Digital Marketing for Coaches: Guide to Market Your Business

Digital marketing for coaches can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re a beginner. There are a lot of different elements to consider, and keeping up with them can feel like a full-time job.

I’m a big believer in working smarter, not harder. I’ve used digital marketing to grow my own coaching business, and it’s had an outsized impact: I’ve grown my business, gotten a steady stream of new clients, and made extra revenue from my virtual summits and workshops (my first summit launch, for example, made $50,000 in revenue).

I’ve made some mistakes along the way, though, and I’m here to share what I know about digital marketing for coaches, no matter what niche you work in.

Let’s start by looking at what digital marketing is and why you need it.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is the promotion of products or services online. This covers a wide spectrum of channels, strategies, and tactics, including websites, social media, search engine optimization, podcasting, email marketing, and of course virtual summits and workshops.

For coaches, digital marketing involves building an online presence to gain new coaching clients.

How to Build Your Online Presence: The Basics

Getting into digital marketing can feel overwhelming. There are a lot of individual strands to think of, all building to a bigger picture. With coaching, you want your online presence to showcase your expertise within your niche, which is crucial for gaining the trust of your target audience.

Let’s go through each strand one by one.

Buy a domain name

First of all, you need to snap up your domain name. Your website will act as a central hub for people to visit if they want to know more about you, so it needs to be easy to remember.

I think using your own name as a domain is always a good call, but if you have a separate business name for your coaching services, you could go for that.

Most domains are fairly inexpensive, and you can buy them from websites like GoDaddy, NameCheap, or Hover.

Build your coaching website

Your coaching website should be easy to navigate and have the basic information clients need to find out more about you and your services.

You don’t need to have a super high-tech website or experience building one. Most website-building platforms make it easy to build websites around their pre-made templates.

I’ll give you a quick rundown of the main platforms I’d recommend.

Wix

Wix is a popular platform with an easy-to-use page builder and great templates from which to choose. Key features include:

• A website builder based around your chosen type of site (for example, blog, consultancy, service businesses, events, and so on)
• An intuitive web builder allowing you to switch out elements of your chosen template
• Scheduling tools to allow clients to book sessions via your website
• A mobile app so you can run your website on the go

Pricing starts from a free plan for personal websites to $159 for the Business Elite plan, which is good for basic eCommerce stores.

Squarespace

Squarespace allows you to build stylish, easy-to-use websites. Key features include:

• Strong, design-focused templates
• Integration with other tools like Dropbox, Zapier, social media platforms, and more
• Appointment scheduling and client invoicing tools
• Email marketing tools built-in

Pricing starts from $16 per month for a personal site, and up to $27 per month for basic commerce features.

Webflow

Webflow is a good platform for building responsive websites with powerful features. Key features include:

• Flexible web designer that allows you to build websites without coding
• Build ‘interactions,’ which are animations to make your website stand out
• Good SEO tools built-in

Pricing starts from $14 per month for a basic site through to $39 per month for a larger, more complex site. You can also use the free plan as a staging tool or for a personal or hobby website.

WordPress

WordPress is a popular platform that allows you to build any kind of website with excellent customization options. Key features include:

• A wide range of free and paid themes to choose from
• Good content management features if you want to write blog posts, etc
• Very customizable
• Wide range of plugins to create the website you want

A self-hosted WordPress account is technically free to use, but once you start paying for themes, widgets, and hosting, you’ll still have costs to think about.

Carrd

Carrd allows you to build a one-page website, kind of like a central hub that can link to your social media channels, contact details, and so on. Key features include:

• Design-focused templates that are easy to customize
• Responsive websites that work well on both desktop and mobile devices
• Free plan for up to three websites
• Includes form-building tools for clients to contact you

Claiming your company name on all social media channels

Now is the time to claim your company name on social media channels. This is because it makes it much easier for clients to find you on their platform of choice, and it helps to build brand consistency.

You can do this quickly and easily: just head to the platform and sign up using your business email address. You can worry about content later, but this is a good starting point.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a really smart strategy for coaches. It builds your credibility and makes your brand much more visible to potential clients.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is the process of creating content that you think your clients will find interesting or useful. This can be anything from articles to blog posts to videos to emails.

The content you create doesn’t have to directly sell your coaching business. In fact, it’s better if you’re not exclusively focusing on advertising your services. Instead, what you’re doing is drawing attention by creating content that offers real, practical use for your clients.

