
Online Coaching Digital Strategy: How to transition from face-to-face coaching to online and grow your income doing it.
Transitioning from face-to-face to online coaching is the key to growing your income and working less.
Sure, it can be daunting especially if you think tech is complex, but in reality, it has never been as easy as it is today.
So listen up…
Here are 5 easy steps to help you transition from offline to online coaching whilst making more and working less…
1. Start being visible as an online coach.
Before you start shifting your business online, you will need to establish some visibility. You will need to establish yourself as an authority in your niche. In fact, if you service a wide sector, not a niche, you may need to niche down in order for it to work online. (but more on that later).
Start creating regular blog posts, facebook lives or podcasts. Any high-value content will do. Start from the content format that is closest to your comfort zone. No matter where you start, however, you will need to have the written version. If you’re using video or podcast no worries, use a transcription service like rev.com to create transcripts of your content. Make sure however that you SEO your blogs and show notes so that it has a chance of ranking. Ranking in search engines is important to the longevity of your business.
2. Pick a date to go online.
Seriously pick a date when you will become an online coach. Stop offering face-to-face coaching on the chosen date.
You’re probably holding your head right now thinking where are my online clients gonna come from. I need an income to survive!
Hold your horses, honey.
When I said “you will start coaching online” I meant that you will start delivering your coaching classes through a digital tool like zoom. At this stage, you can keep getting clients the old way – through offline networking, and traditional advertising. However, you will ask your clients to work with you online, giving them no other option.
You can kickstart this process by offering old clients, a 30-minute free online catch-up call. This will get them used to the technology and since you’re saving time by not being stuck in traffic, you may want to also give them a small discount as an incentive to work with you online. (Keep your prices the same for new clients in your area for now).
3. Pick your ideal clients and Raise your coaching prices.
So now you’re officially an online coach. The next step is to begin marketing your services online. Before you jump into marketing however you will need to make a few choices.
In order to raise your prices, you will need to service a sub-group within your usual coaching clients that are better off. Your high-end clients. You can find these better-paying clients simply in a different country where your services cost more or by servicing that top section that needs you more badly and feels a stronger urge to work with you.
The great thing about moving online is that no matter how narrow your audience is, you will be able to find enough people online to fill your sessions.
4. Start Marketing your Online Coaching
You can start sharing blog posts in places where your target audience hangs out. Interacting with them in groups on Facebook and LinkedIn, and helping others resolve their problems.
This is online networking and it is an important part of becoming known online. Your blog will take a few weeks or months to start working for you depending on how much competition is out there for your niche.
Learn from every interaction and make sure you produce more content that your audience is looking for. You can also get help from your offline clients by sending them a little questionnaire. Listen to the questions they ask and the way they talk about the problems you resolve. This is key to getting ranked and getting noticed by your ideal client.
5. Book Online Coaching Discovery Calls
The goal of your online marketing efforts should always be to get people on a call. Initially, you can do this by reaching out to people directly. Eventually, your blogging will snowball your audience and people will start booking calls from your website directly.
Make sure you’re all set-up with the tech to make the whole process from discovery call to client onboarding easy and simple.