Kathy Mallary | Coaching Biz Tips

Get rid of marketing overwhelm once and for all

I hear from a lot of coaches that they're overwhelmed by all the advice and information available on marketing. Most coaches actually know quite a bit about the subject of marketing – they just don't know where to begin or how to tell if they're on the right track.

How do you know if you're taking the right steps with your marketing? Answer: It depends on your objective.

There's an endless number of possibilities when it comes to marketing a business, but there are basically only three ways to grow a business:

1. Increase the number of leads

2. Increase the conversion rate of leads to customers

3. Increase the average dollar amount that each customer spends over time

So the question becomes, "Of those three objectives, which one is most critical to focus on right now?" Once you're clear about your objective, the options for marketing activities will seem less overwhelming.

For example:

• Coach Mike has a knack for "closing the deal". He knows his target market inside and out and he's got great people skills – when he has an initial consultation with someone, they usually end up hiring him. If he could get more initial meetings scheduled, he could get more clients. So Mike's key marketing objective is to increase the number of leads by setting up a prospect marketing system and becoming more visible to his target market.

• Coach Debra has worked hard to build a targeted mailing list. She has a loyal following of subscribers who love her newsletters; the problem is that she doesn't have as many customers as she'd like. Studies show that a customer who buys once is far more likely to buy again, so Debra's marketing objective is to improve conversion. She'll want to make sure she's offering enticing introductory products to her subscribers – products that are low in cost but high in value, such as ebooks, ecourses or audio products. She also needs to make sure she's encouraging prospects to take action sooner rather than later, to shorten the conversion cycle as much as possible.

• <Coach Wendy is an experienced coach who has worked with lots of 1-1 clients over the years. She's carved out a nice niche for herself and is really good at helping her clients accomplish their goals in a short amount of time. The problem is that once the goals are accomplished, the clients move on, so Wendy is constantly worried about getting more new clients. What she needs to do is expand her offerings for clients who have completed the initial coaching contract in order to grow the value of each client and create additional revenue streams so that she isn't so dependent upon 1-1 coaching clients each month.

If you've been feeling stuck about what you should be doing with your marketing, take a step back and decide what's most important for your business right now: getting more leads, converting more prospects to customers, or growing the lifetime value of existing customers. And then figure out the most obvious action steps you'll need to take to get that done. Once you're on track with the first objective, you can turn your attention to the next.

A new approach to creating a core marketing message

A while back, I mentioned I was experimenting with the story-telling approach in Cliff Atkinson's book, Beyond Bullet Points, to craft a core marketing message. (Read the previous post here.)

What I discovered (much to my delight) is that this approach is not only useful for PowerPoint presentations and marketing purposes; it's also great for outlining ebooks and special reports.

Here's an example of a new outline I'm working on for the free starter kit that I give away to folks who join my mailing list. The new starter kit is called, "The Coaching BizKit: The Smart Cookie's Guide to Getting Started".

1. Setting: Where am I & when is it?
Coaches who are masterful at coaching are often baffled when it comes to marketing.

2. Role: Who am I in this setting?
You want to know how to set up your marketing system so it's manageable.

3. Point A: What challenge do I face?
You're unclear how all the pieces fit together.

4. Point B: Where do I want to be?
You'd like to be clear about how the pieces fit together.

5. Call to Action: How do I get from Point A to Point B?
Build a complete marketing system in three stages:

• Stage 1: Choose a profitable niche-focused business model.
• Stage 2: Design your signature coaching program.
• Stage 3: Set up and activate your sales funnel.

(Each stage is explained in more detail in the starter kit.)

The structure from Atkinson's book was very helpful, although I wouldn't say the process seemed easy – but I think that was more about getting clear about the content rather than anything to do with the template itself. Now that it's out of my head and onto paper (well, onto the screen anyway), I'm feeling much more jazzed about writing the new starter kit. Woo hoo!

Just have to add a note: Doing this exercise made me realize how much better it is when you keep things simple -- and how easy it is to get lost and overly-wordy in the process of trying to "work" on a core marketing message.

When I help clients with sales copy I find myself constantly asking, "What does that really mean? What's the bottom line?" There's a fine line between compelling clarity and "blah blah blah".

Trying out Twitter

I finally couldn't stand it any longer – I had to check out this thing called Twitter. Got sick of hearing people rave about social media and figured I better see what all the noise is about.

