How do you get coaching clients online?
If you want to get your first paying coaching clients, this is for you.
Today, youāll learn the 21 best strategies successful coaches use to attract coaching clients.
With results like this..
Want to learn more?
Hereās how to get coaching clients:
1. Get interviewed on more podcasts
2. Use this strategy to get noticed in online groups
3. Land media features (with one simple tool)
4. Set up paid advertising in two steps
5. Get search traffic (and “free” leads)
6. Connect with clients on YouTube
7. Attract your dream clients on LinkedIn
8. Find the best guest post opportunities
9. Use your network to find clients fast
11. Get traffic from Pinterest
12. Build a highly converting email list
13. Get referrals (without being pushy)
15. Build an audience on QuoraĀ
16. Use Reddit to research your market
17. Create a webinar that sells
18. Find partners for joint venturesĀ
19. Use āP90Xā content on Twitter
20. Find affiliates who want to promote you
21. Get press by reverse-engineering other websites
Bonus: The 15-minute PROFIT method
The 21 best strategies to find coaching clients
You can find your first paying coaching clients much faster than you might think.
But the thing is:
If you try to master 5 strategies at the same time, you wonāt get far.
Choose ONE strategy and stick with it until youāve mastered it. (AKA have paying clients.)
How do you pick your strategy, though?
Ask yourself: Where does my audience hang out?
Thatās where you should be.
(If youāre unsure, ask them! Go into a few online forums and ask people what sites they like to use.)
Here are all the strategies:
#1: Get interviewed on more podcasts
Good for beginners: Yes!
There are podcasts that cover nearly every topic or niche out there.
And YOU can tap into an audience someone has already built and nurtured.
After all, podcast hosts want to talk to you.
You have something unique and valuable to offer because youāre an expert in your niche.
Early on in my business, I was interviewed on the podcast āSo Moneyā by Farnoosh Torabiā¦.
And that podcast made a big difference for me.
But, hereās the thing:
You donāt have to get interviewed on big podcasts to attract your first clients.
Instead of pitching big podcasts, focus on smaller, but engaged, audiences.
First, you improve your chances of getting interviewedā¦
And second, you get in front of people who are really interested in what you have to say.
How do you find those podcasts, though? Use these Google search queries:
- āPodcastā + ā[your keyword]ā
- āTop podcasts (year)ā + ā[your keyword]ā
Look at podcasts that publish content consistently and have less than 50 reviews.
Thatās your sweet spot ā theyāre small enough to not be overwhelmed with pitches, while they most likely have an existing audience.
Use this template:
āHello [PODCASTERāS NAME],
Iām [Your Name], and I [share something distinctive about yourself that highlights your suitability as a guest]. Iām eager to explore the possibility of being a guest on [podcast name]. Here are a few subjects I believe would resonate with your listeners:
- [Topic suggestion 1]
- [Topic suggestion 2]
- [Topic suggestion 3]
Would these topics interest [podcast name]ās audience? I look forward to your feedback.
Warm regards,
[Your Name]ā
(But tailor this email to your own voiceā¦People can tell if youāre using a template!)
Get the Ultimate Guide
for building a
6-Figure Coaching Business so you can achieve more freedom!
#2: Get noticed in online groups
Good for beginners: Yes!
Online groups are one of the fastest ways to connect and build trust with your potential clients.
These are social media groups on Facebook, LinkedIn, and industry-specific forums.
And theyāre huge.
For example:
200 million people belong to meaningful Facebook groups.
The best part about online groups is that you talk to people via actual conversations.
As a result, you build relationships in weeks rather than months.
But ā you canāt just āspray and pray.ā
Instead, start by finding groups.
On Facebook, if you type in your industry term and navigate to the āGroupsā tab, youāll find the same as well. Hereās a screenshot of the results I get when I type in āCareer.ā
The first group shown alone has almost 9,000 members in the group.
Now, most people will go into groups and promote themselves.
That wonāt get you far because people donāt know who you areāand your promotional posts wonāt resonate with them.
Flip it around and focus on building relationships instead of getting your next sale.
