Why Are You Struggling To Market Yourself As A Coach?

Why are you struggling to market yourself as a coach? One of my coaching clients kept asking me why is it so hard to market as a coach?

I really never thought about it as being hard till he asked me that question …

Then I noticed that lots of coaches attend masterminds to learn about marketing or work together with other coaches to implement and learn about marketing. I even noticed that I was struggling with marketing as well when it came to coaching.

I didn’t know why this was the case. I mean I have marketed business directory websites, cleaning business websites and IT services even my own web design services. Why were I and many others struggling with marketing our coaching services?

It took me two years to nail this down and figure it out. When I market my web design it is simple … What do I do? “I build amazing websites for small businesses and coaches to attract their ideal clients” It is so simple and clear what you are getting. You know exactly what you are paying for and what will be delivered.

When it comes to coaching you might hear or read things like these

“I help women feel confident and sexy again” or “I help individuals live a fulfilling life”

What does that mean? If I was a woman. I can go out get a new dress, have a girls’ night out, have a chat with a friend while getting my hair and nails done and I will feel confident and sexy … I am not going to pay money for that.

And live a fulfilling life? what? My life is going good thank you very much …

These statements are not clear in meaning or in what they deliver. They are too general and abstract. Potential clients are not going to pay money for this but there is an exception which I will tell you later …

Potential clients will pay for a specific problem or issue to be solved that is why it is so easy with web design or any other marketing where the outcome is very clear. You know what you are paying money for and you know what the outcome will be.

I have been posting my thoughts on social media for two years now. People like what I have to say even though I don’t always get comments however when I stop posting for a while I will get messages saying where are your posts or where are your videos? Please do them again they help me a lot and I miss them.

These same people who get benefit from the posts will not pay for my services. You might ask why? Well because what I am saying is general and does not solve a specific problem that they have in their life.

For you to be successful in your coaching marketing you first need to be specific on exactly what you do. It needs to be clear. You might have heard the saying “the riches are in the niches” This is because when you have a specific niche your potential clients know exactly what they are getting. For example, if I was a dating coach for men I could say “I help single men find the partner of their dreams so they are no longer alone” It is very clear what I do. This is a problem for a single guy who is not good with women. Men will pay money to get this issue handled.

I am a communication expert. I know how to communicate with individuals to get a desired win-win outcome however, this is too general as well. Potential clients are not going to pay for this as it is not specific enough.

I have had some success being a communication coach however it was not exactly what I was looking for so I changed my niche. Now I am a knowledge Implementation coach “I help individuals apply the knowledge they acquired from their internet course to get results” This is still a general statement however you know exactly what you are going to get. You are going to get an experienced coach to help you implement the knowledge that you acquired to get results.

This came to me by pure chance. I did a lot of FREE coaching sessions when I first started with other coaches. I found something that was consistent. Lots of people didn’t complete the course because they got overwhelmed or they didn’t know how to apply what they learnt or they thought that once they do the course it will fix them or they needed to do another course or they needed to pay thousands of hard earnt dollars for a mastermind to learn how to implement what they have learnt.

My point is they never implemented the knowledge that they acquired and were still stuck buying one course after the next thinking that they are busy and productive. The truth is that knowledge is only potential power. It only becomes real power when it is organised and implemented.

That is where I come in providing 1:1 support, guidance and accountability to implement what has been learnt in your internet course with an experienced coach who cares about you without being overwhelmed at your own pace. This is super clear and there is a need for it.

When I shared that I wanted to change my niche with colleges and friends the first thing they said was “I need to hire you” and no one does this. Lots of people don’t know how to take concepts and knowledge to make a reality. This is a skill that I have from the days of being an implementation engineer. That was the moment when I knew I was on the right track.

The first things you need to do before marketing your coaching services is do what I did

1) Be very specific on your niche.
2) Be very specific on exactly what you deliver and the expected result.
3) Be sure there is a need for your service and people will pay money for it.

Once you are very clear and specific on those three then you can start marketing yourself. If you don’t follow those three steps then you will just get frustrated and not know why your marketing efforts are not working consistently or not at all.

The truth is that nobody wants to be coached. They just want the results or a solution to their problem. You are marketing the results of your coaching, not your coaching. If you are not clear yourself on the results of your coaching then what are you marketing and how are your potential clients going to be clear?

Now earlier I mentioned that there is an exception to this rule. The exception is if you are a brand name. For example, if Oprah said “I will help you be happy” or if Anthony Robbins says “I will help you live a fulfilled life”  People will jump because they are not buying happiness or a fulfilled life they are buying a brand this brand is called Oprah or Anthony Robbins.

In our instance, as in for you and me potential clients are buying results so you need to use direct response marketing which gets your ideal clients to take action to get the results from the solution you provide. Branding will not work for us until we have a name for ourselves.

I am interested in what your experience was. Let me know in the comments and if you need help with your own marketing strategy feel free to message me. Thanks for reading.