If you’ve read our previous blog post about creating your service pages for group classes, you’ll already be familiar with the fact that your copy about private lessons needs to work hard for you. However, when you consider the task of creating copy for each type of service you offer, you might not realize the goals are different!

In both cases you need to highlight the ‘what’s in it for me’ for your reader. You need to focus on benefits rather than features, and keep your reader engaged, curious, and reading right to the end — leaving them ready to respond to your call to action.

To do this you need to put yourself in your client’s shoes. Ask yourself what sort of information they’ll be looking for. What questions will they have about your services? Think about the way they would be searching for those answers and make it easy for them to find it… and quickly!

Copy for Private Lesson Pages

In the previous service pages blog post, I said that your copy needs to do the selling for you. But copy on service pages for private lessons is different. The goal is to have the client contact you — preferably for a phone chat. Why?

Here at Click and Repeat, we recommend trainers sell private lessons as private programs. Not individual lessons charged by the hour. Not bulk packages at discount ‘buy 5, get 6!’ rates.

By offering programs it’s easier to earn a living wage, not just scrape by, because you’re not trying to fill your books with one-off consults and ‘cheap deal’ gambles.

To do this, decide how many face-to-face training hours a program needs: how many sessions do you need to help someone fix the problem the package is designed to address? Write that down.

Then think of all the additional things you probably do — but don’t always explicitly charge for. This includes:

• Answering phone or email queries
• Text/phone/email accountability check-ins to make sure things are on track
• Creating and sharing handouts
• Homework assignments and feedback
• Video library
• Support videos to demo exercises if clients gets stuck
• Equipment (treat bag, muzzles or loose leash walking aids)
• Lifetime (of the dog) access to a Facebook group for a supportive community and a place to ask questions

That can add up to a lot of extra support! If you build a program that lists all the things you do for the client (and how it benefits them) — not just the face-to-face training time — you can charge appropriately for it.

Should You Include Prices on the Page?

With that in mind, your prices may look, well, high. Especially when compared to other trainers in the area selling per hour rates or discount packages.

So, don’t put your program prices on your website. You don’t want prospective clients taking one look at your numbers and fainting from shock!

(A caveat to that: if everyone else in your area has their prices listed you don’t want to be the odd one out. In that case, listing your prices is the sensible thing to do. Just be sure to highlight how much clients get for their money.)

Instead, direct them to contact you for a chat about how your programs can help them. Once they’re on the phone it’s much easier for you to explain why your (more expensive) program is better value and a good investment.

One Page vs. Multiple Pages

Now you know what copy needs to be there, your next question is probably: “But how do I structure my service pages?” And, like all good trainers, I’m going to answer with: ”It depends…”

Do you have lots of different services? Group classes for pets? Sports training? Seminars? Private programs? In that case, declutter and have each service on its own separate page.

If you only offer one or two private programs but they’re available in different formats — in-home visits, meet at a location, at your facilities, behavior mod or via video chat — then a separate page for each one might make more sense.

Alternatively, maybe you only work at your client’s home but you have multiple programs. Say you do puppy, adolescent, or adult programs of different lengths and prices — or perhaps you offer programs for reactivity or aggression/bite cases that are charged differently to your other work — then you’d want to split those out.

Look at what you offer. How does it make sense to group it or split it? You want to think about what your client is likely to be looking for and list it in the way that makes the most sense to the client.

Getting to “YES!”

Once you have your pages in place, you’re going to want to have a way for your prospective client to find out more about the private lessons you offer. If you’re just starting out, that might mean some email or phone tag to set up a free “introduction/get to know you” sales call. This pre-call communication can be helpful if you like to screen people before committing the time to a sales call.

Alternatively, if you have scheduling software and you don’t want to pre-screen, you can cut out the phone/email tag stage and have them book the call directly.

However you do it, do your best to actually have a conversation — don’t just give the program info in an email! Your potential client is going to have questions, objections, and worries about what they’ll get for their money and how you’re able to solve their problems. You’ll find it much more productive to address these concerns in person as they come up, rather than with a long, drawn out email thread.

It also gives you the opportunity to find out more pertinent information about their problem and whether it’s something you want to work with or not.

Once the client signs up you can either manually book the subsequent training sessions or give them the information to book their own.

Which System Do I Need?

Whether you manually book sales calls and training sessions or let your clients do it themselves really comes down to your client volume and the size of your service area.

The more clients you have, the more responsibility for booking calls and training sessions you want your client to take. By reducing your involvement, you avoid becoming a bottleneck in your sign-up and scheduling process.

However, the downside of having clients book their own sessions will be if you do in-home or location-based sessions and your scheduling software doesn’t allow for setting up restricted areas. You don’t want to find yourself with two sessions that are a 45 min drive apart but scheduled 30 minutes after each other!

Now you have the information you need to create sizzling service pages for your private lessons. Time to either go tweak your current pages, create new ones or smile, treat yourself to your favorite beverage, and put your feet up — you’ve just discovered your pages tick all the right boxes already!