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Stronger Sundays

Dominate your fitness business with this weekly collection of strategies, tips, and tricks.
By trainers, for trainers.

03/29/2024

Quote of the week:

"After this crisis ends, people will remember who conducted their business with integrity, and who did not. Choose wisely."
                                                                                          - Meghan Callaway on Facebook
Watch for this newsletter from the Personal Trainer Development Center each Sunday.

In this issue:

  1. What’s the ideal length for a sales page?
  2. How to choose a certification
  3. Why you should stay the course
1. What’s the ideal length for a sales page? - Jonathan Goodman

A member of Fit Pros Unite, our private Facebook group, asked an interesting question recently:

Why do so many fitness professionals use super-long, drawn-out sales pages for their products and services? I find them very scammy and frustrating.

Here was my answer, which, as you’ll see, is something I’ve thought a lot about recently:

The ideal length of the sales page depends on the awareness of the consumer.

If they understand they have a problem, but aren’t aware of the solution you offer, long sales pages work better than short ones. (Although they still need to be written well, which is rare.)

To give you an idea, I once mailed out a 15-page sales letter that converted really well, even though I waited until page 11 to introduce my product.

The page you landed on wasn’t designed for you. You’re aware of the problem and the solution. You just needed specific information about the product and price.

That’s what I was thinking when we released the third edition of the Online Trainer Academy.

Back in 2016, when I first launched OTA, the sales page had a lot of copy selling the idea of online training. I couldn’t introduce my product until my target customers understood why I created it, and what problems it solved.

I don't need to sell the idea anymore, which is why our new sales page has the price and program options right below the headline.

It’s already converting much better than our old one.

If you haven’t seen the new OTA page, give it a look to see how it’s changed:

--> Online Trainer Academy

2. How to choose a certification

One question that comes up a lot is the value of a credential like OTA Level 1.

Our favorite explanation is this one from Eric Cressey.

Your clients, he wrote, "don't know the differences among NSCA-CSCS, NASM-CPT, QRSTUV, ASAP, and R2-D2."

Certifying bodies don’t market themselves to the public, so the public has no idea which credentials are more or less impressive.

Thus, when choosing your next certification, what matters is what you get from the program beyond CEUs and a few more letters after your name.

Cressey recommends asking three questions to filter your options:

  1. Will you gain information you wouldn’t acquire without taking the course?

  2. Can you immediately apply the new information with your clients or in your business?

  3. Are the people providing the information the best in their field, and are they still actively involved?

If the answer to all three is "yes," it’s almost certainly a good choice.
3. Why you should stay the course

"Our industry will see a mass exodus in the coming months," predicts Andrew Coates on Facebook.

For some it’ll be a sad necessity; with no income from training, they’ll have to find another way to make a living.

Others will see the pandemic as a sign the fitness industry will never offer the stability and security they want.

That means there’ll be a lot of opportunity for those who stick around.

Why? Because personal trainers aren’t the only ones contemplating existential questions right now. Our customers are also at an inflection point.

Think of it from the point of view of someone who’s obese, or has difficulty breathing, or who’s severely deconditioned. This pandemic is their wakeup call. They know they need to take action to improve their long-term health.

Even those who weren’t at exceptionally high risk this time around will feel as if they dodged a bullet. They won’t be taking their health for granted anytime soon.

"Hold on and get through this however you have to," Coates recommends. "There’s a bright future for those who stay the course."

**Thanks for reading. What to do next**



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