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BOOK EXCERPT
📖 20 Marketing Mistakes Coaches Make When Attracting Clients
Excerpted and adapted from 150+ Mistakes Coaches Make book by Bart Smith
Reprinted by Permission
Being a skilled coach does not automatically mean clients will find you. People need to know who you are, what you do, why you are different, and how to take the next step with you.
Marketing is what creates that bridge. When marketing is inconsistent, unclear, boring, or nonexistent, even talented coaches can remain invisible.
Here are 20 marketing mistakes from 150+ Mistakes Coaches Make that can make attracting clients much harder than it needs to be:
1. Letting the competition damage your confidence.
Your personality, experience, style, and perspective are part of what clients are buying. Stop obsessing over other coaches and get visible so the right people can discover you.
2. Not attending enough events where you can network.
Live events create opportunities for conversations, introductions, and even short 'speed coaching' experiences that can warm up prospective clients quickly.
3. Having a boring website, copy, photos, or presentation.
Generic messaging disappears into the background. Your website and marketing materials should communicate personality, clarity, benefits, and a reason to remember you.
4. Never donating time to causes you care about.
Charitable work can reconnect you with the service side of coaching while also creating relationships, credibility, visibility, and authentic community involvement.
5. Not learning how to use social media strategically.
Prospective clients often look online before contacting you. A thoughtful social presence can reinforce expertise, credibility, and familiarity.
6. Looking at marketing as miserable work.
Marketing can be conversation, connection, creativity, events, content, interviews, and partnerships. When you make it enjoyable, you are far more likely to keep doing it.
7. Making it difficult for clients to give testimonials.
Many clients do not know what to write. Help them by asking simple questions about the problem they had, the experience they had with you, and the result or benefit they received.
8. Not writing a book.
A book can strengthen authority, differentiate you from other coaches, create media and speaking opportunities, and allow prospects to experience your ideas before hiring you.
9. Not making videos about your coaching passion.
Video helps prospects experience your voice, personality, teaching style, and energy before a conversation ever takes place.10. Not filling your calendar with marketing activities.
Marketing should appear on the calendar just like client sessions. If you wait until business is slow to start marketing, you are always reacting instead of building a steady pipeline.
11. Not telling people what you do not do.
Clear boundaries improve positioning. Explaining what falls outside your work helps prospects understand your specialty and protects your time.
12. Not following up with prospects.
Do not assume interested people will remember to call. Follow up after meetings and conversations so warm leads do not quietly disappear.
13. Failing to disqualify the wrong prospects.
Not every prospect should become a client. A poor fit can create friction, stress, refunds, and wasted time that could have been spent serving better-fit clients.
14. Not letting prospects experience you before asking them to buy.
Free articles, short videos, sample sessions, audio lessons, webinars, and other helpful content allow people to understand your style and value before making a larger commitment.
15. Forgetting calls-to-action.
At the end of articles, videos, podcasts, presentations, and other content, tell people what to do next. A clear next step turns passive attention into leads.
16. Ignoring podcasting and podcast interviews.
Your voice builds trust. Hosting a show or appearing on other people's podcasts can demonstrate expertise, expand your network, and create evergreen marketing content.
17. Not using email autoresponders for follow-up.
Most prospects need more than one touchpoint. Automated follow-up helps you remain in contact without relying entirely on memory and manual emails.
18. Not using mobile tools to market and serve clients.
Phones and mobile apps can support lead generation, client engagement, content delivery, scheduling, communication, and product sales.
19. Not writing articles or working with reporters.
Articles, media mentions, and reporter relationships can strengthen credibility, generate exposure, and introduce you to prospects who may never encounter your normal marketing.
20. Relying on yourself to manually handle every reminder and follow-up.
Use scheduling systems, reminders, automation, or support staff for repeatable communication. Manual follow-up becomes unreliable as the business grows.
Marketing does not have to mean chasing people. Good marketing simply gives the right people more opportunities to discover you, learn from you, trust you, and decide whether you are the coach they want to work with. Visibility creates familiarity. Familiarity creates trust. Trust makes the client conversation much easier.
(THIS CONTINUES IN THE BOOK)
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