Thatās how I landed my first coaching client ā for two weeks, I helped her for free. Until one day, she said, āYouāve helped me so much and I can see how much value I would get from working with you. Iād like to hire you.āĀ
And I had my first sale ā a $5,000 coaching package.
You probably donāt need to help someone for two weeks for free.
The point is, by focusing on giving value first, youāll get there much faster.
When building relationships in groups, make sure toā¦
- Choose groups where your ideal clients are active
- Introduce yourself so they know who you are and how you can help them
- Give value to them by engaging in conversations and posting insightful content
- Showcase your expertise by answering peopleās questions and giving helpful advice
- Infotain ā build trust while being interesting and entertaining
- Engage as a person ā be yourself so that people will relate to you as a person
Want my guide on what content you should share on social media? Here you go.
After following the above steps for just a few weeks, your audience will know you and be ready to hear about your offer.
And you what that means?
When you share your offer, youāll actually make sales instead of getting crickets.
Next:
Get more media opportunities.
#3: Get featured in the media (with this tool)
Good for beginners: Yes!
Iāve been featured in publications from Inc and Entrepreneur and Bloomberg.
And these types of media mentions build a lot of trust.
But how do you get featured in the media as a completely new business owner?
Connectively is a fantastic service ā and it only takes 20 minutes a day.
You get 3x newsletters every work day with tons of media opportunities.
Those opportunities are posted by journalists and bloggers who are looking for article sources.
If your pitch gets selected, you get featured in their publication.
The best way to use Connectively is toā¦
- 5 minutes/day: Quickly scan the media queries
- 15 minutes/day: When a query piques your interest, craft and send your response
Letās talk about a more scalable strategy ā advertising.
#4: Use paid ads in two steps
Good for beginners: No!
Paid advertising is one of the more scalable strategies on this list.
I personally used paid advertising to grow my business to seven figures in my first year.
But while paid ads work, I donāt recommend them before you have at least a few paying clients.
However, if you are at the point where you want to scale, paid ads including Facebook or Google ads can work well.
That said, paid advertising is much more sophisticated today than it was a few years ago.
So you need to know your way around using ads before pouring money into them.
The steps to using them in the right way are:
Step 1: Create targeted ads
These days, you canāt use the same ad over and over.
Instead, you need to tailor your ads to your audience and constantly rethink them.
For this, you need two things ā first, enough time to keep on brainstorming new ad creatives (or a budget to hire a good, paid advertising agency to do it for you).
And second, you need to understand your audience well enough.
Step 2: Create converting ads
Great ads come down to two things:
- Writing compelling copy
- Creating attention-grabbing visuals
If you have these elements in place, your ads will work for you.
Want to learn more about paid ads?
Read my guide on Facebook ads for coaches.
#5: Use SEO to get “free” leads
Good for beginners: No!
A few years ago, I noticed something interesting.
Suddenly, I started getting far higher quality leads than before.
Turns out they all came from search traffic.
Before that, Iād recently started investing in SEO. And so I doubled down on this traffic source.
Fast forward to today and my traffic ā and rankings ā are one of the biggest revenue drivers in my business.
Hereās a quick breakdown of how SEO works:
With SEO, you optimize your coaching website so that it appears in search engines like Google.
When people find your website, they click through, and some of them buy from you.
Contrary to ads, you donāt pay for your traffic.
At the same time, 53% of all trackable website traffic comes from search engines.
But to grow your SEO, you need to blog consistently.
With your blogs, you target keywordsā¦And if your blog ranks for its target keywords, people find them when they search for things on search engines.
Thatās how you get traffic.
For example:
If you have a service page where you sell health coaching, youād optimize that page for a keyword like āhealth coaching services.ā
Butā¦
You also need to build website authority by building backlinks, links from external websites. They help Google trust your website and rank it.
Some of the easiest ways to build backlinks are to use Connectively, pitch podcasts, and write guest posts. (So by following the steps in this post, youāll get far!)
Want to learn more about using SEO to scale your business?
