Subject: Joey, we have a 9-day trip to Italy for you…

I opened an email from Travelocity and immediately palmed myself in the forehead. Tours, housing, and food included for only $1100, what a steal. All these places that I have wanted to visit for years.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t going to be any breathtaking sights. Instead, I chose to stare at a computer screen for 8+ hours a week, put my thinking cap on and practice a very important skill that was stopping me from helping more people.

I passed on this

6 months ago I hit a small yellow ‘BUY’ button that racked up a $1,200 charge for a digital education course. I didn’t even get a physical product sent in the mail.

No flashy certification or seminar for the newest training fad. Just a course covering a topic that most trainers don’t even know exists.

Copywriting Basics

Copywriting is a tool to build your business. This skill alone will allow you to help more clients than you ever have before.

In the fitness industry, it is used to get online coaching clients to submit applications, to attract new prospects to your gym and to get people to click on the link to your newest article praising squats, butts, and peanut butter. This is how you get people to Join the Action.  Words on a website that make you say “I want more“  It doesn’t have to be perfect it just has to be good enough.

Enter your email address to get instant access to a mouthwatering e-book. Hell, you might even buy something without thinking about it if the copy is so good, I know it has happened to me.

Copyright: the legal right to print, publish, perform, film, or record material, and let others do the same.

Copywrite: the skill of putting together words and presenting them in a strategic way that causes an action.

Good copy causes emotion which results in an action. How it’s presented will depend on your ‘voice’ and your audience. Basically, how you normally speak, write and present yourself.

You won’t grab someone’s attention by writing “subscribe to my newsletter.” Yes, I know fitness pro’s are doing it, but that sure as hell doesn’t make it any more effective.

If you get sign ups it’s because that person is your Mom who loves everything you do or someone who just wants to have sex with you. Trust me, I know from experience.

“Subscribe to my newsletter” really says “hey, give me your email address so I can send random shit to your inbox and piss you off.” Think about how you would feel if you walked into Finish Line to buy new Nikes and the first words out of the salesman’s mouth was “Hey, buy my shit.”

Both suck and that’s basically what you are saying. There is no value. There is nothing that makes them want to click.

If you write to a specific person you can connect with them, understand them and know what their life is like. What their pains, weaknesses, desires, dreams and struggles are. Find the root of the problem, not what they might tell you on the outside.

College, 6-Pack’s and Sex

Jake is a 22-year-old college bro who spends his entire day thinking about sex, watching ESPN.com for his next fantasy football trade and swiping right on Tinder.

Meet Jake

He has low self-esteem and a Dad Bod. Jake wants a 6-pack for spring break which is 16 weeks because he thinks it will get him laid more when he goes out, so he comes to you for help.

You ask him a few questions and do a basic assessment. The dude doesn’t lift, plays pickup basketball 2x week with his homies, eats pizza every other day and drinks 3 nights a week.

You construct the perfect training and nutrition plan (almost as perfect as Rachel McAdams in The Notebook.) You already know Jake is going to be confident and shredded like cheese in 16 weeks. He’s destined to get laid if he follows your program to the T.

You bring the program to Jake knowing that he will love it.

“Jake, I put together a great training program for you. 4 days a week you will be strength training. We’ll be doing full body workouts and running 2x week for cardio. I put together the best bodybuilding diet out there you just can’t go out for a while. The 16-week training package is only $800.”

Congratulations. Jake bailed because you failed to make anything relatable to what he was actually coming to you for. If you are a personal trainer who wants to attract more clients and make money just know you aren’t alone.

I created a private community for personal trainer and fitness professionals to grow and get better…

Features vs Benefits

Your clients want the feelings they associate with the results. Your job is to make the connection between the two. That’s what they are coming to you for and that’s what will get you paid the big bucks.

Feature explains what something is. A benefit explains what something does.

Make the Connection For Them

A football player who wants to get better doesn’t just want to add more muscle, even though you know that’s what he may need to increase performance.It is your job to relate make the connection of muscle gain to running through the linebacker for the first down or jumping higher than the defensive back to score more touchdowns.

Fitness homies like to think the more information and features they give, the better chances their audience will buy or listen. They think vomiting fancy words show how smart they are.

In reality, it comes down to finding the one thing that people care about most; It’s not about you or what you want. If your writing is filled with “I” you are doing it wrong. Use phrases and words your customers and clients care about and use themselves.

All you did was list Jake features of the program instead of the benefits.Benefits show Jake the end result of your product, in this case, the program and training. This spikes his interest because it is emotional. This is what gets him excited and causes action. Make the connection for him, dammit.

Remember this guy?

He doesn’t give a shit about a strong squat, cardio or full body workouts. The dude just wants to look better, play basketball with his homies and get laid.He doesn’t want the best bodybuilding diet he just wants to have a 6-pack. Jake sure as hell doesn’t want to cut out alcohol and not be able to go out. That’s the reason he came to you in the first place, to get laid when he goes out.Now you’re telling him he can’t go out? You’re crazy.

You didn’t say anything that Jake would relate to his goals, or what he knows about them.

Maybe you know he needs that program, but you failed to show him how those things will help him. 

Listen to Your Audience

To truly understand someone and build a relationship you need to articulate their own problems to them better than they could explain it themselves.

Are you trying to grab the attention of Sarah, a 52-year-old stay at home mom who spends her time watching Desperate House Wives and searching Pinterest for crafty ideas for her new bathroom, or Jake?

Figure it out.You need to know because the words you use when you write and speak will be different.

These are the questions that allow you to connect you with your audience because we make decisions on emotion.If there is no emotion there is no connection.Do the work for them and make the connection so they don’t have to.

You don’t need to be the biggest and loudest, you just need to be the most relevant.

PS. For the 10 thousandth time, I know ‘toning’ isn’t a thing. You know what your client means so stop being an asshole

PPS. If you liked what you read and are saying