Is Your Lead Funnel too Complicated? with Kaleda Connell

[00:00:00] Hello, my friend. Today’s episode is an absolute treat. I’m joined once again by the brilliant Kaleda Connell. She’s the CEO of Kilo. Kaleda and her team are just absolute rock [00:00:10] stars when it comes to helping gym owners generate leads, nurture them effectively, and convert them into paying members all with software that actually makes your life

easier. So in this [00:00:20] episode, we deep dive into an audit, into an audit of how to optimize your marketing funnel, starting with your Google profile, then your website, finally, your social media. So [00:00:30] if you’ve ever wondered why leads aren’t converting or if your website might be turning people away, instead of drawing them in, this is the episode for you.

Kaleda even shares something [00:00:40] called, I’m calling her grandma, test for user experience and you’re gonna love it. And she also offers a free checklist you can use to improve your funnel. Right now, so grab a notebook, buckle up. [00:00:50] This episode is gonna be jam packed with actionable gems. Let’s get started. 1, 2, 3, 4.

[00:01:00] Welcome to The Business for Unicorns podcast, where we help gym and studio owners create a business and a life they love. I’m your host, Michael Keeler. Join me and the business unicorns [00:01:10] team each week for actionable advice, expert insights, and the inside scoop on what it really takes to level up your gym.

Get ready to unlock your potential and [00:01:20] become a real unicorn in the fitness industry.[00:01:30]

Hello, fitness business nerds. What’s up? Welcome to another episode of the Business Unicorns podcast. I’m very excited today to have back on the podcast one of my favorite [00:01:40] guests. It’s Khali Connell, CEO of Kilo. Welcome back, Kaleda. Ah, thanks Michael. I’m excited to be here. I love having you on the podcast because I just, I always learn something honestly and no [00:01:50] shade to all my other guests.

That’s not always the case. I’m starting off this podcast just being a shady person, but I just really do because you’re so good at what you do and [00:02:00] that’s why part of why we love Kilo so much. You and the rest of the team are just so amazing at helping gym owners. Get leads, get those leads in the door, convert those leads into members, give ’em the tools and software to make it happen [00:02:10] easily as possible.

And I love having you because I really always walk away with at least a nugget or two of information. So thanks again for being here. Maybe just start with what’s going on in your world? What’s going on at [00:02:20] Kilo? What’s the update? Lots going on. First. The biggest news is that I’m gonna have a baby, which is crazy to think about.

Yay. Congratulations again. Yeah, thanks. [00:02:30] That’s so exciting. Yeah, I, I have lots. Of anxiety about what that’s gonna be like for myself and the company and that kind of thing. But luckily I have such an amazing team. Like you said, I only [00:02:40] have to threaten them once a week to stay on track, be good. And I’m just kidding.

They’re That’s perfect. They’re so amazing. But yeah, we’ve grown quite a [00:02:50] lot over the last year. People are really liking our gym management software, which is new, but really amazing. Sometimes I’m like, people come on it and they’re like, this is really good. And I’m like. [00:03:00] Really is it? Do you think so?

That’s great. And it’s been super fun watching that product in particular grow. Because we are so new in this space, [00:03:10] it is pretty nerve wracking and being against like some more well-funded, bigger giants in the space. Mm-hmm. And we’re keeping up and I think that’s like really [00:03:20] fun and yeah, it’s just like super rewarding.

Yeah, you really are. I hear good stuff about you guys all the time from all the different pieces of software that you offer. Maybe for [00:03:30] listeners, we talk about Kilo all the time, this podcast, but for anyone who’s maybe just jumping in for the first time doesn’t know much about the software, can you give the 10,000 foot overview?

What are the, what’s the soft, what’s the software do at a high level? Yeah. We actually [00:03:40] have three pieces of software that you can get as a gym owner from our company, and the first one, which we’ll probably talk a lot about today, is your. Your gym [00:03:50] website. So it’s a high converting, which means that people get on your website and then they get talking to you as quickly as possible.

That’s what high conversion means, and we can talk [00:04:00] more about that, but that’s the first product. Yep. We’ve done a ton of research. We’ve been gym owners, we’ve worked with tons of gym owners, so we know what works and we’ve spent a lot of [00:04:10] money developing these products because, and researching as to what works best because they’re the front line.