Watch my tutorial or read my guide on SEO for coaches.
#6: Create a YouTube channel
Good for beginners: No!
Video is one of the most engaging marketing formats.
In fact:
92% of video marketers say theyāve gotten a good ROI from video.
And I love YouTube! Iāve grown my own channel to a six-figure revenue stream.
However, to be successful on the platform, you need to know how to script, record, and edit videos.
These days, YouTube is a highly competitive platform and your videos have to stand out.
Not to mention that it takes time to build your audience on YouTube ā and get clients.
So, donāt start here unless youāre somewhat established.
But when you ARE ready?
Take these steps:
And get the right tools.
I recommend:
- Diva Ring Light ā this ring light helps you improve lighting when recording your videos
- Rode SmartLav+ ā a solid microphone
#7: Attract your dream clients on LinkedIn
Good for beginners: Yes!
141 million US users use Linkedinā¦every day.
For example, my students Emily and Anna, who are career coaches, found their first clients on LinkedIn.
Emily simply announced her new career coach side business on LinkedIn and quickly got a few paying clientsā¦
Similarly, Anna used LinkedIn to get her first career coaching clients.
A few ways to use LinkedIn include:
Direct messaging
Grow your network by connecting with people directly on LinkedIn.
But:
You need to genuinely want to connect with the people you reach out to ā and offer something to them first.
Publishing posts
Publish posts on LInkedIn to get in front of more people.
An easy way to start?
Tell your followers about your new coaching business.
However, your LinkedIn content needs to connect with people.
Always think: What is the purpose of this post?
Next, letās take a look at our next strategy:
Guest posting.
Get the Ultimate Guide
for building a
6-Figure Coaching Business so you can achieve more freedom!
#8: Find the best guest posting opportunities
Good for beginners: Yes!
Think guest posting is ādeadā?
Not so fast! Guest posting is still a good way to grow your business.
However, you DO need to focus on high-quality, niche websites.
Those websites have already built engaged audiences who are interested in your services. With your guest post, you get in front of them.
Take one of my guest posts on Business Insider. It got a lot of traction ā and a five-figure sales week.
How do you find the right opportunities, though?
Write a list of 10 sites or podcasts youād like to be featured on.
You can find them by googling:
āContributeā + āyour coaching nicheā
āSubmit guest postā + āyour nicheā
āGuest postā + āyour nicheā
Then, reach out to the website with this script:
āHi NAME OF EDITOR,
My name is (your name) and I am (include something relevant about yourself).
Iād love to submit a guest post to (name of publication). I researched topics that would do great on your site:
- Topic suggestion 1
- Topic suggestion 2
- Topic suggestion 3
Iāve previously written guest posts for (include a few sites if youāve previously written guest posts):
- Link to example 1
- Link to example 2
- Link to example 3
Let me know if these look interesting to (name of publication)?
Best,
YOUR NAMEā
#9: Tap into your network to find clients fast
Good for beginners: Yes!
One of the best strategies for new coaches?
This! Use your network.
You see, your network already likes and trusts you.
So theyāre much likelier to buy from you.
How?
You can send something like this:
āHey NAME,
Iām starting a new business that helps people withā¦.Ā
If you know someone who would be interested in this, please let me know.
Iām happy to offer them a free coaching call so that they can get to know me and start getting some great results.Ā
If theyāre interested, Iāll share more about how I can help them further, but if not, theyāll still get great value out of the free session.ā
Just to clarify ā this isnāt about making your friends feel pressured to buy from you.
For example, Emily and Anna, who we talked about above, posted about their services on LinkedIn.
They let their networks know that they were starting a business ā and got their first career coaching clients.
In fact:
This is the strategy I used to get my first career coaching clients.
Before I started my current business, I sold career coaching.
I had already helped some of my coworkers by giving them free career advice.
So when I started my business, I reached out to them and let them know about my new services.
A few of them signed up ā and I had a business.
#10: Market your business on Instagram
Good for beginners: Yes!
Look:
One in three Instagram users are more interested in buying something after theyāve seen it in an Instagram story.
