At some point, you might have wondered how to market yourself, as a coach, to attract new athletes and grow your business. Now, knowing how to market your coaching business requires a few different things that have nearly nothing to do with coaching, itself.
That goes to say, among other things:
- understanding your target audience well — and, what they look for in a coach
- grasping every opportunity to promote your business in the digital world
- building — and maintaining — momentum, and
- establishing a strong relationship with your clients.
But, let’s take things from the start — your target audience — to see what they need when searching for a coach.
What are your clients looking for?
If you think about it, athletes start looking for a coach because they need help; whether that’s overcoming some sort of challenge regarding their training or maximizing their performance. Whatever their need, you can use this knowledge to adjust both your coaching services, and marketing strategy; in order to serve your athletes and business in the best possible way.
Athletes are looking for someone to solve their training problem
So, yeah, athletes want a coach who can solve the problems they face. And, that makes perfect sense; wouldn’t you if you were an athlete? But, who is that coach in their mind? As it turns out, athletes usually look for a coach who has:
- A good reputation
- Experience
- A great brand
These three factors are the foundation upon which you can begin promoting yourself as a coach.
Segment your audience properly
Audience segmentation is dividing your target audience into smaller groups (segments) of people with similar characteristics, needs, values, etc. Segmentation is critical, because clients with different characteristics, needs, values, etc., will respond differently to your services.
When you segment your audience, you narrow it down to the segments that matter the most to your business. These segments can help you market yourself, as a coach, successfully, by reaching the right clients.
Create a sensation
What on earth do you mean by that? you may ask 😄. Creating a sensation, as in, getting people talking about your brand. That is to say, finding ways to become visible to them; not only that, but also interesting. And, how do you create a sensation? Read on, fellow coach!
Start the season on Social Media
You probably already know how important social media platforms are, when it comes to effectively building your brand and marketing yourself as a coach. More often than not, coaches find it easier to start honing their social media skills at the start of the season. Indeed, that’s when they can start off more dynamically. This especially comes in handy when building brand identity and awareness.
Be a great athlete; You’ll be trusted as a coach
Being a great athlete doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to be a great coach. Be that as it may, we live in a world where no one just buys a service or product. They buy a better version of themselves.
That’s why so many coaches, who have been great athletes, use their athletic achievements as a key selling point. They capitalize on the admiration athletes feel for their previous sporting skills and glory. And, that’s fine, it works! However, at the end of the day, athletes care more about how you can improve their performance, not your scores and medals.
Be consistent, remain active and have fun with your audience
If you are to market yourself as a coach successfully, you’re going to have to be consistent with your marketing strategies and tactics; and this also includes your social media channels. Think of it as a typical training season. You wouldn’t want your athletes to be inconsistent with their program or skip entire training sessions, would you? It’s the same here, as well. Once you decide to embark on this journey, be consistent about it, remain active; and, by all means, have fun with your audience 😉.
Build racing results and use Word of Mouth (WoM)
Although it requires patience, using the Word of Mouth tactic and your athletes’ racing results will certainly help you market yourself as a coach. The idea here is: Let the data and your athletes speak on your behalf.
Establish yourself as a go-to expert
Establishing yourself as a go-to expert can make a world of a difference in your efforts to market yourself as a coach. Just like WoM, this doesn’t happen overnight, obviously, but it does pay off — when done correctly.
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Marketing in the digital world
Brace yourself, dear coach, we’re about to get a bit more technical. Are you ready to see how you can market yourself, as a coach, in the digital world? Let’s get to it!
Use social media for personal or industry content; Leverage your experiences
Social media channels allow you to reach your target audience more efficiently. Therefore, it’s important to start utilizing them, if you want to market yourself as a coach. And if you worry that you won’t have anything interesting to post, thankfully, social media never gets boring. You can find a variety of topics — whether personal or industry-related — and share your thoughts and experiences, as a coach.
Take part in online communities
You may have a very busy daily agenda, but you can dedicate a small part of your day to engage with people in online communities. It’s worth your time, because it will allow you to:
- become a part of an extended online conversation,
- engage your target audience,
- learn from other professionals,
- share your knowledge and show your expertise,
- inform people of your services, offers, events, collaborations, etc.
Take part in congresses and other events in your space
Similarly, taking part in congresses, and other events, is not only an opportunity to learn and expand your knowledge; but also to promote your brand and market yourself as a coach. What’s more, you can connect with many different professionals and prepare the ground for exciting future collaborations.