OK, I'm now officially Twitterized. So far, I've been: confused, curious, frustrated, delighted, bored, surprised, engrossed, distracted, annoyed, stumped and intrigued (and it's only been two days.) Overall I'd have to say it's been a mostly positive experience with some potential for being a viable business networking strategy, as long as I don't let myself get overly distracted with it.

After setting up my account, I searched for people in my target market (coaches) and found a nice little cache of them Twittering (Tweeting?). Then I discovered it's really interesting to browse through the people that OTHER people are following -- there are some folks that I know OF, but don't otherwise know personally (Guy Kawasaki, John Jantsch and Dooce, for instance).

It's not that I'm into celebrity stalking or anything -- I'm just curious about how successful, creative people think.

Have also found several cool articles and links through people I've "met" via Twitter. For example, this is from an article called "The Ultimate Men with Pens Guide to Twitter":

The unspoken rule of Twitter is that you should never really answer Twitter's question, "What are you doing?" Post your thoughts, your opinions, your latest discovery on the 'net, what your kids are doing, what irritates you, what brings you joy. Twitter is like sex. Have fun with it.

That makes a lot of sense to me. I'm enjoying the folks who are posting pithy insights, observations about human nature, humorous one-liners and updates on interesting-sounding projects. What makes this manageable is that you can only post 140 words characters at a time – which makes for quick reading. Lots quicker than keeping up with the various online discussion forums that I participate in, for example.

I'm finding that I have very little interest in following people who only post: 1) What they're actually doing right this minute; and/or 2) Links to their own products and web pages.

Not sure if it's due to Twitter, but I think there's been a spike in my mailing list subscriptions since I joined. We'll see if it leads to anything.

Oh and I'm loving Twhirl, a free program that makes it possible to Twitter from your desktop instead of a browser window. You can also Twitter via IM, (GoogleTalk) and from your phone, too.

If you're on Twitter, follow me and I'll follow you, too!

P.S. I put a Twitter widget in the far right sidebar, about half way down the page. So if you're curious, you can see what I'm Twittering about.

Coaching News for April 2008

A sampling of recent articles, press releases and news items on the coaching profession:

Overcoming the negative voice in your head
Vail Daily News, CO – Apr 12, 2008
Each time he looked at it, he would remember the power he has to stop his Saboteur from running his life. Coaching Challenge: Write a paragraph describing your Saboteur.

Going Overseas To Do Business? Your Planning Must Be Different
WRAL.com, NC - Apr 11, 2008
How much training and coaching will your management, sales, marketing, operations and regulatory teams require? How much are the free market, capitalistic and democratic concepts a part of the business culture?

Reverse mentoring in the office
Newsday, NY - Apr 11, 2008
Krol, in his mid-40s, has been engaging in reverse mentoring, where someone with significant years of work experience gets coaching from those fairly new to ...

Teachers' coaching program helping boost student test scores at ...
Wilkes Barre Times-Leader, PA - Apr 10, 2008
Hazleton Area is one of 24 schools in 15 districts throughout the state participating in the program - the Pennsylvania High School Coaching Initiative - funded by the Annenberg Foundation. Ellen Eisenberg, executive director of the coaching initiative ...

Executive Coaching – Worth the Money?
Wall Street Journal Blogs, NY - Apr 10, 2008
At what point does it make sense for a small company to turn to executive coaching? In this video, Reporter Paul Lin looks at a Bronx drop-cloth ...

Tools for sound advice
Cape Business News, South Africa - Apr 10, 2008
There will be a practical session run by the Centre of Coaching at the UCT GSB looking at implementing a mentoring and coaching relationship with clients. "Many people find they need advice when they are at vulnerable stages of their life - such as ...

Microsoft conducts Peer Coaching Training Program in Bahrain
AME Info (press release), United Arab Emirates - Apr 8, 2008
Microsoft announced today the successful completion of the first round of the Microsoft Peer Coaching Program in the Kingdom which was attended by twenty Ministry of Education (MOE) teachers.

A Free Resource to Change Your Life: Morningcoach.com
American Chronicle, Beverly Hills, CA - Apr 7, 2008 
A few short months ago Glossinger, a successful entrepreneur, had the idea to launch a free 15 minute podcast each morning called Morning Coach. ...

Confessions of a Layoff Coach
CNNMoney.com – USA – Apr 5, 2008
One of the biggest, DBM (www.dbm.com), has 200 offices in 85 countries and, at one time or another, has done outplacement and executive coaching for about ...

