Digital Marketing Plan for Life Coaches - International Institute Of Digital Marketing™

“If not now, when?”

http://sayingpictures.blogspot.com/2013/11/If-not-now-when-saying-pictures.html

“For a Good Life Coach digital marketing plan, you need to see your clients as complete human beings with all the dimensions real people have.”

There are times in a person’s life when they may be in a situation that is making them unhappy but they lack the motivation or extra push they need to help them create positive change in their life. Sometimes they are not even sure what it is that they want.

If you want start your own life coach business, keep reading to find out how to move the first steps with an organic and flourishing digital marketing strategy.

1. How did the industry developed; your Digital journey as a Life Coach Business

In the early days of human civilization, especially the period when they were very few formal schools, personal training has been in existence. Although it was only the rich and influential people in the society that could afford personal trainers or life coach at that time, but that does not in any way stop this very old profession from prospering from one generation to another generation.

As a matter of fact, the profession is transforming from one form to another which is why you can now hire a life coach to help you achieve what you plan to achieve in life.

Life coaches generally help their clients set and achieve their goals, especially now with COVID-19 a life coach can motivate people, help them find out what they want and inspire them to get there, in order to become peak performers in life.

Such goals can be relevant to a client’s job, personal life or interpersonal relationships; they provide counseling services to people in the areas of personal growth, relationship issues, career path and related topics.

The demand for the services of life coaches grows when personal or professional stress arises or intensifies, as well as under strong economic conditions. While industry demand is somewhat negatively correlated with economic health, severe economic contractions ultimately constrain industry growth because consumers are unable to spend freely on discretionary services.

The International Coach Federation boasts a whopping 53,300 members and is on a steady growth trend in the US.

Average income for life coaches ranges from $27,100 to $73,100, with specialty coaches commanding greater than $100,000 annually.

Growth projections for the life coaching industry are an estimated 6.7%, taking revenue to $1.34 billion by 2022.92% of life coaches remain active in the field, suggesting solid opportunities.

More and more corporations are hiring life coaches instead of mental health counselors to work in-house with employees.

2. Visualize the Mission

If a person is unclear as to what their goal is in life, a life coach can help them take a look at each area of their life. These areas may include: family, friends, health, career, finances, physical location, hobbies, and also their love life. By having the support system that is life coaching, the person can be more motivated and have even more ideas which will help them reach their goals.

The idea of life coaching is to define goals and work out how your client can achieve them. Whereas therapy analyses the past, life coaching looks to the future and how the client can fulfill their potential.

3. Generate Domain & Web-presence

Why having a webpage is Essential?

Because to be a Life Coach Counselor there are no state licensing requirements. This suggests freedom of practice, but also raises concerns about quality.

Therefore, to get the approaching client to trust your business and stand out from the crowd you need a place where they can easily find information about your services. What you provide and how, who are you, your vision, and reviews from previous clients to bring that extra credibility to your brand and could convert a visitor into a client.

Following two important platforms to create the pillars for successful business and digital boost!

Wix

Wix hold powerful reputations in the web hosting industry.

Wix is hands-down a leader in the market of browser-based, fully hosted, drag-and-drop site builders.

Wix is incredibly user-friendly, though you might pay a bit of a premium for the no-coding-needed ease of use, and totally Free!

Google My Business

Google My Business is one of the best and easiest ways to provide visibility to your Business so it can be found online.
With a few clicks, you can set it up totally free, list your business location on Google Maps and local search results and gain reviews from customers that already got your product/service

Google My Business is critical since the digital world is changing into a fast-phase buying model. more and more people buy online using their phones. They do little researches on the type of product/service they want to get, and Google My Business will automatically show first the best-rated and optimized business nearby.

4. Campaign tools & right Channels

Almost everyone wants to better himself or herself, but many people struggle to make significant improvements.

Life coaching business help people make the changes they want to see in their lives, whether those changes are related to their careers, health, relationships, or some other aspect of life.

A life coach is there to speak with clients about any issues the clients have, help clients set motivating goals for themselves, navigate through important personal and professional decisions, and much more.

A digital marketing plan is the solution to find your customer, engage with them, and generate business.

Considering which channels the company should use to achieve its strategy is important.

When understanding the right channels, it is important to understand the online behavior of your customers so that you are able to personalize their online experiences.