There are a lot of benefits for you, too. Your clients will start to see you as an expert within your niche, making them more likely to choose you for coaching services.

Types of content to engage your audiences

This is where you need to get creative. Think about what you know and what your clients’ pain points are: what’s holding them back in life, business, or in whatever area you want to help them with?

You can create content based on those pain points. For example:

• Long-form videos. YouTube is a great platform for filming tutorials or instructional videos. You can go as in-depth as you like, and step-by-step guides tend to do really well. You can embed these into your website, too.
• Infographics. You can provide information via infographics using a platform like Canva to create them. These can be shared on visual platforms like Pinterest and Instagram, and they also work really well on LinkedIn.
• Blog posts. Blog posts are a great way to provide information for your clients, and again, you can be as in-depth as you like. You can also write short listicles, which tend to be popular.

Making shareable content is a great way to grow your social media following (more on that later), give you a built-in audience to share your services with, and establish you as an expert in your field.

What channels should you create content on?

There are a few channels you can use, and I’ll take you through each one.

Your own website

You can also create informative, useful blog posts on your own website. This gives you content you can share on all your social media platforms, and also gives your clients some useful information they can browse through.

Plus, evergreen content (which means content that remains relevant all the time) is so useful to have in your back pocket to share again and again.

To give you an example from one of my clients: Jennifer Regular is an author and life coach, and she writes blog posts that appeal directly to her client base.

Other websites/blogs

You can also offer to write guest blog posts for other websites or blogs. Some sites offer payment, others don’t; you need to weigh up whether it will be worth your time or not. This is a good idea to get more exposure, followers, and backlinks, as you can offer specific advice and open up your wisdom to a wider audience.

How to create your first content strategy

Here are a few things to keep in mind when you’re coming up with your first content strategy:

• Decide how often you’ll post. If you’re posting on a blog, for example, you might want to decide on a weekly post, which will give you a schedule to work with.
• Write out a list of content ideas. You can then pull from these when you sit down to write or film content.
• Block out specific times to create content. Block scheduling is a great way to prevent content creation from being overwhelming. If you’re making video content, you could have one filming day a month, for example.
• Create ‘backup content’ you can use if your schedule gets interrupted. Life happens, and sometimes you can’t work for whatever reason. Backup content is useful to have in these scenarios.
• Use a physical or digital calendar. A physical calendar or diary just for your content strategy is useful if you like to have something you can flick through, or you can use the calendar on your phone. Alternatively, you can use a platform like Asana and arrange it in calendar view.

Best practices for creating a content calendar

There are a few things to think about when creating a content calendar:

• Leave room for trending topics. Don’t be afraid to quickly jump on something if it’s trending: ideally, most of your content will be evergreen, but if something comes up that people are looking for, creating content around that is a great way to gain a bigger audience.
• Create content in advance. If you can, being a few weeks ahead is a great way to take the pressure off and avoid burning yourself out.
• Set aside time for analysis. Take some time each month to analyze how your blog posts or videos have performed; this is important for future growth.

Free content marketing tools to help you expand your reach

There are some tools to make content marketing easier. These include:

• Canva – I’ve mentioned it already, but Canva is excellent for creating infographics and logos.
• ThingLink – ThingLink is a really interesting platform that allows you to create images with ‘hotspots,’ which users can hover over to gain more information. If you want to create informative content on your website, this is a useful tool.
• Hubspot Blog Post Idea Generator – Hubspot has a blog post idea generator, so if you’re stuck for ideas, this is perfect. Just type in a key phrase, and it’ll give you a bunch of ideas to work with.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing and content marketing are closely linked. There are a few things you need to know to get started.

What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing is using social platforms to market your services and build up an audience. Your content marketing strategy will flow directly into your social media strategy.

Types of social content to engage your audience

There are a few different types of content you could focus on:

• Instructional content. These can be in the form of long-form videos, short-form videos, infographics, or short instructional posts. They should provide your audience with useful, actionable hints and tips.
• Behind-the-scenes content. This allows your audience to get to know you as a person, which is important for building trust. You could show them a day-in-the-life video, for example, or take them with you as you plan a coaching workshop or similar.
• Fun posts to show off your personality. While it’s important to stay on-brand, people do like to get to know you. Posting the occasional image of your cat keeping you company while you work, for example, is a nice way to start up a conversation.
• Ads for your services. Don’t post these too often (I’ll elaborate on this later), but definitely signpost your audience to your coaching services.

