Every budding online trainer knows this - you need to start with value first. That's why creating a free give away is one of the first key components to providing value first, it's not just about sales, sales, sales...

Creating that free give away in form of an e-book or a video is essential to deliver value to our potential online clients. But how do we know what people will want?  

There's no point creating something nobody wants. And then how do you go about getting people to go on and buy your paid services or program after they downloaded and received the free thing?

There's a couple of big hurdles there and it's exactly where I see a lot of online trainers making some key mistakes. So that's exactly what I am helping Masterclass member Mark do on this week's brand-new Fitpro Masterclass episode.

I show Mark how to make a compelling offer for his brand-new video series and I go through a strategy that is going to significantly boost his opt in rates and get loads of people engaged with it. I'm also going to show Mark how NOT to give away too much free information and to ask for the sale instead.

I advise Mark on how to structure and sell all his online programs in just this one free giveaway funnel. We also chat about the type of services and the software to use to effectively deliver his free giveaways.

If you ever wonder what are all the components of this type of funnel, what should typically happen and how it should all work, then this episode is for you..

So as always enjoy the show!

3.35 - Meet Mark

9.00 - Video series as a free giveaway

11.25 - Conversion elements for video giveaways

13.24 - Optimising opt-in pages and Facebook ads

17.10 - Selling services on the back of a free giveaway

22.37 - Delivery of videos to subscribers

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The Exceed Masterclass is your essential resource for the training, advice and support you need to plan, create and grow an online fitness business.

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Ru: So tell me what you're up to right now?

Mark: I'm still working full time at the minute which is which is a bit of a pain and it makes things even harder. I stopped taking on new personal training clients about three months ago purely because I was working and still studying. At the same time I was trying to put together the new website and redo my packages for the new year.

Now I have my new website, new email address so things are looking much more professional. I improved all the plans and limited myself to about three different plans that have shown results. I also recorded loads of exercise videos to go with the plans. All videos have been done, edited and added to the plans. In the last week or so everything's ready to go.

Ru: Yeah, it's been good seeing you take action inside the Masterclass over the months. You've been a member for a long time now, I think we reached the year mark.

Mark: I was in the Masterclass from the start.

Ru: Yes! Ok, so you've done the planning phase, you've done the creation fees, you've cut down the offline PT stuff to really just to dive in and give it your all. You posted up your videos in your coaching thread yesterday and it's coming a long way.

Mark: Even that's changed since yesterday. The background screen we had in the videos that's now change. I have a banner with my logo in them now and it looks much more professional.

Ru: We spend a lot of time thinking about backdrops for videos and slides if we do presentations and that's the way it is. So you are ready then the hit January full steam ahead with some good sales and marketing. Is that something you're interested in chatting about right now? Have you got some questions for me?

Mark: That's exactly where I am, I'm happy with the plans, I know they work as the results are good. I've got a whole new website everything looks really good, it's the best it's ever been. Obviously it can always get better and you can always improve but at the minute I'm happy with what I've got. It's just a case of getting more leads and growing that email list. I only have a small email list of about 100 people. I need to grow the email list, I know that's the way to go.

Ru: Absolutely.

Mark: It's just the advertising, I just need to get it seen to a bigger audience that's all. That's exactly where I am at now.

Ru: Okay. So we need a bigger audience. What's the primary goal then? Where would you like to initially have that audience?

Mark: I've got two avenues at the moment, I've got my online plans which is how I started and I was happy to send that UK wide to begin with. But I think I spoke to you about just hitting in Milton Keynes and maybe growing from there.

Mark: I also started some wedding plans and I've already signed up to wedding fairs in January, February and March. I've got in brochures for the first six months, which has cost quite a bit of money but I'm the only weight loss coach at these fairs and in the book as well. I managed to get into a real niche market because there's nobody else who does it.

I've had some professional looking posters and banners made up and I think that could be a really good avenue this year. People that are going to these wedding fairs they've already got their budget, money is there and everyone wants to lose weight for a wedding. I've got a guy lined up who's going to take before pictures at the fairs and after pictures in the wedding dress.

To me and everyone I speak to it sounds perfect. I've paid out a bit of money to get advertised there and to be only weight loss coach at the fairs.

Ru: So are you thinking then that the people from the wedding fairs will come into the online program?

Mark: Yeah.

Ru: And you feel that's going to be a similar avatar to what you reach out to online permanently?

Mark: I think it would be slightly different in the fact that online I'm looking more at long-term health goals. Whereas the wedding people will be much more focussed on looking good at an end date so they're not too worried about cholesterol, diabetes and things like that. They'll be slightly different but generally my avatar online is in my age group 35-45. The wedding avatar will be a different age range, it's going to be from 20 to maybe 50 years old.

Ru: Cool. I know you've put together a free thing, it's something we've been working on for a while, you mentioned it's a video series?

Mark: Yes, that's right. It's a 10 day kickstart video series.

Ru: OK, A 10 day Kickstarter video series. And this is going to be your free giveaway that you are going to use. Is that going to be accessible via your website, how's that going to work?

