If you are a coach because you enjoy helping people, the last thing you want to do is bombard them with marketing hype.
And yet, most marketing programs do just that. Here's one that doesn't and it won't cost you a cent, because it's free on this site.
We use it and we love it. Maybe you will too. But don't take our word for it. Use it because it's right for your business.
5 Reasons why inbound marketing is right for your business:
1. Inbound Marketing is based on relationship building and mutual respect. This is the foundation of any effective coaching relationship and you simply can't have it if your marketing is based on annoying or manipulating people. So if you've been put off by marketing up until now, your intuition has been steering your right!
2. Inbound Marketing is all about listening first. As an advanced communicator, you know that listening is the first step in any transformational conversation. How can your attract your ideal clients if you're not listening to them first?
3. Inbound Marketing is not about you. Great coaching is always all about the client, so how can you market your coaching if you make it all about you? Learn to attract clients by making it all about them from the very beginning.
4. Inbound Marketing leverages your natural generosity. Great coaches are creative and love to give. If that's you, then inbound marketing is the perfect way to leverage your creativity and generosity. What could be more fun?
5. Inbound Marketing works. Don't let any 'marketing maven' tell you that you have to do things that make you cringe in order to be successful. Inbound marketing works better than traditional marketing, because your clients hate be treated like 'Joe Customer'. They love be treated with respect, generosity and listening. And quite frankly, they love it when you make it all about them!
If you really want to succeed as a coach, use marketing that reflects your own values. For most coaches, that's going to be inbound marketing. I've put together a page for you of some of my favorite inbound marketing tools. Enjoy them all for free!
Visit the Inbound Marketing Hub here.
I've written a lot lately about how to build a successful coaching business without complex marketing systems or pricing structures.
What works best for coaches is to build business relationships one conversation at a time. You need to build business relationships the same way you build personal ones: with sincerity and no 'hidden' agendas.
The most important conversation for the coach and client then, is the one that cements their professional relationship.
I call it the complimentary coaching session. If you're going to have a rockin' business built on coaching instead other activities, you need to master the complimentary coaching session. That's why we devote an entire 4-week module to successful complimentary coaching sessions in our
Coach 100 Program.
Here are a few high points on how to give successful complimentary coaching sessions:
- Focus on the client, not on yourself. Your nerves and even your desire to do a good job are all about you. Coaching is all about them.
- Focus on expanding the client's possibilities instead of solving the client's problems. Every great coach knows that problem solving is the least of your gifts.
- Focus on the relationship and the potential relationship. Help the client see what's possible with your coaching.
- Give the client an experience. Of themselves, the value of the coaching relationship and the potential outcomes of working with you.
- Notice all the information that your client and your intuition are sending you. This is how you recognize a good client fit.
- If you and the client are a great fit, invite them to work with you.
Focus. Give. Notice. Invite.
Those are the basic elements of successful complimentary coaching sessions. Of course there are many more details and practice is the key to mastering this process.
And master it, you must. Without the ability to cement client relationships, you can't be a professional coach-preneur. With this ability mastered, you're helping others, co-creating a whole new world and making a great living doing what you love.
Have you mastered complimentary coaching sessions, yet?
The 4-week module on how to give successful complimentary coaching sessions that end with paying clients starts in one week. As a reader of this blog, we're giving you a coupon code today worth 45% off the usual tuition for this module, just to say, 'thanks for reading'. There are a few seats left.
Hear the demos. Ask questions until it's really clear. Get lots of practice until you've mastered this key skill and start getting paying clients with less time and effort. That's what Coach 100 is all about.
Use this coupon code when you register: SUCCESS10
I am writing to you from Salt Lake City, where I'm attending the Kanzeon Western Zen Center's Fall Retreat with Genpo Roshi.
As someone who has never wanted to be a Buddhist, but who is powerfully drawn to to the Big Mind process, I'm having a few interesting and fun culture shocks.
Like Monday, 6:45 AM, when I entered the Zendo for morning meditation in time for a Hogwarts-ian vision of black robed monks floating down the dark staircase in dawn's half-light. I must admit, I was slightly creeped out until I reminded myself that I'd already met all those people at dinner the night before, in their jeans and sweatshirts. They were perfectly lovely.
Nobody had said anything about robes, though! ;-)
I'm here for Big Mind, but meditation and enlightenment are two deep interests of mine, as they are just about a must be for a good coach. We need to always be opening that space for our clients and we can't just manufacture it.
Roshi talks a lot about the teacher/student relationship and how masters never lose the need for teachers. Otherwise, we get stuck or arrogant (or both). Same goes for coaches.
I've been looking for my next teacher for some time and here he is. Roshi doesn't call Big Mind, coaching, although he recognizes the correlation. He's helping people experience enlightenment in a quintessentially American way, but with 40 years of experience and 2,500 years of teachings.
Speaking of which, the Dharma, or Way, was predicted to end at about this time. Roshi believes that 21st Century monasteries will go away and that enlightenment will converge with the market, to integrate life and business with awareness.
One element of this will be the elimination of a huge shadow that has forced monks to 'beg, borrow or steal', instead of earn, to survive.
So many coaches are plagued by the same shadow. They feel uncomfortable with asking for money, afraid of the 'sleeze factor'. Unless you are independently wealthy, the money shadow will prevent you from succeeding as a professional coach.
Not sure if you have a money shadow? Just look at your coaching career and ask yourself how you have begged, borrowed or stolen in order to coach. If you're not earning your way back to integrity, yet, you probably have a financial shadow.
What to do? Big Mind, of course. They are broadcasting live everyday this week. You may even see me on screen. No robes, though. http://www.BigMind.org/zen-eye
The August 25, 2009 Wall Street Journal reports that demand for executive coaches and business coaches is steady and, in some cases, is rising despite - or even because of the recession.
Why is demand for coaching still so high even while the economy is struggling? Simple. Coaches help businesses, executives and employees improve their bottom line. They make more money. And isn't that what most people want during a recession?
But as you've probably noticed, I'm a bit biased about coaching. So you may be tempted to ignore me when I tell you that MSNBC called coaching one of the top five careers for 2009, or that Google CEO, Eric Schmidt says everyone needs a coach, etc., etc., etc.
So Ignore me. Just read what The Wall Street Journal says about coaching in the recession.
What if marketing was just fun? What if you and your followers/customers/coaching clients knew each other enough and trusted each other enough to just play and have fun? Would your clients be happy with you? Would they come back? Could you make a living?
What if you offered a lot of value while you were having fun? What if you offered a lot of value for free? And then you charged for some of it, some of the time? Would your followers/customers/coaching clients regard you well? Would they come back? Would they bring their friends?
What if you stuck your neck out once and a while? What if your marketing was not only your playground but also your laboratory? Would you be a lot more creative? Would you create more valuable products and services?
What if marketing wasn't manipulative? What if it was just good communication? What if it was about making friends? And occasionally making really good friends by exchanging lots of value? Would business be more fun?
Would business work better? Would money flow more easily? Would you be coaching more?
How can we find out if we don't try? How can you find out? What do you have to lose, anyway?
We've been experiencing a game called, Tw00t. Some people like it. Some people don't. We're even breaking some of our own rules. If you think you might like to play, click on Tw00tie's face.