What channels should you be on?

Here are the main platforms you have to choose from:

Facebook

Facebook has an active monthly user base of 3.049 billion. Standing out is tough, but you can use this platform to create a page for your services, which people can visit for information within your niche.

Instagram

Instagram has an active monthly user base of 2 billion users, and it’s a very visual platform. I’d recommend posting a mixture of infographics, short videos (known as Reels), and behind-the-scenes content so that your clients can get to know you.

TikTok

TikTok has an enormous 1 billion active monthly users, and while the future of the platform in the US hangs in the balance right now, it is, without a doubt, one of the most popular social media apps out there.

I’d recommend posting often on TikTok. You can post short little ‘bites’ of information, like small hints and tips, or ‘listicle’-style videos, which always do well.

TikTok has the advantage of being easy to use – you can just put your phone camera on selfie mode and start filming.

In addition, you can often get more mileage from your TikToks by cross-posting them on YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is good for particular niches. if you’re a career, business, or executive coach, you will want to get on there ASAP to reach your target audience.

LinkedIn is the ideal place for the infographics I mentioned earlier, which you can make on Canva. Short, optimistic, useful posts about how you overcame a particular problem tend to do well on LinkedIn, too.

Twitter/X

Twitter/X’s reach isn’t as powerful as it used to be, but I’d still recommend having a voice there. With a monthly user base of 368 million, it’s still popular, but it’s a little harder to have your voice heard there now.

Twitter/X is very much a conversational platform. How can you build on the conversations that are already happening? Retweeting, sharing, and adding to the discourse helps to attract people to your content and shows your clients your expertise within your niche.

Pinterest

Pinterest is a visual platform that is all about curation. You can create infographics, which tend to do well on Pinterest and curate them along with other user content on a specific topic. One of my clients, Sara Artemisia, uses Pinterest well:

The pins are useful and nice to look at, and they link back to Sara’s website.

YouTube

YouTube is perfect for long-form content. Think vlogs for a behind-the-scenes glimpse of your life, as well as instructional videos.

I’d recommend spending half an hour coming up with video ideas. What are the things your clients struggle with, and what content could you create to help them? Once you have a list of video ideas, you can flesh them out, arrange a filming time, and start the editing process.

YouTube videos can take a little more effort, but the content you create is very shareable, has a longer shelf life, and you can build a good community over time.

How to create your first social media strategy

It’s hard to know where to start. A social media strategy will help you to focus and concentrate on the most important tasks. Here’s what I’d suggest:

• Pick your preferred platforms. You can’t be active on all social media, so you need to decide which ones you want to focus on. You might pick Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, for example. Make sure that these are balanced: for example, YouTube takes a lot of time and effort, so your other platforms should be fairly simple to accommodate the time needed to make videos.
• Write down content ideas for each platform. You need a good list of content you can create and post. Ideally, you’ll have some ‘backup posts’ you can use if you’re pushed for time.
• Film/create content in bulk. I find it easier to make certain types of content in blocks that I can share over the next few weeks. Setting aside one day a month to focus on your social media could work well.
• Sign up for a scheduling tool. Platforms like Planoly, Hootsuite, and Planable allow you to schedule posts in advance, so you don’t need to be glued to your phone every day.
• Use a calendar. You can use a printable calendar or just use Google Calendars or similar to plan social media content for each day. This will help you keep track.
• Set aside time for analysis. Analysis is really important for social media growth. Once a month is enough to allow you to track the performance of your strategy and see how it’s landing with your target audience.

Best practices for creating a social content calendar

Here are a few things to remember:

• Use the 80/20 rule. A good rule of thumb is 80% useful content for ideal clients and 20% advertising for your services. People will click away if they think you’re spamming them with ads too often, but they’ll stick around if you give them good content most of the time.
• Leave room for collaboration. Collaborating with others is a good call. For example, you might want to link up with a company selling a product that works for your potential clients. If you can get them to share your posts, it opens you up to a wider audience. So, think about collaboration as you create your content calendar.
• Make sure to engage. If people leave comments, take time to respond promptly. This builds trust with your audience and lets them know that you see and care about their thoughts.
• Avoid burning yourself out. Running social media channels on top of running your coaching business is a lot; make sure that you set sensible limits and set aside phone-free moments in your life to get some rest.

