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How do I market my coaching business?

In this competitive world that we live in if you have some great service to offer that is alone not enough. You can be the best coach but if people miss the opportunity to work with you, you will hardly be recognized.

Scaling your coaching business to 7 figures and beyond is much easier than you think but for that, you need to have a smart selling proposition, smart marketing, sales strategies, networking skills, social proof and much more. With an effective marketing plan in action, it would become really easy for you to earn your first coaching clients.

Are you looking for an answer to this question- “How do I market my coaching business?” If yes, then I have some deep insights to share with you today that will help you to streamline your marketing efforts and accelerate the pace of your growth.

Come, let’s explore!

In Brief : How Do I Market My Coaching Business?
  • Set Your Coaching Business Apart – Utilize differentiation strategies such as a Strategy Canvas to stand out, emphasizing value proposition and pricing; cost varies based on strategy implementation.
  • Amazing Free Content – Leverage content marketing for cost-effective promotion, utilizing AI tools like Copy AI; costs may include AI tool subscriptions and content creation expenses.
  • Tripwire – Implement a tripwire strategy to enhance client acquisition and retention; costs involve initial discounts or offers to attract clients.
  • Never Hesitate For Referrals – Utilize client referrals as a powerful and cost-effective marketing tool; may involve offering referral incentives.
  • Build Strategic Alliances – Foster alliances within the coaching community for mutual referrals; cost involves relationship-building efforts.
  • Find Where Your Clients Hang Out – Align marketing strategies with the target audience’s preferences, considering both online and offline methods; costs vary based on chosen marketing channels.
  • Make Your Message Strong – Craft a clear and impactful marketing message tailored to the target audience; costs involve strategic message development.
  • Drive People To Your Website – Invest in a strong digital presence with a well-optimized website for SEO, impressive design, and effective call-to-action elements; costs include website development and SEO efforts.
  • Leverage Local Service Clubs And Networking Groups – Engage in local networking opportunities to promote your coaching business; costs involve participation fees and promotional materials.
  • Build Your Email List – Run email campaigns for regular updates, ensuring a well-planned schedule and valuable content; costs may include email marketing tools.
  • Newsletters – Utilize newsletters to keep clients informed and engaged; costs involve email marketing tools and content creation.
  • Social Networking Platforms – Leverage social media platforms with clear goals, focusing on building relationships, providing helpful content, and increasing influence; costs involve time and possibly social media management tools.
  • Hold A Coaching Evening – Organize events or workshops for live coaching and engagement; costs involve event planning, venue, and promotional materials.
  • Podcasting – Utilize podcasting for visibility, either by getting featured on others’ podcasts or starting your own; costs may involve podcast equipment and promotion efforts.
  • Video Marketing – Embrace video marketing for brand building and engagement; costs include video creation tools and promotion efforts.
  • Charge More – Implement premium pricing strategies to attract high-end clients and increase overall sales; costs involve delivering exceptional value.
  • Marketing Hourglass – Follow the marketing hourglass approach for a comprehensive customer journey; costs involve creating and maintaining touchpoints at each stage.
  • The 5 Step Branding Strategy – Develop a distinct brand by answering key questions about differentiation, uniqueness, and values; costs involve brand development efforts.
  • Get To A Podium – Enhance visibility and profitability by speaking at events and sharing your expertise; costs involve event participation and promotional materials.
  • An Automated Sales System – Implement automated sales systems through email autoresponders, video series, or webinars for predictable income; costs involve setup and maintenance of automated systems.

1. Set your coaching business apart

Peter Thiel rightly quotes- “ You can either be 10x better than your competitors or be different.”

Differentiating your services is one of the great ways to cut through the noise of your competitors.

So how will you achieve this differentiation? This could be in multiple ways like in your value proposition, pricing the clients you serve, etc.

There is an amazing framework that you can utilize to differentiate from your competitors and that is called a Strategy Canvas.

Simply, all you need to do is, put 5 distinguishing features on the X-axis and their strength from 1-5 on the Y-axis.

