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When building a website these days, especially if you are hiring someone to take care of it for you, it should just be taken for granted that it’s going to end up looking great! Although that isn’t always the case unfortunately. But beyond that, what are some of the most important features that should be included within a website build for Personal Trainers or Online Coaches? We’ve been lucky enough to work with lots of coaches and so this list of the top 5 most important features is based on not only our opinion, but what our projects have told us in terms of what works best for lead generation, conversion, income and administration help.
So lets dive straight into Best Online Personal Trainer Websites – The Top 5 Most Important Features.
A Payment Gateway
This sounds totally obvious, and really it should be but there are so many examples in which trainers don’t use one which results in losing money through higher fees, paying monthly for extra bits of software and wasting time on extra admin that you just don’t need to! Firstly it’s important to understand what you need your payment system to be able to handle which for most coaches is payments in full, monthly recurring payments or payments for services in instalments. Now if you’ve built your own website to save a bit of money, I can totally understand why you maybe wouldn’t have this built in and have decided to use a third party system. Some of the most common methods that people use are Go Cardless, Zoho, Subbly or one of many other systems.
There is nothing inherently wrong with these systems, but what ends up happening a lot of the time is you are paying either a monthly subscription or a higher processing fee, which eats into your revenue when you don’t need it. As well as losing out on revenue, you can end up with more than one payment gateway if you are selling products or services for a one off payment through your website and then using a separate system for memberships. Ultimately, it’s going to save you time and money to have everything in one place, taken care of through your website. Instead of setting up GoCardless payments yourself, your clients can simply complete their own sign up and payment process through your website without needing you to do anything! Any of the best online trainer websites needs a built in payment gateway
A Booking System
We will continue along this thread in another entry as a booking system worth it’s salt will become the backbone of your business, but in this instance a booking system is essential for being able to convert leads onto a discovery call. Similarly to feature 1, there are third party options out there but aren’t all these extra costs starting to add up now? There are a number of problems with using third party solutions including the extra cost, not being able to properly adjust it to fit your brand and limited features. By having a booking system built into your website itself you not only save yourself extra costs, but you can completely control the branding and feel of the booking system to match your business.
For higher priced services, not only are your potential clients going to want to meet you first but you’re going to want to make sure they are the right client for you, so having a way for clients to book in calls with you is crucial. But it’s the small details that makes having your own booking system such an effective way to save time. With full zoom integration and calendar integration, the zoom meeting rooms can be created automatically and sent to both you and the client. It can be automatically added into your calendar and all of the PAR-Q information that you might need before the call is automatically send to the client and returned to you, without you having to lift a finger! So yeah, anyone that wants to say they have one of the best online trainer websites really should have a booking system built in.
Lead Generation
Arguably the most important entry on this list, lead generation is the bread and butter of running your business. Think about it this way, if you closed all of your social media accounts tomorrow, would you still generate leads? If the answer is no then you have a problem. Now successfully generating leads has come a long way in a short time, just having an incessant pop up on your website asking people to join your mailing list does not work, neither does having a sign up here area on your home page! Think about it, how many times do you visit a website only for a pop up to appear asking for your email, which you immediately close? I’m willing to bet it’s a lot.
This is where you need to get savvy with your lead generation. In our experience, one of the most effective ways to generate leads is (obviously by giving the people what they want that isn’t rocket science) by giving people information that they actually want or need. A great example of this is our branded custom calorie calculators. The websites that we’ve implemented these on for clients have seen them increase their leads by up to 50% with it eventually becoming their leading source of inbound newsletter sign ups and leads. You simply build a calculator for your niche, whether that’s women, pregnancy, men looking to gain muscle etc and target them specifically with your calculator, you then lock the results away in exchange for their email. They are automatically sent their macros once they provide their email.
As well as that you can give away things like free 7 day training programs, educational articles, home workouts or anything that is specifically targeted to your niche that they can use. People will only give you their details in exchange for something that they actually want, and from there you can nurture that relationship with automated email campaigns that catch up with them at regular points around things related to the reason they gave you their details in the first place. Let me give you a quick example ;
- Lead gives you their email in exchange for their macro targets from your calculator
- They are automatically sent them along with a breakdown on what each macro is
- 5 days later they get another automated email, asking them how they’ve been getting on tracking, please email me if you need any support and here are my top 5 tips for hitting your macros.
