Coaching Biz Tips

Tips for Marketing Research and Keywords

"Kathy, do you have any tips for narrowing searches with keywords when doing market research?"

• Think of what your customers/potential visitors would be likely to type into search engines in order to find the information/services your site offers.

Perfectionism leads to creative constipation

"May I ask if/how your clients get bogged down or might struggle to complete some aspects of their signature coaching program?"

Probably the biggest obstacle to creativity that I've seen is perfectionism. People can get positively paralyzed when they think that they need to do, be or have MORE _______________ in order to ______________.

Perfectionism leads to creative constipation. You keep working on something, refining it and honing it, but it isn't going anywhere; it's not fulfilling it's purpose out in the world.  When you make your gift so precious that it can't be shared, that's a problem, because it kills the gift. It's kind of like being pregnant and trying not to give birth until the baby is all grown up!

At one time, I thought it was because people were afraid of being judged by others; but I've come to suspect that it's really our own judgment that we can't tolerate. The gremlin voice is whispering that what you're creating isn't finished, it's not good enough yet--YOU'RE not good enough yet.

The answer is to turn down the volume on your gremlin, and let things happen naturally--stop holding back. No one is ever going to benefit from your gift if you keep it to yourself, right?

Having said that, I also feel that it's healthy to strive for excellence. I'm always looking for ways to improve my offerings; the key is to get whatever it is OUT THERE in the world AND keep working on it; let it continue to evolve. I think there's much more grace in that approach than in holding it back until it's "perfect".

What comes first, the research or the hunch?

Recent questions from a Success Circle participant about how to create a signature coaching program:

Does research build on your hunches or create the "starter" for your hunches about a useful process?

"I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun." -- Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice

That quote pretty much says it all. I can't say what came first--whether I had a hunch first or whether I saw something out in the world that gave me the idea for Get With the Program. I’ve learned to just be awake and accepting of inspiration, no matter which direction it seems to come from.

I know some coaches have been trained to have a bias for going 'inside' (intuition, inner wisdom, Divine Inspiration, etc.). There's nothing wrong with that, but unfortunately, some end up with a bias against going 'outside' for information. They may distrust or even discount outside input all together, which doesn't serve their business or their customers.

When you’re trying to operate a business, you have to be in touch with what’s going on in the outer world; that’s what makes it possible to meet your clients where they ARE, rather than where you’d like them to be.

Discern the difference between ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ input, yes – but don’t discriminate against one or the other.

The trick is to strike a balance between keeping one ear on your heart, and the other ear (and both eyes, a keyboard and your mouse) trained on what’s true in the world around you. You have to bridge the gap between the inner and outer world, because business is transacted in the mundane (outer) world. It's important to do your research.

Your business brings you the hearts of those that you’re supposed to work with, but the hearts are wrapped in human beings with ego identities.  It’s the ego identity that does the shopping; hopefully, the customer listens to their heart when it comes time to buy. (I learned this from Mark Silver, the master of heart-centered marketing).

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You don't have to be a Success Circle member to ask a question! Send me an email or post a comment here on the blog and I'll do my best to find you an answer or at least get you pointed in the right direction.

Where do I get started building my coaching business?

The other day, one of my clients from the current Success Circle emailed me with this question: 

I'm realizing that what's in my way of getting started is trying to map it all out at once. What I need to do is to JUST GET STARTED. So I was wondering how much you started with and in a very general way how fast it grew from there.

Well, the first thing that came to mind was that I sure wouldn't want my client to do what I did -- because on the way to figuring out what works to build a sustainable business, I did all kinds of things wrong and made lots of silly (and expensive) mistakes!

Instead, I want her (and you) to have an easier and much less expensive journey.

Now, I happen to know that this particular client already has a pretty good idea of who her target market is and what problem she's helping them with.

That's actually the very first step -- get clear about your niche. After that:

First of all, keep in mind that your business must do these three things for you: 

1) Get new customers
2) Keep existing customers
3) Grow the life-time value of your customers

So here's where I recommend starting:

BUILD A SUBSCRIBER BASE
The widest end of the product funnel is where new customers typically enter, so the first thing to do is create a free info product that you offer in exchange for subscribing to your mailing list, like a newsletter or a special report (in my case, it's the coaching program Starter Kit, which includes the weekly tipzine that you're reading right now).

Your free offer should relate specifically to your target market--don't try to appeal to the masses by being too generic. (You can see why it was so important to do your homework on your niche.)

(By the way: It may seem counter-intuitive, but you don't want the whole world to subscribe. You only want qualified prospective customers on your mailing list.)

