How coaches can use email marketing in 2021

Email marketing in an era of information overload.  I discussed this email marketing topic two years ago in the context of utilizing networking.  For many coaches especially, networking in a COVID world is in the virtual world.  Never has there been more of a need for effective coaching programs, and never has it been harder for coaches to get their message out.

There are two types of email marketing approaches that are a must for coaches.  I will cover them both in the context of what do coaches need to do in order to find clients in an era where networking is more difficult to utilize.

Know, Like, and Trust

I spent almost ten years working with BNI members to grow their business before the world changed last year.  BNI has taught for years that you need to get people to know, like, and trust you in order to buy from you.  For coaches, knowing means that your client knows that they have a problem that you can solve and you have an offer that might work. Like means that they like your approach to solving that problem.  Trust means that they trust that you can solve their problem.  You can not close a deal until you get to this point of trust.  I deal with the customer journey of know, like and trust as well as the last four stages in my customer journey materials on my marketing site.

Know and Like – Lead Magnets and Sales Emails

Lead Magnets are essential to start the customer journey for coaches. I provide an overview of lead magnets on my marketing site. Most coaches use high-value content in the form of an eBook, or a pre-recorded webinar to provide value.  I recommend that you create a variety of these lead magnets. Summarizing my previous blog entry, your lead magnet has to be great content and provide real value.

I will cover lead magnet creation for coaches in the next blog entry, next week. But it has to be something the client will consume.  If you are coaching overworked engineers and provide her an eBook on goal setting to gain perspective, you will not get her attention.  Your job at this point is to seduce them into liking your offering to solve their problem.

So, rather than giving her more information to further overload her, entertain her into believing that you and your style is the right approach for her.  A topic like five things women professional engineers can use to enjoy their career again is more on target.  And a title like – “Finding your Muchness again”:

The Mad Hatter: You’re not the same as you were before. You were much more…”muchier.” You’ve lost your “muchness.”
Alice Kingsley: My “muchness”?
The Mad Hatter: [Points to Alice’s heart] In there—there’s something missing.

Your content needs to help her find her muchness and re-claim her career.

The delivery of your eBook – moving from know to like

Most coaches figure, cool. Lead magnet -now, sell them my six-month program. Wrong, very wrong.

All you have done is get their attention.  You have a nice landing page – you get their email address and you get their name and you give them a cookie.  So, when they click on one of the links in your delivery email – you know if they came back to your site. How do you know that? For now, trust me, I will tell you how in the blog in three weeks on marketing automation.

The body of your email is very simple.

Thanks for your interest.  Here is your free gift. My name is Coach Alice and I want you to feel alive and excited about your career again, we really need you right now.

If you are like me, you are super busy. But here is a link to a short video (3 minutes) about how I work with my clients. I know some people hate videos. If that’s you, here is the outline form of this video so you can read it while your baby is sleeping.

Maybe you want to chat briefly about how I can help you. Here is a link to my Calendly scheduling tool, please feel free to reach out. The best way to see if we are a good fit is a virtual call at your convenience and mine.

Thanks again for working in a high-stress field and helping us to stay safe.

Signed Alice

The Sales  email marketing for Coaches drip campaign – moving from like

I will cover the Sales drip campaign in more detail in two weeks in a dedicated email on this important series.  Let’s cover the general flow. There are five more emails in your initial sales drip.

• Problem and Solution – acknowledge that you understand the problem and introduce your coaching services as a way to deal with the problem
• Testimonial email – a real client story about how you helped her do exactly what you would help this potential client
• Overcome the objection – this is you are probably too busy – or not important enough – affirm that you used to love your job, don’t you owe it to yourself to get that muchness back?
• Paradigm shift – this is super important for coaches.  You used to think that others were responsible for your happiness, now you realize that you are.
• Sales email – invite the customer into the story which is their story. Summarize your entire approach. Clear-cut call to action to sign up for a complimentary session.

We will cover this in the sales-marketing emails for coaches’ blog entries in great detail.  The campaign ends with this email. If they did not sign up they were not ready.  Yet.

The Nurture Email Marketing for Coaches Program

People buy when they are ready to purchase not when you are ready to sell.

The Lead generation download and sales campaign are simply – Hey,  I am serious about getting to know you better.

Your nurture campaign is a weekly or bi-weekly email that offers value to your customer and creates reciprocity – weekly tips, or perhaps for a health coach – weekly recipe.

Here are some ideas for email marketing for coaches:

• Weekly announcements (i.e blog – or podcast)
• Progress reports on a project
• Weekly tips – positions you as the guide – how to overcome those problems

Copy should be short or punchy – effective subject line and offers an ‘ad’ for another opt-in or offer.

I will cover this topic in four weeks.  To summarize, this post is an overview and covers the general flow and approach for email marketing for coaches.  Next week, I will cover the lead magnet creation and promotion.  Then the drip campaign.  Next is the Marketing Automation tool. and the last week is the use of the nurturing campaign. For an overview of my approach to coaching coaches to six-figure practices please see my coaching process pages. If you want to chat about my approach you can book time with me at Calendly. Or fill out the form below.

Enjoy

Image credits – Adobe Stock.