Even if you don’t have an Ideal Client Avatar yet

You may be tempted to try all the tactics you’ve heard of at once, to get your first paying coaching clients – throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks (the old-fashioned way)

But this could spell disaster if you’re just starting out online

Your energy, motivation, and financial resources are limited

So you want to make sure you stay focused and invest time in a place that gives you a return as quickly as possible

 

The first obstacle to get over is getting to the details of who is your ideal client.

If this is not clear you cannot start marketing properly in a predictable manner.

You can however use marketing to source information. You can start collecting information about who responds to your topic/content from your online engagement. Whilst also use this content to generate the first leads and clients in your business.

“It’s ok to not know what ideal client you’re going to work with at first – all you need is a system to get clarity”

Here are 4 ways to find and pick your first ideal client persona for your coaching business:

 

• Gathering Ideal Coaching Clients Information Through Content

The first step toward picking your ideal client and confidently describing them is to start interacting with them.

If you start off with one or two potential audiences, you can find them online. Find a Facebook or LinkedIn groups that contain your target audience and start gauging whether your topics are of interest. If you can’t find a group with your audience on any of these two platforms you might be going either too generic, try to pick a more specific persona.

You want to start by engaging in these groups and sharing your expertise whenever the opportunity presents itself, without being over-promotional.

 

• Your First Discovery Calls

When interacting in groups, you want to make sure that you give people an easy way to jump on a discovery call with you when they check you out. You can do this by adding a calendar booking call link to your personal profile.

Make sure that you record all these discovery calls using zoom or a similar tool. When you jump on a call with someone who is your dream client (even if they don’t buy) re-watch the session to listen to the way they talk about how they feel and what they want to change or achieve. This is the knowledge you need to feed your content marketing.

 

• Content That Generates Leads Consistently

One thing I come across a lot when working with coaches who want to book more coaching clients online is that they may not be very clear about who they want to help but they’re clear about the way they want to help them.

 

They know what topics they can help with. For example, they know they can help people get unstuck in their relationships but they’re not sure whether they want to work with women, men, both or teenagers because they’ve only worked with a handful of each and are not sure yet.

A way of finding clarity in this case is of course to work with more people. So you can begin by writing posts that are based on your topics. Be careful however, many coaches are tempted to coach in their content.

DON’T!

Instead, think about what they need to know to be ready to work with you and write about some main topics or issues that you deal with.

You want to create long social media posts at first. Gauge how the engagement goes. Blogging is more effective and give you leads in the long term because they keep ranking and bringing new people/leads to your website. But it’s too early to invest your time in blogging if you’re not sure who your ideal coaching clients are.

So stick to value posts on social media at first and add a simple call to action to book a free call with you.

 

• A Reliable Source of Leads and Income

Once you have identified your ideal client and have perhaps settled for one or two types of people you want to use for your marketing, you’re ready to create your first freebies and blog.

In truth, you can have many ideal clients, and it doesn’t mean you say no to people who don’t fit the description, it simply means that your marketing is tailored to one type of client. Because if you try to address multiple audiences you will confuse everyone. So the goal is to commit to one ideal client for each type of marketing.

 

So maybe you will blog and use social to attract middle-aged women who want a more exciting life and you also want to target businesses to teach their teams about mindfulness by direct emailing or phone calls.

You can have more than one ideal client but you need to focus your marketing on the one that matters most. Once you’ve picked the one that will become the centre of all your marketing efforts, you can begin to create a solid marketing plan that will create a solid source of leads in the short term and the long term. You can base your content marketing strategies on this one ideal client and make sure that you create funnels that give you leads every week. By focusing on one ideal client you can really focus on improving the results that matter, one step at a time.

Are you still struggling to pick the ideal client and create a focused marketing plan?

Let’s talk…