Mark: Yeah, from my website. I've got a page directly to a optin page with a video presentation on it to show them what they're going to get. The Facebook post and adverts will have the 10 day kickstart series linked there as well. That's through the free gift for clicking on and that's the two avenues at the moment.

Ru: OK. I like it. That's something we've been working on.

Mark: The ebook I had lasted me for quite a while and I still got it. But my plan is to use the ebook when people leave the website. So before they leave they can take a free gift with them, which would be the ebook. But the video series is the big thing and the core free offer.

Ru: OK. I like the video series idea, it's nice to see you putting the effort in there. A lot of personal trainer are looking to put something really quick together and get it out there to start collecting email addresses and it's going to get some momentum going. But you're a step further from that, you've done the ebook and now your ready to step up to the next level.

I think video is definitely going to be a big thing in 2017. We've seen it with the Facebook Live, Periscope and now even Instagram, everyone os getting involved and there's a reason for that. Video is going to build that 'know, like and trust' very quickly.

Mark: I think if I can show myself and talk on video people will get me instantly and over 10 videos they will get to know me a lot more and hopefully trust me a lot more.

Ru: For sure, OK so there's a couple of things I want to do to maximize your return on this. One, you want to get your video series in front of as many people as possible. And two, you want to make sure that you've got the video series set up so that it's directing people to your offer.

There's two conversion elements of that free video series. One, to get people to opt in and two, to purchase your program or your. coaching. Let's start off with the front end conversion, which is getting people to opt in. You mentioned you got a nice landing page set up and some social media stuff. The goal is to drive some traffic to that through Facebook ads?

Mark: Yeah, primarily.

Ru: OK. What do you think about that sort of route?

Mark: I've never had a lot of luck with Facebook ads but then I don't think my product has ever been good enough. The Facebook Ads that I've used in the past I've never done it for long enough, I've done it maybe for two weeks at the most. I've also always used a generic stock photo for the image, a little bit a copy and then a link. It worked to a certain degree, I got some hits on it and but it was never really what I wanted for money I was spending.

Now I've got a much better product, much better looking advert and it's just trying to target the right people. I'm sure once everything is done properly people will start streaming in but it's just getting it right in the first place.

Ru: A lot of personal trainers and coaches who are first getting started with advertising on Facebook their first few ads are never great. A lot of people say to me that Facebook advertising doesn't work but it does work and it can work remarkably well. Usually it's a couple the reasons the ads fail, for one they're not targeting the right people and two the stuff looks crap.

All these touch point really matter especially when targeting cold traffic. People have that radar that says something isn't quite right about this and they are definitely not going to put their e-mail address in, never mind buy from you.

You posted up your Facebook ad in your coaching thread yesterday?

Mark: Yes, that was just a first draft that I only put out for a day just to have a little play and see how it would go.

Ru: I suggest that is a key thing that we work on over the next couple of days in the Masterclass. I will go back into your thread and help you work on the copy and I'll look at the at the image. In my opinion that is where you going to get the click to get people off Facebook and that is a very hard thing to do these days. Facebook is a very difficult place to get people off from.

The next thing to really look at is optimizing the opt in page and making sure that it's shit hot. The area to work on here is making sure it's mobile optimized and that looks great. The reason for this is because I'm seeing the cheapest clicks from Facebook coming from mobile phones. Right now I only target those on a mobile device and it's cut my ad spend by almost half. So that's something the look at for you as well.

That also means your opt-in page and your landing page has to look great on mobile devices, it has to get straight to the point not too wishy washy. You've got a video on there and video can work really well on a page for cold traffic.

That video on the opt-in page is a great idea and it's worth testing. People will click off, watch the video and decide to put their email in. What can also be worth testing is a Facebook video ad and it could go down really well as people wouldn't have to click off. They seen you, they've heard you, you've explained to them in person what the offer is and how they can get it. When they hit the opt-in page they're already qualified and it's just a simple confirmation. Those two options are worth testing for you and we can work on that together in the Masterclass.

Mark: The mobile is one thing I don't normally do so it could be where I'm slipping up in a big area.

Ru: Yeah, you have to test it. The settings on Facebook is all placements so you can choose, Facebook desktop, Facebook right hand side, Facebook Mobile, Instagram, audience networks.I'd suggest you take all of those off and try one at a time to see which one gives you the best return on investment. Separate your ads up and put a minimum spend on to test for one day or 48 hours. Then pick the winners from the losers and run with those.

Next thing I'd like to help you with is getting the conversions on the back end once someone's opted in and then consuming your content. What have you got set into place at the minute that's going to funnel people towards your offer?

Mark: Following on from the 10 day video series?

Ru: Yes all of it, is it integrated half way through or does it go into a campaign after the 10 days?

Mark: At the end of the series I've got a recap video that goes through the 10 stages of the video series and then I give them an offer. the offer is 65 percent off my 28 day plan. The plan is normally only £28, which is a small entry level offer. I give it away for about £9.89 just to get them used to paying me. At the back end of the 28 day plan I give them a discount for my 12 week plan.