Free social media marketing tools to help you expand your reach

There are a few free tools to make your life easier:

• Canva- Canva’s images can be optimized for specific platforms, which means your images will look good on Pinterest, Instagram, or wherever you’d like to post it.
• Planoly- Planoly allows you to schedule social media posts in advance, and they have a free plan, which is useful. Similarly, you can check out Planable and Buffer, which offer similar services for free.
• Linktree- Linktr.ee is a useful way to gather all your links in one place. This can then be shared on your social media platforms so people can find your content. You can use Linktr.ee for free.

SEO

SEO – or search engine optimization – can feel daunting to learn about. However, there are some basic principles that stay true even as the online world shifts and changes.

What is SEO?

SEO is the way you get traffic from search results in search engines. A good SEO strategy will push your website up the ranking in Google search results, for instance, and the higher you are, the more likely it is that people will see it.

What is keyword research?

Keyword research is the process of finding search terms that potential customers may type into Google if they’re looking for something within your niche.

You can use keywords in your content, which will alert search engines to the fact that your website is a good source of information on a particular topic.

You can use tools like SEMRush, which has some free tools, to find keywords. Keyword research is a good way of finding new content material to write or film, too.

When to use local SEO?

Local SEO is useful for allowing local people to find your services. So, if you offer in-person coaching, you’ll need to show up when people are looking for local businesses or services. Google’s algorithm for local searches includes a proximity factor, which allows Google to show the closest businesses or services to the user.

You can harness local SEO by:

• Doing local keyword research – like regular keyword research, you can use tools like SEMRush’s Keyword Magic tool to find what people are searching for. For example, if you type in fitness coaches in Florida, it comes up with results like ‘fitness coach Palm Harbor’ and ‘best fitness coaches in Gainesville, Florida.’ This gives you an idea of the kind of keywords you can use in your website content.
• Using Google’s autocomplete – you can do a similar thing by heading over to Google and typing something into the search bar. Using the above example, you can type ‘fitness coaches in Florida,’ and autocomplete will list a whole bunch of search ideas, including ‘fitness coach in Jacksonville, Florida’ and ‘Florida fitness coaches.’
• Looking at what your competitors are doing – you can also analyze what your competitors are doing to boost their local SEO game. You can do this using tools like Moz, which has a free trial you can take advantage of.

Best practices for on-page SEO

Here’s what I would say are the most important things to remember:

• Write useful content. Don’t just create pages with keywords: Google doesn’t like that, and neither do your prospective clients. Focus on writing helpful content and insert the keywords strategically.
• Use keywords in meta descriptions, title tags, and headings. These are the places to focus your keywords, as these are places that Google looks at to understand what your content is about.
• Optimize URLs. URLs should be simple and include your prominent keyword.
• Think about links. Internal links are good for keeping visitors on your page, while external links signal high-quality sources. External links, i.e. backlinks, help to show Google where your content ‘fits’ among other sites.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is another crucial element for coaches. I’ll talk you through how to get started, and it’s why it’s so important.

What is email marketing?

Email marketing is the process of attracting new clients to your business by providing them with interesting, relevant content in their inboxes, along with ads for your services.

For coaches, email marketing allows your client base to get to know you, see you as an authority figure within your niche, and understand how best to book your services.

Choosing email marketing software

There are a few different options here:

Beehiiv

Beehiiv is a design-focused platform that works really well for coaches. Key features include:

• Easy-to-use email builder
• Landing page builder
• Segmentation and CRM features
• Content creation tools

There is a free plan if you don’t have any subscribers yet, and then the pricing is from $49 per month up to $99 per month.

MailerLite

MailerLite is a useful platform with some good CRM features. The key features are:

• Good templates
• The ability to offer discounts and coupons to clients
• Segmentation and tagging
• Automation builder

There’s a free plan, and then the next one up is $18 per month. Users with a large following need to contact them for a quote.

MailChimp

MailChimp is a popular platform for email marketers. Key features include:

• Intuitive email builder
• Segmentation and tagging
• Client management features
• Free training for new users

Pricing starts from a free plan and goes up to $350 per month for premium features.

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign has some useful features for coaches. Key features include:

• Content creation tools
• Segmentation and tagging
• Decent analytics
• A dynamic content creator that is easy to use

Pricing starts from $49 per month to $259 per month.

How to create your first email marketing strategy

You need to decide what kind of content you want to send out in your email marketing campaign.