They’re the thing that, that Jim owners, or I’m sorry, that prospects see [00:04:20] first, and so you wanna address to impress. So that’s the first piece. The second piece is once they, once the leads, puts their information into your website. It’s gym [00:04:30] lead machine, and so gym lead machine is essentially your automated lead nurture, your sort of your marketing funnel, that kind of thing inside of, inside of that [00:04:40] software that powers the backend of that website.

What it really does is makes things easier for gym owners in that they can be a little bit more hands off, they can be a lot more [00:04:50] organized, and then add in the personal touches instead of doing. Everything manually. So automated appointment, booking, automated, like reach outs, you can automate a [00:05:00] ton of stuff like your social media and all those kinds of things through the gym, lead machine software.

I’m really doing it a disservice ’cause it does do so much. Of course. Yeah. I will say just from [00:05:10] my own experience and from working with Unicorn Center members who use both the website feature and the g. Legitimate liba sheet feature software is, it’s a game changer. It’s just utterly a game changer to have just [00:05:20] those hours and hours of your life back from emailing and texting and following up and posting and all of that.

Not only can you have a plan and be more organized, but a lot of it’s automated. We [00:05:30] doesn’t take your time anymore. Yeah, and that’s just a huge, it’s a game changer of you’re so many. For so many gym owners who have small teams or armies of one or two every minute of your day really [00:05:40] counts. So having software that is easy to use that allows you to automate a lot of those lead follow up actions is just, it’s a game changer.

Yeah, it’s a game changer. And no more spreadsheets. So you got the No more spreadsheets, please. [00:05:50] Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, because it, it makes a big difference. Yeah. So you got the website portion, you got the lead follow up portion, and then you already mentioned. The other one, but go ahead. Yeah. But the last one is the gym management [00:06:00] software, which you’re gonna use on a day-to-day basis to build your memberships bill your members, have them booking in for classes and scheduling them for personal [00:06:10] training appointments.

Use it for payroll. You can use it for all kinds of stuff, but really in the day-to-day management of your gym. And the unique features on that one is that like. [00:06:20] The membership builder is so flexible, and I know like when I had a gym management software and I will not name it, but I know that like I had to have [00:06:30] so many memberships in order to create like custom memberships and in this software, like you can just.

You can, it’s really flexible with billing plans and that kind of thing. It’s flexible, so no [00:06:40] matter what your model is, you can make what you need. Yeah. And then your members have an app and it’s super easy and it’s really affordable and yeah, so it’s, it’s, like I said, it’s newer to the [00:06:50] market, but it’s really quite good, really impressed.

Yeah. That’s a great overview. Yeah, I appreciate that. I love that you all have this suite of three that all work together beautifully, work wonderfully on their [00:07:00] own, and I think it’s, it’s a, it’s a great addition to our industry. So thanks for all the hard work. Let’s go back to the first product you were talking about, because that’s where I wanna focus our conversation today.

We both are really [00:07:10] passionate about, I. Gym owners just generating more leads and making it as easy and seamless as possible for potential clients to just take those first few steps. And I [00:07:20] know so many times when you know, both of us probably on a regular basis, help gym owners audit their marketing funnels, audit their websites, audit their social media accounts to say, okay, how easy are you making it?

[00:07:30] And where are there hangups? So I wanna talk about that and final and just hear a little bit about what do you look for. So if Jim owner’s listening here wanna do an audit of. Their website. Let’s start there to see [00:07:40] how, but that user experience is your brand new people visiting the website for the first time.

What are you looking for to tell you this is a really easy, seamless process? Yeah, so the first thing that I look [00:07:50] for, I actually start before the website. Great. Before I even get there. So I actually go to their Google business profile first. Awesome. Because. Generally, people are searching for you either on [00:08:00] Google Chat, GPT, or they’re searching for you on the maps, and so we just wanna make sure that is your category correct.

Do you have good photos? Mm-hmm. Do you have reviews that say what you do? [00:08:10] Is your website even linked to that thing? Is your phone number? Correct. And overall, you wanna do what’s called like a NAP score analysis, which is your name, name, address, and phone [00:08:20] number. Are they. Correct. And are they the same across all platforms?

