As an executive coach, you have a unique challenge when marketing your services. You must establish trust and credibility with potential clients whilst also standing out from the competition.

In this article, we delve into the most effective marketing strategies for executive coaches, including networking, public speaking, and of course, online advertising.

 

Content marketing

Content Marketing is a strategy that will support every other executive coach marketing strategy you use. Creating quality content in the form of blog posts, articles, webinars and training videos will help you become an expert in your field.

Being known and trusted is key to getting booked as a coach.

What’s more, the content that you create will rank in search engines if you optimize it using SEO. This will generate traffic to your website every day, week, and month providing you with new discovery call bookings every week.

Many coaches have built their businesses on ranking blog posts. It’s smart for coaches to do this because it enables them to book new clients and build their reputation and authority with one simple strategy.

This will enable you to keep your marketing time reasonable. It will also provide you with valuable content that you can use to share with your referral network so that they can better understand what you do, and therefore refer you to the right people. You’ll also be providing your network with an easy way to bring new people into your orbit by sharing your blog and recommending it.

Another obvious benefit is the fact that it provides you with high-quality content that can easily be repurposed for social media. Making social media planning a breeze.

This brings me to our next strategy.

 

Social Media Marketing

Using Social Media platforms for your marketing is not optional in today’s market. If you’re not on social you don’t exist. Whereas if you have a Facebook page, Instagram and LinkedIn page, you can be verified as a bona fide business.

Wouldn’t you find it strange if you found a business that seemed to be inactive on social media? You’d think they don’t operate anymore if they don’t have active profiles.

This is why you need to have a smart but simple social media presence. As an executive coach, you have to be careful. You don’t want to use social media like an influencer. Your goal should not be to get as many followers as possible but to get as much revenue per follower as possible.

So no dancing and free giveaways, they can damage your personal brand. Instead, share consistently good content that truly helps the people you want to attract. Sharing your blogs is an easy and effective place to start. It will help your SEO and also boost your visibility.

You can also use automation to share your blogs automatically from your website (especially if you have a WordPress site). Once you have a blog post that was originally written by you, you can also use an AI tool like Chat GPT to repurpose your content into social media posts. It’s easy and fast, and will help give your marketing a boost.

Read more about how to repurpose blogs using GPT here…

 

Networking for Executive Coaches

The first and easiest way to network is to attend events and conferences that target potential clients and other professionals that might make good referral partners.

If you’re not one to expend large amounts of energy on meeting people you can speed up the process by joining a professional association. One frequented by your target audience or professionals targeting the same prospects. Professional associations can help you meet people quickly in an environment that allows you to easily approach people you don’t know yet.

If on the other hand you’re willing to commit to networking you can join networking groups that meet regularly such as BNI (Business Networking International). Such organizations meet on a weekly basis with the intention of providing each other with referrals. It can be a great way to expand your contacts quickly and start getting referrals. Like most marketing strategies, it takes time to start working for you. You will need to win trust and get to know the other members first.

In today’s world you also need to network online. As an executive coach, the best place for you to build a network is LinkedIn. Here you can use the same principles described above – network with potential clients and also potential referral partners.

You may want to join groups that attract your ideal clients and use content such as articles and blogs to establish visibility and authority in your expanding social circles.

After meeting someone, be sure to follow up with them and continue to maintain the relationship. Be honest and helpful, and don’t be afraid to share your knowledge and expertise with others. Offer help, advice, or resources in the form or articles etc.

Do not give up easily. Networking is not a one-off effort. It’s an item that should be on your weekly to-do list. You’ll need to consistently put yourself out there. Go to places and visit online spaces where you can meet new people regularly.

 

 

 

Referral marketing

Encouraging existing customers to refer new customers to you is called referral marketing. The way you encourage them can vary, you can give free services or a commission.

For example, an executive coach’s referral incentive could be an offer where the client gets a free coaching session when they refer a potential client to their business. You can reward them for each referral or each client. I prefer the remuneration per client option because that way it is in their interest to only refer highly well-matched individuals.

This financial incentive could also be a discount on future or current services.

Any of the above options can be great incentives for happy clients who would promote your services anyway.

When designing an incentive keep in mind what your existing clients value.

Is it time with you?

Is it your next upsell?

Is there something specific they require after they’re finished working with you?

Work with your clients to understand how you can make the relationship mutually beneficial. Even if you don’t choose to pay your clients for referring you, you can still create a referral system in your business.

You can ask your happy customers to refer you to people they know, even if you don’t offer any of the paid incentives above. Most of your clients will be happy to help you make new connections especially if they trust and value your work.

 

Online Advertising a.k.a PPC

Online advertising is very effective for executive coaches. Not all executive coaches target the same audience and call themselves executive coaches, but PPC is valuable to all.