For instance, look at the below strategy canvas to understand how Apple differentiated their business from the rest of the industry.

content marketing, writers, content writers
Image from pixabay.com

2. Amazing free content (most efficient way to market your coaching business)

Content is the atomic particle of all marketing. From engaging blog posts to consultation calls and detailed guides whatever you offer will just augment the pool of your profits.

As per DemandMetric, Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about 3 times as many leads. CMI shows that 93% of B2B marketers use content marketing and 62% of the most effective B2C marketers have a documented content strategy. Social Media Examiner reveals that 58% of marketers said: “original written content” is the most important type of content, outdoing visuals and videos.

With the rapid rise of AI tools, content creation has become effortless for businesses. Utilizing powerful copywriting tools such as Copy AI has enabled the creation of seamless and compelling content with ease. But it is not the only tool available, coaches have a wide range of Copy AI alternatives to choose from based on their individual preferences and needs.

Many coaches do realize the importance of content marketing but they don’t pay attention to measuring their success.

Also, you need to be abreast with the recent trends in content marketing (and marketing as a whole). For instance, According to DemandGen, the use of infographics grew from 9% to 52% in the last two years.

When you provide valuable content and that too for free, it seldom makes your clients wonder what more can you bring to the table when they purchase your premium services.

3. Tripwire

How do I market my coaching business?- You have pondered on enough!

Now I want to share with you another great way for the same. Getting a client into the door is one of the most difficult and expensive challenges. But once you acquire them it becomes easy to retain them. According to Neil Patel, the average visitor to paid conversion rate is 1-2% online. With a tripwire, this can jump to 5-10%.

Take Bluehost (hosting company) for instance. They offer ridiculously great offers($3.95 per month) because they know that once they acquire a customer they would be able to get much more in the coming few years.

So, what I want to convey here is that your marketing strategies should be streamlined to acquire the customer first. That’s how you get a chance to showcase yourself.

4. Never hesitate for referrals

This is one of the best and easiest ways of marketing your business. The clients whom you have managed to provide the “Wow” effect have now become your sales team.

You can even make them feel special by providing them with an incentive through a referral fee.

I tell you, no other way than marketing via clients can build the trust and authenticity about your services.

5. Build strategic alliances

Instagram - @PerryGrone
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Not all the coaches in the industry are your enemies. Like I have some great friends belonging to the same industry and they have indeed helped me in the hour of need.

You can leverage the synergies and become a part of a really productive community if you choose the right connections. If this very question- How do I market my coaching business ?- keep jumping your head, strategic alliances can help you largely here. In fact, if you wish to market your coaching business you really need them. These connections can refer their clients to you and vice versa.

6. Find where your clients hang out

Maybe you are employing the right methodology of marketing your business but your efforts are yet unreachable.

You have your target audience clear. That’s great! Now, how to locate them? You need to align your marketing endeavor with your target audience.

For instance, if your a health coach targeting a healthy body through Nutrition for the audience who fall in the age group of 65+ then social media marketing may not prove that effective. Have a look at the below stats in the USA.

According to the Pew Research Center, 27% of adults who are 65 and over-owned smartphones. It is a good indication that seniors live more of their lives in the offline world. This means that if you are using mobile and internet marketing to reach them you can have a hard time.

So, should you leave online marketing? No! Yet offline marketing strategies like some free seminars, workshops, catalogs, etc. should also be included in your plan.

7. Make your message strong

Your message is your gateway to the users. You need to be very particular to ensure that it is tailored sharply to your clients. You need to be clear, precise, yet impactful.

Many coaches commit a mistake of overloading their content while marketing for their coaching business. One thing which you should keep in mind is that you need to convey your worth in a very short manner.

The average attention span of a person is said to be of 8 seconds. You need to grab the maximum.

You can use this formula to compile a robust message:

I, [Your name], [your title], works with [market label] who are struggling with [top challenges]. I provide [label for coaching] to achieve [top benefits] [with uniqueness].

Here’s one example:

I, Jan Doe, health coach, works for people who are struggling with chronic fatigue. I offer holistic health coaching to revitalize your body without going for crazy exercise programs or making impossible diet changes.