• Decide if you want to run a marketing campaign or a newsletter. This will determine the content you send. A marketing campaign will be much more focused on selling your services, while a newsletter is about building a community and sending useful information.
• Write a list of content ideas. Your emails don’t have to be long, so think about the knowledge you can impart and break it down into bite-sized chunks.
• Set aside time each month to work exclusively on your emails. Blocking time can be really effective.
• Try to get ahead of yourself. Ideally, you’ll want a few weeks in advance so that you don’t fall behind if an emergency happens.
• Plan seasonal content. When you’re looking ahead at your content calendar, look at what time of the year it will be and see if you can work relevant content into those emails.
• Think about repurposing existing content. If you’ve already got videos from a workshop, for example, you can chop these up and send them via email to save time (just don’t give it all away for free.)

Best practices for creating email campaigns

When it comes to email campaigns, you’re trying to get people to book your services. So think about:

• Creating interesting emails. Don’t just send a simple email with your basic services: make them funny, or interesting, or visually appealing. Learn the basics of copywriting, too. It’s a crucial skill if you want your emails to land well.
• Run intermittent sales or offers to entice clients. Consider offering money off for the New Year or a free 30-minute consultation on a first-come-first-served basis.
• Use segmentation to send emails to specific people. For example, you may want to send a discount voucher or a free consultation offer to the people who have engaged with your emails the most.
• Avoid spam phrases. Email providers may accidentally mark your emails as spam if they include certain phrases. HubSpot has a list of these you can check out.

Best practices for creating email newsletters

Email newsletters allow potential clients to get to know you, as well as link back to your services and provide useful information. There are a few things to keep in mind:

• Use the 80/20 rule again. Eighty percent of the content should be useful or engaging to read, and the rest should link back to what you can offer them in your coaching services.
• Don’t be afraid to show your personality. People will enjoy getting to know you.
• Repurpose old content for your emails. You can use older blog posts or perhaps videos from workshops or summits.
• Make sure your emails are on-brand. That includes logos and colors that match your website, so your emails are instantly recognizable.
• Create a lead magnet. A lead magnet is an incentive to sign up for your newsletter. It’s usually a downloadable resource, like a PDF.

Paid Ads

Paid ads are useful because they can widen your audience, but it’s important to learn how to do them well.

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising basics

PPC marketing is a form of advertising in which you accrue costs from impressions or clicks. So, the more users that see or click, the more money you’ll pay. You’ll choose a PPC platform (like Google Ads), select the ad and campaign type, choose your maximum budget, choose your bidding strategy, create your ad, and bid on the ad’s keyword.

So what does bidding mean, exactly? A bid is placed in a PCC auction, which helps secure your ad placement at the top of search results. So when you bid on keywords, you’re trying to secure your ad space.

Paid social advertising basics

The other form of online advertising is social ads, which run on platforms like Meta. Typically, you will pay the platform of your choice to run an ad, and they will display your ad to the relevant demographics.

Paid social ads can be images, videos, or text, depending on the platform and what you choose. It’s a good way of getting eyeballs on your content and services.

When to use one over the other

So how can you pick which one to go for?

As a basic rule, PPC is good for getting more people on your website and increasing general visibility. It is also the one to go for search engine prominence.

However, paid social ads are better for finding specific people and targeting them with ads that resonate with them. If you want to grow your social media channels, they’re an excellent option.

I’d say go for a mixture of both. It may take some experimentation, but you’ll figure out what gets you the best results.

Best practices for google ads

To get the most from Google Ads, I’d recommend:

• Using specific keywords. ‘Coaching’ isn’t going to get you very far, but ‘fitness coaching in Jacksonville, Florida’ is going to help the right people find you.
• Make your landing page shine. Your website should give potential clients everything they need to know, as well as an easy way to contact you.
• Make sure your ads are relevant. Your headline and content should match the keywords you’re using so that people don’t get annoyed with ads that aren’t useful to them.
• Work on your Quality Score. The Quality Score (or QS) is the way Google decides how your ads compare to others. You can improve this score by making sure your ads reflect the keywords, that the landing page is relevant, and that the ads are being tested regularly.