Coaching Parents: Be it Sleep Training or Potty Help, Baby ...
Winston-Salem Journal - Winston-Salem, NC – Apr 3, 2008
Hochschild and others who study modern family life tick off a host of reasons why this shift has come about: luxury services trickling down to those who ...

10 Tips for a Profitable and Sustainable Business Model

An earlier article explored how to tell if your business model is broken; today I want to share ten tips for building a profitable and sustainable business model.

First, a few words about what I mean by "business model", and why you should care.

Basically, a business model defines the problem your business solves and describes how it does so profitably.

By "problem", I mean the gap between where your customer is now and where they want to go. Every customer wants something that they don't yet have; your business helps them close that gap.

The "profitably" part is the key to why you should care – because if your business doesn't operate profitably, you're not going to be able to help many clients! When your business makes more money than it takes to operate, you can reinvest your profits back into the business in order to grow. But if you're spending more than you're making – for example, needing to use your credit cards to pay your bills -- you're probably going to run out of resources pretty quick.

What does a profitable business look like?

Imagine two coaches who are starting out on the same path: Coach Alison and Coach Brenda.

• They have similar experience and education
• They live in the same city
• They have similar financial situations
• They're both going after the same type of client -- baby boomer women
• After 18 months, one business is healthy and growing, while the other is teetering on the edge of collapse

Coach Alison is following the well-worn path that many coaches follow right out of training. (See "Is Your Business Model Broken?") After working diligently for 18 months, she's got a lovely web site; 157 people on her mailing list; 5 clients (2 are pro bono; another isn't really a baby boomer woman, but she can't afford to be picky); a maxed-out line of credit; and a husband who is starting to wonder what she's doing all day. Alison is starting to wonder that, herself.

Coach Brenda is having a very different experience. She's getting new subscribers every day, and virtually all of them are in her target market; many on her list have already purchased her new ebook, and almost everyone who buys the ebook goes on to buy something else (an audio program, a teleclass or a  coaching package); she has a waitlist of people who want to work with her at her new rate; and her husband is starting to wonder if he should quit his day job to become a coach, too.

Why is one business struggling while the other is succeeding?

What's Brenda's secret? It's not a secret so much as a winning strategy. Alison is using a one-size-fits-all business model, while Brenda's is custom-designed for success and sustainability. Here are ten tips for creating your own profitable and sustainable business model:

1. Start with a relationship-building mindset. Customers tend to buy from people that they know, like and trust; the best way to do that is to show them that you understand what they're struggling with and that you have a proven track record of success with their issue. (Hint: they're not struggling with coaching, so stop talking about coaching and start listening for the real problem.)
2. Define the problem that your business solves so that you can talk about your clients' coachable goals with clarity and credibility. To see some examples of coachable goals, see this article.
3. Identify a viable market segment that is already spending money on the problem that your business solves. The segment should be specific enough to share certain buying behaviors, yet large enough to support your business.
4. Aim your marketing promotions directly at the target market. Don't try to be all things to all people; you'll only frustrate yourself and confuse your prospects. For example, while Coach Brenda is narrowly targeting (and attracting) female baby boomer executives who are facing a major career transition such as retirement, Coach Alison is having less luck finding and connecting with a broader, less exclusive market (baby boomers who want to thrive.)
5. Create a sales funnel so your customers have a natural, easy path to follow, from joining your mailing list to making their first purchase to hiring you as their coach. Click here to see an example of a sales funnel for coaches.
6. Differentiate yourself from other coaching businesses so that your brand stands out in a memorable way. There are many ways to differentiate yourself other than pricing, by the way -- for example, packaging, service, expertise, positioning, etc.
7. Don't trade time for money. Switch to a monthly retainer or package rate, rather than quoting an hourly or monthly rate. Stop selling your time and start promoting the value of your services.
8. Expand your revenue base by creating multiple channels of income – info products, audio products, group coaching programs, paid membership programs, etc. When you spread your profits over a range of income streams, your cash flow tends to be much more consistent and stable (and LARGER).
9. Automate your marketing system to free yourself up to do what you truly love (coaching!). At the very least, use a reputable list management system with auto responders  -- Aweber, iContact and 1Shoppingcart are three popular choices.
10. Take a stand for the value you provide; offer options instead of discounts. If a prospect balks at your premium coaching package, point them towards a less-comprehensive coaching package, a group coaching program or a coach-yourself homestudy kit.

With the right business model, you'll get more business, more easily and be able to make a bigger difference with more people. And isn't making a difference with more people the whole point?

©2008 by Kathleen L. Mallary. All Rights Reserved.