If they don’t get those answers, they hit the road and almost never return. They need to know that this is the site of a coach (expert, consultant, guru, etc.) and that there’s good advice that can be garnered.

And you’ve got to do this in 8 seconds or less according to usability experts. I’d guess this number is even lower. It’s those first few moments we scan the site to ensure whether this is worth our while or not.

Here are five tips for engaging people from the get-go:

1. Have a tagline with benefits

Taglines are great for expanding on your business name (which for many coaches doesn’t say much). Get benefits into your tagline to give people the thing they really want – the better life/career/health/etc.

Over at LinkedIn, I recently reviewed over 30 websites of coaches.  A good many are guilty of hiding the ultimate benefit. They often put that at the end of their business summary, services or about pages.

There’s a good chance that when you talk about your services you are doing the same – talking about benefits at the end. Try bringing those benefits out to the front.

2.  Navigation that gives an overview

Not only does your website’s navigation menu help people get around, a quick scan of it also gives them a summary of what’s available at your site. Take that opportunity to give them a good overview.

For example, if you’re a fledgling coaching business, you’ll have pages/sections like these:

• Home
• Free Stuff
• What I do
• My Clients
• Services
• Events
• Blog
• Articles
• About
• Contact
• Free Consult

Don’t include amorphic things like this:

• Freedom
• ABC Technique
• Your Best
• Discover
• Learning Center
• Reach Out

These things are too vague, and while they may have meaning to you, they mean very little to a visitor.

Instead, think in terms of what THEY want and structure your site around that. Then, as they get to know you , introduce concepts, services, techniques and offers. Gain their interest, desire and trust first. Then sell em – err – invite them to discuss coaching together.

3.  An obvious place to begin

If there is no obvious place to begin, we flounder around.

Home pages that are overloaded with stuff fighting for your attention overwhelm you and make you leave. Determine what your visitors really want and lead them on to it.

For many new coaches, getting them to opt-in to your email list, blog or other keep-in-touch strategy is the move. This gives you the chance to build a trusting relationship with them over time.

Whatever your choice is, make it big, prominent, and glaringly obvious.

4. Your photo and your title (aligned to the client)

You ARE a huge part of your brand. It’s you who your clients will be working with. It’s you who they will follow for support. And thus, you should be right there on the home page saying, “Hi!”.

Be sure to include your name and title next to your face so people know it’s you and know what to refer to you as.

5. A lead-in headline

People come to your site because they are hoping you can help them. Thus, you want to engage them in content that does just that -> helps them.

You could begin with an article, blog post, or discussion of the challenges you help clients overcome. This headline also ought to be focused on your visitor and the challenges they face or goals they want to attain. That’s what gets attention.

Summary

Remember, your site has a few seconds to make a great first impression. It must be clear what your site’s about, how to get around, where to begin – and of utmost, the big benefit to be gained. Else why should people stick around?

If you’ve noticed, LinkedIn has no signature feature – that is, they do not automatically put your signature when you make comments.

As a result, in order for people to discover your coaching website, they need to click into your profile first and then find your website link.

Hoping for traffic from curious passersbys doesn’t work well.

A better approach is to append your own sig directly to your comments.

Simply, put your own signature line after your comments or discussions.

Doing so puts your message right in front of those who are reading your comments. It reminds them briefly what you’re about and how to get to your website.

Here’s how mine looks:

Important notes

1. Your link. Be sure to include “http://” before your link or else it won’t be clickable.

2. Give a reason to click to your site. You may have a blog, articles, free audio or video, special report, assessment, or top-10 list.

Use an enticer to drive traffic. As you can see in my signature, I invite people to get my free report.

If you don’t have a site or handy article, then …

… simply put a juicy summary of what you do.

It could be as simple as “Learn how I help you free up 10 hours a week while getting more done” or “Helping busy professionals eat well, lose weight, and feel great!”

Be sure to highlight the benefits you bring!

One thing that sucks is that you have to type it in each time.

If you’re posting often, then writing your signature in each time could be a bit of a pain in the butt.

What you can do is write out your signature and save it as a text file on your desktop and then copy and paste it in when needed.

Another option, if you use Firefox, is to use this trick for quickly entering in your signature: http://lifehacker.com/text-substitution.

Also, don’t be annoying!

