Since the advent of the internet, online coaching business is one among a whole lot of other businesses that have leveraged on this great invention and gone on to bless humanity. A meaningful, life-changing coaching in any sphere of endeavour is now accessible from anywhere.
As an individual, with a cell phone and an internet connection, you can work from home and coach people on just about anything. You don’t even have to leave your house to get started.
All you need is a laptop or tablet, along with some business know-how and some clients. Becoming an online coach may be challenging at first, but once you get past the initial hurdles it becomes rewarding and fulfilling in a way that few other gigs are.
We’ve interviewed dozens of coaches who conduct their businesses virtually — they’re all happy, successful people who love what they do! If you’re thinking about getting into the online coaching business yourself, here are steps to help you launch your own virtual coaching business with ease.
Decide What Kind of Coaching You’ll Offer
This might seem like an odd place to start, but it’s super important. You’ll need to have a clear sense of your niche before you can create a successful business. By niche, we mean the type of coaching you’ll conduct. What’s your area of expertise? What have you found yourself naturally drawn to? What skills have you developed over time? What do you know better than anyone else?
This is not the time to be shy or modest. You’re building your own business here. You can start small, but don’t underestimate your abilities. Think big! You’ll want to narrow your focus as much as possible. The wider your niche, the more competition you’ll face. The more specific, the less competition you’ll have to deal with.
Create a flawless coaching offer
Once you’ve got a clear idea of what type of coaching you’ll conduct and who it will be for, it’s time to create your offer. The offer is the primary factor in determining whether or not someone will become a client for life. It’s the promise you make to clients — the result they can expect to receive (more on this in a bit).
The most important thing to remember is that your offer needs to stand out from the crowd. You can have the best coaching in the world, but if no one ever hears about it, you won’t have any clients.
Write your ad(s) and find your keywords
There are two steps to creating your ads. First, you need to write your ads. Then, you need to find the keywords that will trigger your ads to show up in search results. For the first step, you’ll want to create a few ads (a minimum of three). Ads are what you use to drive traffic to your website.
The better they are, the more traffic they will drive. A well-written ad uses clickbait-style copy that’s specific to your niche and offers the reader a compelling reason to click. Headlines must be attention-grabbing, click-worthy and include your target keywords.
To find the right keywords to use in your ads, use a keyword research tool. For example, Google’s Keyword Planner or a paid keyword research tool like SEMrush.
Find the best places to advertise
There are loads of places to advertise your coaching business online. The trick is knowing which ones to use and where to find them.
Trial and error are the best ways to find out where your target audience hangs out. You may find that one or two places are your most profitable, or you may find that you need to spread your ads over several different platforms.
Create your online presence using social media
At this point, you’ve got your ads running and you’re starting to drive traffic to your website, but where do you go from here? First, you’ll need to have a strong social media presence on at least one platform.
This will help you establish yourself as an authority in your field and attract potential clients and referrals. There are loads of social media networks you can use.
Decide where your target clients are hanging out and create an account there. Avoid creating profiles on every platform out there, as this may end up hurting your business and wasting your time.
Inbound Marketing Strategies
You’ve got your ads running and you’re starting to get clients, but how do you keep your business growing? You could always try to acquire more clients one at a time, but it would take you ages. Fortunately, there are loads of ways to attract clients to you organically.
You probably already know about content marketing — creating valuable, helpful content for your target audience and posting it on your website, blogs and social media as well as various niche-related forums.
Tracking and Analysis
We’ve come to the last step in this guide to building an online coaching business. Hopefully your business is already taking off and growing. If not, don’t worry. Most businesses take time to grow, and yours is no exception.
You should always be tracking your progress and adjusting your strategy as necessary. This allows you to see what’s working and what isn’t, making it easier to make necessary changes and track your progress.
When you build your online coaching business, you are creating something that can literally last a lifetime. With the right amount of planning and effort, you can create a sustainable business that earns you an income and provides you with a sense of purpose.
Conclusion
Hopefully, after reading this article, you have a clearer sense of how to go about creating a thriving coaching business. Sure, it takes effort, but the end result is well worth it.
If you’re interested in coaching, but you’re not sure where to start, coaching is a great option for many people. Coaching is a lot like therapy in a lot of ways. You can help people solve problems, overcome challenges and live their best lives.