’cause Google will ding you for things like that, right? So that all, if that [00:08:30] all of that is correct and they’re all leading to the same place, then we can go to your website and then we can start assessing it. But make sure the how the people are finding you is [00:08:40] correct first. I think it’s a really great point, and I love that you, I love that you added chat GPT as well, right?

Because I think more and more people are searching using AI [00:08:50] tools, so going on the AI tools and searching your business and see what comes up is impressive. And many times they are just scrolling search engines like Google. So if it’s good on Google, it’s sometimes good there, but you [00:09:00] never know. These days it’s not very transparent.

So I love that you’re starting even before the website to make sure anywhere people could search for you, they’re finding something consistent. That drives them to the right place. [00:09:10] Yeah. And definitely feed, chat GBT. Right. Feed at the answers. Mm-hmm. That you want it to have for your gym as well, because we all know that anything that you put in AI now becomes public information.

[00:09:20] So just leave that as it is. But, so yeah, once you get to the website. We wanna make sure that there is a good call to action, right? So it’s a big, I’m gonna say [00:09:30] big red button. It doesn’t have to be red, but there, there’s a big button for something that you want people to do, whether that’s book your free intro, book your seven day trial, buy [00:09:40] this intro package, like whatever it is.

But then it’s, it’s one thing that you want them to do and you ask them to do that thing over and over again. Okay. The biggest [00:09:50] mistake that I generally see on most websites is that. We’re asking people to do too many things at once, and then it’s unclear to the prospect [00:10:00] what you actually want them to do.

So check out our programs. Look at our class schedule. Seven days for $7. Check out our spring promo, look at Black Friday. This is all on [00:10:10] one website. Instead of just having one main thing that you want people to do and then asking them to do it over and over again. So that’s the biggest thing. And then the [00:10:20] second thing that, that, I always wanna make sure that it’s like.

Super seamless on most people’s websites is that when they click on that button, they give you their information and [00:10:30] then they go to book the appointment for the thing that you ask them to do, and there’s very few clicks in order for them to do that thing. So that, those are the two big things that I look [00:10:40] for.

Aesthetics and those kinds of things aside. But those are the two big things, of course. Yeah, I, I think that’s so smart and I love that you’re emphasizing here have one call to [00:10:50] action. ’cause you’re right, I go on so many websites and it’s, what are you wanting me to do? There’s a million places I could click.

And when you give people that many choices, they’re gonna wanna go click around for a little [00:11:00] while and we say all the time in marketing, right When you confuse, you lose. So if you’ve confused people about what to do next, you’ve just lost them. They’re just gonna go click somewhere else. Where it’s easier to get started and it makes more [00:11:10] sense.

Yeah, and I love that when you said, when you click on that thing, it should take, it should collect their information and then take them to the thing that you just promised them. Make it as few clicks as possible. Make it [00:11:20] seamless. I’ll even add a yes and to that, which is one of the things that is one of my pet peeves.

Is when I go to click on someone’s offer and there’s a popup or a landing page that [00:11:30] just asks for my information, but doesn’t tell me more about what happens next. I wanna know, okay, I’m giving this information for what? Yeah. Are we booking a call? Is we book? Am I, are you gonna, am I coming in? Are you [00:11:40] gonna get back to me by email, phone, text?

Just tell me what happens next. ’cause I’m happy to give my information if it’s clear what it’s for. And what process I’m opting into. But [00:11:50] all too often it’s, it’s a free trial. Try our free trial. I click on it, ask you free information. But there’s nothing else anywhere in this process that says, what is this free trial?

When does it [00:12:00] start? How do I get it? What does it include? So there has to be some information that makes it clear to me what am I saying yes to? And if it’s clear and it’s in line with what I need, I’m happy to say [00:12:10] yes. But it’s that confusion that I think sometimes gives our industry kinda a bad name of, there’s a lot of shady players out there.

Trying to bamboozle people. And so the minute you’re that unclear it, you [00:12:20] can, the people can just lump you into that shady category, which is none of us want. Hey there, business unicorns, podcast listeners. I’m just making absolutely sure you have already gotten [00:12:30] your free, instantly downloadable copy of my new book.

