mind. 86 percent of most clicks and most business clicks click on the Google map pack in local business and SEO. They wanna try and find you. So you know, that's a really short, we'll go into more depth in her case study later down the line. But that's a very good example of how it can transform some of these's business in less than a week to get new leads and clients coming in.
[00:08:40] If you get found and can be found easily with a website that you can, a, is work works, B converts and C can get found by Google.
[00:08:48] Josh Kennedy: Absolutely. Uh, before we sign off, Andrew, can you just sort of. Give us a little summation, some of the pros and cons for us, if you could.
[00:08:54] Andrew Wallace: So the pros, obviously, we've got a professional image.
[00:08:58] It gives us [00:09:00] 24 7 advertising and we're front and center than when somebody's using Google. You're on a level playing field with trainers who already have websites. The cons, obviously, we mentioned the costs involved. Whether or not you're a technophobe because it's a design hosting, uh, issues to be considered, um, the time commitment to put into those side of things and then the effectiveness against the likes of the presence that you have on social media.
[00:09:33] So they're the pros and cons in a nutshell.
[00:09:36] Josh Kennedy: Fantastic. And that is it for today. Please don't forget to rate, review and subscribe. And if you want to find out what's holding you back from growing your fitness business, go to strength matters. com forward slash quiz.