At some point in your coaching business, there will be times when you feel stuck, new clients stop coming in, and you are not sure if you are doing everything right. But here’s the good news – you can learn how to grow your business, attract new clients, and gain momentum. Having momentum that builds on itself is a key to a long-term, sustainable business. Keep reading to learn more.
How much time should you spend on serving current clients vs. bringing in new clients?
This question is crucial for new coaches. You will want to ensure that you are serving your current client wholeheartedly, but it is also important to bring in new clients to keep your business going. We recommend you spend 80% of your time on marketing to attract new clients and 20% on taking care of the current clients. Here’s how you do it:
(1) Write down your ideal number of clients Vs. How many clients you currently have.
(2) Do a time check/audit, write down the hours you spend managing current clients Vs. Hours you spend marketing to potential new clients.
(3) Compare the hours. Do you need to spend more or less time managing current clients?
(4) Write down how you will make these changes.
The more clients you have, the less time you will spend on marketing. But even when you are at your max number of clients, you should still spend 20% of your time marketing to new clients. It is important to keep raising awareness, growing your prospect lists, and growing your business.
How To Attract New Clients
Now that you know how much time you should spend on serving current clients, bringing in new clients, and the changes you should make, let’s dive into momentum marketing.
Momentum marketing is doing marketing on different platforms that bring people to you. Having momentum that builds on itself is a key to a long-term, sustainable business. Here is a list of possible streams that helps attract new clients and continually build momentum in your marketing.
(1) Referrals
Referrals are a great way to get new clients because people tend to trust someone they know or like who has used your service. You may ask current clients for referrals. The best time to ask for a referral is when a coaching course or program comes to a close or after you’ve achieved a specified goal with a client. Most of the time, satisfied clients will be more than happy to refer you to someone they know.
(2) Testimonials
Testimonials are essential because they build trust and credibility with your ideal clients as they can see that others have achieved the results they’re looking for through your service. The best time to ask for a referral is when a coaching course or program comes to a close or after you’ve achieved a specified goal with a client. Use a template or script to help your customers on how to give a testimonial.
(3) Social Media
Studies have shown that internet users spend 2 hours and 27 minutes on social media per day on average. We encourage you to try out as many Social Media platforms as possible to see which platform you may attract your perfect person. You don’t have to do everything at the same time. Start with one or two platforms first. On social media, be focused and consistent on creating valuable content to showcase your expertise, engage with your audience and build trust with them.
(4) Paid Ads on Social Media
The purpose of paid ads is to help create awareness and visibility of your business that may boost traffic to your website. Be specific about your target audiences when creating paid ads. Below are a few ideas on how you may run your paid ads:
– Create campaigns/challenges that engage the audience. For example, if you are a fitness coach, you may consider doing a “7 Days Jumpstart Challenge To Build Your Dream Body”.
– Create an irresistible offer that most people couldn’t say no to—for example, free Ebooks, mini training/courses that cost under $5. This is a good way to increase business revenue. At the same time, it gives your ideal clients a chance to “try first” before they commit to your services for full price.
– Create short videos/reels to capture the audience’s attention.
When you are attracting new leads to your website or platform, this is also a good chance to build a community (e.g., a Facebook group) to serve and attract new clients.
(5) Email List
Studies have shown that 40% of people are more likely to purchase a product through email than through social media. Email communication is where you build the -“Know, Like, and Trust” factor. Below are a few ways that you could build up your email list-Create freebies in exchange for leads’ emails. The freebies could be an ebook, planner, or guide that brings value to your audience.
-Offer mini-courses/masterclass/discovery calls to your audiences. The experience allows your potential leads to imagine what it will be like should they work with you or purchase your full course in the future. It also helps build trust on a more personal level.
(6) Partnerships and Collaboration With Other Service Providers
Partnerships and collaborations are awesome. Not only will they help you increase marketing exposure, but you might also establish a source of referrals. Here’s how you can do it:
– Collaborate with a service provider/brand related to your business. For example, if you are a parenting coach, you might want to collaborate with parents and kids’ product brands (e.g., storybooks, toys, kids’ education platforms, etc.).You could do activities such as a parenting topic seminar, Facebook Live, podcast interviews, etc.
Think of it as a win-win situation for both you and your collaboration partners. Partnerships and collaborations allow more exposure, leads, and sales conversion for both of your businesses.