HAVE A STRATEGY FOR STAYING IN TOUCH
Ideally, your freebie should help you stay in touch with your subscribers on a regular, consistent basis. You need to offer value-driven content (i.e., don't just email them with promotional stuff). As a general rule of thumb, try for 90% content, 10% promotional offers in your emails.

A newsletter or ezine is ideal for this, but if you don't want to do a newsletter, a free ecourse would work, too. The idea is to build relationship and establish yourself as a credible expert over time.

WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T MAKE THIS MISTAKE
One mistake that I see many coaches making (and I made this one myself in the early days!) is to throw together a generic freebie and then start trying to fill teleclasses and in-person workshops right out of the gate.

That's like trying to run right up the side of a mountain without the proper gear. After trying to fill a couple of workshops with the same 100 subscribers, you realize it's a very steep mountain.

So the first step is to greet your customers at the door (the wide end of your product funnel) with a welcoming smile and offer them some refreshment (your freebie).

Be patient and stay in touch with them; earn their trust and confidence by providing good information that truly helps them with whatever they're struggling with.

Once your business is doing a pretty good job of getting new customers (which is what the wide end of the product funnel is about), then you can shift your focus to keeping and growing the lifetime value of your customers by creating products and packages deeper in the product funnel.

Incidentally, I've found that if you do the first part well, and if you're really paying attention, your customers will actually TELL you what to create for them next.

The same way my client from the Success Circle gave me the perfect topic for the tipzine (and this blog post) this week!

Q&A: Top 3 questions about coaching niches

Judging from the number of people who showed up for the last two monthly roundtables to discuss coaching niches, it's certainly a hot topic!

I asked each person to share their #1 question about niches; three questions came up more than any others:

1. What is a niche?

A niche is a position, activity or area of the market that particularly suits your talents and personality or that you can make your own. Ideally, your niche is where your passion and expertise intersect with the needs and wants of a viable target market.

To help my clients define their niche, I show them how to use a three-part niche formula: the Who, the What and the How.

    1. The Who describes the target market:

I help/coach/work with <insert 1 or 2 significant characteristics that distinguish your target market>...

    2. The What describes what the target market's most urgent agenda is:

...who are/or want to <insert the primary interest, problem or agenda shared by your target market>...

    3. The How describes the coach's special expertise* - the thing that differentiates them from other coaches:

...by/through/with <insert your particular area of passion/expertise>.

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Examples:

• I coach doctors who are seeking balance between work and life through effective communication strategies.
  
  
• I work with single women who want to find a life partner with the universal Law of Attraction.
  
  
• I help highly sensitive people who want to live a less stressful life by leveraging their sensitivity instead of fighting it.

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*Tip: DON'T use 'coaching' as your How. You'll need to be more specific than that if you want to differentiate yourself from other coaches.

2. Why is it so hard to choose a niche?

Many coaches don't yet have a niche because:

• They're afraid that focusing on a niche will be too limiting.
  Reality check: Focusing on anything generally concentrates your energy and attention so you can be more effective. This is definitely true of specializing in a niche (see below for 10 reasons why).
  
• They have doubts about whether they have enough knowledge or expertise to succeed in a specific niche area.
  Reality check: A quick inventory of your passions, interests, knowledge, skills and experience typically reveals more than one potential niche area. Once you choose a potential area, you can begin to gather more information and expand your expertise.
• They don't understand what a niche is or how it can benefit them.
  Reality check: The concept of specializing or working in a niche is a well-documented, effective marketing strategy. More information on what a niche is and how it can add value to your business. 

3. Do I HAVE to choose a niche?

In over 10 years of training, mentoring and working with coaches, I have yet to see a truly successful coach who doesn't have a niche. Consider the benefits:

• It helps you position your business so that your ideal clients can find you more easily.
• Your marketing is more targeted, which saves time and money.
• It's easier to develop solution-based products and services for a target market that share a common agenda.
• Positioning yourself as an expert gives you pricing leverage.
• A niche differentiates you from other service providers.
• Your business is more profitable when you focus on the products and services that your niche most wants and needs.
  
• Quality referrals are easier to get when you tap into the natural professional and social networks in your niche.
• Clients in a niche market are more likely to invest money to resolve their issue.
• It significantly reduces the competition when you focus on a niche, because you're not trying to compete in the larger market.
• Niching attracts pre-qualified clients so that you don't have to spend time cold prospecting or pitching your services to people who aren't interested or motivated.

Got a question about choosing a coaching niche? Leave a comment below and I'll answer it on the blog.