The Little Book of Gym Marketing Secrets. You can find a link to download it in the show notes, or you can go to gym marketing secrets [00:12:40] book.com. I worked super hard to make sure this is a less than a 30 minute read and is a comprehensive overview of all the things you need to do to grow your gym, get more leads, more [00:12:50] clients, and importantly, change more lives.

Again, find the link in the show notes where you can download your free copy at jim marking secrets book.com and now back to the podcast. [00:13:00] Yeah. And I know that as gym owners we always wanna set ourselves apart and we want to like be unique Yeah. In those kinds of things, like. [00:13:10] Maybe your website’s not the place to do that.

You can do that inside your gym and you can call things like weird and wacky things and that sort of thing. But if your, if your call to action [00:13:20] is like, book our like sweaty summer showdown, it’s like, what is, what is that like? Yeah, book the thing. Make it super obvious. Call your class names, [00:13:30] at least publicly, like really obvious things, just for lack of a better word, honestly, make it boring so that people know exactly what it’s, yeah, make it super direct so people like know [00:13:40] exactly what it is that you’re asking them to do.

It has to be clear. It has to be clear to what. Yeah. To a stranger who doesn’t know your brand or your personality or your vibe and, and if it’s unclear to a [00:13:50] stranger, they’re just gonna go somewhere where it makes more sense. And so you don’t wanna alienate people on day one with the language you use, the images you use.

And so I think that all is so smart and makes sense. How [00:14:00] do you think about this when it comes from. Social media. Right? So clearly when people land these days, I think most gyms and most places are focused on Instagram. Let’s just use that as an example. But [00:14:10] how do you think about making it easy for leads to take the first few steps when it comes to landing on someone’s Instagram profile, for example?

Yeah, Instagram is actually one of my favorite things to audit [00:14:20] ’cause there’s so many ways to do it wrong and. I, I know that again, we all wanna be unique. We all wanna stand out. And I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that. You should do those things [00:14:30] like you should, but you also wanna be very obvious about what it is that you’re offering.

And so generally, there’s two to three places that I look on Instagram. So if someone finds you, and I always [00:14:40] tell people, like, before you audit your own Instagram, go and do a quick close your eyes and pretend that you are your target audience. So pretend that you’re like a 30 5-year-old woman [00:14:50] who’s just had a baby who, you know.

Is looking for a place to start her fitness journey or whatever that avatar is, and then go and [00:15:00] try and look at it with fresh eyes. Or if you have a friend who is that person, have them look at it. But first of all, do the photos represent your target audience? That’s the [00:15:10] number one thing. You should be able to find that in 30 seconds or less.

And then the second thing is like in the photo captions. So if the captions like really [00:15:20] say what is happening in the photo instead of just being really generic, great Sunday workout and really say, this is this group of people that’s been having this struggle. They’re really working towards this goal.

This [00:15:30] is the progress they’ve made. It works better with a one-on-one sort of client story. But you know, we want to be more descriptive as to what’s happening there. Like I, I [00:15:40] know that like sometimes. We’re just thinking about like total volume of social media and total volume of pictures and that kind of thing that goes out.

But sometimes I’m, I think it’s okay [00:15:50] to do less and better if we can just be more intentional about the captions and that kind of thing, and maybe just do a little bit less. I think [00:16:00] sometimes that can be better. Yeah. I agree with that so much Kaleda, right? I think some people are putting, playing the volume game into their own detriment.

Because if I go to a new company’s website or Instagram page [00:16:10] and I see a bunch of stuff that just doesn’t resonate with me, it seems generic, it doesn’t tell a story, it doesn’t engage me in any emotional way. It’s not fun or entertaining or educational, then I’m like, [00:16:20] what are they doing? And I think that those, that first line of the caption says so much.

’cause if the picture draws me in and I stop. Scrolling, then I wanna know what’s going on here. What’s this about? Am I trying to, [00:16:30] am I learning something? Am I, am I meeting someone? What’s happening? So I think that’s really key. I’ll just, yes. And this, and say, the other thing that I know we both probably look for in an Instagram [00:16:40] page is that up there in the bio should be a link that’s the same call to action as your website, right?