Best practices for paid social ads

Social ads are pretty different, so here’s what I’d recommend:

• Be creative. Social media users see hundreds of ads a day, so you need to make your ad stand out. You can be much more creative here, so take a look at how your competitors are doing it for ideas.
• Be personable. You can show your personality a little more in a paid social ad, especially in video format. So don’t be afraid to be funny and engaging.
• Optimize your content. Make sure your ads are created specifically for the platform in mind so nothing gets cut off. You can use Canva for this.
• Jump on trends. Trending sounds on TikTok, for example, are a great way to grab the attention of users.
• Offer closed captions. Closed captions make your ads more accessible and open you up to a wider audience.

Podcasting

Podcasting is another great way to get your voice out there and to show your expertise. You don’t have to host a podcast to make the most of it, either.

If you don’t want to start your own podcast, you can add yourself to the podcast guest circuit. You can do this by emailing podcasts within your niche directly or adding yourself to my service, Talkswhich helps connect podcast hosts to relevant guests.

Starting your own podcast

Starting your own podcast is great if you have a lot to say. It’s another chance to show your expertise, and you can collaborate with others by inviting guests to the show.

But it’s important to note that podcasting will take time, especially in the beginning. You need to make sure you have enough time in your schedule for it.

Podcast hosting platforms

There are a few main podcast hosting platforms to choose from:

• Podbean – Podbean is a popular platform with low running costs, so it’s worth checking out if you’re on a tighter budget
• Anchor – Anchor has excellent distribution tools, which will help to increase your listener base
• Acast – Acast has some great podcasts, and it’s mostly free, which is excellent
• Soundcloud – Soundcloud is another useful platform offering free services

Podcasting best practices

There are a few things I think you need to keep in mind when starting or appearing on a podcast:

• Go for a quality mic. Microphone quality is really important, so go for the best you can afford.
• Be consistent with posting. Listeners appreciate consistency, even if it’s just once a month.
• Get some audience feedback. Asking for reviews and feedback will improve your podcast and help other listeners to find your show.
• Make sure the topics interest your audience. This will also show your expertise within your niche.
• Be a good guest. If you’re a guest on a podcast, turn up on time, be personable, and be as helpful as you can. People will enjoy listening to you and want to find out more.

Podcasting example

I’ve been on several podcasts, and I find that it’s a great way to boost interest in my own online presence.

For my clients, meanwhile, podcasting has been a useful tool …

Virtual Workshops

I’m passionate about virtual workshops, so let’s go into what they are and why I like them so much.

What is a virtual workshop?

A virtual workshop is an online training method. You facilitate the ‘lessons,’ teaching your clients important tips they can use in their lives or careers.

Virtual workshop benefits for coaches

Virtual workshops have worked so well for me. I’ve launched dozens of workshops, selling over 1,000 of them between $27-97. From those workshop participants, I gained over 1,000 appointments for people who wanted to know more.

Essentially, workshops are a great way to get new clients. On top of that, it will give you evergreen content you can reuse and share later.

How to create your first virtual workshop

You can find out more about this in our Virtual Workshop Mastery guide, but here are a few things to get you started:

• Plan your content. You can break it down into sections to make it easier for your clients to digest.
• Create visually appealing content. This means getting onto Canva to create infographics and interesting images for people to look at.
• Choose your platform. You can use a platform like Miro, which is like a virtual whiteboard you can draw on as you teach.
• Decide on your pricing. You can look at competitors to see how much they’re charging.
• Build a good landing page. The landing page should show off your credentials, give guests a breakdown of what they can expect, and persuade them to sign up.
• Get the word out. Now, you can go ahead and start marketing your workshop, posting it on your social media channels.

3 Virtual workshop examples

To give you a few examples from my own clients:

Janine Bolon

We worked with podcaster and author Janine Bolon, who said:

“From my first workshop, several people joined my group and 1-on-1 coaching program. I intend to run one a month going forward, and I now use the workshops as my primary way of attracting clients.”

Coaches can learn from Janine’s example here. Running a workshop once a month is a great way to get new clients. Each workshop can be intimate, allowing you to have time with each person, which will build their trust in you.

Jennifer Regular

Jennifer Regular is an author and coach, and she decided to run a workshop after working with us. She says:

“16 people signed up for my ‘Confidence Builder Workshop’. I’m new to virtual workshops and only recently started my business, so this was an exciting time for me.”

Like Jennifer, if you’re new, you don’t need to wait to start a workshop. Start small and start building trust in those clients right away. Plus, the more practice you get, the better your workshops will be.

Philip Duncan

Author and business coach Philip Duncan also worked with us, and he says:

“From my workshop, I instantly brought in $6.5k in revenue and was able to drive people to book a call with me for my high-ticket services. I then secured another $10k the following week.”

