If you’d like to market your coaching business with more ease and less overwhelm so you can finally get booked out with clients then this blog post is going to be so helpful for you!

I know how hard it can be to figure out a marketing plan that is simple, and that actually works – even more so if you don’t have loads of time to spare on marketing.

I’m going to break down a few steps to help you develop a marketing plan that is aligned for you, while also being effective.

Listen to this episode on The Wholehearted Business Show Podcast: Listen on Apple Podcasts / Listen on Spotify

Decide which forms of marketing you’d like to focus on

I like to think of marketing under four key areas:

Organic

Organic marketing is your non-paid, usually content based marketing. This can be further broken down to organic social media marketing – such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok etc, and organic search based marketing such as Pinterest, YouTube, your own Blog etc. It’s organic because you’re not paying platforms to share your content, rather you’re relying on algorithms or search engines to show people your content. I also put podcasting in this category, although it crosses over into collaborative marketing too!

Organic marketing also has other benefits as when you create good content you can also build the ‘know, like and trust factor’ – an essential for getting coaching clients.

Paid

Paid marketing is pretty self explanatory, it’s where we pay to have our content or other marketing material shown and shared on various platforms. There can often be crossovers here with organic marketing if we pay to share that organic content with more people. Whether it’s Facebook and Instagram Ads, Google Ads, Pinterest Ads etc, paid advertising is becoming more and more of a key part of marketing for coaching businesses of all sizes.

Collaborative

Collaborative marketing is where we work with others to be visible to their audiences and communities. This can look like podcast guesting, writing guest posts or articles for online websites, hosting or participating in a summit or bundle etc. I also add press and PR under this heading, as with a form of press feature you’d be getting in front of that publication’s existing readers.

In Real Life (IRL)

IRL marketing is anything you do in person rather than online – for example attending networking events, hosting an event, running a workshop with a marketing focus etc.

Choose your marketing focus

Marketing within any of these areas can be very effective – you just need to pick 1-2 areas to focus on to begin with that feel aligned and that make sense for your niche and ideal client.

For example you could choose YouTube (Search Organic Marketing) and take part in Bundles (Collaborative Marketing).

Do note that email marketing isn’t really marketing in the sense that marketing should be about new people finding you – email marketing is still very important but it’s more nurturing and sales than effective marketing.

I’d generally recommend going with at least one form of organic content based marketing because of all the benefits of having a foundation of that kind of content in your business.

In my business I focus on creating consistent search based organic content (using my Searchable Show Method ™) so I have a presence on YouTube, Pinterest, Podcasting Platforms and Google SEO via my Blog – without the massive workload this would usually create.

I also participate in Bundles and Summits, use some paid ads and I’m just about to host my first event Search & Connect.

Planning your marketing content

If you’re including organic content – which I would definitely recommend – begin by getting clear on your key messages as they relate to your niche, ideal client and the problems and aspirations you help people with.

Then you may wish to break these down to content themes, sometimes also called content pillars or buckets.

I then also like to look at content through the lens of attraction, connection and sales content.

When we create content ideas using these different approaches, we’re ensuring the content we create is strategic and better designed to help our businesses grow and attract clients.

Once you have some ideas then it’s time to make those into a plan.

• What will the content be about?
• Where will the content be shared – platform etc
• When will the content be shared?

Most people find some kind of content calendar really helpful.

Creating your marketing plan

Once you have a content calendar then you may also want to create some plans around other forms of marketing you’ll be doing.

Begin with the actions you need to be taking to show up in that area of marketing. For example, if participating in bundles is one of your marketing areas you’ll need to:

Create a small digital product (you’d want to break this down further as a project in its own right as you’ll need a sales page, a way to sell it, deliver it etc)

You might also want to create some swipe content to use for completing bundle applications.

Then you might have a weekly task of researching and applying for bundle opportunities.

You should end up with some planned out content, and some actions you need to take either as a project (something with a beginning and an end) or ongoing actions you take on a regular consistent basis and there you have your marketing plan!

Don’t forget to review it on a regular basis and actually look at the cold hard metrics that tell you if your marketing plan is actually working.

Next steps

If you’d like to market your coaching business in a more cohesive way with a Searchable Platform based approach using Blogging, Podcasting, YouTube and Pinterest then do sign up for Search + Connect to learn from experts in all these platforms on how to use them to grow your coaching business.

This approach really enables you to connect with others and share your personal brand ….

Next week is almost a part two because we’ll be talking more about what’s working now with marketing in the coaching industry

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