Leverage guest blogging
Guest blogging is just writing a blog post and publishing it on someone else’s website. There are many professionals and businesses that allow for guest posting on their websites. Why do you want to do this? Because it will:
- get your brand out there
- find your new leads,
- enable backlinking to your own website, and
- create a relationship with your readers — and potential clients.
Create your own podcast
Podcasting is an effective way to market yourself as a coach and make your brand known to your target audience. Why is podcasting so effective? Because it helps you prove your expertise, it allows you to help potential clients with their problems and, eventually, build trust. Not bad, huh?
Use your leads to run email marketing campaigns
Having one of the highest conversion rates, email marketing campaigns are clearly one of the best ways to reach your potential customers. The good news is that if you already have the email addresses of your leads in your hands, you can run your campaigns in almost no time.
Become a good story-teller
Storytelling will definitely help you market yourself as a coach, in the long haul. You know you’re becoming a good storyteller when you write pieces that lure — immerse, even — your readers into your world. That’s the power of good storytelling; it sets you up as an authority figure — someone athletes find inspiring.
Generate value in as many touch points as possible
Touch points are nothing but points of contact between you and your prospective clients that occur during the customer journey. These influential moments offer a unique opportunity to:
- generate value,
- increase brand awareness,
- improve customer experience, and
- market yourself as a coach.
However, touch points are all about acting at the right timing; thus, you need to be proactive and map out these moments, before pitching your services to your leads.
Differentiate yourself from your competitors
Have you ever asked yourself how are you different from your competitors? If not, now is the time, because you can’t possibly market yourself as a coach, without knowing what makes your brand special. Think about this well and, once you find the X factor, use it as your lodestar.
Talk to your audience
Offering free calls for professional coaching advice can go a long way in marketing your coaching business. Why does this work? Simply put, during the conversation, you can show your value, as a coach, by offering your advice; and even solutions — as long as you link them with your services. And, just like that, within a 15-30-minute call, you get a new client on board ✌.
Sell your value, don’t give it away for free
It’s one thing offering professional coaching advice to attract new athletes, and another giving it all away for free. You have to distinguish between the two. Although giving away your value for free can attract short-term attention to your brand, in the long run, it will harm your business. You can’t market yourself as a coach if you don’t sell your services in the end, remember that.
Research your price point, first
Yet, to sell your services, you need to set up the right price for them, first. That’s how you can get maximum revenue from them. Of course, setting the right price requires market research. Through this research, you can find the optimal price point that will allow you to attract new clients and grow your business.
Use a Tripwire approach
What is a tripwire approach 🤔? It’s selling your services at a low cost, in the beginning, as a way to convince your target audience to buy them. To elaborate, tripwire marketing removes the friction in deciding to buy your service; while giving you a chance to upsell later — when your business is on more solid ground.
Ask for referrals when you offer discounts, if possible
Referrals are an efficient way to market yourself as a coach, without spending much. If you choose to follow this approach — which is good that you do — it’s better to build value first, and then ask for a referral. If you ask them right away, it might seem awkward. You can, for instance, offer a discount, as an incentive. This will give them a good reason to recommend you to other athletes.
Design an appealing training program; “Personalized” could be the way to go
At the end of the day, what matters most to your clients is how you can help them maximize their performance, right? And, how can you do that? Yes, with a dynamic plan that is designed upon their needs and goals. Following their personalized program, your clients will get the most out of their training and, eventually, manage to reach their athletic potential. Now that’s customer retention for you!
Show up and help
You chose one of the ‘helping’ professions. As such, coaching is a tough job — OK, it’s more of a vocation than a job 😉; still, you get the point. Hence, coaching is all about making a difference in an athlete’s life. It’s about transformation. And, you can only help them transform into the athlete they want to become, only if you show up, every single day, to offer your guidance and support.
TL;DR
Before you try to market yourself as a coach, you need to consider a few basic factors, first. For example, getting to know your clients, and their needs; then, building your brand, and exposing it to the digital reality — and everything in-between.
One last thing to keep in mind in this process, is to never lose touch with your innate coaching talent. Keep your coaching — and the genuine desire to help athletes — above everything else. Be there for your clients, help them overcome the challenges they find along their athletic path. Help them become a better version of themselves; and, share your passion of coaching with your clients, at all times!