Feel like you have to hustle your stump off to get increasingly clients?
These days, it can seem like stuff “just” a unconfined mentor isn’t unbearable of a sell.
Not only do you need to know your stuff and be a natural “people person,” but to market yourself properly, you’re moreover supposed to figure out a unique coaching niche, pinpoint your brand, alimony up with research, and regularly post polished, compelling content—on whatever platform is trending at the moment.
Um… what?
No wonder so many coaches finger overwhelmed and tumbled well-nigh the whole marketing thing.
(Not to mention icky. You don’t want to have to promise abs in eight days just to get some vision on your business!)
Fortunately, there IS a way to market yourself effectively—using YOUR strengths, YOUR message, and on YOUR schedule.
Take fitness and nutrition mentor Tia Smith.
Tia’s a 38 year-old coach living in metropolitan Atlanta. By most standards, she’s extremely successful.
She’s got:
A full roster of loyal clients. In fact, her biggest rencontre is scaling her merchantry so she can make room for plane increasingly people.
A highly engaged community. Her email newsletter has an unshut rate three times higher than industry standard.
A unmistakably specified brand, voice, and niche clientele. She knows who she is, and increasingly importantly, how to connect authentically with her clients. (No surprises: Her clients love her.)
Zero stress well-nigh marketing. She works at a pace that’s do-able for her (with three kids, the 24/7 hustle culture was a nonflexible no). She moreover doesn’t compare herself to other coaches or get distracted by all the stuff people say you “should” do.
Tia doesn’t consider herself an expert at marketing.
She doesn’t mentor celebrities or have a million followers on Instagram. And she definitely doesn’t pretend to be perfect.
According to Tia, “I’m just doing my best.”
And yet, her marketing “strategy” is working.
In this article, we share five (non-slimy) marketing lessons from Tia that can moreover work for YOUR coaching business.
If you finger overwhelmed or uneasy well-nigh marketing, this translating is for you.
Marketing Lesson #1: Design your product or service based on what people actually want.
Prior to launching her coaching business, Tia taught fitness classes for women.
Before and without class, the studio buzzed with conversation. The women loved to yack with Tia, sometimes plane pursuit her out to the parking lot to tell her well-nigh their lives.
“They told me well-nigh everything,” says Tia. “Not just well-nigh their workouts and nutrition, but moreover well-nigh their kids, pets, husbands, jobs, and most of all, how nonflexible it was to come to matriculation considering of everything they had going on.”
Over time, Tia noticed a pattern.
“These women all struggle to make time for themselves, or to get to the gym. They have other obligations on their mind. That’s when it clicked: They’re just like me!”
In the pandemic, the studio where Tia taught closed. A painful experience, but moreover an opportunity:
Tia realized that her clients still relied on her. Increasingly than anything else, they needed someone to be in their corner.
As Tia says, “My clients need someone to say, ‘Girl you’ve got to make time for yourself, considering if you don’t, the day will not make time for you.’”
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And that’s how Tia’s coaching merchantry was born. Her specialty? Helping women make time for themselves and live a healthier lifestyle.
(Don’t know your niche? Read well-nigh how one mentor found hers—and how you can uncover yours too: 4 ways to find your niche as a nutrition coach)
The key takeaway
Many people (and businesses) come up with an idea for a product or service, then try to convince people they should buy it.
A increasingly constructive strategy is to work the other way around: Identify a need in the marketplace, and provide a solution.
(Even if you’re an established coach, you can use this strategy to refine your offerings to largest meet your clients’ needs.)
For example, since starting her coaching practice, Tia learned her clientele wanted increasingly specific nutrition guidance than she was equipped to provide. So, she’s taking the Precision Nutrition Level 1 Nutrition Coaching Certification, and creating some new services virtually this demand.
(Interested in rhadamanthine a nutrition coach—or subtracting nutrition to your existing coaching? Here’s everything you need to know: How to wilt a nutrition coach)
Try it: Ask these questions during your next vendee consult.
To proceeds intel well-nigh what your clients need from you, Tia’s suggestion is simple:
Ask.
Some of her go-to questions:
- What’s a typical day like for you?
- What are some competing commitments you have going on in your life?
- How do you finger when you wake up in the morning?
- How do you want to finger when you wake up?
Try to understand how your vendee currently feels, how they want to feel, and what’s standing in their way.
