How do you connect with visitors to your website? Even if you’re conducting business and teaching classes online right now, it’s still important to take steps in making your online visitors feel seen. Let’s take a look at a few ways you can create excellent online experiences for your guests – which looks similar to how you’d run an in-person business!
Offer a no-strings-attached freebie:
It’s common practice for wellness and fitness professionals to offer a free class or week to new students, which gives them a chance to get a feel for a class or service. So, how does this work online? One way is to offer a digital resource in exchange — a lead magnet. New to lead magnets? Check out this post to learn more about creating lead magnets.
It’s also important to be really clear in how you’ll use their information on your website’s contact or sign-up form with language such as, “I will only use your email to share resources and information that I hope you’ll find interesting and helpful!” This will help you establish trust with the website visitor right away.
Be a resource and anticipate needs:
We know that your goal is to get bookings for your classes or services and to grow your business. But, first, you should focus on engagement with your website visitors, just as you would with any in-persons student or client. You want to pique their interest, be helpful in offering a possible solution for the issue they are trying to address – which is probably the reason they visited your website in the first place! When you were in-person, it was perhaps easier to share information while being able to answer questions on the spot.
However, with a website, you’ll need to think ahead and anticipate the kind of information that would be helpful for visitors to know. This might look like a consistently updated blog or resource section on your website, or maybe a list of FAQs pertaining to your shift from in-person to online offerings. And, of course, don’t forget to include an easy way to contact you if the website visitor has additional questions or wants more information.
Keep your website relevant:
Let’s imagine for a moment that you are at a studio and you need to cancel a yoga class one night. How would you communicate this? You would most likely put up a sign on the studio door that says so, in addition to emailing anybody that has registered for that class. That same level of communication is expected when you are offering your services completely online. So, make sure that your website is always displaying up-to-date information.
Similarly, make sure you are maintaining a dynamic website and consistently posting new content. Have you ever visited a website and it was showing out-of-date information? Did it make you wonder if they were still in business or active? In addition to this being a best practice for SEO, keeping your website relevant will help with assuring your website visitors that you are indeed still offering classes and services.
Invite website visitors into the community:
Providing a space to foster community and connection is a really strong motivator for people to visit studios and fitness centers. That bond can be tricky to foster in an online class environment. For existing students, you might have already created private online groups on Facebook or WhatsApp. However, for website visitors and those considering signing up for your services, you’ll need to think of other ways to invite them into the fold. As you did with offering a free resource (lead magnet), you might offer other opportunities that require little to no commitment from the website visitor. Maybe you can offer 20-minute info sessions about your offerings, free community classes, or an invitation to join a fitness challenge on social media or through an email course. These are great opportunities for website visitors to get to know your community before making any financial commitments to your classes.
At OfferingTree, we know that connecting with your existing students and website visitors is crucial right now. Our system provides a growing number of ways to stay connected with your virtual visitors including a website builder, emails and newsletters, custom pages, as well as integrations with popular third-party tools such as Zoom, Google Hangouts, Shopify and many more. We’ve built this system so you can save time and focus on continuing to create great offerings and content to keep your wellness or fitness community connected during these challenging times. We’re here for you if you have questions or would like further information: [email protected]