Don’t make your signature very long and your comments very short. This screams unprofessional. You’d be acting like a spa-mmer.

Also, if you’re making many comments within a single discussion, you don’t need your signature on every single comment. Go for the bigger comments – the more meaningful ones.

In summary …

If you’re actively seeking clients and growing your coaching business and hoping to make LinkedIn a viable source, then take advantage of your efforts and include a solid signature to drive traffic to your site.

Here are five common problems with designed newsletters:

1. Accessibility is poorer.

When you send a designed email, it requires coding to properly position the graphics.

The email program that people use to read email (Gmail, Outlook, Hotmail, etc.) needs to interpret that code to make the graphics show as intended.

Since there are a wide range of email programs (again, Gmail, Outlook, Hotmail, etc.)  out there and a wide range of browsers (Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, Chrome, etc.) that these programs run on and a range of machines and devices to consider (PCs, Macs, Iphones, etc.), the interpretation of the code is almost never consistent.

Thus, graphical newsletters end up looking like a mess.

People avoid messes.

2. It takes a lot of time.

A newsletter is traditionally seen as a small pamphlet containing many different writing pieces: welcome letter, article, tips, events, news, etc. It’s quite a beefy publishing to make.

This can be very time consuming for a new coach who may not be the best writer, may not have a lot of time to compile all of those elements.

Even on a monthly basis, many coaches have struggled to be consistent.

3. Costs are higher.

Designing a visual layout for your newsletter can take a lot of time to create. Or it can cost you money to hire a designer.

Even the designer might not be testing out that design on every browser, device, and email program out there to ensure a consistent display.

4. You’ll get blocked more.

Email filters review each piece of incoming email to determine if it’s junk or not. The filters look at the words used in the message.

In an attempt to avoid those filters, S.P.A.Mers will embed the words of their offending message into an image.

Thus, emails with images tend to get blocked more by filters.

Just think, how many emails do you send in a day that have images in them? Almost none. People use email primarily for sending text.

When you send a designed email, you are sending images and are at a higher risk of getting blocked by email programs.

Incidentally, you’re also sending code with those images, another common flag that can get your email message blocked.

5. Images are frequently turned off anyhow.

To move information faster, to preserve bandwidth, and to save on space, the often defaulted setting for many email programs is to NOT show images.

This makes sense because most email is simply text based. Think about emails you send to friends and colleagues.

Also, for people who have slow internet speeds, they often browse the web with images turned off.

These could be people in hills or mountains where high-speed data lines aren’t available. Or, they could be people using PDAs that don’t come with high speed access.

As internet access reaches more areas of the world on more kinds of devices the speeds will, at first, be slow.

I suggest starting out simply with blogging.

Just to clarify, when you blog, you don’t have to write about your Smurf collection or how you like Goji berries in your oatmeal.

A blog doesn’t have to be that personal and in your case, as a new coach growing his or her business, you shouldn’t.

Instead, focus your blog content on serving your market. Simply send out a helpful article to your email list on a weekly basis. This will ensure that your subscribers are more than happy.

When you blog, simply send a copy of that blog article to your email list as a text (as opposed to a designed newsletter).

If you do want a graphically enhanced newsletter …

If you do create a visual for your email newsletter, keep it ultra simple and just have a header followed by body text.

Keep the layout to a one column layout with your welcome message first, then main article, followed by promotional content, and then contact information at the end.

In summary, for new coaches with limited resources, go for a text-only newsletter (or blog article that you send to your list). You’ll avoid a lot of red-tape in your efforts to market to your list subscribers.

Just go here to get your custom URL. http://www.facebook.com/username/

Why do this?

Simply because shorter is better for URLs

A URL (Universal Resource Locator) is set of characters (all that the http://, www, .com stuff) that points to a “resource” on the Web. That resource can be a file, image or other.

When speaking about your website address it we often use “link”, “website”, “address”, and “domain name” interchangeably to refer to the same thing – a URL.

A simple, branded, clean looking and short Facebook URL makes things look clean and professional.

A shorter URL is always better for use on the Web because it’s less likely to get cut off in email messages, text messages, forms or other uses where spacing is limited.

Default Facebook page URL (BEFORE)

Custom Facebook page URL (AFTER)

Don’t worry, you’re old Facebook URL will still continue to work.