That’s an incredible result. The thing to focus on here is the fact that Philip was able to drive people to book calls. That is something to focus on when you’re planning: how will you encourage your workshop attendees to sign up?

Virtual Summits

I’m also passionate about virtual summits. Here’s why:

What is a virtual summit?

A virtual summit is a way of bringing together experts to speak on a topic. Then, attendees register to attend these summits.

Virtual summit benefits for coaches

For me, virtual summits are vital. My summits have given me 5,000 to 25,000 new leads each time, and I made $50,000 in revenue on my first launch. Over the years, I’ve launched 15+ summits, hosting 400 speakers.

These summits are now evergreen, meaning I can sell them as digital products, too.

But it’s not just the revenue opportunity that is important here. These summits have helped me to open up my client roster, giving people an idea of who I am and the services we offer here.

How to create your first virtual summit

To get you started:

• Choose your topic. The first thing you need to do is work out what your summit is about and start to plan content for it.
• Find your speakers. Reaching out to speakers is the next step, and you can do this by finding experts on places like LinkedIn and Twitter/X.
• Record interviews. You can then set up interviews and record them.
• Build your summit. Once that’s done, you can record your parts and start to organize your content into a summit that people will enjoy watching.
• Pick your platform. Where will you host the summit? A good platform is Systeme.io, which has a lot of the tools you need under one roof.
• Decide on your pricing structure. Again, it’s a good idea to check your competitors to see what kind of pricing they’re going for.
• Make a killer landing page. The landing page needs to really sell the summit, so make sure you advertise your speakers, their credentials, and what people will get from it.
• Market your summit. Market the summit using your social media channels, and you’re good to go.

You can use my Virtual Summit Blueprint if you would like to learn more.

Virtual summit best practices

There are a few things to remember when you’re running a virtual summit:

• Set goals for both yourself and your attendees. What do you want to get from it, and what will your attendees learn by the end of it? This will help inform the content you’re delivering.
• Think about sponsorships. Sponsors can help you fund the summit in exchange for advertising their goods or services. If you do decide to use sponsors, make sure they’re aligned with your vision and useful to your summit guests.
• Think of the guest experience. Make sure there are breaks and moments to absorb what they’ve been learning.
• Collect feedback. Send out a feedback email after the event, or include a feedback form as part of the summit. This will help you to plan the next one.

3 Virtual summit examples

I’ll show you how summits have worked for my clients:

Sara Artemisia

Sara is a plant spirit wisdom teacher and coach, and after working with us to plan a summit, she says:

“Working with Liam allowed me to grow my email list by 5,000 people, to generate $1,000s, and pivot to a completely new niche in a few short weeks.”

The one thing I’d say for coaches to learn from this is to prepare for success. If you want more email subscribers, make sure you’ve set up your newsletter and that you’ve got a lot of emails ready to go to make the most of the opportunity.

Carl Cincinnato

Carl is the founder of the Migraine World Summit. He says:

“Before working with Liam Austin, I had a small community. Today, I have over 100,000 email subscribers. Liam provided the roadmap and support I needed to get to where I am today.”

Again, be prepared to host a new community of people following the summit. How can you follow up with them? Perhaps you’ll create a new Facebook group for them to keep the conversation going.

Bill Free

Mindfulness coach Bill says:

“This is the best money I have ever spent on a training course. The success of this summit is ten times better than prior to meeting Liam.”

It’s important to learn from people who have been there before. It can take time to get it right, but in any area of life, learning from others is crucial.

If you want to find out more, you can read our guide on How to Plan and Launch a Summit.

Key Takeaways

So, to sum up what we’ve talked about:

• Your digital presence starts with a domain name and claiming the social media handles for your business
• Content marketing can help to establish your authority within your niche and will lead to satisfied clients
• Social media marketing allows you to directly communicate with potential clients
• SEO isn’t as scary as it sounds, and knowing the basics is key for business owners
• Email marketing is a good idea to open up more lines of communication
• Podcasting is great, but you don’t have to run one yourself – you can also be a guest on other podcasts, too
• Virtual workshops and summits are excellent ways to generate more income and give you a steady stream of new clients

Want to go into something a little more advanced? You can read our guide on How to Create a Killer High-Ticket Sales Funnel That Converts.

Plus, make sure to watch our free training on how to get coaching clients.