It can be a highly profitable platform.
Especially if you have visual aspects you can show (such as health coaching before-and-after photos or recipes).
Take Cristina, a health coach, who found her first coaching client on Instagram.
Iāve personally used Instagram to sell courses worth a few hundred to a few thousand dollars and my $18,000+ mastermind coaching package.
To get clients on Instagram, you need to use the different aspects of the platform:
- Posts
- Videos
- Stories
- Lives
- Reels
Each of these content formats serves a purpose.
For example:
Stories show more of the ābehind-the-scenes,ā while Lives let you engage with your audience in a more direct way.
I talk more about using Instagram in my Instagram guide and here:
#11: Get coaching clients on Pinterest
Good for beginners: No!
Next up:
Pinterest.
If you produce some type of content (blog posts, YouTube videosā¦), you can promote those on Pinterest.
First, Pinterest has a ton of users ā 28% of people in the US use Pinterest.
And people use Pinterest to get inspired, so theyāre already using it to consume content.
The way you get traffic from Pinterest is by pinning pins that you link to your content.
When people click through, they land on your website.
Pinterest works, even if youāre not in a āvisualā niche.
My business is not in that type of a niche but Pinterest keeps driving thousands of visitors to my website every month.
Pinterest takes time to build, though.
So use this strategy when youāre at a place where you can scale your coaching business.
Whatās more, Pinterest can be automated. If you use a tool like Tailwind, you can schedule pins once a month and they are then published throughout the month.
But letās talk about a powerful strategy you canāt missā¦Email marketing.
#12: Build a highly converting email list
Good for beginners: No!
Early on, youāll get clients by building relationships with them directly.
But as you build your business, it becomes harder to spend time building those one-on-one relationships.
And thatās where email marketing comes in.
You see, if you only rely on building a following on social media, you end up building an audience you donāt really own.
But your email list is yours.
And it helps you scale relationships so that every time you write an email, you send it to all your subscribers. Way faster than individually DM:ing your followers.
However, while you donāt need a massive email list to get clients, it does take time to build one.
Thatās why this isnāt the strategy you should start out with.
But once you start building your email list, you can use these strategies to build it:
- Podcast interviews
- Guest posts
- Paid ads
- SEO
I talk more about email marketing here:
#13: Get referrals (without being pushy)
Good for beginners: Yes!
Why do people buy from you?
And thatās why referrals work so well. If someone has heard good things about you from someone they know, they are much more likely to sign up for your coaching.
Now, you could get referrals from family and friends.
But once youāve worked with a few clients, they can refer clients to you ā which can help you get a lot more clients for every client you find.
However, you need to be proactive about asking for referrals. People are busy and donāt always think about making those connections.
Send an email that doesnāt sound pushy or needy.
Get the Ultimate Guide
for building a
6-Figure Coaching Business so you can achieve more freedom!
A good idea is to offer a commission to incentivize referrals. (10% is standard for services.)
You can send them a script like this one:
Hi [Name],
I hope youāre doing well!
Iām reaching out because I know you appreciate the quality of my work, and Iām currently bringing on more customers. Space is limited, but if you know someone who needs [specific task], I would be happy to help. Iām offering a 10% commission for every successful referral.
Please feel free to pass on my contact info. They can reach me at [contact info].
Thank you!
Best,
[Your name]
Read more about getting referrals here.
#14: Use offline strategies
Good for beginners: Yes!
The other strategies on this list are online marketing strategies.
But you can use offline strategies, too, even if you offer coaching online.
A few ideas include:
Speak at conferencesĀ
Give talks at conferences. Look for conferences close to where you live and contact the organizers to sign up as a speaker.
One of my students, Ryan, has successfully used this strategy to sell his real estate coaching services.
Organize meetups
Another way to promote your services offline is to organize meetups and promote them in local Facebook groups, event pages, or Meetup.com.
Create your meetup around the goal your clients are trying to reach.
For instance, if you offer health coaching services, you could organize a cooking meetup for people who want to eat healthy, a workout group, or similar.