- 5 days later, how did you find my tips? the next most important thing after your nutrition is exercise so here, have a look at this free 1 week training program
You get the idea, this then becomes an automated way to generate leads, target them specifically, nurture the relationship and convert them to paying clients when they are in a buying position.
Appointment Management
Why stop your booking system at just managing your discovery calls? It would make your life so much easier and save you so much time on admin if your booking system extended to taking care of your clients bookings. A majority of the coaches that we work with are still taking bookings via whatsapp or organising directly with clients which results in loads of back and forth, as well as being a pain when people need to cancel or reschedule. Not only that but you then have to keep a track of how many sessions a client actually has left as part of their block! Well having a proper booking system (another reason to not use third party systems for your discovery calls like we spoke about in #2) can take all of the admin time out of managing your clients bookings and appointments.
With a good booking system you will be able to have full calendar integration that works both ways! What that means is that if a client books in, it’ll automatically fill the slot on your calendar but if you were to block something out of your calendar, that will automatically be taken off of the booking system so clients won’t be able to double book or book in for when you aren’t available. Providing you keep your calendar accurate, it’s impossible for you to ever have conflicts with timing. So now your clients will be able to login to their account and book their own sessions from what is available in your diary, they can only book a set time in advance and will be able to reschedule or cancel their own appointments. But again, you’ll also be able to set limits so people can’t cancel on the day or if their session is in the next 48 hours for example.
This is only limited to one to one sessions, this works for online or in person classes with set limits on numbers. As well as that it can also track how many sessions a client has remaining and how long they have left to use them. For example I buy a block of 10 sessions from you, the system will automatically remove another session each time I book one and I’ll have 6 months (for example) to use them before I lose them. Any of the best online trainer websites can benefit from having appointment management systems.
Members Area / Onboarding Process
Once a client has signed up with you, the on boarding process is so important to not only get them started off on the right foot but to make sure that they feel they receive a good service and in turn generate you referrals. The onboarding process can be totally automated making it easier for you but the difference it makes for your clients can not be underestimated. This is another reason why using your own built in payment gateway can make a big difference, because you have control over the triggers that send emails and what they contain. I’ve signed up or purchased programs as a client myself and been left waiting days to be told what happens next or when I can expect my program which is frustrating when you are ready to go!
A good onboarding process would generate an onboarding email immediately after payment, explaining what happens next, the first steps a client needs to take, maybe invite them into your community with a direct link and provide them with anything they might need to fill out. By giving this out immediately it creates a great feeling and sense of value for the client. Following on from that, a members area can be a great way to provide content, give extras to your service and create more value over what other trainers can offer, whether you work online or in person. I won’t go into to much detail in this post on membership areas but if you are an in person coach, you could provide pre recored workouts, pre made programs and recipes or educational content for your clients to access in their own time, how many coaches are doing that?! If you are an online coach, why not create a members area that has educational content, recipes, access to useful downloads and other bits of content that are commonly requested by your clients. This not only reduces your workload in providing content or answering questions (because you can refer people to your members area) but also increases value for your clients.
It really can not be underestimated how important the on boarding process is to any of the best online trainer websites!
So There You Have It!
Our 5 top features that any online trainer websites should have, in fact that goes for in person trainers as well as gyms & studios! Now all of these features that I’ve spoken about of course are available in different formats and should be pretty straightforward for any developer, but I work with a number of coaches specifically and have years of experience in the industry. If you need support with your website whether it’s a totally new project or revamping your current one, I would love to help. I can put all of these systems in place and make sure that you not only have something that works, but have a partner that can help manage your systems for you. My service is unique because I not only build the website and systems for you, but I manage it, take care of all of the updates and effectively work as your in house tech team for a small monthly fee! If you want to find out more information, check out the links below and I’d love to speak to you if you have any questions.
