According to a recent article by Forbes, nearly 30% of Americans are self-employed. With the sophistication of modern technology, more professionals are taking the leap to work for themselves and striving to make their dreams a reality. This means you’re in good company as a coaching business owner, and you should feel reassured that the goals you’re working toward are possible to achieve. But this also means that the competition is becoming increasingly fierce. It’s more important now than ever to stand out and make your brand shine.

We know you could sit down and make a list of one hundred things to do to grow your coaching business, but you only have so many hours in the day. That’s why we’ve curated a list of the top five ways to grow your coaching business right now. These are the most important and profitable ways to succeed that you can start trying today. Stay focused and you’ll start to reap the rewards in no time.

1. Produce And Promote Consistent Content

Publishing high-quality content consistently over time will organically grow your Google placement and SEO rankings, but first and foremost, your content exists to help your clients and provide them with added value. Let your stellar content draw in new clients and inspire your current ones with helpful tips, next steps, and recommended services you offer. Here are some tips to help get you started.

Create an editorial calendar

“Failing to plan is planning to fail.” –Benjamin Franklin

When it comes to your busy schedule, you know better than anyone that tasks you leave for “someday” or “when you have time” will just never happen. You have to make an actionable plan so that you can conquer your goals without getting burned out or completely stressed in the process.

To combat an overwhelming mountain of work, create an editorial calendar for your business using a simple template. Start planning one month ahead. Consider choosing a day and time each month for a content brainstorm to plan out what you would like to publish and when. Aim for at least two posts per month and space them out so that your content flow is consistent—you don’t want to spam your readers and followers with a ton of content all at once and then be silent for weeks at a time.

You’ll be amazed at how much more organized you feel after planning, and you’ll find your consistent production of content keeps your online presence fresh, inspiring, and authentic.

Hire a writer, writing service, or virtual assistant

If you don’t have time to write your content or you don’t enjoy writing, consider hiring a professional or service who can outsource the work for you. Just be sure that you clearly communicate your business goals, target audience, and style of writing so that your content feels authentic to your brand and is relevant to your clients, no matter who does the actual writing.

Schedule content creation time

Let’s face it – you’ll never really find extra time to write, so you have to make time if you’d like to do your own writing. Decide how long you would like to spend writing each week and block off a specific afternoon or even a few hour-long chunks of time you can dedicate solely to writing. Turn your phone on “do not disturb” mode, let your friends and business partners know you’re busy, put on an inspiring playlist, and write away. You’ll be shocked at how much you can accomplish when you’re working distraction-free.

• Bonus tip: Keep a notes file on your phone and jot down content ideas whenever they pop into your brain. You’ll probably get your most creative thoughts while stuck in traffic, at the grocery store, or in the middle of the night, so stay prepared and capture your bits of brilliance quickly.
  

2. Work On Your Reputation Management

The fast-paced digital world we live in is a double-edged sword. On one hand, your good reputation can convince clients to trust you after just a quick Google search and by skimming your website. On the other hand, a few bad reviews can quickly damage your reputation, and building it back up again can take a lot of time and effort.

Respond to all reviews

Keep tabs on all your reviews across all platforms and make the time to respond to them all, good or bad. When you thank a positive reviewer you are helping build your professional relationship with them and increase your brand loyalty.

When you respond to a negative review, you are showing that you care about your customer’s concerns and are willing to grow. If a review is particularly rude or uncalled for, you should still respond as others who are checking you out online will see your response and may be less likely to leave a rude comment themselves if they know the business owner will see their review.

• Bonus tip: Keep in mind that when you respond to reviews, you’re talking to potential clients that will read the reviews more than the reviewers themselves.

Ask for feedback

Reach out to happy clients and ask if they would be willing to leave you a review or even record a video testimonial that you can use on your website, share on social media, or include in a blog post or article. To incentivize your clients to take their time to help you, feel free to offer a discount on a future service with you in exchange for their honest feedback. Just be sure you aren’t paying for positive reviews, but rather providing a bonus to thank them for their time.

Increase your word-of-mouth marketing

There’s no shame in asking your loyal clients to share your business with their friends and family as long as you keep your requests friendly and not demanding. After a client has their coaching session with you, send a follow-up email with a thank you and a link to share with someone they know who could also benefit from your services. You can even offer a program that earns them rewards or discounts whenever they refer a new customer.