#15: Build an audience on Quora
Good for beginners: Yes!
Quora is a platform for questions and answers.
People ask questions and people who are experts on those topics answer.
Your answers can get a lot of views on the platformā¦
And some answers rank very well in Google ā leading to even more views to your answer.
The key is to write answers that are engaging (hook people from the start), complete, and give an āahaā to people.
#16: Use Reddit to research your market
Good for beginners: Yes!
Another platform for building relationships?
Reddit.
Thatās how my student Ruby, a relationship coach, got her first client.
Now, you shouldnāt go on Reddit to sell your products.
Unless you want angry comments and downvotesā¦
Instead, help people without the intent to sell.
Take Ruby ā she didnāt just go on the platform to share her program.
Instead, she asked if people would be willing to answer some market research questions in exchange for a free coaching call.
She wasnāt looking to sell, but wanted to understand how she could build a great program.
People signed up ā and one turned into a client.
To find the right threads, search for your niche on Reddit.
For example, if you search for āredditā + ācareerā on Google, youāll find an entire forum FULL of your ideal clients.
#17: Create a webinar that sells
Good for beginners: No!
Are you at the stage where youāve already built a sales funnel?
In that case, a webinar can help you increase your sales.
You see, webinars are a fast way to build trust with people without jumping on sales calls with them.
That said, your webinar needs to be structured and delivered in the right way.
So, how do you create a converting webinar?
Hereās what Iāve learned after having sold millions through my own webinars:
#18: Find partners for joint ventures
Good for beginners: Yes!
One of the best strategies to get coaching clients?
Find partners to do joint ventures with.
What this means is that you and a partner do a joint promotion, such as:
- A social media live
- Social media posts
- Webinar
- Email campaign
The person you partner up with should work with the same audience, without being a direct competitor.
In other words:
If youāre a health coach for women, you could partner up with a nutritionist who works with that same audience.
#19: Use “P90X” content on Twitter
Good for beginners: Yes!
I LOVE the P90X program.
Itās the only fitness program Iāve ever completed the whole way through.
And for good reason:
The results that build up over 90 days are out of this world.
In the same way, you can use the ā90-day ruleā to get clients on Twitter (X).
Essentially, you post every day, for 90 days.
Each post should be helpful to your clients.
Just like mine is here:
You build up your following over those 90 days a ā and attract your ideal clients.
Now, Twitter isnāt just for publishing content.
You can DM people, too.
If you see a tweet where you feel you can be helpful, reach out and offer value.
Thatās how you build relationships.
#20: Find affiliates to promote you
Good for beginners: Yes!
Next up:
Affiliate marketing.
This type of marketing means that someone promotes your coaching program and gets a commission for every sale.
Typically, a commission for services is 10% ā but it depends on the affiliate and your program.
I work with select affiliates who promote my programs. Iāll also occasionally do an affiliate promo if I love the program Iām promoting.
You need to find the right affiliates, though.
Look at other coaches or creators who you trust and who have the right type of audience.
You can do a simple Google search, comb through LinkedIn, or other social media groups to find the right affiliates. (Note: People with huge audiences will probably not be a good fit ā look for people with engaged audiences, even if theyāre on the smaller side.)
#21: Get press by reverse-engineering other websites
Good for beginners: No!
Early on in my business, I was featured on websites like Forbes and that really helped me build my brand.
My new coaching clients would often refer back to articles where Iād been featured.
How do you find PR opportunities?
Search for journalists who have already written about similar topics that you talk about.
So, if you are a health coach who helps people eat right, you could pitch journalists in the health space who have written about nutrition before.
There are a few ways you can approach thisā¦
Either Google your competitors:
āyourcompetitor.comā
And see what comes up.
Add publications theyāve been featured in to your list of publications to pitch.
Or go to your target publications and look at their most recent articles.
When you see an article that talks about your topic, click through on the journalistās byline to see what other articles theyāve written.
If they cover your niche extensively, reach out.
Note: When you reach out, always lead with value.
So, pitch an interesting angle that would likely help the journalist write a popular article.