If you use your Domain and or Web-page one very important tool is Google Analytics because it allows you to analyze your traffic activity in terms of visualization (online customer behavior), and audience, which is the demographics that engage in your page.
if you use Facebook, then a useful tool would be Facebook Manager because it allows you to market and create ads to engage your customer by tailoring your campaign to specific audiences and follow the advertisement engagement of your audiences.

This gives you insights in what people like and what they do not like.

5. Infuse your Goals

Once you have defined your mission and got an idea of what and where to position your business, understand your audience and selected your channels, you need to set clear campaign goals.

Goals need to be extremely specific, as they will help you decide what explicit action plans you have to achieve them.

Goals can either be short-term (ranging between 0-6 months), or you can have a long-term goal (6 months +).

For instance, if you just started an at-home or online counseling, here is an example of what your goals may look like: (*disclaimer* this is purely an example for explanation purposes)

Short- Term Goals:

Within three months, I want to have 2 session per week.
Within four months, I want to have at least 100 followers on Facebook.

Long-Term Goals

Within 7 months, I want to have 3 session per week.
Within 8 months, I want to have at least 300 followers on Facebook.
Within 9 months, I want to make first rounded cycle of classes so that I could start offering coaching plans for a successful word to word engagement,

*Tip: make sure that your goals are SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely).

6. USP

“A unique selling proposition is a statement you choose to embody that differentiates your products and your brand from your competitors.”

Determine Your Unique Selling Point

Why as an entrepreneur I should go for it?

Find your strongest advantage and let the world know it at once.

1. Your target audience & their needs

Do you know your *buyer personas (Ideal Customer)? Consider what a great source of information your existing customers are. All you need is to ask them the right questions. You can start by contacting your “best” customers. You can even call them and get feedback on your product or service.

Another working tactic is to send emails to your customers and ask them to reply to some questions regarding their current life situation. Give them a coupon, a gift card, or a free Introduction session to motivate them.

This way you’ll discover what customer problems you solve.

2. Market research

Before you come up with your unique selling proposition, it’s a good idea to find out what else is available on the market. Do an in-depth competitive analysis. Notice what selling points your competitors are promoting, what the trends are.

The other thing you can do is find someone’s marketing researches and statistics. They can be helpful, too.

3. Prospect research

Check what is your prospective customers, or the ones who already purchased a similar product, are saying. If you see the same complaint repeats – remember it. It’s probably the key thing that can become your USP if you do it the right way.

USP is not necessarily about the product. Comments on delivery or customer service count, too.

4. Product research

Compare the existing products on the market with the product you are selling. Find out its advantages and disadvantages. Analyze the reviews on your own product. Try it yourself if you have not done it yet. Ask your family and friends for some honest reviews.

I know that you enjoy reading positive reviews but from the USP perspective, the negative ones are more valuable.

* A buyer persona is, according to HubSpot, a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer. It’s based on market research, actual data about your existing customers, and a few (educated) assumptions. It helps you to understand and relate to an audience that you want to market your products and services to.

7. How to find your competition

“By monitoring competitors on an on-going basis you get to know their behavior and so can start to anticipate what they will be likely to do next,”
(Cit. Arthur Weiss, managing director of UK-based Aware.)

Go beyond a google search. There is no doubt that any research project these days should begin with a simple Google search or visiting your competitor’s web page. However, either there is also a variety of tools supplied by Google or that relate to Google’s search results and AdWords campaigns that might give you interesting insights into your competition.

For example:

SpyFu: A great resource to research what keywords and Adwords our competitors are buying.

Google Trends: it is helpful when we want “to stay on top of the latest in [our] industry, comparing [our company] to others, and seeing where people who come to [our] site go.”

Google Alerts: We keep alerts for ourselves but also for all of our competitors to know what they are up to, (P.S. Don’t forget to set up an alert on your own company to see if anyone else is talking about you.)

Investigate their social network. Of course, given how companies are increasingly using social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter as marketing outlets these days, you might be able to pick up interesting facts about your competition–and maybe even your own company–just by tuning in. “In a similar vein, we track our competition by keeping a very close eye on review sites, such as Yelp and Citysearch. We scour through reviews to find mentions of our competitors’ deals, and then target that particular Yelper or Citysearcher’s other favorite businesses so we’re always one step ahead of the competition.” Even if your competition isn’t social media savvy, it’s a good bet that they produce newsletters–either e-mail or print varieties–that you can sign up for to get the latest and greatest news and updates on things like new products or services they are introducing and what events they might be attending.

