The 6 Best Strategies on How to Get Clients as a Coach

Marketing Nov 25, 2020

Setting up your own coaching business is no easy feat. Not only do you need to show your unique selling point (USP) and work out a powerful marketing strategy, you also need to get clients.

It's not just a simple tasking of finding anyone to become a client for you to coach, you want to get the right client who will benefit most from your particular services.

Here are our 6 tips on how to get new clients as a coach:

Why Are You Different? Define Your Niche

This may seem obvious, but defining what makes you different from all the other coaches in your field is imperative to get clients.

Without differentiating your services, clients will not pick you over other coaches.

You can define your niche by:

Making a list of your strengths as a health coach
Making a list of customer pain points (what clients identify as problems they need a solution to)
Making a list of solutions you can offer using your strengths to solve your clients' problems

For example:

If you are a health coach and one of your strengths is giving great motivational advice, and you have clients who struggle with sticking to a weight-loss regime, you could identify as the weight-loss coach who promotes "Never Quit Until You Lose" .

Defining Your Niche: A Case Study

Abel James is a self-appointed "health crusader" who has defined himself as The Fat-Burning Man.

With this identity, James has become a successful entrepreneur who strives to expose "the truth behind deceptive marketing practices, misleading corporate propaganda, and powerful special interests", all of which has gained him attention and attracted clients to position himself as the go-to coach in his field.

Create Amazing Content for Free

Providing free, valuable content to potential clients is imperative for a coach.

Use your website, YouTube or podcast to deliver free and insightful information on topics of your expertise.

Creating meaningful content for your website will boost your Google ranking and online visibility
You can employ a content writer or manager so that you can achieve consistent content distribution
Use value-added media, such a videos, to boost engagement

The more you can offer, the more you will be recognised as a valuable resource, and in turn become a sought-after coach.

It would be an understatement to say that social media is an essential tool in finding coaching clients.

There are nearly 3.5 billion social media users around the world, meaning that this is the place you want to be to get clients.

Not sure where to start? Here are some pointers to help you choose:

There are over 2.7 billion users on Facebook. Get coaching clients by sharing valuable content and joining Facebook Groups to offer your expertise
Pinterest is an image-based platform which works like a search engine (like Google). Create a visually attractive account and share content from your website to attract clients
Instagram holds over 1-billion monthly users, and you can easily set up a business Instagram account. With this, you can access analytics and insights to boost your marketing strategy.

The key to utilising social media channels is to work out where your ideal clients will hang out and become active on just a few platforms to start with.

Write Email Newsletters and Increase Your Email List

Increasing your email subscribers and creating email newsletters are two of the most efficient ways to get and retain clients.

Using emails has a higher client conversion than other marketing channels, is 40 times more effective at attracting new coaching clients than social media, and email newsletters can help drive traffic towards your website.

You can create an email list by:

Gathering website visitors. Create call to action buttons on your landing pages to encourage email sign-ups
Offer discounts and freebies to visitors who sign up to your email newsletters
Personalise your emails based on customer preferences and demographics

You can also use client success stories to encourage sign-ups. Sharing transformation journeys and customer testimonials will attract more coaching clients by proving your success rate as a coach.

Organise Challenges and Contests to Attract Interest

An effective low-cost strategy to get clients is to organise challenges and contests.

Host challenges on your social media to boost engagement
Use your email newsletters to promote contests with attractive prizes
Offer exclusive places to anyone who subscribes to your social media channels or email list

Challenges and contests are an exciting way to drum up interest around your business and ultimately get new coaching clients.

For example:

If you are a lifestyle coach, you can use Instagram to host a challenge such as "Complete 7 Days of Meditation". This will inspire users to engage with your channel and enjoy a mindful way of boosting their wellbeing, positioning you as a respectable and motivating coach they will want more of.

Host Coaching Workshops

Organising, promoting and delivering a workshop or webinar will increase awareness of you as a coach and attract clients to your services.

You can promote and organise a workshop or webinar by:

Offering FREE places to email subscribers
Emphasise a limit on places to create a feeling of exclusivity
Promote your event on social media, in email newsletters and on posters

The idea of workshops or webinars is to demonstrate your expertise as a coach (don't forget to promote your niche!), so you want to pick a topic that will excite or inspire individuals to attend.

For example:

If you are a wellbeing coach, you can host an event about "How to Create a Balanced Between Your Work and Social Life".

Make sure you have business cards to hand out at the end of your workshop, or if you are hosting a webinar, ensure to leave time for a Q&A session at the end. Personal interactions with attendees will help you secure new coaching clients.

Keep on Attracting

Even when you have become a client magnet, you want to nurture the customer base you already have. Don't neglect your existing coaching clients, otherwise you will have to work harder to generate income.

Follow our 6 best strategies to get clients and your coaching business will thrive!

Credits - Charlotte Osborn