How to market your life coaching business without social media

I didn’t always know how to get paying clients into my coaching side hustle. In the beginning, I was ready to dive in but also full of thoughts like: ‘Why would anyone work with me when there’s so many other more experienced coaches out there?' I was wrapped up in thinking that the only way to get clients was with an Instagram strategy, but I didn't want to post on social media in case my work found out. I thought they’d think I was skiving & maybe even let me go. And what's more, I didn’t have the confidence to charge people. I’d only ever worked in non-sales roles, so the thought of asking anyone for money was terrifying.

So, I worked with people for free, which was fine initially, but sooner or later these ‘clients’ stopped attaching value to the sessions. They'd either turn up late or not show up, which made me feel undervalued and they weren’t getting much out of them either. But then I realised something, over the years in my corporate job, I'd built up a network full of people who might know people who wanted to work with me. So why was I fixating on Instagram, when I could be using my network to find clients instead?

Whilst social media CAN eventually be a really lucrative way of getting paying clients, but trying to learn how to sell on social media is like trying to learn a whole new language on top of starting a business. Plus, the fact that trying to grow an engaged following of people who want to buy from you can take time whilst you figure it out. I needed to work out what would work for me, my situation and my business, so when I finally figured out HOW to attract clients through my network alone, that's when my business really started to skyrocket.

How I got my first 6 paying clients without using social media

1. Decided on a starter niche: Because I’d worked in marketing for 15 years, I knew how important niching was. So, when I was starting out, I spent hours furiously trying to work out who the hell I wanted to work with. I had a couple of ideas for it, but I thought I needed to make that big decision before I could put myself 'out there'. But what I didn't realise is that it's perfectly OK if your niche changes over time. In fact, it most probably will. The best advice I ever got from my Coaching Academy mentor was to just start! Start with the barebones of a niche idea. Start working with people & your true niche will find you. So, I did that and then dug into the pain points and desires of my ideal client within that niche, to really start understanding how I could help them.
2. Created an ‘Beta Offer’: Next, to help build my confidence to start charging, I created a BETA offering with an introductory discount. This helped in three ways: 1. My mindset changed to be much more experimental and curious approach of just seeing what works. 2. I was able to be more experimental because the BETA positioning and the introductory discount meant your potential clients had far lower expectations. 3. My confidence grew because the no-brainer discounted price made it easy for people to sign up and got me testing out your services quickly. By starting with the problems my ideal client was facing, I was then able to create a solution that helped them solved them, rather than just something I wanted to sell. To work out my discount, I needed to find a pricing sweet spot that was low enough to make it a no-brainer deal for people to help me get working with as many people as possible. But it also needed to be enough to not completely devalue my services.
3. Did market research with my ‘ideal client’: Instead of blindly putting my offer out and hoping for the best, I decided to do market research with my ideal client to validate it. I got 5 people on Zoom calls and asked for feedback on my offer and also asked them questions to validate my thoughts around their pain points and desires. This not only gave me lots of insights that helped me improve the offer, but I also got a lot of confidence knowing that it was something people genuinely wanted.
4. Promoted it through my network alone: I then set myself a goal of finding 50 people in my network to send my offer to, in the hope that they would pass it on to their networks. I started by brainstorming all the possible people within various categories (friends, family, colleagues, people I knew socially, etc) and sent it to them, asking them to pass it on. 

And the result?

I landed my first 6 clients in less than 4 months from my network and without posting on social media. My first 3 clients came from my friends posting my offer on their Slack boards at work and my 4th was through my wedding photographer! And I know you might be thinking 'Well this sounds great Lauren, but I just don't see how that's possible for me’. But let me stop you there. I'm no different to you. I had no special skills that you don't, just drive and determination. You are just as capable as I was, so stop playing small.

If you are feeling inspired and would you like to have a coaching business you can run from the comfort of your own home, then join us on our Introduction to Life Coaching webinar - choose from available dates here.  

About Author:

After burning out and being signed off from her corporate job, Lauren Leopold realised she’d been in the wrong career for 15 years. At her lowest point, she had a lightbulb moment. What if she could use this experience to support other women going through the same thing? She trained to become a coach with The Coaching Academy on the side of her job. Now, four years later Lauren has quit corporate life to set up her own successful coaching business (Lauren Leopold Coaching) and hosts a popular podcast 'Quits & Giggles'.  She has helped launch and grow over 70 female-founded businesses that are changing peoples’ lives, from coaching to marketing to interior design.