If you are confused about how to frame your message have a look at tips and examples that would definitely help you.

8. Drive people to your website

In this digital era having a solid digital presence is the key. If you do not show up in the google searches you would soon find it very difficult to grow your audience.

Your website will help the audience to discover your business and find out more about your skills and expertise. Collecting all your social media links in one place will help you to build credibility. A high-quality, professional-looking website reflects positively on your business.

Take care of the following elements on your website.

  • SEO- SEO is like a signpost to direct people to your shiny website. A fully optimized website for mobile and desktop has greater chances of the audience choosing you over your competitors. Make sure that you have high-quality content that is keyword-rich to be rewarded by the search engines. Employ SEO tactics like metatags, URLs, and backlinks to increase your chances to rank better in the SERPs.
  • Impressive Design- Your website should have an enchanting user interface that can render an enriching user experience. The design and easy navigation should leave an indelible impression on the users.
  • Call-to-action- Have a compelling call to action on your website like inviting your clients for webinars, filling the form to increase your email subscription list. etc. Your website should include elements that help you to generate lead easily.
  • Blogs- Publish blogs daily to establish yourself as an expert coach. Follow the 80-20 rule. 20% of your efforts should be directed to write blogs and 80% to market it on different platforms. Experiment with different social media platforms like Facebook, Linkedin, etc. and alternative content formats- videos, infographics, podcast- to see what works best.

9. Leverage local service clubs and networking groups

You are not only a coach but the best marketer for your business too. You must have a keen eye on every opportunity that you feel can be utilized to propagate your business.

Business networking groups are a hotspot where people share contacts and referrals. Speaking at local service clubs on something that you are passionate about and which relates to your business as well is another great way to engage the audience. Do not forget to offer handouts with your contact details so that people can contact you later.

Take up initiatives, ask for suggestions, build credibility with your words and actions. Build an impressive personality that is too good to be ignored!

10. Build your email list

Run an email campaign to share regular updates with your subscriber.

One important thing that you should focus here is that please don’t spam the inbox of your clients. If you do this then there is a high probability that you would lose a precious client as he/she may unsubscribe.

Abide by a perfect plan as far as the scheduling and content sharing is concerned. After all, you don’t want to annoy your valuable prospects like the one who just did to you, right?!

11. Newsletters

Once you have built up your email list you can send your audience email newsletters to promote your coaching business. These can help your audience to know about the recent blog post, exclusive offers, upcoming events, industry trends, etc.

Newsletters will keep your clients reminded about you so that they can turn to you if they have any coaching requirements. Not only it demonstrates that you are up to date and active but also it helps you to share your expertise.

12. Social Networking platforms

Social Media in Colorful Alphabets
Image taken from unsplash.com

There are 3.2 billion social media users (Emarsys, 2019). On average, 2 hrs

and 22 mins are spent on social networks (Global web index, 2018). 73% of marketers believe that social media marketing has been either “somewhat effective” or “very effective” for their business (Buffer 2019).

You can not neglect the immense power of social media for your efforts. Employ different methods such as posts, short video, infographics, etc. for reaching your target audience through social media.

What is more important here is to plan goals for your social media marketing strategy. You should be crystal-clear with your objectives.

Do you wish to increase your conversion rate by getting more traffic to your website? Do you want to expand your influence as a coach? Are you planning to get more leads? Or simply, do you wish to build valuable relationships with your audience?

After you figure out this, here are some ways that you must follow.

  • Be helpful: Always answer questions from your audience. Try to be very responsive and engage as much as possible to build strong relationships. This will help you to showcase your knowledge and skills and will also make people realize why you are the right coach for them.
  • Monitor conversations: Sometimes questions may not come directly to you but you will have to reach them. Monitor which popular hashtags and keywords your target audience is mostly using so that you can jump in the conversations and help them with your knowledge. Social media management tools like Agorapulse can assist you greatly to manage well.
  • Raise your profile to become an influencer: This can be done by sharing most-up-to-date content, remaining abreast with all the current trends, news, standards, tools, and technologies in your niche. Build connections with other coaches and remain as active as possible on social media.

