by Donna Gunter, The Online Biz Resource Queen (TM)
Whether you're a chiropractor, an exterminator, a carpet cleaner, or a professional organizer, you're amassed a great deal of information in your field or industry. You have two primary targets to whom you can market this information:
- to your client base in the form of in-depth or additional training or information about your topic area (a 3-hour health-oriented program for chiropractic clients, a 2-hour "ABC's of Organization" seminar for professional organizing clients, etc.), or
- to others in your industry who want to have the in-depth knowledge that you have (carpet cleaners want to learn how to clean tile and grout as an additional service offered by their business) or who want to learn your business secrets (7 Steps to Attracting Clients into Your Chiropractic Practice).
A coaching program is perfect for either offering. In a coaching program, your primary goal is to take your clients from where they are to where they want to be. So, if you're a professional organizer, your coaching program, which teaches professional organizers how to fill their practices, could easily target new professional organizers who are currently struggling to find clients. Get the idea here?
I've watched my clients develop coaching programs over the years, and I've discovered that there are 7 elements to creating a successful coaching program. They are:
1. Target Market: Who is your target market for this program? The ability to target a defined group of prospects will make it so much simpler to market your coaching program. Understanding key characteristics of this market, such as knowing in what professional associations they hold memberships, the magazines and newsletters they read, and the discussion groups to which they belong will help you "reach out and touch" this group on a regular basis. (Note: You can download a Target Market Interview worksheet as a member of OnlineBizU.com. Here's how you can get access.)
2. Your Niche. I define niche a little differently than others. I use the term niche to refer to the specialization you will use to reach your target market. For example, if you're a residential cleaning company who's had a great deal of success in building your business through referral marketing, then you'll want to create a coaching program that teaches other residential cleaning companies how to build their businesses fast by mastering referral marketing techniques.
3. Core Message. What is it that you do better than anyone else in the world? Where have you been successful? How can you best convey this information to others? The answers to these questions are your core message. Your core message combines your target market (residential cleaning companies) with your niche (referral marketing) along with the results you'll provide (have a waiting list of customers). So, in this example, the core message for this fictional cleaning company coaching program might be, "Discover how residential cleaning companies create a waiting list of customers through successful referral marketing." Sounds compelling, doesn't it?
4. Your System. Now you need to document your system that helped you get from point A to point B to point C. In a coaching program, people want to buy a series of steps or a system and they want to have some idea of what those steps are or what's in the system. That doesn't mean that you have to give away all of your program secrets in your marketing materials, but you do have to disclose enough information so that they can clearly visualize themselves going through that system to reach the level of attainment they desire. If you can give them a realistic number of steps over a period of time, (your 9-step, 90 day process, for example), you'll have a much greater chance of enrolling enthusiastic participants in the program.
5. Coaching Model. How do you want to deliver this program? Will you conduct group coaching sessions of 10 participants per group over a teleconference bridge line? How about an email coaching program in which you send out weekly lessons and offer to meet twice a month with your participants on a teleconference line to answer questions? Will you take only 1:1 coaching clients at a premium price? Or, will you do all three? There are a myriad of ways to deliver a coaching program. You need to discover the one that's the best fit for your style and will be most appealing to your target market.
6. Signature Coaching Program. Your signature coaching program is the one that emerges from combining your system with a particular coaching model. In the fictitious cleaning company coaching program I've been using, the signature coaching program might be, "Get More Clients Through Referral Marketing Coaching Program: 90 Days to Creating a Waiting List for Your Residential Cleaning Company." In the marketing materials for your program, you would further explain your 9-step process that is delivered in 3 group coaching calls per month via a bridgeline over the next 90 days.
7. Your Marketing Funnel. Once you've created your program, now you need to determine how it fits into the market funnel for this segment of your business, what your longer-term plans are for attracting participants into the program, and then selling them an advanced version when they complete your initial program. For example, for the cleaning company coaching program, you might get participants into the marketing funnel with a low-cost ebook or ecourse, with the upsell being the 90-day coaching program. Once they've completed that coaching program, then you offer to work with a limited number in a 1:1 setting at a premium price, or offer an advanced version of the program, which would take them to the next level. Or, perhaps you turn the 90-day program into a home study audio course and you offer a live version of the program only occasionally. You don't have to have all of these pieces mapped out to get started, but it's helpful to have a plan in place to help you market this program.
Adding a coaching program to your mix is yet another way to create multiple streams of income for your business. If you have found success in implementing a particular system, more than likely there's an audience willing and eager to pay you for your learning and experience.
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it: Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To claim your FR*EE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at OnlineBizU.com. Ask Donna an Internet Marketing question at AskDonnaGunter.com.
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