Know-How Exchange : Taglines/Names

Dear Leanne,

Gap in the market, eh? That's good. However, before
you rush to FILL that gap, carry out local due diligence to make sure there's a need and a desire for the services your partner can offer. THEN ramp up from there. There's no sense offering military strength training if it doesn't make the phone ring. There's no point in having classes at the hospital if no one at the hospital shows up. You need to offer the things that people are looking for and that they're hungry for.

Depending where you are (I'm presuming you're in the UK), you might first want to ask yourself if people in the UK actually WANT to work out outside.

Your partner might be made of iron and able to bend girders with this little fingers, but most people are not that fit. I lived in the UK for 35 years and know that if you're lucky, you can expect 60 days of sunny weather every year. I've exercised outdoors in the UK, and at the time, it mostly sucked. All that getting cold and damp for hours on end? Been there. Done that. No thank you. Some, but not all, but some of your prospective clients might be of a similar mind.

So, nice hospital grounds aside, you might first want
to consider offering activities that are less weather dependent, something that can be done indoors, such
as kickboxing or light cardio training.

Here, your partner might think I'm being a wus, and that's OK. He probably knows how to kill people six different ways with his bare hands, I don't (nor, thank you, and despite watching Jason Bourne do the same thing—beating the living daylights out of eight armed attackers all at once—at heart, I'm not sure I WANT to know how to do things like that). Anyway, what I lack in unarmed combat skills, I think I make up for in knowledge marketing.

Realistically, most (probably all) or your prospective clients will live and work within a 1 to 15 mile radius. Given the price of petrol in the UK, travel to classes might be a limiting factor in people's decisions to sign up.

That's the first thing.

The second thing is that despite your partner's abilities and skills, to begin with, it might be wiser to offer the kinds of workouts that people are actively searching for and that he can offer expertise in.

You can find this out through Google's local search options.

Let's say you're in Derby.

Your search on Google's UK Keyword tool (https://adwords.google.co.uk/o/Targeting/Explorer?__u=7656580599&__c=58...) reveals that every month, there are 16 local searches on Google UK for the term "kickboxing Derby" and that on the main Google results page, people searching for this term find out that there are three local places that offer kickboxing classes (https://www.google.com/search?q=kickboxing%20derby) on the main results page, and that they're offered by just one company. On the local search lisintgs, this SAME company holds Google places 1, 2, and 3. If you click on the "Place page" tab under each of these top three spots, you see (or at least, I see) that although this company has the top three spots, what they are NOT doing is using a few simple optimization secrets WITHIN Google places to maximize their ranking. I'd be happy to share these simple strategies with you, off forum (to get in touch, click my name above and you'll find a link to my e-mail
address). These strategy points are simple things you can do on your own, by spending very little money, if any.

The point here is this: you need to SERIOUSLY offer the kinds of activities that people are looking for, and more and more these days, people looking for exact services are going online to find answers to their questions.

This means that in order for a local business to be visible on these kinds of searches, you've got to use the exact phrases that people are looking for in their searches your web copy. It also means linking these search terms to other strategy points. When you apply these simple strategy points, a wondrous thing happens: Google falls in love with you!

What does this mean? It means web traffic based on search terms, NOT on your business name. Here, your business name is less relevant. What's of greater importance is the phrase being searched for.

If I'm looking for kickboxing classes in Derby, I'm going to be typing "kickboxing classes, Derby" or some variation of this phrase, into Google. I'm LESS likely to type in an exact business name ... UNLESS, I've seen some kind of coupon or offer in a press ad that connects me TO that business name.

Again, the thing here that's driven me to that specific
site is the relevance to my needs of the coupon and the search term or, of the result I'll end up with (to become Jason Bourne), NOT the name of the business.

For local businesses, and no matter WHERE those businesses are, geographically speaking, more and more people these days are either ignoring the Yellow Pages, press ads, and radio and TV advertising (or they're paying less attention), and they're going STRAIGHT to the Internet to find the service providers they're looking for. Let me be clear: I am NOT saying here that Yellow Pages, press ads, and radio and TV advertising are dead media, because they are NOT DEAD. They're very much alive, as is direct mail, thank you very much, so let's not have anyone chiming in that all other means of reaching customers are dead and that online rules supreme because that's NOT TRUE.

What I AM saying here is that sole reliance on press
ads etc., can be less effective because online visibility is becoming so much easier to gain IF, the business owner with the specific site sees the benefit to them of using the phrases that their potential customers are looking for in the business website copy.

I'd urge you to figure out what people are looking for in your area and to then cater your services to that audience. You'll find it far easier to attract clients this way than if you simply go out looking for them based on your business name. The name itself isn't enough, it's the desired outcome of the new client that sells the service.

The more you can connect this desired outcome with compelling, too-good-to-pass-up-on offers, the more appeal your services will have. You need to market to people's compulsions and desires, to their emotions
and wants, not to their logical minds. I know this might sound counter intuitive, and that it might not make sense, but it works.

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Princeton, NJ, UK (formerly living in Staffordshire).