In the first 3 articles in this series, we revealed the 3 biggest mistakes that most life coaches make, and how to avoid them! (See links to other articles in this series at the bottom of this page.) In this article we focus on marketing for life coaches that actually works!

As a quick recap, the secret to success as a life coach is focusing on a specific NICHE and offer a coaching PACKAGE that is designed to get your ideal clients the specific results they’re willing to pay for. Doing this is what allows you to stop wasting your money on ineffective marketing strategies that target too broadly, target the wrong market, or don’t communicate the benefits in a way that attracts the right clients.

Most coaches don’t get to this point – with a marketable coaching product – but getting there is at least half the battle! Then, after you’ve created your coaching program, you know how to target your niche (because you understand them), and you know how to communicate what you have to offer (your magnet message, aka elevator pitch), THEN it’s time to put yourself out into the world through, gulp, MARKETING!

You might be thinking, “YUCK! I hate marketing, I suck at it, and it’s hard! And it’s expensive!” Want to prove that marketing doesn’t have to be expensive (or cost anything!) and you don’t need complicated marketing strategies either.

With so many options for marketing, including websites, SEO, social media, paid advertising, lead magnets, email campaigns, coach directories, and other forms of advertising, it can be overwhelming. Not to mention coaching gurus all have their own opinion on what the “secret sauce” is that you need in order to grow your coaching business.

But, the good news is that you already know the 3 secrets to attracting your ideal clients that are needed for any marketing strategy to be effective (and if not, check out the first 3 articles). And the better news is that instead of trying to figure out the labyrinth of marketing options available today, you can focus on the 3 marketing strategies that are NOT on this list that have been proven over and over again to be what works for life coaches more than anything else.

There are 3 proven methods of marketing for life coaches that work above all other methods: joint ventures, speaking in front of your target audience, and offering free introductory sessions. Let’s explore how these 3 strategies work together to get you pre-qualified clients who totally get you and want the results you are offering.

1) JOINT VENTURES: First, as a coach, the most effective method of gaining access to your target market is through collaboration… using other people’s audiences, a.k.a. joint ventures.

Think about this. There are people and organizations out there that already have an audience that is dying for your solution.  Just waiting for you. All you have to do is figure out who already works with your tribe. It’s so simple.

Here’s how it works:

• You know who your tribe is
• You know where they do business
• You create a partnership with those businesses
• The best part is that this works offline and online

For example: Let’s say you want to coach people how to overcome a divorce

Where do you think those people might be?

Examples of where to find them: Women’s resource center, divorce forums, divorce lawyers

For example: If you are a health coach who specializes in helping people create healthy diets

Where do you think those people might be?

Example: a more direct connect would be by partnering with personal trainers

One reason joint ventures are so powerful is because they are FREE. The other major benefit is it is a shortcut—you get immediate, direct access to a large number of your ideal potential clients.

2) SPEAKING: Second, the most effective form of joint venture EVER is to have the opportunity to speak in front of an audience of your ideal potential clients.

The truth is, this can be someone else’s audience (a joint venture) or you can host your own workshop. You could even collaborate through a multi-speaker event, like an online webinar or summit. However you do it, you want to get in front of groups of people who are part of your tribe, speak in a way that helps them get to know you, and let them know how you can help them. This method is so effective that some people even PAY to speak on a stage when the audience is the right fit!

So, here’s how it works.

By offering an introductory program through workshops or speaking gigs, you have the opportunity to provide value for the audience, get them results, and then offer them services that help them take it further.

But, here is the best part… if you’re like most life coaches, you HATE selling. It feels awkward and inauthentic. The good news about speaking is that you can do it WITHOUT feeling or sounding “salesy”!

The secret is a little trick called “seeding” and here is how it works…

• Pick one piece of your larger coaching program that gets people rapid results—this till be the focus of your presentation or workshop.
• Show the audience how this one step fits into the big picture (the 3 to 5 steps) of your full process. (This is part of the seeding process… it puts into their mind that there is a comprehensive program or process that they need in order to achieve their desired outcome.)
• Tell them, “due to time limitations, I can’t cover everything in detail today, but we are going to deep dive into today. For those of you who want to know more, I promise to let you know how to take this further at the end.” (This is the other part of the seeding… it subtly lets them know that you will be talking about your coaching program them at them at the end.
• During the presentation, dive DEEP into that one topic—give them EVERYTHING! Doing this provides real value and develops trust.
• At the end, tell them “as promised, I’m going to tell you a little about how I can help you . Do a quick recap of the big picture, explain how your program walks them through these steps, and tell them how they can sign up.

Because the audience a) wants the results you can offer because you’ve chosen the right audience b) got tremendous value from the presentation and c) sees how you can help them reach their goal, they’ll naturally WANT to know more about your program.

3) FREE SESSIONS: Then, what do you do with these people you attract through a joint ventures and speaking? This is where the 3rd marketing strategy for coaches comes in: free sessions!

That’s right, the best way to convert an interested potential client into a paid client is to give them an opportunity to get to know you and see what coaching can do for them by offering them a free or highly discounted introductory session. This free session is also important for you because it gives you an opportunity to see if this person is a good client for you.

But, it’s important to know there is a right way and a wrong way to offer free sessions.

• First, you need to structure your session around clearly-defined outcomes so that your potential client receives real value and experiences what you can offer them through coaching.
• Second, you want to avoid doing what many coaches do, which is to finish a great coaching session and fail to make an offer. It can be awkward, so it’s important to have a pre-planned strategy for making a compelling offer so you don’t leave it to chance. And, this is another reason you need to have a well-structured coaching program to offer and know how to describe the outcomes.
• Lastly, you need to set a fee that reflects the value you offer and not devalue yourself by negotiating down your fee, even if the client claims they cannot afford you. Charging what you’re worth builds your confidence in your offer and increases your client’s level of commitment to following through.

So, we know all of this can be overwhelming and you might feel like it’s an information overload! We totally get it. It was really hard for us to squish this much of our best content into this short article series!

So, I bet you know what’s coming next… OF COURSE, we have a program that gives you a step-by-step process that walks you through ALL of the secrets to building a thriving coaching business, and all 3 marketing strategies, in much greater detail than we covered in this series.

The good news is that while many other coach training programs charge THOUSANDS or HUNDREDS to share these secrets, we believe in making what works available to ALL coaches, no matter what stage they’re at or where they live in the world. This is why we keep our prices accessible!

Are you ready to AVOID these mistakes, GET CLIENTS, and create a thriving life coaching business?

Join our Life Coaching Business Masterclass!

Our Life Coaching Business Masterclass includes 6+ courses that address everything you’ve learned in this series!

1. Find Your Profitable Purpose-Driven Niche
2. Create Your Signature Coaching Package
3. Write Epic Marketing and Sales Copy
4. Joint Venture Partnerships
5. Get Life Coaching Clients with Workshops
6. Free Coaching Sessions that Convert to Paying Clients
7. BONUS: Marketing and Growth Plan

By enrolling in the bundle of courses, you already save 33% over purchasing them individually. But, as a thank you for making it through this series, you can:

Save an additional 50%!

Use coupon code: 3mistakes

The 3 Biggest Mistakes Life Coaches Make

4-Part Article Series

Click below to view additional blogs in the series. SCROLL RIGHT >>>