Are you finding yourself overwhelmed by the amount of places your business needs to be listed (and consistently updated!) online? We totally understand!
Between your website, social media pages and other online platforms it can be easy to lose track, and any misinformation can create confusion for prospective customers. But with a little forward planning and some time spent considering your offerings with a fresh set of eyes you can get a better picture of what’s out there and how best to refine and nurture your online presence.
In this article we’ll give you a step by step guide to reviewing your current online presence and improving it to make sure you’re always showing your business in the best light and consistently attracting new customers.
Instagram/Facebook/Other Social Media
Let’s start by taking a look at some very valuable (but very limited) real estate - your social media bios.
Where Are You?
First things first - list your physical location in your bios, in as much detail as necessary. We come across so many social media profiles where it’s impossible to tell where the business is located, and sometimes the linked website also hides that information (we’ll get to that later!). This information is obviously critical for in-person classes, and if your customers have to go on a wild goose chase to even know where your studio is then you’re not off to a great start.
Keep in mind that there are multiple examples of the same location too, so it might not be enough to list “Dublin” or “Sydney”. You really want to grab the right, local customers at this point and this is such a simple thing that’s really commonly overlooked.
Where Can I Learn More?
Secondly - is it clear how students can find your class schedule, and follow through to make a booking? We know that space is very limited in your social media bios so you’ll most likely want to include a simple link (to your website or Punchpass booking pages) and then make sure visitors can easily access more information when they follow that link (see additional recommendations below!).
Once you have your booking link in place, you’ll also want to let potential customers know how you prefer to be contacted if they still have questions. Add a short note to your bio making it clear whether you regularly check your DMs and/or prefer emails, calls or texts. This first point of contact is incredibly important and you don’t want to check your DMs after 6 months and realise you missed multiple messages from potential customers.
Keep It Simple
At this point you’re probably running out of room - which isn’t necessarily a bad thing! By keeping the information in your social bios simple and future-proof, you’ll reduce the number of times you’ll need to review or potentially update each platform. If there’s more that you want to say then consider using a service like Linktree to organise additional links, instead of crowding your already limited space.
And yes, if there’s a quick motivational quote or tagline that helps people better understand your business and vibes then by all means add that in too - if you have the room!
Now that you have your links set up you can focus on keeping the information you’ve linked to up to date which brings us to…
Your Website IS Your Online Location
A lot of things have changed in the online world, but we still think that your website is still the best place for customers to get a proper feel for your business and decide whether they’re interested in joining your classes. Your website should feel like the digital version of your studio - so make sure you give your online world the ongoing attention it deserves!
We Repeat - Where Are You? 😃
Much like on social media, the thing we notice is missing the most on client’s websites is information about where their business is located. We strongly encourage you to include your full address in your website footer (across all of your pages) and mention it at least once in the descriptive text on each page. So instead of a welcome message on your homepage saying something like “Our warm, friendly studio offers accessible classes for all levels” you might opt for something more like “Our warm, friendly studio is tucked into a cosy corner of downtown Middlebury, Vermont and offers accessible classes for all levels”.
FAQ’s To The Rescue!
We also recommend that you repeat that location information in your FAQs, along with a bunch of other answers to questions that you can imagine new students (or anyone on your website looking for additional information) might ask.
The basics you should absolutely cover in your FAQs are:
- Class location(s)
- Payment options
- What to bring (and not bring!) to class
- Where to park and/or public transport options
- Your cancellation policies
You might also like to include information about:
- What to wear to class (in a general sense)
- What not to wear to class (things like heavy perfume and being clear about whether you’re going to ask people to be barefoot etc)
- Any age limit you have for classes (i.e. are children welcome)
- Terms and conditions for pass and membership purchases
Don’t Be Shy - Promote Yourself!
Your website is obviously also a great place to promote yourself so definitely share some customer testimonials and reviews, and include some happy smiling photos if you have the OK from your community. We also strongly recommend including photos of your studio space so students have an idea of what to expect and feel comfortable coming along for the first time. Trying a new thing is intimidating so you want to make it as easy as possible for potential students to picture themselves in your space and take those next steps towards booking a class.
Your Booking System - Punchpass
Your Punchpass pages contain your class schedule and pass options, but can also be a great additional resource to let your customers know about all sorts of things (and prevent those repetitive questions that really grind you down over time).
Don’t Just Accept The Defaults!
