How to Get Coaching Clients: 6 Marketing Strategies to Try
The life coaching industry is booming, with new coaches joining the ranks daily and an ever-growing number of clients seeking guidance. As a result, more coaches than ever are wondering how to get coaching clients. We know they are out there! But how do we actually reach them?
In this guide, find some inspiration around how to get coaching clients via six proven marketing strategies and more.
How to Get Clients as a Life Coach
You're not alone in the quest to get more coaching clients. As the coaching industry market size has grown dramatically in recent years, so too has the potential for your coaching business to flourish. The challenge becomes distinguishing yourself and implementing effective marketing strategies, as opposed to getting buried among the pack as competition rises.
When it comes to proven marketing strategies for coaches, we’ve got you covered at CoachRanks. There are infinite ways to spend your time as you try to build the marketing arm of your small business. Read on to discover some of our favorite allocations of time for how to get coaching clients faster and easier.
How to Get Coaching Clients: 6 Marketing Strategies to Try
Here are six strategies to help you generate more coaching clients. We’ve hand-picked our favorite ideas based on first-hand experience. These strategies are both proven to be effective and able to be implemented quickly.
1. Optimize Your Coaching Website
In today's digital era, your coaching website is your business card, billboard, and first impression all wrapped into one. That’s why just having a website isn't enough; it needs to be a powerful client magnet and brand builder. When it comes to optimizing your coaching website, here are some key points to remember:
Design with purpose: A visually compelling website is like an inviting storefront. It pulls visitors in and helps convince them that your coaching business is credible and trustworthy.
Create a great User Experience (UX): A smooth, intuitive journey ensures visitors linger, explore, and, reach out. Make sure your site is well-considered and offers plenty of opportunities for clients to contact you about moving forward.
SEO is king: An SEO-friendly website is your ticket to appearing in more web searches and getting in front of potential clients who need your services.
Read more about SEO for coaches here.
2. Become a Social Media Thought Leader
If someone wants to take the next step and hire a coach, who comes to mind first? It will be a different answer for everyone. For many, that answer comes down to whoever they’ve most recently seen promoting their coaching business on their social feeds.
The power of becoming a thought leader on social media can largely be explained by something called the “Mere Exposure Effect.” The idea is simple: Humans have a bias for things that they’ve been exposed to and have familiarity with. By posting consistent, relevant content on the right social media platforms, you’ll stay top of mind for your target audience whenever they are in the market to hire a coach.
Read more about social media marketing for coaches here.
3. Offer Free Coaching to Get Started
Who doesn’t love free stuff? The idea is simple here: provide value, and they will come. Offering free coaching sessions for a limited period—say 1-2 months—can work wonders for getting some bites that may turn into paying clients.
Whether it's coaching your friends, colleagues, or connections from your LinkedIn network, this strategy is mutually beneficial. It allows you to help others while building a book of potential clients. The best part? It’s a completely low stakes way to ease into new coaching engagements. It’s also a great way to generate your first testimonials and referrals if you’re just starting out.
4. Ask for Testimonials & Referrals
The influence of personal recommendations cannot be overstated. When potential clients hear about the transformative experiences others have had under your guidance, it creates immediate trust.
With the permission of your clients, showcase your strongest success stories on your website and social media platforms. Social proof is one of the most effective marketing strategies for any coach looking to convince more prospects to take the next step.
Don’t be afraid to ask your most enthusiastic clients for quotes and testimonials. You might be pleasantly surprised just how willing your satisfied clients are to help you out. For a deep dive on this topic, don’t miss our expert guide on how to get life coach testimonials that sell themselves.
Additionally, think about how to maximize referrals from existing clients. Consider creating an established referral program in which your current clients can earn meaningful benefits by sending new business your way (i.e. a free month of coaching). Remember, every satisfied client is a potential brand ambassador, able and willing to spread the word about the greatness of your coaching.
5. Network in Your Coaching Niche
Successful marketing sometimes requires us to reframe our perspective. Consider this: Are you relying too heavily on your audience finding you as opposed to you finding your audience?
By thinking more about your end users and where they hang out, you can strategize some ways to connect with that audience. Let’s say you specialize in coaching startup founders. You’d probably be wise to attend startup events or mixers in your area, ensuring your name is known organically within that community. Don’t network with a blatant agenda to sell your coaching. Rather, go with the intention to connect with your audience, trusting that only good things will come from it.
Read more about in-demand life coaching niches here.
6. Stand for Something Newsworthy
Being unique in your offering can propel your coaching business into the limelight. As a result, press may be a viable marketing strategy for coaches aiming to get more clients.
If you’re clever enough with your positioning and branding, you may find that value-aligned press outlets are interested in your coaching work. Consider, for example, a coach who specializes in helping climate entrepreneurs build their businesses and secure venture funding. With such a specific and unique mission statement as a coach, climate-focused magazines, blogs, or writers may consider covering your work.
Take, for example, this feature article on coach Christy Rutherford in Yahoo Finance. During the pandemic, Christy specialized in helping 40 Black women advance their career earnings to the tune of $10M in salary raises. It’s an exceptional result which makes it newsworthy, and the feature almost certainly helped Christy generate new business.
Redefining “Marketing” for Life Coaches
All of the above ideas fall under the umbrella of “marketing” in some way. Even networking is a form of marketing. The way you talk about your coaching practice, the stories you tell, your 30-second elevator pitch…it's all marketing!
The coaching space is great for DIYers. As you consider all the various ways for how to get coaching clients, you should embrace the idea that you—a coach—are also a marketer. Once you make this mental shift, it becomes a bit easier to identify how nearly all of your decisions play a role in your ability to get more coaching clients. And while it may be tempting to search around for an “easier” solution, like a marketing agency for coaches, you’re likely to find that learning for yourself offers the most upside.
At CoachRanks, we encourage coaches to build our their “marketing ecosystems.” From your website, to your content, to your social media profiles—everything plays a key role in creating a compelling experience for potential coaching clients.
Finding New Clients: Speed vs. Longevity
When searching for ideas for how to get coaching clients fast, remember that every strategy comes with a distinct timeline for success. This raises the question: Do you value speed, longevity, or both?
For a quick influx of potential clients, offering free sessions to friends or colleagues is a great way to load up your funnel. It's also an excellent strategy for budding coaches to test the waters. However if you're aiming for longevity, certain strategies like SEO offer more value, despite taking more time to start bearing fruit (think at least 6 months).
For many coaches, patience pays off with the longer-play marketing strategies which ensure more consistent lead flow. While rapid strategies can offer immediate results (i.e. a few friends take you up on your free coaching offer), they rarely guarantee sustained success because they are not as easily scaled. In other words, your personal network can only get you so far. A winning formula is to use a mix of both short-term and longer-term strategies.
Start Building Your Marketing Playbook Now
Make a plan to pursue at least one of the strategies covered in this guide. Where do you shine the most? If you’re adept with social media, set a goal to start posting more. If you love chatting in-person, find some events where your desired coaching audience hangs out.
For more on how to get more coaching clients through proven marketing strategies, check out our other posts on the CoachRanks blog and don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter below.