Facebook Ads can be very powerful at helping your best content in the form of a blog or a free pdf guide, reach the right people. If you research your ideal client, you can profile them and use what you learn to reach the right people through Facebook ads.

Facebook ads are most effective when couples with a blog post that you already know converts or with a landing page created on purpose for the ad so that people take the action that you want them to take.

Google Ads on the other hand are excellent at helping people find you when they’re purchase-ready and looking to buy from someone like you. By optimizing your ads for the various ‘titles’ a client might call you, you will appear for search results and get clicked on.

This is most effective when you target high-intent (strong intention) keywords, where it’s obvious from what they typed into Google that they’re looking for someone to help them.

Another great way to use PPC is to run retargeting ads. Most platforms offer this option today. You can run ads to people who have already visited your website. These people very likely read your blog, or watched a video and they already know you a little. Retargeting ads help you stay front of your mind. They also help you show products and services to people who know you but may not know you offer them.

 

 

 

 

Email marketing

Email still has the highest ROI of any marketing tool. 36 x your investment to be precise. The main reason why it gets so much return is that it doesn’t cost anything.

In theory.

However, what many won’t tell you is that list-building requires an active weekly blog or paid advertising. New people need to find your website and have a reason to join your email list. So although email lists are worth their weight in gold, they are not cheap to grow.

But they are cheap to run if you have the right people there. So be mindful of how people get onto your list and make sure they are all ideal prospects. And if you already have an email list but you’re not sure if it’s the right people, invite them to fill in a survey and let you know what they actually want. Collect as much information as you can so that you can serve them better (both with free content and paid services).

The great thing about email is that you can decide how quickly you can grow and how much time and effort you’re going to put in your email list. You can invest as little as $100/month in Facebook and build your list slowly or add a pop-up on your website and focus on growing your blog traffic.

Once you have a list you’re gonna want to keep them warm. The goal is to stay front of mind so that when they need what you well they will remember you.

You also want to let them know when you have spots available for new clients and when you’re launching new products. However you have to keep a balance and that balance is 80% relationship building, 20% promotional.

Keeping in touch regularly with a newsletter is always a great idea. If you produce content in the form of blogs or videos, you’ll always have something to share. But as an executive coach, you want to write emails that are more personable. Emails that are personal – the kind that build relationships.

You want to learn how to story tell in your emails. Tell stories and connect them to your why, your services, and your daily life. People want to get to know you, they need to like you if they’re going to work with you.

When you run promotions, you want to make sure you give people the option to opt out of marketing emails. See, when you’re launching a group program or opening up some slots, it works much better when you send more emails. More emails = more sales. But you don’t want to burn through your subscribers who don’t care about the offer. So give them the option to unsubscribe.

Treat your email list with care – behind every email address is a real human being.

When they join your email list, use automated email sequences to nurture them and gradually build a relationship. You can also use it as a bridge to offer your services or a free discovery call.

For example, you could create a welcome sequence for new subscribers that includes an introduction to your ‘why’ and personal story, your clients’ stories and our  services, as well as offering a free discovery.

 

Public speaking

Speaking at conferences, workshops, and other events can help you reach a larger audience and attract new clients. If you’re in the very beginning of your coaching business and have no network to speak of, this might be the shortest way to getting clients. Find people who have an audience and speak at their events.

As an executive coach, depending on the kind of coaching you do, it might also be a good idea to do some free speaking gigs for private corporations. HR managers are always looking for free speakers that can entertain and bring some value during the weekly company breakfast. Create a talk that helps people get to know what you do and speak for free – soon people will start referring you and companies/CEOs will start hiring you.

 

 

Hosting Events

And if speaking at other people’s events is proving to be hard – take the shortcut and organize your own. You can organize in-person events, workshops, online webinars, free training, etc. The sky’s the limit.

You can do it the expensive way and hire a venue for a local event. Or spend a little less and get your online event booked with Facebook Ads.

And don’t forget to pitch your services at the end of (or during) the event. The more people know what you sell, the more clients and referrals you will get.

The strategies above can all work well for your executive coaching business, but which ones work will often depend on where you’re starting from and your specific target market.

If you’d like some guidance on picking the right strategies that will work specifically for your type of executive coaching practice book your free consult here

 

 

About the Author: Stephanie Fiteni

Hi, I’m Stephanie, a Digital Marketing Coach and Business Mentor for Coaches. I’m the creator of the Profitable Content Marketing Method™ and help coaches generate more leads and clients through their blogs and websites whilst helping them build a business that makes good money with ease. My clients get fully booked with just a handful of enjoyable marketing hours per week!

I have over 15 years of experience creating websites, building businesses, writing blogs, and creating social media campaigns, and funnels. As well as ranking articles, videos, and podcasts on the first page of Google. I also managed the content and web dev team in my own agency for over 10 years.

I can teach you how to create content that will convert your visitors into discovery call bookings, every time. Let’s Talk