13. Hold a coaching evening

This can be a wonderful way to have your clients, prospects and their friends all in one place. All you do is offer a meal or snack and talk on some coaching topic. Your guests get a chance to meet new people and get valuable live coaching with a wonderful coach…you!

You can also organize a free or low-cost workshop on coaching related topics relevant to your niche. Through this, you can develop your message, meet new prospects and attract new clients. In the end, you can encourage your clients to fill the evaluation/feedback form and get their name, address, phone no. email etc. filled there.

Seminar marketing is another great art that you should imbibe. Have a look at how top coaches get booked.

14. Podcasting

Another channel for prospects to find you. If you are new to podcasting you can either get featured on other people’s podcasting or start your own (latter being a bit difficult though).

Below are some actionable tips:

  • Utilize your network- Post on Social Media platforms to tell the world that you are looking for getting featured as a guest. You can also mention a few topics that you are interested in talking which will make it easy for the audience to understand what value you can bring to their audience.
  • Podcast swap: If you have your podcast then this can be a perfect way. If you don’t have it yet don’t be disheartened. Look for some other way to offer value mutual to the podcast host.
  • Start now: The sooner you start the faster you will have conversations rolling. There is a high probability that someone is looking for a guest to interview on the very topic that you want to share.

15. Video Marketing

CISCO has projected that 80% of all internet traffic will be video by 2021. Aberdeen also emphasizes that video marketers get 66% more qualified leads per year. If you are agonizing over the idea- How do I market my coaching business?- then videos are an efficient way to build up your brand especially on Facebook and Instagram. Make short 2-3 mins video and upload them on YouTube. Share the videos via social media.

There are many advantages of video marketing:

  • Engaging videos are easy to digest. Appealing content is especially very important to attract and keep clients.
  • The videos can be used multiple times for new customers. Reusing the same video saves a lot of time, money and effort that can be directed for other tasks.
  • Videos provide a better way to engage multiple senses of the audience through sound and visuals that help in leaving a long-lasting impact on the audience.

Remember to use keywords in the title and description of your YouTube video. Especially those which your audience is most probable to type for searching specific results.

16. Charge more

Well, we have talked enough on free stuff. Now there is an important technique that you have to learn which is commanding on premium prices. You may be thinking how can this relate to an effective marketing strategy right? It does, indeed.

What is your end goal with all your marketing endeavor? Getting more clients and expanding your coaching business, right? That’s what charging more helps you to achieve.

The strategy is to have fewer high-end paying clients, rendering exceptional value to them and increasing your sales along the way. Finding it difficult? Have a quick look at some tips around how to sell High-end coaching packages.

17. Marketing hourglass

Time is running out ⏳
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The marketing hourglass approach along with equal attention to building trust and rendering a remarkable experience will help you to create the much-needed momentum for your coaching business.

The hourglass provides a picture of how customers can be framed into different fragments as they move along the journey.

Let’s learn about the different phases of the hourglass.

  • Know- This is the awareness phase. All your articles, advertising, and even referrals need to start here.
  • Like- Once you have attracted the clients, here is when you give reasons to them to come back, relate and even like your methodology.
  • Trust- In this stage testimonials, client reviews and success stories matter a lot.
  • Try- Here you shower on them eBook, webinars, and very detailed information to make them realize your worth.
  • Buy- Here the focus is on keeping the expectation high, exceeding and even surprising the customer.
  • Repeat- Here you need to ensure that your customers loved to do business with you so that they can repeatedly opt your services.
  • Refer- Ultimately the marketing hourglass journey is about turning happy clients into referral clients.

18. The 5 step branding strategy

white number 5 illustration
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Answer these questions:

  • How are you different?

Basically what provides you with an edge over your competitors? What are your strengths and unique points?

  • What’s one thing that makes your business special?

For instance, you might be helping your clients to lose weight without a strict diet.

  • How are your values and beliefs different?