Bonus: The 15-minute method to get your first coaching clients
Now you know how to market your coaching business.Ā
But what do you do with this information?
The easiest strategy is my PROFIT method, which makes it super easy to implement your marketing strategy.
You see, if you work a busy 9-5, you need to make it incredibly simple to market your business. And thatās what this method teaches you how to do.
Read on!
Step #1: Schedule 3 x 15-minutes of business time every week
The first step is to schedule your marketing to-doās.
Iām a strong believer in whatās in my schedule, gets done.
By scheduling your tasks, you are SO much more likely to get them done because youāve already committed to them.
Thatās what I did, too, back when I was building my business and working a full-time job.
Every day, I would schedule in 3 x 15-minute blocks throughout the day. (During commute times, lunch breaks, and after I came home from work.)
Over the weekend, I created content and took care of other more time-consuming tasks.
But during the week, Iād use my 15-minute increments to share my content, engage with people, answer their questions, and so on.
And thatās how you make it sustainable to build your coaching business.
But how do you actually get clients?
Thatās step 2.
Step #2: Identify potential clients
Letās talk about one of the EASIEST ways to sell your coaching services, using the trust and relationships youāve now built.
The Taster Technique.Ā
By now, youāve delivered value through one of the strategies we talked about. People know, like and trust you to some degree. That means you should have built up the āsocial capitalā to be able to offer to help members of this audience, for free.
And the easiest way to share your offer and get your first paying clients is by using the power of free assessments.
These are free calls where you spend 15 minutes helping someone with one problem to show just how much you can help them with.
And then, at the end of the call, ask if theyād like to continue getting more results by working with you.
Here are a few examples of free assessments that my clients have been successful with in the past:
- Meal Plan Assessment: āTell me what youāve been eating, and Iāll give you 3 easy changes to your diet to lose 5 pounds naturallyā
- Brand Assessment: āTell me about your current brand positioning, and Iāll give you 3 recommendations to stand out in your industry.ā
- Baby Sleep Assessment: āTell me about your babyās current sleep schedule, and Iāll give you 3 tips to help your child sleep longer through the night.ā
Hereās an example of a free Pinterest assessment
one of my clients used to get several calls
Hereās an example of a free Pinterest assessment one of my clients used to get several calls
Key Point: Solve ONE quick problem.
Make sure to solve just ONE quick problem for your free assessment.
You need to solve a big enough problem to show that you can help get resultsā¦
BUT you donāt want to solve so much of their problem that they think they donāt need any more help.
Think about these as āquick wins,ā not the entire solution.
Want to learn exactly what these quick wins look like? Check out Step 2 in this video I put together for you:
After youāve gotten people to take you up on these calls, hereās what youāre going to do to get paying coaching clientsā¦
Step #3 Get coaching clients fast after offering the āquick winā for free
At the beginning of the free call, youāll let them knowā¦
āHey Iām going to help you do this, and show you what more is possible for you. If youāre interested in getting my help to do more, weāll talk at the end of this session about how I can help you more, alright?ā
That way, you set the expectation from the beginning that if they like the āquick win,ā which of course they will, youāll talk more about how you can help them more when they hire you.
So those are the steps to get coaching clients fast.
My students have used these exact steps to get their first clients in just a few weeks, or even days, and I canāt wait to hear about how you use them to get YOURS too so that you can continue building your online coaching business.
There are two things you canāt skip if you want to get your first paying coaching clients quickly:
#1: You have to take the time to build those relationships before you offer anything. This will make it 10X easier for you to sell your coaching offerā¦ And your clients will be HAPPY to pay.
#2: You have to make sure that your free assessment is something that your audience truly wants.
And thatās how you get your first paying coaching clients.
But getting those first clients is the FIRST step.
The next is to build a sustainable coaching business that helps you replace your 9-5.
How? Thatās what youāll learn in my blueprint for growing a 6-figure coaching business:
Want to Build a 6-Figure Coaching Business So You Can Achieve More Freedom?
When you sign up, you’ll also receive regular updates on building a successful online business.
Read more:Ā