Internet Marketing For Coaches

A few days ago I spent some time with a group of Coaches which I found really enlightening. I was talking to them about the way more and more people are turning to the internet to find solutions to their problems. How interesting it is that so many people now see the internet as their first port of call when they want information, to find out about services available locally or to research the people they are going to work with.

They all agreed with me that it is phenomenal the opportunities that the internet provides. So at that point I asked them what use they were making of the internet and internet based marketing within their business. All of them quickly told me that they had a website which was great to hear and they were all keen to share their website with me! I must admit they all had attractively designed websites which, to a greater or lesser extent, conveyed something of their personality. However, as I looked at them it soon became obvious that they all had a massively underutilised resource. Sure their websites all looked great but were they drawing in clients and what else were they doing online to generate new or potential clients? It was fairly obvious looking at their websites that they had been designed to be attractive to the passing visitor who they hoped might then take a further step and contact them through the email address that was displayed, on the all too often difficult to find, contact page.

I didn’t want to be too hard on this group of Life Coaches, Career Coaches , Business Coaches, Counselors and Consultants! So I started with a simple enough question. How many new clients or potential future clients had their websites generated? The answers? They didn’t know or they thought the answer would be very few. They weren’t even tracking how many visitors their sites were getting! The common response was they simply “didn’t have time for all of that internet based marketing stuff” and needed to be generating new clients by talking to people! At that stage I didn’t think it was worthwhile asking them how well they ranked in the Search Engines for the keywords related to their particular area of expertise or even their locality. I think that was decision was probably re-enforced when one of the Coaches told me that anyone looking for them by name would be able to find their website and my question of “So if someone was looking for a Career Coach in your area would they find you?” was greeted with a “hmmmph well …….okay point taken!”

So instead it was at that point that I referred them back to the start of our conversation - where we had discussed the immense potential that they internet offers for professional services coaches, counselors and consultants to grow and develop their businesses.

I did explore a little further and ask them what they knew about some of the following:

Blogging - great way to generate interest in your business and what you have to offer.
Online Networking through services like Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, Hubpages, Squidoo and many others.
Social Bookmarking to get people talking about your business
Email Newsletters - using autoresponders to generate a list of potential clients

The response to those questions was a stunning silence which with the expressions on their faces framed a collective “What???”

So there you have it from a small group it is obvious that so many Coaches, Consultants, Counselors and indeed others are missing out on a great opportunity! The reality is that throwing up a website isn’t internet based marketing! Turning round and saying “I haven’t got time for all of that online stuff” when you are talking about networking, generating new clients, building a reputation for excellence in your field leads me to ask the question posed in the title of this post - are you really serious about your Coaching Business?

Now, if you have got time or are prepared to take the time to really learn how to take advantage of the internet to develop your business - take a look at The Coach Today - and get a head start on your competition!

Tags: Internet Based Marketing, Internet Marketing for Coaches, Marketing For Coaches, Online Business Promotion

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Filed under: Business Networking Online, Getting New Clients, Internet Based Marketing, Internet Marketing For Coaches, Marketing For Coaches, Online Business Coaching