We give you the opportunity to add some custom text (including links, pictures etc) at the top of your Punchpass schedule page and/or pass purchase page. This is the perfect place to add another friendly welcome message and give customers some tips on how to find what they’re looking for and join your studio, plus promote any special events or offers. You don’t want to go overboard here, so anything that needs more explanation should be included as a link, not as a wall of text.
A good rule of thumb is that people should be able to find the information they need within one click from wherever they are. So if you don’t want to outline all of your FAQs on your Punchpass pages (and we don’t think you should!), you should include a link from Punchpass to that page on your website instead.
Make The Effort To Customize Things
There are also a bunch of other ways to customize your Punchpass pages to make them feel like home - things like using different colours to show your different offerings, including instructor bios and photos, linking directly to your website and more. All of those little bespoke steps really add up to bring your online presence into alignment and help customers feel like they fully understand your offerings and business.
Step Into Your Beginner’s Mind….
Now that you’ve got everything set up, it’s time to put it to the test!
First, consider where people might first find out about your studio. If you think that’s going to be social media, start there. If you’re relying on people walking past your physical business then get your walking shoes on and go and try that. Regardless of which approach you start with, you should be looking to see if the information you get at those locations (and not the knowledge you already have as the owner of the business!) would let you find out more details and/or book a class.
It’s also really important to do some online searches (from a private browser window) for ways that people might try to find you - search for general things like “yoga near me”, “personal trainers Chicago”, “kids art classes” etc. And while you’re at it, find out what happens when someone searches directly for your business name and make sure you’re happy with the information that they have access to at that point.
Claim & Enhance Your Google Business Listing
If you haven’t already claimed your Google My Business listing then we absolutely recommend doing that as a priority and then taking a really good look at the information you have listed. Make sure your opening hours are accurate (it’s easiest to say that you’re open 24/7 if you’re running weekly classes, then students can view your schedule to find out more) and be careful that Google isn’t going to mark you as closed on specific dates or days.
During these searches you might also come across older listings for your business on review websites like Yelp or TrueLocal (even if you didn’t actively opt into being listed, or did it so long ago that you’ve forgotten) and the information provided isn’t always super accurate or up to date so make sure you also claim those listings and keep the details up to date.
Website Review With A Fresh Set Of Eyes
One of the times that you’ll need to be most focused is when you’re reviewing your website. It’s incredibly easy to accidentally leave old information posted, or find inaccurate placeholder text that you added in those first few crazy weeks of getting everything set up. Go through every single page of your website with a fresh set of eyes and you might be surprised at what you find!
On all of these platforms, do your best to keep a ‘beginners mind’ and follow the available information like a completely new student would. Did you run into dead ends or find outdated information? Get those gaps in your information workflow fixed ASAP - you can’t assume that lost customers will automatically reach out to you if they need help continuing their exploration, sadly many will just give up and you’ll never hear from them again.
Have You Ever Booked At Your Own Business?
Now you should go through the same process with your booking workflow. The best way to experience your business as a new customer is to become one - so use a burner email address that isn’t associated with your existing Punchpass logins (or create one just for this process - hopefully it won’t be the last time you go through this process so we’ll make it worthwhile!) and we’ll get started. Create a new Punchpass customer account using your fresh email address and login as a student. From there you should book a class and buy a pass (create one that sells for $0 so you don’t have to pay any fees) to see what type of information you get (or don’t get!) along the way.
You can customize the automated emails that students get after they make a reservation and buy a pass so make sure you review those when you receive them and make any changes before you start sending them all over the place. Punchpass also makes it easy for you to create custom automated emails triggered by different events so be sure to explore those options too. Sadly most people have a hard time reading things thoroughly these days so you’ll likely need to tell customers the same thing a few different times to be sure it lands.
This Is Just The Beginning!
Now that you’ve established a good process for reviewing your business as a new student you’ll want to repeat it at regular intervals to quickly catch any issues and really see the benefits. We recommend scheduling a quarterly audit if possible, but every 6-12 months would also be better than never again.
In addition to those regular checks, it’s a good idea to get into the habit of viewing any new offerings, changes to your booking and/or payment workflows and anything else that might impact your customers’ experience as that new student so you can make sure everything is coming across as expected.
And if you don’t want to go through all of that again or just feel like mixing things up? Have a trusted friend test everything for you by going through those same processes as a new student and listen carefully to their feedback.
Trust Us - These Little Things Add Up
Keeping your online presence clean and organised is just as important as taking care of your physical space so create a sustainable plan, add regular reviews to your schedule and make sure you give it the attention it deserves. You rarely get a second chance to make a first impression so make sure yours counts!