3. Offer Free And Valuable Content

Sometimes it pays to give things away for free! Offering free content for a preview of what you have to offer is a valuable way to generate leads, prove yourself, and build your contact list.

Prove your value

Use your expertise to create a short e-book, exclusive blog post series, video training resources, or specially-made templates that your clients (or future clients) would find helpful. Be sure to offer content that shows what your brand is all about and feels true to your mission.

Build your email list

Instead of simply having your free content available for anyone to download, consider emailing it to potential customers who sign up for your email list. This is a simple way to build your contact library that you can use later on and will also ensure that your content goes to people who are truly interested in it, instead of having it float aimlessly around the internet for anyone to see.

Try using a user-friendly method like Mailchimp Landing Pages to promote your free content, collect email addresses, and seamlessly deliver your content. (More details on Mailchimp below!)

Attract interested customers

When creating your free content, include a call-to-action for potential clients to contact you, ask questions, learn more about your business, or inquire about your services. As a bonus, you’ll have the reassurance that those contacting you have read and enjoyed what you have to say—how’s that for a promising lead?

4. Use A Capable Customer Relations Management (CRM) System

Keep your relationship-building efforts organized to allow you to optimize them to their fullest potential and build your audience effectively over time.

Grow relationships with Mailchimp

As one of the most user-friendly yet robust programs available, Mailchimp is ideal for both CRM and email marketing. If you’re looking for a simple way to create your website and track your transactions, you can build an attractive and user-friendly site with Mailchimp’s platform. One of the many benefits of conducting all your business transactions online, whether that's sales or appointments, is that your client communications will all live in one place. Additionally, Mailchimp will provide detailed reports and insights that you can study, learn from, and use to grow.

Organize and utilize your contacts

Mailchimp intelligently stores your contacts, their information, and a clear record of the emails they have opened, clicked, or unsubscribed from. Here are a few impactful ways to organize and utilize your contacts:

• Tags: Tag individual or grouped contacts with any indicators you would like. Examples include the events they have attended, where you met them, what their interests are, demographics, and more. Tags can only be viewed internally and can be easily removed whenever needed.
• Segmented campaigns: Put those tags to work by designing customized content to be sent to a tagged segment that would find the content most useful or interesting. By tailoring your content to particular groups of people, you’ll increase the relevancy of your content and will ultimately increase your open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.
• Automation: Save yourself time in the long run and keep in touch with your clients through automated customer journeys. How each subscriber interacts with the email they receive will determine which email they will get next and when they will receive it. You can create follow-up email campaigns specifically designed for subscribers who clicked on a certain part of the initial message.

With Mailchimp’s sophisticated features and all your contacts organized at your fingertips, the possibilities for communicating with your audience are seemingly endless!

5. Maximize Your Time By Hiring A Virtual Assistant

No one understands the scarcity of time like a busy business owner. When your plate is past full and close to spilling over, it’s time to call in one of our capable virtual assistants at Time etc so you can make your work life less hectic and more fulfilling.

Use your time and energy on what matters

When the time-wasters in your life are stripped away, you’ll be left with just what matters to you and the growth of your business to focus on. With our remote virtual assistants, you’ll reclaim much of your time and save money along the way. You could save up to 90% when you let us match you with a highly-qualified, dedicated assistant compared to hiring a full-time, in-house employee yourself.

Make progress on long-term projects

You likely have a list of projects on the back burner that stretches a mile long. With a virtual assistant, delegating focus your time and energy on all the ideas and projects you have had on pause while you were busy with lower-impact tasks.

Keep your passion alive

At the root of your business model is your passion for what you do – the reason you started your coaching business in the first place. With the help of our virtual assistants, you’ll have more time to get back to what you love and less stress causing you to feel negatively about the work you do. Keeping your passion is vital to the success and long-term sustainability of your business. Don’t lose sight of your vision!

Continue your growth journey

“If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” – Steve Jobs

Now that we’ve provided you with a focused to-do list, you can jump-start your productivity and begin taking practical steps to build your coaching business now. Whether you’re just starting out or building on your already fabulous momentum, these tips and tools should allow you to grow your coaching business and achieve your goals, one intentional step at a time.