8. Content to Inspire

“When people believe in you and your vision they will want to work with you and clients will seek you out”

Get Ready Understand how your content fits together be consistent on when and what you post.
Get Set Every piece of content on your website should guide action. That action could be completing an inquiry form, signing up for an event, spreading the word about your brand or subscribing to a blog (hint, hint).
Action Add a “Apply Now” or “Contact Us” button on your page, even if your content is informational, most likely you don’t want someone to simply read it and forget it, more likely, you want them to read it and take action.

9. Let the social Media Ebb and Flow your business

“Social media is, by far, the most inexpensive and effective way to help you reach your target audience.”

Effective Social Media Marketing Should Connect You With Future Clients.

Social media for business is NOT about “socializing” with people. It’s about targeting a group of future clients using social selling tactics.

The key here is to plan and be relevant.

So let’s cover the key income-generating activities that will help you getting coaching clients using social media.

Play Detective

Spend up to 30 minutes once a week in prospecting activities. My favorite places to meet high-quality connections:

Professional Facebook Groups: join professional groups and be relevant.
Instagram Hashtags: find industry-related hashtags and find conversations where you can leave “your 2 cents”
Instagram Locations: find people who live in your community. You’ll be surprised!
LinkedIn: once a week, take time to find new connections. 20-30 new connections per week can be a good goal.
LinkedIn Groups: just as Facebook Groups. Schedule time to engage with groups and you’ll be able to find rich connections.

How much time should you spend on social media each week?

If you’re efficient, 30 minutes per day is all you need. All you need is to block that time and pick a spot where you will “play detective” and find leads.

Getting More Followers

Instagram is my go-to social channel when it comes to finding connections organically. Facebook page is mostly for paid ads.

You want to grow your audience, which means more followers. But… more followers where? Pick one platform and go all-in.

10. SEO for a flourishing traffic

“building a website without SEO is like building a road without direction”

So you’ve built your coaching business, along with a professional website, great content and active social media channels, but you’re struggling to generate traffic.

Simply imagine you’re running a cafe that you want customers to visit, but your cafe is located in a tiny backstreet with no signs. Even if you make the best coffee in the world, no one’s going to come to your cafe in that street where nobody goes. Just like great location and street signs can lure new customers to a coffee shop, SEO is the key to success for coaches. If you don’t rank highly on search engine results for relevant keywords, it’s as if your business doesn’t exist. This means it’s unlikely new customers will discover your business, no matter how great your coaching services are.

3 tips why SEO for coaches is crucial for new customer acquisition:

-Increase traffic to your site: First and foremost, you should leverage SEO because you’ll increase the visibility of your site to potential new customers. Put yourself in the shoes of a prospective customer. If you were looking for a life coach in your city, you would type “life coaches near me” or “life coaches in City name” into Google. You’d take a look at the first few entries and select the one that sounds best to you. If your coaching website is among those first few entries, it will be discovered more often, and this will result in more people seeking out your services. You can utilize traffic tools to monitor the results of your SEO and watch your traffic to your site grow daily as you climb up the search engine rankings.

-Make the most of your content: SEO for coaches won’t kickstart your new customer acquisition singlehandedly. But – in combination with killer blog posts and a beautifully designed website, it could help you take your coaching business to the next level. After you’ve spent a whole day writing a detailed blog post about the hottest new approach to life coaching, or top tips for business leaders to maximise their productivity, SEO is a great way to make the most of that work by positioning it where people can actually find it. By incorporating specific pain points like ‘how chose what you want’ or ‘how to lean the perfect patteren’ as keywords in your content, you’ll see more return from all the hard work you put in.

-Increase your credibility: If your website ranks highly on Google search results, your business automatically looks more professional, credible and trustworthy. Since your coaching business is all about trust, building relationships and your personal reputation, this is gold dust for your coaching business. Say you meet someone at a networking event for Life coach professionals, and you tell them the name of your life coaching business for a potential collaboration, they’ll go away and look it up. If they can find your business straight away in one Google search, they can match your professional persona to an online business presence that seems established and credible too. This could then lead to more business leads and potential partnerships in future, generating new customers through referrals.