Whether you’re just starting as an endurance coach, or you’ve been in the business awhile, finding ways to promote your coaching business should be a priority. In order to make your business successful, you’ll need to generate a consistent — if not a gradually increasing — flow of revenue. This will require careful planning and a lot of work, on your part. But, before that, you should know why you need to promote your business, in the first place.
In this blog post, we’ll not only help you understand why this is important; but, also, offer some insights on how to do this successfully. Let’s begin!
Why do you need to promote your coaching business?
If anything, promotion can help your business grow; and offer you the opportunity to establish yourself as an endurance coach in your market niche. With a solid promotion strategy — and, a wholesome marketing plan in place — you’ll be able to reach your ideal audience, and convert prospects into paying clients.
Having said that, why don’t we have a look at the actions you can take, as an endurance coach, to promote your coaching business online?
16 ways to help promote your coaching business
1. Define your ideal audience
Your ideal audience is a group of potential clients who are most likely to pay for what you offer. Therefore, they’re the people you should be targeting in your promotion campaigns.
2. Join social media groups
In today’s digital reality, having an online presence — particularly through social media groups — is a great way to promote your coaching business and attract new athletes. A thoughtful social media presence, along with a well-planned promotion strategy, can get you the results you want, in due time.
3. Attend conferences and networking events
Networking will play an essential part in increasing your brand’s visibility. Thankfully, networking opportunities are plenty. For instance, attending conferences, seminars and other similar events, where you can meet and connect with people, is a fun way to promote your coaching business.
4. Host webinars, meetups, and podcasts
Hosting webinars, meetups, and podcasts is a smart and relatively fast way to build online communities, attract clients and retain athletes. It may take some time to get started and learn the ropes; but, once you get the hang of it, you’ll discover that these three channels can work wonders for your business.
5. Offer free advice and discounts
Offering free tips and discounts can be a valuable promotional strategy, giving you a chance to connect with potential clients. At the same time, you’ll be offering them an opportunity to see what it’s like to train under your guidance. This way, you can cultivate a relationship with your leads and gain their trust.
6. Produce online courses to promote your coaching business
If you’re serious about promoting your coaching business, consider creating online courses. Due to their flexibility, online courses present an opportunity to reach a specific market segment; that is, athletes who want to train alone and, at their own pace.
7. Create a website and leverage blogging
Creating a website will be pivotal in your efforts to promote your coaching business. When in the process of building one, try to highlight what you do best, as a coach; while emphasizing any differentiation factors. If you have client testimonials, include them; along with coaching certifications and pricing information. What’s more, through your website, you’ll be able to leverage blogging and, eventually, establish yourself as a thought leader and a go-to expert in your niche.
8. Perform Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Performing search engine optimization (SEO) can have a positive impact on your website’s performance, in organic search results. Remember what we said earlier about leveraging blogging? If you apply a few basic SEO rules in your articles, with time, you’ll start seeing them appearing in the first search engine result pages (SERP). And, this can make a world of a difference in your business promotion activities.
9. Use digital advertising to promote your coaching business
Though it requires a budget, digital advertising — like PPC, social media ads, etc. — can help you promote your coaching business with immediate results. With digital marketing, you can:
- increase brand awareness,
- grab your leads’ attention, and
- move them further down your sales funnel.
10. Run email campaigns with a solid offering
Without a doubt, email marketing is one of the most effective solutions for promoting your business. Apart from an impressive ROI, email marketing will provide you with a direct channel to:
- run your campaigns with a solid offering,
- keep your audience engaged, and
- build a strong relationship with your current and prospective clients.
11. Try guest posting and guest podcasting
Guest posting and guest podcasting are very effective when it comes to promoting and growing a brand. Only, be careful to find professionals that have a similar philosophy as you, before establishing a collaboration with them. Also, keep in mind, the more readers and listeners they have that match your target audience description, the better.
12. Offer an affiliation service & form cross-industry partnerships
Why bother collaborating with professionals from other industries in the field of sports endurance? To put it simply, such a collaboration will help you, as partners and affiliates:
- assist each other in achieving a common goal,
- create value for the brands involved, by extension, for their users, too; and
- gain a competitive advantage.
In other words, forming cross-industry collaborations and utilizing the affiliate marketing dynamics, will offer you the chance to evolve and scale your business in more ways than one.
That said, if you’re looking for a promising online coaching platform to partner with, you can contact us at Endogusto, and talk about how we can make some online waves together! 💪
13. Publish your success stories to promote your coaching business
Simply put, don’t be afraid to share your unique success stories with your target audience, to promote your coaching business. Thankfully, you have your website, blog, and social media pages that can serve this purpose so well! Take advantage of them.
So, what have you achieved that you’re proud of in your athletic, and/or coaching career? Are you a former ultramarathoner? Have you faced an improbable challenge, as a coach, yet managed to overcome it — and, with a bang? Whatever your story, try to set yourself apart from the rest; and let your audience know why you’re the best coach for them.
14. Ask for referrals
Referrals are one of the most effective ways to utilize the power of Word-of-Mouth (WoM) and social proof; both of which are driving forces in marketing. But, for the referral mechanism to work, you have to be as generous as you can with your prospective — and current — clients. Offer discounts, and even offer some services for free (within your promotional strategy). You’ll be surprised to see what referrals can do for your business.
15. Get yourself on directory listings
Directory listing sites offer coaches a platform to showcase their products and services to athletes looking for a coach. With a simple online search, you’ll find many directories to choose from, and enlist your business. This way, you can:
- Share your skills with a broader audience — which is highly likely to be your target audience, too
- Promote your coaching business
- Acquire more leads
- Expand your customer base
- Market yourself in your area of expertise
16. Perform retargeting campaigns
Retargeting campaigns are a type of online advertising that target your website’s visitors after leaving your website without buying; or completing another action, like subscribing to your newsletter.
Put another way, retargeting campaigns show up as a reminder, during your prospective clients’ browsing, allowing you to show them your ads when they visit other websites. Essentially, if you want to give prospects an incentive to come back to your website — and, complete the desired action — retargeting is a good choice.
Promote your coaching business and stay ahead of your competition
When all is said and done, if you want to promote your coaching business, try to integrate everything we talked about here in consistent campaigns, targeted to your audience. That’s how your audience will get a clearer picture of what you can offer, and how you are better than your competitors.
TL;DR
In the vast endurance coaching industry, countless coaches are competing against each other, across numerous niches. In this ‘race’, several factors can contribute to your success; however, there’s one that can help you stay ahead of your competition: Creating and following a comprehensive plan to promote your coaching business.
While the steps we discussed in this article will take some time to master, by taking a hands-on approach and analyzing your results, you’ll start to see a steady inflow of clients.
Good luck!🍀