Ru: I like that you've got that product eco system the free thing, your low cost plan and then your core offer. I suspect you also have a high end coaching program?

Mark: My high end offer is a six month, short of a thousand pounds coaching program. Plus my thank you page for downloading the 10 day video plan also hints that there will be an offer at the end. They are aware of this offer at the very start and then they get reminded again at the end. I've got an autoresponder e-mail set up for about three days just to give them the offer again they haven't taken it.

Ru: OK, my thoughts are that a 10 day video series is a lot of value and a lot of your time to then just sell a £9 product. It's a lot of information and a lot of free stuff just to try and get that nine pounds. The 10 videos on their own are almost a paid product. If someone's watched your 10 videos they are highly engaged with what you do and what you offer. And when they've consumed all of that they may be ready for your core offer.

What I see working well with that low entry offer is that you put that to someone but as they come in to your subscriber base. So if someone subscribes they see this 10 day video course, that's fine you can still promise and deliver that. But on the thank you page you would say that the first video is on the way to your e-mail inbox but I've also got a special offer for you, which would be your nine pound offer. Some good copy needs to go into that thank you page, it's something I can help you tweak if you want to set this up. And at the bottom of it you could say there's a limited time to get this plan for the nine pounds. You will find that a small percentage of people will buy that right then and there because they are looking for that solution.

If they don't take you up on the offer, just start running the 10 part video series that would run into the core offer. Now you've already put two office to people, they've got your free thing, you've offered them the low value plan to get on board straight, plus your core offer.

I think that could work well for you Mark but there's also a few little other things that you could do to bring people back to that early offer. For example after that first video you could also have a link at the bottom of it that still gives them the chance to get the low priced product. If they still haven't taken that up then forget about it. Carry on with your video series, build more 'know, like and trust' and then move into the campaign to sell a higher priced product. That's how you make the most of all the time and effort that you've put into all of these products and the video series.

Mark: The series is set up to be delivered in one go. I did think about breaking it down into e-mails but it's delivered as an e-book video series in one go. It's not 10 days sequentially but do you think that would work better to break it down into e-mails?

Ru: I think it would be better particularly over a 10 part video series because that's a huge amount of content to dump on someone in one email. I do think that would be better drip fed to someone over a few days. Get into their inbox let them get to know you, build that relationship with them and I think then in 10 days time your core offer will stand a much better opportunity.

Mark: I'm just getting used to Active Campaign, I've not put videos in an email before, it that easy to do with a YouTube link or can you embed into the email?

Ru: I would recommend that you put the videos on a page on your website. Are you using Vimeo?

Mark: No, not yet. I use YouTube.

Ru: I think you'd want to use Vimeo, they offer a free account. The problem I see with YouTube is that you can't get rid of the ads. And you don't want to be running ads to people who are trying to consume your content. This is why a hate YouTube and you won't see me use it because putting someone through a 60 seconds ad isn't going to do you any.

Ru: Stick your videos on Vimeo get the share code and embed them onto your website. What are you using for your website?

Mark: WordPress and Thrive Themes.

Ru: You're all sorted then! Yes, I forgot you were are a mMasterclass veteran and you've got all the tools you need to make this freaking epic. So create a new page in your WordPress with Thrive Themes, find one of their nice video templates, get the code from Vimeo and embed it onto that template. Call it day one, day two, day three etc. drag and drop a button underneath or some text to place your core offering.

Build it out and then you won't need to send any videos in an email. You don't want to do that, all you want to do is say 'hey, it's Mark here I'm back again with Day x, today you will learn... and the key benefits of watching the video are... click here to get it. Take them to your site and now you are creating your own platform, owning the race course, driving traffic to your website and building huge trust.

Mark: Okay perfect. Yeah I'm happy with that.

Ru: I think that's awesome and we've done really well here. All the work you've put in to get to this stage, it's now just about connecting the puzzle pieces. I really want to you to be able to step this up for 2017. We can work on this together in the Masterclass over the next couple of weeks, get it up and running, tweak it as we start driving traffic through the funnel and from there just keep testing and tweaking.

Mark: Yeah that's brilliant, any advice you can give is greatly received. I want to quit my job in June so we've got till June to get it right.

Ru: A big accountability goal like that is enough to make people take a lot of action and I think a lot of people need that.

Mark: I've always had this goal but I don't think I ever really believed it. I never had the tools it place to really push for that. Now I absolutely want to leave my job in June and everything is going into this. Every bit of time, every bit of money, everything, so it's got to work.

Ru: Make sure then you keep me up to speed with what's going on, how it's working. Show me each step of the funnel as you build it, post it into you log and I'll give you my feedback and thoughts. But I think we've laid down the initial core steps already.

Mark: Yeah, that's really a big help, I'll start tomorrow I'll just keep posting in my thread and I'll leave it up to you.

Ru: Perfect Man, this has been a great call, I've enjoyed it.

Mark: It's been brilliant, it's been a great help.

Ru: All right, lets wrap it up here, thank you very much.

Mark: Yes, thank you.