Then, use that insight to develop services that people unquestionably need—and want to buy.
Marketing lesson #2: Your “Don’t Do” list is just as important as your “To Do” list.
People love giving marketing advice:
“You’ve got to master the IG algorithm.”
“Actually, TikTok is where to focus.”
“Post workout videos on YouTube! People love that stuff!”
But for Tia, none of that translating felt quite right.
“I tried to do video,” she recalls. “But it was too much. I have three kids. One of them has unique needs. And I run a business. I don’t do hair and makeup every day. So recording a daily video? That just isn’t for me.”
Tia decided to get well-spoken on what she would do—and what she wouldn’t.
So, she listed all her options on paper.
“I crossed off anything I didn’t want to do. Then I looked at what was left and picked the ones that spoke to me the most.”
For Tia, that was an email newsletter, and a podcast.
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With a preliminaries in journalism and her facility for good conversation, these formats indulge her to express her personality in a way that feels natural.
Plus, by focusing on just these two marketing mediums, she’s worldly-wise to stay creative—and productive.
The key takeaway
There’s lots of noise out there. You’re unseat to encounter all kinds of (often conflicting, not to mention unsolicited) marketing advice.
To make progress and stave overwhelm, segregate projects you’re totally single-minded to—and skip the ones you aren’t.
Try it: Write your “not gonna do” list
Grab a piece of paper.
Write lanugo all the things you could do to market yourself.
Now, review the list. Cross off anything that gives you an ick-factor, plus anything you don’t have time or interest in.
What’s left? Circle the top 1-3 things that you want to commit to—for now.
(You can revisit this list at any time, but the firsthand goal is to get focused and get started.)
Marketing Lesson #3: Commit to a realistic schedule—for YOU.
Pop quiz. How often should you post on social media?
- Once a week
- Once a day
- Several times a day
Surprise! It’s secret option D: Post at the pace works for you—whether it’s regularly, or not at all.
It’s easy to squint at peers in the industry and think you’re not producing enough. But unless you’re trying to wilt a mega-influencer, you probably don’t need to post daily to engage or build your audience.
Tia focuses on content that works with her skills and her schedule.
Her rationale: “I figured if I took yonder the pressure of blogging daily or weekly, the creativity would naturally flow. I could take my love for writing and focus on making my newsletter largest and better.”
Tia’s strategy worked. She has an engaged following, and the metrics to prove it: Her typical unshut rate is 60 percent. (For reference, the industry standard is well-nigh 20 percent.)
The key takeaway
Resist the pressure to “keep up” with whatever other people are doing.
Simple and manageable IS an option.
Says Tia, “Choose your pace. Create in a way that works for you, that won’t add to your stress.”
Try it: The weekly whoopee list
If you want to make progress with your marketing projects, one option is to schedule the crap out of your day. Book time with yourself as you would an appointment, and don’t you dare unravel it.
That tideway might work for some people. But what if you need increasingly flexibility in your day?
Enter Tia’s strategy: The weekly to-do list.
At the whence of every week, she makes a list of all the marketing tasks she wants to accomplish.
Because it’s weekly, it’s less rigid and increasingly agile. Says Tia, “I don’t hold myself to a unrepealable day and time; I just tweedle yonder at projects throughout the week.”
Tia moreover suggests unescapable your list with realism, and compassion (i.e. expect that you’ll often have increasingly to do than you were worldly-wise to get done).
Also, be sure to include self-care on your list. Include things you want to do for yourself on the list, whether that’s working out, or going for tacos with friends. That ensures some stratum of work-life balance, and prevents burnout.
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Marketing Lesson #4: Your imperfections are an asset, not a weakness.
Remember how Tia’s clients would follow her out to the parking lot just so they could protract the feel-good convos?
They didn’t follow her considering they thought she was perfect or had all the answers to life’s mysteries.
They followed her considering she is warm, caring, funny, lanugo to earth, and (in Tia’s words) a little “rough virtually the edges.”
In other words, she’s Tia.
As humans, we relate to other humans: imperfect and messy, just like us.
“Truly, no one has it figured out, which ways I don’t have to come off like some pervading fitness and supplies guru-goddess,” says Tia.
“I can say to people, ‘Oh, I tried that recipe and girl, it burnt, it was a total fail.’ People relate to that. It moreover leaves me room for error, to be human.”
