Are you a coach just starting out or looking for more clients? Maybe you’ve been in the coaching business for a while, and things have slowed… Whatever the reason, if you’re reading this, it’s probably because you need new marketing strategies to generate more leads, sell more coaching packages, and get more sign-ups.
The first thing you want to do is define your audience.
We recommend defining a niche for your coaching business and being as specific as possible. Coaches with a proven track record in their area of expertise have an easier time scaling up – you can focus on building a targeted strategy and use marketing technology to help more clients succeed.
The second is to set your marketing goals.
To help create a marketing plan that will work for you, decide who your audience is and what your initial goals are.
For example, suppose you want to grow your social media presence to 10,000 followers. In that case, you’ll want to focus on developing your social media profiles and engaging with potential clients on the sites they’re most active.
For those wondering how to market a coaching business, we offer 20 tips on marketing your niche coaching business to help generate new leads.
1. Create an Unforgettable Brand
Your brand is what makes you unique. Many confuse brands with logos and slogans, but a brand is more than an image. Your brand is the overall impression you leave on people. It’s how they recognize and perceive your business.
Branding is a powerful tool in the development of your coaching business. It can increase your name recognition and differentiate you from your competitors.
Authentic Sharing Technology (AST)
No matter what niche you operate in, RapidFunnel can help you connect more deeply and authentically with your clients using our Authentic Sharing Technology (AST).
An effective brand communicates your value proposition, helps you clarify your market niche, and demonstrates your expertise to potential clients.
When creating your brand, think about how you want prospects to perceive you. If you’re a business coach, you want people to see you as capable, confident, and successful. If you’re a life coach, you probably want to be seen as empathetic, understanding, and perceptive.
Questions to ask yourself when deciding on your brand:
- How are you different from the other coaches in your field?
- What is ONE thing that makes your business really special?
- How are your values and beliefs unique?
- Who is your targeted audience?
- How is your coaching service different from others?
Whatever area of expertise you focus on in your coaching business, ensure your brand accurately reflects your values and creates an authentic picture of who you are and what you have to offer.
2. Build an Effective Website Using SEO
Once you’ve figured out your coaching niche and developed a brand that resonates with people, you’ll need a website where clients can find you. Your website also serves as a hub for all of your free content.
Anything you share via newsletters or on social media, you can link back to your website.
You don’t have to spend a lot for a fancy website, though we recommend getting a domain name that’s easy to remember.
Once you’ve purchased a domain, the next step is to find a host for your website and build it.
Many companies make it possible for anyone to build a beautiful, professional coaching website in just a few hours — and most don’t require any coding or design knowledge.
To create your website, you need a few things:
- A domain name (such as mycoachingbusinessname.com)
- A domain registrar and host (such as Godaddy or Google Domains)
- A DIY website builder, like SquareSpace or Wix, or a professional web designer
- Digital content — the text, images, videos, and other media that visitors will see when they land on your site
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which refers to techniques that help your website rank higher in web searches. The higher your ranking, the more people will find you. The key is to make your site rank high in searches in your niche.
For example, if you’re a business coach who helps people start massage therapy businesses, you’ll want your site to rank high in searches for “how to start a massage therapy practice” or “do I need a coach to start my massage therapy business?”
3. Offer Free Content
Offering free content, such as helpful how-to guides, helps drive traffic to your website and can be easily shared on social media or in email newsletters.
We’ll get more into social media marketing below, but for now, think about the kinds of free content you can create and share that will drive people to your website and make them want to set up an initial coaching session with you or sign up for your coaching subscription.
You can also set up your website so that in order for people to download or view the content you’re giving away; they have to provide their email addresses. This helps build a mailing list to send updates, offer deals or specials, or simply follow up with anyone who’s a frequent visitor to your site.
4. Offer a Free Coaching Call
Giving potential clients a free 15- or 30-minute block of your time for a discovery call shows them what they’ll get by working with you.
Simply sign up for a Calendly account and add your link to your website, emails, and social media profiles. People can see when you’re available and sign up for a session. You’ll want to have Zoom or some other meeting tool to host the online session, but it’s a great way to offer value to potential clients and give them an idea of what you have to offer.
At the end of the session, simply ask, “How did you like this call?” and if they loved it, ask them if they’d like to continue working with you.
5. Create (and Reuse!) Engaging Content for Your Blog
Many DIY web builders include tools for creating blog or news posts. A blog is a great way to offer evergreen coaching tips and how-to guides. This helps increase your SEO rankings, and it’s content you can reuse again and again!
6. Guest Post on Other Coaches’ Blogs
If you’re just getting started with remote coaching, you may not have a lot of traffic to your website… yet. A way to generate interest and possible leads is to be a guest blogger for more established coaches. If you have a favorite blog you love to read, ask if you can write a guest post.
Try to find coaches whose services complement yours and aren’t in direct competition.
7. Attend Networking Events
In any business, it’s helpful to attend networking events. You get to meet others in your field, learn more about your business, and network!
It’s a chance to learn from established coaches, help refine and define your niche (if needed), see who your competitors are, and meet coaches who complement your service.
You might even meet someone happy to help spread the word about your business.
8. Present at Networking Events
Find networking events that potential clients might attend, and offer to do a presentation on your specialty.
If you’re a business coach, events would be your local chamber of commerce, a trade show, or a seminar. If you have a specialty niche, find events where your expertise would be most relevant.