(7 )Your Weekly Show (Podcast, Instagram, Or Facebook Live)
Your weekly show (such as Podcast, Youtube, Instagram, or Facebook Live) is also a great place where you build the -“Know, Like, and Trust” factor. Create valuable content to showcase your expertise and serve your audience. Your weekly show is also a good chance for you to do partnerships and collaborations such as interviews or discussing a certain topic. It’s also a great way for you to interact and connect with audiences. For example – you may encourage your audiences to send in their questions (preferably related to your niche or daily life topic) so that you may answer them during your weekly show.
Pro tip: Share more in-depth content on Podcast/Youtube channels. An audience who will purposely search for specific content via Podcast/Youtube is more likely to be interested in more in-depth or specific content.
(8) Great SEO On Your Website
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. The purpose of SEO is to make your website more visible. SEO helps drive organic traffic to your website and increases the chance of converting prospects to customers.
Great SEO involves a lot of different factors and doesn’t work the magic on its own. Some factors are relevant keyword research, high-quality website content, design (such as blog posts), Google search ranking, etc. While SEO might seem complex, it is one of the keys to building long-lasting results for website traffic. Therefore, take some time and learn about SEO; it will be worth it in the long run.
(9) Pinterest
Pinterest is definitely another great way to drive traffic to your website – for free. Usually, people who visit Pinterest are looking for inspiration and information. Here’s how you can create inspiring, informative Pinterest content:
-Create pins that direct to your website/resources. This is not only to attract more followers but also aims to reach non-followers who might be your ideal clients.
-Create pinnable images on your blog posts and pages that you want people to visit. This allows audiences to pin and share your resources on their board.
– Pin consistently (Preferably at least three times a day).
– Always use a few relevant keywords for your pins.
Use Data To Make Smart Decisions
Now that you have used different methods to attract new clients. It’s time to use data to make smart decisions. With data, you can analyze which marketing streams or content work best for you. Which streams don’t, and what changes need to be made. How do I get the data? You might ask. The answer lies in a monthly audit. As a business owner, you should do at least three types of monthly audits: Time Audit, Social Media Audit, and Website Audit.
(1) Time Audit
A time audit aims to determine if the tasks you time on support your goals. Write down the tasks that are supporting your goals and the ones that are not. Then make a plan to implement necessary adjustments on things that are not working and improvements on things that are working.
(2) Social Media Audit
A social media audit enables you to understand whether your social media strategy serves your business goals. The idea is to take a look at your account analytics and analyze which kind of content works best and which doesn’t.
Do more of what works best and less of what doesn’t. Below are the things that you should be looking for in your analytics:
– Which content always brings people to your website page?
– What are the posts/content that resonated with your audience the most? (Eg. You received lots of comments on this particular post.)
– What did people comment or say about the post?
– What contents did people like/save/share a lot?
– How will you adjust your social media strategy and content based on the above answers?
(3) Website Audit
Your website plays a vital role in raising brand awareness and increasing the chances of lead and sales conversion. When we start building a website, it won’t be perfect, and adjustments and changes will need to be made. Doing a website audit allows you to determine what edits and changes you should be making. Below are the factors to consider:
-What are your most viewed pages?
-Do you have a strong call to action and a lead magnet to capture emails on your pages?
-What are the best traffic sources that bring people to your website?
-What adjustments will you make to your website?
Apart from the above three audits, if you have any other systems that you’re wondering how effective and productive they are, you will need those audits too. These audits could be email campaigns/newsletters, paid ads, SEO and etc.
The “P” Word – Profit
Last but not least, let’s talk about profit. Profit plays a vital role in keeping your business running. Your finances should live by this formula:
Sales – Profit = Expenses
Below are the basics of allocating your funds:
– First, aim to allocate 15% to your profit account.
– Second, pay yourself 40% for the owner’s/salary account.
– Next, allocate around 25 – 35% for your tax. Do seek advice from your accountant for the correct percentage.
– Last, allocate all remaining funds into your expenses account. The percentage should be around 10 – 20%.
Should you want to learn more about business profit, we recommend “Profit First – Transform Your Business From A Cash-Eating Monster To A Money Making Machine, “ by Mike Michalowicz.
Your service rate is one of the important factors to grow your profit. Do you know the rate that you should be charging? Take “What’s Your Perfect Rate” Quiz.
Time For Action
Now that you have learned about different ways to build business momentum, start building. Building momentum takes time and effort, but it is well worth it in the long run. You don’t have to do everything at the same time. Make plans and start to schedule them. The key to building momentum is to be consistent, focused, and always repeat what works and change what doesn’t work.
Does that still feel a bit overwhelming to you? Do you wish for a coach who could guide you and answer your questions related to your business marketing strategy? Join The Coach School. Not only will you receive a step-by-step guidance course, but there will also be a coach to answer your question at live coaching sessions. And not to mention a community that supports one another.
