Marketing 101 for Business and Life Coaches
As a coach with 25 years in marketing I keep wondering why coaches don’t see how consistent effective marketing is with the best coaching offers. I know many coaches feel there’s something inherently misleading in marketing techniques and messages. You’ll be happy to know that’s false; good marketing does not call for any practice that’s seductive, misleading, or inappropriate for who you are and what you offer. So here’s something a bit different from the usual ‘how to’. I want to help you feel good about the practice of marketing. It’s a necessary activity for your business to thrive and if your feelings about marketing are negative – that it’s truly snake oil – you’ll subtly sabotage your efforts, ultimately failing your business.
We’ll review:
- 4 critical concepts necessary for effective marketing to occur.
- A magic question, the answer to which must always be provided
- The difference between features and benefits
Believe me, this is not rocket science. And, as coaches, we have a head start with these concepts – they are truly consistent with those we apply in our work with clients. My goal is to help you see that marketing is a coach’s natural ally.
What is effective marketing? I define it this way: communicating the availability of a specific benefit to the audience that has identified it wants that benefit. It occurs through a variety of events: identifying, attracting, selling and satisfying clients. And, ultimately it’s that last piece -satisfaction that a client experiences with your services - that will prove the effectiveness of your marketing. Because if you communicated the availability of a benefit to an audience that wants that benefit and they enjoyed that benefit when they purchased your services - you’ll have gained the most powerful weapon any marketer or coach can hope to achieve – referrals. And that means: no misrepresentation is allowed in effective marketing.
There are 4 essential components involved: customer orientation, focus, consistency and persistence. And it’s these 4 that are the hallmarks of effective marketing. Let’s review them now.
CONSUMER ORIENTATION
Did you ever have a friend or relative who's always reminding you of things they've done for you? Things they've given you? And one day, you reply with: "Hey, I never wanted ABC; I wanted XYZ!"
It’s a blessing to give yet if you offer what you want to offer, not what others want to receive, you don’t have a sale – you have good intentions! In marketing, as in coaching, it’s critical to hear what your client tells you is important to them and then communicate that you ‘get’ their priorities and respond to those in your marketing messages.
It’s wonderful to be poetic about the many specifics of your service offerings (a 5-step program you've developed or your e-zine) but unless you can answer one single, magic question “What's In It For Me?”, then who cares? Benefits are what your coaching clients want as a result of your assistance: the path to satisfying careers, the ability to find love, the key to understanding and satisfying needs, enhanced communication skills, more joy in their lives. Features are tools you use to help deliver those benefits: one-one coaching, tele-seminars, your CD set, an assessment, etc. Make it a habit to talk about desired benefits, not features.
Here’s an example: You meet someone, engage them in small talk and discover 2 important points that send your antennae way up - they're perfect for your practice! You start telling them about your training, your affiliations, your enjoyment working with clients like them. So what? Have you delivered a message that tells this person you get what they’re talking about? No – because everything you’ve said is all about you; not about them and that’s all that counts. A potential client doesn’t care if you’ve been coaching for 25 years or 25 minutes if you can convey your ability to provide a solution for them!
A more customer-oriented statement might be: "Based on what you've told me, I can say I have worked with 3 clients who faced similar challenges. Would you be interested in hearing how we created solutions?" This tells the prospect:
1. you’ve heard what they’ve communicated,
2. you’ve dealt with a similar circumstance and
3. you have a possible solution to their pain.
All very oriented to their specific sought benefit.
FOCUS
Now, to craft your marketing messages with a customer orientation, you need to know who your audience is. This is 'focus' for marketing purposes: knowing your target audience. Some coaches prefer to be generalists, serving a broad swath of humanity. Doing this dilutes the power of your marketing efforts and makes it harder for a prospect to believe you’re the right one for her/him. It also makes it harder to gain referrals (a holy grail of marketing) because your name does not immediately come to mind when an opportunity for which you’d be exactly the right match comes along.
In reality, you can't be all things to all people. Forget the business problem of this; think of your own integrity: can you really be equally useful to every prospect who comes your way?
The questions to ask yourself are: Who can I serve best? Who will I enjoy working with? What sliver of this 'coaching prospect pie' will be most satisfying for me? Who brings out my best work? All legitimate marketing questions and crucial to be true to yourself as any good coach will tell you.
The more focused you are on a specific market, the better you can serve that market. The smaller the market, the easier it is for you to research, understand and meet its needs. The added bonus is that it is also less expensive to find and market to a specific niche.
There are many niches out there and it doesn’t matter what you choose as long as:
- you’ve got the right credentials to have credibility for your target,
- you can identify the ideal client who conforms to your definition,
- you can find them through directed marketing messages.
CONSISTENCY
When we stand for something specific, we create an image to go along with it. If you are trying to reach a specific target, initially, they’ll know you ‘get them’ by the image you convey – your personal presentation, promotional literature, affiliations, placement and content of our messages. As coaches, we are the primary representation of our business and want to ensure what we convey is consistent with our message and consistent with who we are. Whether talking about coaching or marketing, consistency is an important part of enhancing the value of our service and the ease with which we connect with clients.
Therefore, when considering your ideal client, good marketing calls for you to examine who you are. Because, if you have to twist yourself to fit into the appropriate image matching the needs of your identified market, you’ll be uncomfortable, not believable and ultimately, not effective. Again – as true as this is for coaching, it’s just as true for effective marketing.
PERSISTENCE
If you’ve found your niche, and you know your messages and approach are all appropriate and consistent for your audience, the last element you need is persistence. Marketing, like coaching, calls for a relationship. It's an ongoing series of 'touches' that gradually shifts with a natural progression from stranger, awareness, willingness, intention, follow-through. (seem familiar?)
Just because you’ve got it all right, doesn’t mean people are prepared to buy – now. Timing is on the side of your prospect and something you cannot control (although you can influence it by minimizing risk attached to working with you). Therefore, persistence is key to making the rest of your work pay off. And that’s also why coaching requires time, support and commitment to work.
So, do you feel more comfortable with the idea of performing marketing on behalf of your business? Do you see the clear parallels with coaching? Believe me - if you'll stop being influenced by people who perform marketing badly (those cheesy, hard-sell messages you may have heard too many times) and consider what effective marketing is really designed to do - match up a bundle of benefits with an audience that truly wants those benefits - you'll discover a world that's not only consistent with coaching principles and intention, you'll discover a series of techniques that can help you succeed at what you love - being an effective coach.
| Andrea Feinberg, M.B.A., graduate of |
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