If you’re more established, you can go bigger and look for larger, annual events that might be a good fit for your coaching business, such as expositions.
9. Speak at Online Summits
The most significant benefit of speaking at an online summit means you can reach a wider audience. This can lead to gaining new clients and more speaking and presenting opportunities.
The more specialized your area of expertise, the more interested hosts of online summits will be in having you present in your specialized niche.
10. Be a Guest on a Podcast
Podcast hosts are always looking for unique and interesting guests for their shows. Being a guest is a great way to speak to a broader audience and expand to those you might not have reached with a blog or social media post.
The more specialized your niche, the more your expertise will likely be sought out by event producers, podcast hosts, and potential clients. Keep an open mind and always look for new places where potential clients may gather.
11. Spread the Word Through Friends and Family
This may seem counterintuitive, especially if you don’t want to appear salesy to your friends and family. But a simple, “I’ve started a new coaching business that helps people with [your niche]. If you know anyone who would be interested, please let them know. They can find me at [your website]. I’m happy to offer a short discovery call, which they can book a time for on my website. Thank you!”
Most friends and family will happily share your business with people looking for your specific service.
12. Ask Clients for Referrals and Testimonials
Once you’ve garnered enough satisfied clients, mention that you’d appreciate a testimonial for your website or if they know anyone that might be interested in the business niche you’re coaching in.
A written testimonial is excellent, but if they’re willing to take the time to record a short video about your services and how you helped them, that would be even better.
You can create the recording on Zoom by asking them a few questions, such as:
- “How has your life changed since you started working with me?”
- “What were you stuck on before my coaching helped you move through it?”
- “Why would you recommend that people work with me?”
It helps to send them the questions before, so they have time to think about and prepare their answers.
13. Utilize Facebook Groups
Now that we’ve covered the basics, we’ll get into various types of social media marketing and how to use different platforms to your advantage.
Facebook groups are a fantastic way to engage with people who need your services. The key word here is “engage.” You want to use Facebook the same way your prospects do.
Facebook groups are where people go to ask questions and share tips and ideas in your niche specialty. Most groups have rules around selling or marketing services to members, so before you start posting, make sure you understand the rules.
That said, you don’t necessarily need to hard sell to create interest in your products or services. You can use attraction marketing to demonstrate your value and encourage prospects to come to you first.
Then engage with people by answering questions, offering tips, or simply seeing what they have to say.You might discover pain points or information gaps in your business niche you can address in a blog post and share.
You don’t need to tell people you’re a coach. Just include the type of coaching services you offer in your public profile. As you talk with and help people, they might just look you up and see that you’re the perfect coach for them!
14. Create a Facebook Group
Growing your own Facebook group takes time and patience, but can lead to a huge payoff.
Create a group with a clear name that catches people’s attention and is related to your area of business expertise. If you’re regularly writing blog posts, you can share links to them. You should also list your website and any social media accounts in the group’s description and in your responses to people’s questions when appropriate.
15. The Key to Twitter and Instagram: Hashtags
If you’re used to posting on Facebook – Twitter and Instagram might seem challenging at first. Twitter has a character limit, and Instagram is photo and video based. But by engaging with people naturally, who are interested in your niche, you can grow a following and direct people to your website.
Instagram is perfect if you have a lot of visual content to share, and Twitter is great for sharing funny memes, creating polls, or asking questions related to your coaching business. However, getting creative with hashtags is the key to using both successfully. Twitter and Instagram users find content they’re interested in by searching hashtags.
16. Market to Professionals with LinkedIn
LinkedIn is social media for professionals. It’s also a great way to network with potential clients through groups.
You can also use LinkedIn to inform your network about your coaching services, share your blog posts, and grow your professional network.
You can optimize your LinkedIn page with your skills, achievements, posts containing useful information, and keywords. And using rich media (images) has resulted in six times more engagement!
Remember, at the end of the day, being sincere is just as vital as your experience. You want to relate to people.
17. Explore Pinterest (Psst, it’s Really a Search Engine!)
You may think of Pinterest as a way to save recipes and come up with DIY home decorating tips, and you wouldn’t be wrong…
But Pinterest is also a search engine where people go to find help on several topics. You don’t have to create a lot of content there, either. You can create simple graphics for your blog headlines and link to your website. It’s also an excellent way to grow an audience quickly without having to produce a lot of new content or spend time maintaining a group or profile.
18. Self-Publish (and Sell) Content
If you’re an expert in your field, writing a book is one way to gain credibility. But you don’t have to become an author to publish your own content to sell or give away.
You can create how-to guides that offer simple tips and tricks for accomplishing one goal or write an entire book that you self-publish and sell on your site as an ebook. How-to guides are extremely popular, and you can offer them as a free download on your site in exchange for someone’s email address, or sell them for a few dollars, creating a passive income stream.
19. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is where you promote someone else’s service or business and earn a commission on any sales you help generate. Getting your business out to a larger audience at the same time is an added benefit.
Just make sure any affiliate arrangements you make are with companies whose values and mission align with your own.
20. Paid Advertising
Everything we’ve shared so far doesn’t cost anything other than the time you put into marketing yourself.
Generally, it’s better to start with paid advertising once you’ve established yourself in your field and have a solid offering and value proposition.
Once you do (and have a little money to spend on coaching advertising), you can advertise your business almost anywhere potential clients will see it.
Visit us at RapidFunnel to find out how we help niche coaches connect with clients and grow their businesses.