You need to compare yourself with your competitors in the same niche and check how your values and beliefs differ then theirs. For instance, you as a coach may believe that there can be a career without working 24/7 but your competitor may feel that a job is more than a career, it’s calling.

  • How is your audience different?

As a dating coach, you may either target introvert guys or people with broken relationships. You need to know that the market is completely different so the brands are very easy to distinguish with each other.

  • How is your product different?

You need to answer this question- how is your technique different? Do you make it easier to approach results? Is your method the fastest ways to get the result?

19. Get to a podium

Your profitability as a coach results because of your ability to speak in front of a group of clients, prospects and share your methodology. Basically, your eBook in seminar form. Your prospecting should have a central aim of getting in front of groups with a message.

Don’t leave any opportunity to address the audience. Avoid self-promoting, focus on sharing knowledge and this will itself attract business with ease.

20. An automated sales system

You can create a valuable incentive to entice people to subscribe to your email list and there are three great ways of doing this.

  • Email autoresponder series
  • Video series
  • Webinar

These offer you multiple points of contact. These multiple touches can help to convert the interested leads into salivating buyers. These are a great way to build trust with your audience.

With webinars(my favorite) you can shorten the trust-building window to as short as 1 hour. Additionally, all of them are simply automated. If packaged correctly your automated sales system can bring you very predictable income month after month.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the fastest way to get coaching clients?

The fastest way to get coaching clients is by becoming an expert at something, the more targeted it is the better. It could be a skill you learn or a certain group of people you serve. After that, start reaching out to people in the same situation as your potential clients. Try to reach out to them in a way that helps them rather than trying to promote yourself at that very moment. When you get them on the phone, try and turn the conversation around to your services and do so in a way that makes it feel like a conversation and not just a sales pitch.

How can I promote my coaching business?

Promoting your coaching business can be a very difficult task if you are a newbie in this industry. You can start by getting your coaching business listed in Google Maps, Google+ Pages and other directories. You can also start by generating a buzz about your business on social media websites. You can start by writing about your coaching business on Quora, which has a high traffic.

Where can I market my coaching services?

One of the best places online to market your services as a coach is Quora. Quora is a place where you can find customers that are actively looking for solutions to their problems. Quora is a good place to start to be very specific about your offering, and to determine who you might want to serve and how. Another great place to market your services as a coach is Facebook. Creating a Facebook page allows people to connect with you and allows you to engage in regular conversations with your potential customers, which is a great way to start building a relationship, and to get them comfortable with you and your services.

How do I sell myself as a coach?

First, you should do a job self-appraisal. Be honest in listing your strengths and weaknesses. This will give you an idea of what areas you can focus on when selling yourself. Next, you should write a list of things you have done to help others. If you have help anyone at any time, chances are you have something valuable to offer. Do be wary of sounding cocky and arrogant, though. Mention what improvements your past coaching clients have made. This is a subtle way of showing your potential clients what they can gain from working with you. Lastly, be prepared to give a free consultation to anyone who asks. People will respect you for it. They might even try your services.

How do coaches find their first client?

One can either look for the referrals from your friends and family, or you can start a blog that provides tips and tricks about online business. You can share a few articles with your friends and get them to link to your blog. Once you start getting traffic from your blog, you can then start providing copywriting services. Then, your clients will refer you to others and it’s a win-win situation.

How do I find coaching clients on social media?

To get coaching clients you need to get noticed by them. Social media is a natural habitat of this kind of people – self-starters, early adopters, ambitious, independent and strong-willed. If you make anything awesome, you will be noticed by them. Authors, artists and coaches are the most successful in social media, because they make awesome content. But there are other ways to attract clients. Create a great blog on a topic you know your clients are interested in. You can write about social media and marketing, or about careers, or about your industry. You can create a great YouTube video or a podcast.

How do you attract clients on social media?

You can attract clients on social media by engaging with them. You could also give out value through your posts. Don’t spam or send too many messages to the same people. This can irritate your prospects, and you may lose credibility. You need to create a consistent schedule to attract clients, and you should add value to the posts you publish.

 
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