Niche Marketing for Coaches

The insider's guide to building a successful coaching business from scratch.

Are you considering a career as a coach? Have you started training, or are you already in business? Niche Marketing for Coaches provides a gold mine of information and blue-print for a successful coaching practice.

All the best coaching training in the world will not guarantee you a successful practice without that other vital component — focused planning and skillful marketing.

Marketing yourself as a coach requires specific skills. Hannah McNamara enjoyed a successful career in marketing before setting up what has now become a thriving coaching practice. So, she is uniquely placed to write this book.

Coaching is a fast-growing profession and clients have plenty of choice. Whatever branch of coaching you are in, good marketing is vital to success. But, as Hannah McNamara says in her introduction, "For new coaches who have not been in business for themselves before, and even seasoned professionals, it can be daunting to think about ways to start spreading the word about your new coaching practice and start attracting clients."

This practical handbook is the ideal one for you if:

• You're considering re-training as a coach
• You're already studying to be a coach
• You've just qualified and are about to launch your practice
• You're established but you'd like to have more paying clients
• You have little or no practical experience of marketing a professional practice

Here you'll find all the tools you need to identify your target clients, establish your own personal brand and develop a marketing strategy. It is packed with checklists, summaries and case histories which vividly bring the theory to life.

• Introduction
• The biggest taboo in coaching
• Marketing coaching is different
• Hannah's background
• About this book
• Comfort zones
• Wealth warning
• Get rich quick
• Assumptions
• Finding your way around
• Section 1 Getting Your Ducks in a Row
• One: Using Coaching Tools
• You already know the answer
• What is marketing?
• Product
• Price
• Place
• Promotion
• People
• Process
• Physical evidence
• The secret to effective service marketing
• The wheel of marketing
• GROWing your coaching practice
• "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail"
• SMART goals save you money!
• NLP techniques in marketing
• Marketing is rapport
• Modality in marketing
• Modeling in marketing
• Clone alert!
• Summary
  
• Two: Choosing Your Niche
• Niche coaching
• Niche marketing
• Maintaining variety in your coaching practice
• Niche coaching or niche marketing
• Niching online
• Mass marketing
• Getting the context right
• Identifying your own niche
• Don't panic!
• The next step
• Summary
  
• Three: Positioning
• Pre-launch
• Launch
• Maturity
• Summary
  
• Four: Pricing
• Your guilty secret
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs
• Here's another little secret
• Failure is not an option!
• International Coach Federation (ICF) survey
• How do coaches market themselves?
• How long does it take to start building a practice?
• How do coaches price their services?
• What is coaching worth to the client?
• How much do coaches actually charge?
• What can you include in coaching packages?
• How much should I charge?
• Who pays for coaching?
• Summary
  
• Section 2 Start Shooting Those Ducks!
• Five: Your Marketing Message
• Understand who you're aiming at
• Have a benefits-driven message
• Know your outcome
• A confused mind always says, 'No'
• Carrot or stick approach
• Increasing your success rate when talking about your marketing message
• The actual timing when you're talking to them
• Actually speaking to the right person
• Have you got an attitude problem?
• How to win clients and influence referrers
• Use your client's language … word for word
• The power of persistence and the reality of repetition
• Keep in regular contact with people
• Summary
  
• Six: Networking
• What is networking about?
• Asking for help
• Why network at all?
• People buy people
• 'Fake it till you make it'
• Types of networking events
• Formal networking groups
• Online networking
• Seminar/event networking
• Niche networking
• Networking with people you already know
• WAIT! Before you get stuck in…
• Hunting versus farming
• How do you approach people at business networking events?
• The elevator pitch
• Tell stories
• When should you exchange business cards with people?
• What if you get stuck with someone?
• Following up with people
• Asking for referrals on more sensitive issues
• Remember the context
• Networking nightmares
• How many contacts is a good result from an event?
• What should I put on my business cards?
• Getting referrals from your clients
• Summary
  
• Seven: Public Relations (PR)
• Getting featured in the press
• Be bold!
• Topical versus timeless
• What is 'news'?
• Volunteer yourself as a resource
• Be a big fish in a small pond
• Haunted press releases
• Broadcast media
• Following up your PR
• 'Show me the money!'
• Summary
  
• Eight: Public Speaking
• Getting booked as a speaker
• Improving your skills as a speaker
• Planning your talk
• Know your outcome
• Opening well
• Repetition, repetition, repetition
• Creating a buzz
• Getting permission to contact people
• Record your talk
• More about modalities
• Taking questions and answers
• Be yourself … really
• Is your image right?
• Summary
  
• Nine: Getting Started on the Internet
• Why have a website at all?
• How much does a website cost?
• What do you want your website to do?
• Getting the right keywords
• Use testimonials and case studies
• Tell people how to contact you
• Clients want to be coached by a person
• Does everyone know what coaching is?
• Should I include my rates on my site?
• Get people engaged
• Writing content for your website
• How much should I write on my website?
• Reinforce your call to action
• Getting the look right
• Colour
• The language of colour
• Style of writing
• How do you choose a website designer?
• DIY websites
• What's the difference between a website designer and a developer?
• Choosing a domain name
• Selling products via the Internet
• Getting people to look at your website
• You are still dealing with PEOPLE!
• Summary
  
• Ten: Other Marketing Methods
• How often should you promote yourself?
• Advertising
• Writing an advert
• Direct marketing
• Flyers and brochures
• Stationery — letterhead and compliment slips
• Newsletters
• Summary
  
• Eleven: Asking for the Business!
• Section 1 Individual clients
• What do you say?
• Price perceptions
• "I'd just like to have one session for now…"
• What if they're not my type of client?
• Getting commitment
• Getting the phone to ring in the first place
• Section 2 Organizations
• Sole traders (one person working alone)
• Small businesses (approx 2-50 people)
• Medium-sized enterprises (approx 50-250 people)
• Large organizations (250+ people)
• Negotiating your terms
• Summary
  
• Twelve: Creating Your Marketing Plan
• Coaching practice in pre-launch phase
• Coaching practice in launch phase
• Coaching practice in maturity phase
• Is your market seasonal?
• Key problems and challenges
• Planning ahead
• Networking
• Public Relations (PR)/Publicity
• Public Speaking
• Internet
• Advertising
• Direct marketing, sales letters, postcards
• Flyers, brochures, stationery
• Newsletters
• Delegation
• Writing a brief for your supplier
• Setting your marketing budget
• Summary
  
• Thirteen: Making It Happen!
• The Coach Files
• Suggested Reading
• Are You a Member Yet?
  

This is a very good book for people who set out to be coaches, but it is equally good for any sole trader or small company, that doesn't understand what marketing is about, especially in the service market.

It is well written, full of practical advice and a really easy read.

Unfortunately, the binding is so deficient, that the book falls apart from just opening it, so expect to deal with a lot of loose pages after the first read through (pity, I liked it and would have loved to re-use it).