Or you can use a fancy link tree or something. But I, I even recommend [00:16:50] against link trees a lot of the time and just say, no, you want to have the same single focus as your website. On your Instagram page, if the call to action was your 14 days for $14, great. It should be the [00:17:00] same link at the top of your Instagram.

They don’t need to. They need access to everything. Just take them to the same place and, and I think all too often people just miss the very simple step. It’s the same thing as [00:17:10] your website, right? If we’re giving them too many options, they’re gonna get overwhelmed. Like exactly How many times do you go to a restaurant where there’s eight pages on the menu and you’re like, oh my God, I don’t know what to order, and I’ll just get the same as my neighbor [00:17:20] and or my guests.

I’m going 100%. That’s just, yeah. You know you wanna have them. Yeah. You want them to have the best experience, not just like average of most. 100%. Yeah. Let me say, let me ask [00:17:30] this, and we’re gonna be running outta time here in a second, but let me ask you one last question, which is for all of our gym owners out there who want to improve their funnel, who want to make it easier for strangers to just take a first few [00:17:40] steps with their gym and come in the door or connect with them, all the things we covered, where do they start?

Yeah, choose a really good call to action first, [00:17:50] right? Yeah. Book your free intro, seven days for $7, whatever that is, and stick with it and just repeat it everywhere and then make sure that it’s really [00:18:00] easy for them to do the thing. The best piece of advice that, that a mentor gave me at one time and that now I repeat, is just ask your grandma [00:18:10] to do the thing and see if she can do it.

Yeah, because it. If she can’t do it, maybe not my grandma, someone else, someone else is grandma. But if she can’t do it like [00:18:20] it’s too hard. Yeah. And I know that grandma’s not super tech savvy, but don’t assume that everyone is. So ask Grandma to do it. See if they can do it. I think that’s a great one and all [00:18:30] respect to grandma’s out there, but y’all tend to be Fred.

Any grandma’s listening, y’all tend to be not the best at the technology on the phones and things, so I think that’s a great one. Just take someone who doesn’t know your [00:18:40] process, doesn’t know what Dwayne maybe doesn’t love technology, and if they can figure it out. Great. That’s how simple it needs to be.

Exactly. I think that’s so smart. That’s so smart. Awesome. Kli, thank you for [00:18:50] today. This was a great, it was a great walkthrough of like how to audit your funnel, how to make it as easy as possible for ease, for leads and prospects to take those first few steps. If people do wanna learn more about any of the tools you [00:19:00] talked about earlier in Kilo Land, where do they go?

Yeah, you can go to our website. Use kilo.com or you can go to my website, which is hey Kaleda.com. And I do [00:19:10] have a, like an audit checklist that I’ll send you, Michael, that you can send Great. To anybody who’s listening to the podcast because yeah, it’s lengthy, but if you really wanna do a [00:19:20] deep dive on your, on your website or on any of these things, like a checklist is hands down probably the best way to start going through this.

Yeah, I can send you that. You guys that. Yeah, [00:19:30] I love that. We’ll put it in the show notes, and I think it is just one of the most important assets that Jim has is really greasing the wheels. Make those first few steps as easy as possible. So lead flow is not stagnated [00:19:40] because of some silly mistake you’ve made, right?

Yeah. That it’s really seamless process for people to get on board. Yeah. And one thing I I wanna add just before you wrap up is please don’t go and [00:19:50] spend a whole bunch of money on paid ads. Mm-hmm. Or Google ads or meta ads or anything like that until you fix these things first. Because you’re just going to waste your money and [00:20:00] you’re spin your wheels if you haven’t fixed these things first.

And you might be surprised at how little you have to spend if you fix these things on the front end. Yeah. Yeah. That’s such a [00:20:10] good tip. Such a good tip. Until your funnel’s really in order and all this is in place and I would go to say, and you have some process for lead follow up that’s just some, [00:20:20] doesn’t be perfect, but there’s some Then go spend some money on some ads and yeah, I think that’s so smart.

That’s awesome. Thanks is always Cleta. This was a fantastic conversation and I’m taking away some [00:20:30] nuggets as always, I’m sure our listeners are as well. So thank you so much. I really appreciate you and dear listeners. I’ll see you on the next one. Have a great day. Thanks. [00:20:40] [00:20:50] Bye.