All of my clients are unique human beings who bring different skills and challenges to the table when we build every aspect of their coaching business.
As part of our work together we look at the best way for each coach to market.
It’s not a good idea to casually follow what other coaches are doing. If you market in a way that isn’t right for you, your audience and your business model then it will take longer to get traction. You will resist doing what you need to do because you may not naturally take to the approach.
Your target audience and niche are a big factor in the way you market. It won’t make sense for you to choose an audience where you’ll need to do a lot of live networking if you absolutely hate live networking.
Yes, everyone has to learn how to market, but not every coach has to market the same way. It’s best to focus in on a small set of marketing approaches that fit rather than getting overwhelmed with too many options.
How are you marketing your coaching business? Is it right for you? And if not, what would be right for you?
The Root Problem of Marketing for Coaches
Coaches are probably one of the most marketed to groups in the world. As soon as you declare yourself to be a coach, you have a target on you for all the different subject matter experts and mentors who love to serve coaches. Most will market in an ethical way, some won’t. You can feel the difference.
I have 25-years of experience mentoring other coaches to launch their business and I still get constant unwanted emails and LinkedIn requests inviting me to buy a program to learn some tactic that will supposedly earn me hundreds of clients every month. Not that I ever wanted that!
I am ruthless about saying ‘NO’ and getting off mailing lists. In fact, I don’t subscribe on mailing lists unless I have a great feeling for that expert. I don’t buy anything unless I’m sure in my heart and mind that the mentor is right for me and has a tactic that fits me, my audience and my business model. Consider adopting that boundary too.
I know how it goes for new coaches. Every offer seems like it might be THE solution. You think “Oh, maybe THIS is how I’ll get more clients!” So out comes the credit card and you have yet another training program teaching you how to do something that you’ll probably never be able to implement on your own.
Many of my clients admit to having several paid for self-study programs when they hire me. Most just sit there because after a few modules they feel there isn’t enough help and give up. Sound familiar? It’s why I don’t sell self-study programs. I want my clients to succeed so I give them tons of personalized support all the way.
This is really important to take in … every coaching business mentor has a different approach to business that they want to teach you.
If you try to cobble together what you hear from more than one mentor,
you are mixing tactics and strategies
that might not fit your business model and other decisions.
They won’t know you or the details about what you are doing. They just want to sell their intel. You can waste a lot of time and money this way and feel so confused — even angry that what you learned doesn’t work for you.
The best thing to do is go deep with one business mentor.
To find that person, get free stuff from each potential mentor, then use your intuition to understand if this is someone you like and trust, then disconnect and unsubscribe from ALL the others!
I mean it. If my podcast doesn’t land for you, if you don’t feel seen, heard and understood by me … if you don’t trust what I’m teaching, then I’m clearly not your mentor. I always want you to do what is right for you.
And by the way, with your own network of prospects, you want them to relate and trust you before they hire you, or it won’t work out for both of you.
4 Factors to Help You Decide the Best Way to Market Your Coaching Business
So back to the best way for you … how can you know? Factor in these things before you choose a marketing approach:
- Your personality, skills and lifestyle preferences.
- Your chosen target audience and what approaches will attract them. Go where they are.
- Your business model, which includes what you are selling and how you are pricing.
- How credible you are to your audience.
One of my clients, Christina, — a coach for service solopreneurs — loves to go to meetings, meet new people and have conversations. She’s an ace at networking and building centers of influence for referrals.
More power to her! I hate live networking. If you are enjoy this too and it fits your audience — which would primarily be small business owners because they go to public meetings — this approach might be for you.
My client, Sofia, a wellbeing specialist for women leaders, gets tons of traction on LinkedIn. She has a significant following there and attracts new clients by being real and connective. She’s also launching a podcast to leverage her subject matter expertise and expand her network. As a busy mom who needs to limit her hours at work, this combination is a good fit.
Another client, Sharon, has deep corporate experience in IT sales. She is well known in corporate circles and easily attracts paid speaking opportunities, which she thoroughly enjoys. She will develop keynote talks that mirror the overarching topics of her main offer to attract 1:1 clients.
If you can speak with competence about a set of topics for your target audience, speaking might be a fit for you. But it does depend on what you are selling and to what audience.
Nurture Your Prospective Coaching Clients
All of these coaches are my VIP clients and use The Simplest Coaching Business Model (Episode 5) I teach — offering a long-term high-ticket Signature Program and a single session instead of a variety of different lengths of coaching packages. Each has a way to nurture their audience and attract international clients, adding in LinkedIn and/or Instagram to cross market.
It’s critical to nurture your audience. A weekly podcast, videos, articles plus daily social posts – or any other content strategy that gets you quickly and repetitively in front of your target audience — could help you build relationships of trust with your audience.
Why is that important? There is a significant difference in the quality of a client who finds you through something like a podcast and someone who simply calls or emails you because they heard of you somewhere.
The nurtured prospect knows, respects and trusts you. They already want what you offer and won’t object to your price.
A person who has NOT been nurtured is coming in cold. You will have to sell them into your program. And, because they don’t have connection with you, they may not be emotionally ready to work with you.
This is another of the many reasons to narrow your target audience to a more specific, unique group. You create automatic affinity with that focused group simply because you’ve focused on them.
Before you choose marketing approaches you need to have landed your audience and niche. Be sure your audience and niche is a good fit for you and that audience is accessible with marketing methos you are willing to use. If you need help with that first step, let’s have a Nail Your Niche Strategy Session.
Strategy makes every decision and action easier and more effective.