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Coaches: How to Market yourself in the next decade

Guest post by: Juliette Robertson

Article Overview: In 2009 despite the Global Financial Crisis, some coaches made six figure incomes while others struggled to pay the bills. Juliette Robertson explains what makes the difference and what you can do to successfully market and grow your coaching business.

Coaches: How to Market yourself in the next decade

In 2009, despite the Global Financial crisis, some Coaches made 6 figure incomes while others struggled to pay the bills.

What makes one Life, Business or Executive Coach a financial success while another struggles?

Were the more successful ones better coaches? There are many excellent coaches who struggle despite their passion, qualifications and experience. So the answer is not found in the quality of coaching. We all have to deliver a high quality product to even qualify for this coaching game. That's a given.

The ideas I am about to share with you, I have learnt from professional coaches in the UK, USA and Canada who ARE earning up to $1million/pa. They are self employed coaches often parents working school hours from their home offices and living the work life balance success story many of us seek. With their guidance I have totally changed my coaching model and am on track to triple my income in 2010.

Generally speaking, the professional coaches who are making 6 figures (about 9% worldwide) tell us that the 8 things they do that are fundamentally different to their colleagues are:

• 1. They have created a very big vision for what they want to offer that fuels their passion and courage to embrace new opportunities 24/7.
• 2. They understand the importance of passive income to sustain business and have migrated from the traditional 1:1 coaching model to a One: Many model so they are no longer only exchanging time for money.
• 3. They have embraced the internet and new technology as primary tools for both finding and delivering their coaching solutions
• 4. They are consistently learning new business building skills
• 5. They focus on a very clear niche market that they understand
• 6. They sell solutions to problems, they don't sell coaching
• 7. They understand that marketing is a numbers game and they build very large databases of potential clients they can market to
• 8. They create a variety of solutions at various price points to suite different prospects' wallets and needs

Let's look at each one:

1. Create a Very Big Coaching Vision:

Really successful coaching entrepreneurs have such a clear vision of what they want to create that it fuels their dreams and gives them daily energy to take consistent action.

Their passion drives them to be creative, positive and open to new ideas and opportunities every day.

2. Develop a One: Many Coaching Model

The really big coaching entrepreneurs have changed their paradigm, realizing that 1:1 coaching limits income and influence - why? Because there are only so many hours in the day and only so many individual conversation you can fit in. Instead they have expanded their business model to include "1: Many" and see themselves as both Coach and Mentor, sometimes providing advice and offering knowledge products as well as providing Coaching both 1:1 and 1: Many.

3. Embraced the internet and new technology

• In 2009, 1.6 billion (1 in 5) used the internet to search for information.
• Australia has 14 million people on-line - that's 70% of our population.
• $156 Billion dollars was spent on the internet last year.
• In December 09 in Australia alone. 40,000 people used the words "Life Coaching" in their Google search terms. This does not include Business, Executive or Workplace coaching queries. .
• Have your web site fully optimized, drawing high traffic so that your coaching program can be considered by hundreds of niche clients.

4. Consistently learn new business building skills

Invest in your online business education and learn how to market your coaching business using new technologies. Highly successful coaches use e-commerce, pod casts, internet directories, online articles, discussion boards and forums, sms, tele-seminars and webinars, blogs, MP3 recordings, audio and video, tube and social media.

5. Choose a tightly targeted hungry coaching niche

A clear and unique coaching niche is essential. Choose one you can find easily online and via other directories so you can target your marketing. Use tools such as googleeasysearch.com to see the key words people search for. E.g.: Being a life coach is not a niche. Being a life coach for parents of young entertainers is a highly targeted niche. Now you can find and research them easily, discover their real needs and address them. Then you become an expert coach in your field.

6. Sell solutions to problems -don't sell coaching.

Your copy needs to show that you understand what prospects are looking for and you can help them find it. Most prospects don't know the difference between Coaching, Mentoring, Counseling and Training. They only know they have a problem and they want to find a solution. Coaching is the vehicle it is not the solution. Your headlines and marketing material need to show that you understand their problem, you understand their issues - then discuss coaching as the vehicle.

7. Build large databases of prospects

Successful coacheshave large databases of prospects and customers that they talk to often, research and sell to. Provide a compelling reason for your web visitors to give you their details when they visit your site. You have a few seconds to give your prospects something they want in return for their e-mail details. A 10% - 20% conversion of visitors to opt-ins is considered very good. Then you are building a database - people you can build a relationship with and market to. Then you are building your business. Aim for 1000 on-line prospects as soon as possible.

8. Create a variety of coaching solutions at various price points

Get creative. Deliver your coaching and mentoring expertise in a variety of ways at various price points. Here are just a few ideas to get your brain ticking over:

• Create an on-line coaching program for your niche that addresses their common needs.
• Write free articles to showcase your niche expertise and post to the large online directories such as ezinearticles.com, articlemarketer.com, dig.com, your own blog and selfgrowth.com.
• Offer a low cost e-book to get prospects on board
• Let customers prequalify themselves before they migrate to higher coaching products with an online questionnaire
• Follow up with live group coaching tele-seminars or webinars addressing their common issues
• Offer a regular e-zine packed with tips, ideas and testimonials
• Provide live or recorded interviews with subject matter experts who can help them with their common challenges.
• Start a membership-based coaching program, also known as a Coaching Club, which allows you to charge a monthly low cost fee yet work with a lot more clients and significantly grow your continuity income every month. You can run weekly or fortnightly group coaching calls to support members and brainstorm solutions. Record the calls and make them available in the member's area.
• Create different coaching levels for people to experience your value. Provide tools, such as questionnaires, checklists, templates, quizzes, articles, transcripts and case studies at the low end then upgrade to educational products such as CD's, e-courses and live group webinars. Then add your high touch one-on-one coaching .This will allow you to leverage your time better and become a highly valuable resource.
• Become more skilled at strategic alliances and joint ventures where you can both build new information products to help your clients and give you bigger data bases to market through.
• Recruit an army of people to endorse and sell your information products and vice versa by using Affiliate marketing programs
• Automate as much of your administration as you can via auto-responders so you have more time to do what you do best.
• Stop using coaching jargon and start using the language of your prospects.
• Create an online e-commerce shop on your web site to showcase your products and services.
• Be the captain of your business. Invest in a team of experts instead of trying to be the jack of all trades and getting mediocre result. A good copywriter, web master and a virtual assistant plus someone to look after traffic generation via Google ad words or SEO (search engine optimization) will be required.

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Article Tags: business coaches, coaching, global financial crisis, next decade, six figure incomes



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Re: How should i promote a new website? - ignore this message IF it's already been stated. I haven't had a chance to read all the replies and i have to jet from the office... I suggest marketing where ever your Target Market congregates. If it's a forum of concerned parents - go there. Strike up a deal with the forum owner (JV) and have him promote it to the list of members (Integration Marketing). If you want to go with Forums then i would partner with a parent who is a frequent poster/moderator on a particular Target Market Forum and have him/her add your link to their signature. That was just a thought but it's not as intense once you get buy in from the Forum owner or high ranked poster/moderator. Hope that sparks some new ideas.
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Re: Search Engine Optimization - John, I'm going to check it out. Sounds similar to the tool I've been using for nearly a decade, but I'll be interested in what wordtrackers doing for sure. Thanks.


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