This might come as a relief if you’ve overly felt you’re somehow not perfect enough—or not fit enough—to be a coach.
But it can moreover be scary to be yourself. What if you get rejected?
That’s when Tia reminds herself:
“Some people will relate to me, some people will relate to somebody else. There’s a mentor out there for everybody.”
The key takeaway
Coaches often finger that to be taken seriously or seen as professional, they have to project a nearly flawless image. This feeling of pressure can lead to mega imposter syndrome.
But many clients unquestionably finger increasingly well-appointed working with a mentor who’s relatable rather than aspirational.
Says Tia, “I’ve learned that when you present your most pure version of yourself with just a little professional polish on it, people gravitate to you.”
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Try it: Find the commonalities
If you finger a tour of imposter syndrome coming on, try this exercise Tia uses surpassing creating a podcast or newsletter or meeting with a new client:
- Imagine your typical regulars member, client, or person you have in mind.
- Then, list out all the things you might have in common.
“I imagine the person I’m talking to. Then I say to myself:
Girl, you’ve got a significant other in your life, so do I. You have children, so do I. You have a job, so do I. Your parents get on your nerves rationalization they’re getting older and they don’t know how to work anything, so do I. You hate overpriced groceries at the grocery store, so do I.
I’m not that variegated from you.”
This exercise absolves Tia from feeling like she has to present herself as “better than.”
“I don’t try to pretend that I’ve unlocked some magic that gives me all of this fitness and supplies knowledge. I like eating Chipotle and Chinese takeout too. Not hiding that allows me to engage with people in a very human way.”
Marketing Lesson #5: Take a shot; it doesn’t have to be a slam dunk.
Starting any new endeavor can be intimidating.
But at a unrepealable point, you have to take a shot.
“When I first started the podcast, I was like, ‘What if no one listens? What if this isn’t the right move? What if it’s not well received? What if no one cares?’”
And yet (eventually), Tia took the leap. How did she do it?
“I tell myself, everything doesn’t have to be a slam dunk. Not everyone is Steph Curry, right?”
You don’t have to be the MVP to serve your regulars as weightier you can.
Also, alimony your expectations in check:
It takes time to build an audience, whether it’s an online community, a podcast audience, or a steady roster of clients.
Just like in nutrition and fitness, results likely won’t be instantaneous. But steady progress pays off.
(You might be wondering, “Okay, but how much does it pay off?” Find out here: Health mentor salaries: Here’s what you can expect to make in a year)
The key takeaway
In a world dominated by social media, we’re taught to think that success should be instant, that if we aren’t going viral we’re doing something wrong.
In reality, good things usually take time (and lots of iterating).
Allow yourself the grace to make mistakes, and alimony at it.
Try it: Segregate your metrics
How do you know if you’re making progress?
Track a few metrics that are important to YOU.
Here are a few things Tia looks for:
- Direct feedback. “When people tell me they like the newsletter and squint forward to getting it, I know it’s working. I can tell they’re engaged from what they say.”
- Email unshut rates. “To me, that is the cherry on top of the sundae. If I know people are opening it, that’s a good sign I’m providing something of value to them.”
No matter what metrics you measure, a few tips:
- Don’t worry well-nigh tracking things that don’t matter to your business. For example, Tia doesn’t sweat how many followers she has on social media, considering she’s not trying to be a viral sensation. Like Tia, you might not need a giant pursuit or a mailing list, just a dozen or two steady clients.
- Focus on resurgence rather than reaching specific numbers. Just like your vendee can’t tenancy the number on the scale, but they can tenancy their habits, you can’t tenancy how many people subscribe to your content, but you can work on doing things a little bit largest each day.
- Be realistic. Communities and relationships take time to build. If you alimony the long game in view and your expectations in check, you can build something meaningful and substantial over time.
“Once you remove the expectation that things are going to be instant” says Tia, “you unshut yourself up to all kinds of possibilities. That vein not only feels better, it works largest too.”
If you’re a coach, or you want to be…
You can help people build nutrition and lifestyle habits that modernize their physical and mental health, perpetuate their immunity, help them largest manage stress, and get sustainable results. We'll show you how.
If you’d like to learn more, consider the PN Level 1 Nutrition Coaching Certification.
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