There’s a multitude of ways to promote your coaching business and a website is one way – an important way. Potential clients all over the world are surfing the net looking for a coach. If you coach by phone, you potential worldwide markets and a website is your shop window for the world. Here are some (non-technical) tips to maximise the Internet to promote your coaching business.

TOP TIPS

1. Surf the net and look at lots of coaches’ sites. Which do you like and why? Look at colour, font, the feel of the site and the content.
2. Start with a simple site – a few pages. If you’re not technically minded, hire a web designer or barter coaching for a basic website.
3. Make the site simple and easy to navigate.
4. Put yourself in the shoes of someone looking on the web for a coach. What are they looking for? What key words and phrases would they use? Make sure your content addresses their question.
5. Make sure your site really reflects you – that it is authentic – your photo, your words, the way you work, quotations you like….people who are attracted to these will be attracted to buy your coaching service.
6. Choose keywords and phrases and submit your site to as many search engines as you can. Search engine placement is a science in itself and you may want to pay for expert assistance. Some website designers offer this.
7. See the Internet as a great big networking opportunity. Look for ways to exchange links (these help with Google placement) and offer to write articles for other general websites and portals. Your reward is a link at the end of your article – people visiting that site click on your link and immediately jump to your website.
8. If you have a niche (e.g. coaching accountants) or particular coaching specialism (e.g. work life balance), surf the net and seek out portals and sites which feature your coaching specialism or which serve your niche market e.g. a website devoted to accountants. Offer to be their resident coach, answering enquiries from their members. This is a great way to raise your profile with your target market and again you’ll have a direct link to your website.
9. Over time add more content to your site – your articles, pages addressing your niche. Questionnaires or quizzes are good because they make your site “sticky” i.e. they make people linger on your site rather than clicking away to the next one.
10. In time your site can be the central plank of your marketing strategy, featuring your newsletter, promoting your talks or teleclasses, free downloads, books and CD’s that you sell…..the sky is the limit.