Once you set up your custom Facebook URL, your old longer, uglier one will still continue to work. Thus, you don’t need to go back and edit any places you have used your old link.

However, if your old longer link is used in emails messages (e.g. a newsletter), then you should go update them because email messages often get truncated which risks breaking up your long URLs into two links and messing them up.

Coaches love to “coach” and so they should. However from a marketing point of view, promoting “I’m a coach” isn’t very effective for many. It’s too amorphous as is “consulting.”

A step closer to better marketing is to pick a niche because you’re moving closer to the buyer and their needs. I’m a “relationship coach for busy corporate chics” or a “a business consultant for techies.” Nice because your market can be more intrigued by your message.

A step even closer would to be focus your coaching on a need – a need/want/must-have that is very important to people: health, relationships, overcoming something, etc. “I help techies triple their business while taking Mondays and Fridays off.” (Addresses the challenge of growing a business while freeing up time for tech-type businesses.)

Point being, even having a niche still opens you up to a wide range of challenges faced by that niche (or market, or target, etc).

Now, why this title of my article is bad (but also good).

I debated titling it Chew Thoughts on Niches but I know it’s a bad title.

It’s bad mainly because it doesn’t highlight a main benefit you’ll get. Maybe you’ll garner some deep wisdom and this kind of stuff is loved by coaches.

It doesn’t offer the possibility of putting you in a better place that you want to be like “finally solving the niche problem”, or “finding the perfect niche”, or “how to succeed without a niche” etc.

The title of this article with the part about why this is  a bad title does improve this article.

It adds the opportunity to learn how to write better titles.

It also, interestingly, just goes way the hell out of normal article titles by mixing two things that are not quite related but are related.

It’s different, quirky, odd.

What do you think? Did this article get you to click due to the title oddness?

I’d love your thoughts and comments.

• How important are they?
• How do you know if your pic is up to stuff?
• What makes a good pic?

Here are Ken Devory’s Before and Afters

Interesting to note how tiny faces get in various popular places

Here are a few:

One key element to develop in your business is your “list.” This is your list of potential clients and customers. It’s a list of people who have indicated interest in you and what you can offer.

Why keep a list?

Great question. Here are three solid reasons:

Reason 1 – To build your image as an expert.

As you grow your list and stay in touch with them, your image as an expert will grow. People like to hire experts and pay more for them.

Reason 2 – To build trust as people aren’t ready right to buy now.

Many people you meet won’t be ideal for coaching at the time you meet them, but may be in the future. Staying in touch by email can help you build trust with them so when the time comes in the future, they are “pre sold” on working with you.

Reason 3 – To get more referrals.

As people on your list get to know you, they will mention your name to others. And it’s very easy for them to forward your name on – just forward your email on to their friends.

And again, you don’t need a website to do this.

You simply add names manually to your email list and, over time, send them helpful articles or resources to support them in their goals.

You don’t need to have much material prepared either.

The great thing about growing your list this way is that you can begin by sending a new article, tip or other valuable resources as you go.

You do not need any prepared material to get started.  For example, each week you can write a new article and email it to your list.

Alternately, you could send valuable resources, educational videos, tip-sheets, hands-on exercises, informative assessments, etc.

In time, you’ll amass articles which can be compiled into an e-book or e-course and which can then in turn be used as a free giveaway, a proprietary tool for clients who work with you, or even a product to be sold.

In essence, you are building information assets for use in your business.

Here’s how to get it going NOW.

 Step 1. Setup an account at AWeber

Go to AWeber and setup an account.

This should take about 10-15 minutes to get the basics in place – your email address, creating a list name and description, and adding your physical mailing address.

 Step 2. Script out your verbal invitation to your email list

When you go to networking events, you will need to give people a compelling reason to get onto your email list.

You don’t want to just say, “Can I have your email address?” because it’s awkward.

In people’s minds such an invitation sounds more like “Can I send you more promotional email to your already overfull inbox that you probably won’t want?” – to which you’ll probably say yes to be nice although you’d wish you’d said no, and will probably unsubscribe or filter them away.

 Instead of asking for email addresses, invite people to receive value.

Instead try an invitation like this …

“It was great talking to you John. I regularly send articles and resources, about every (or 2 weeks, or month), to help people attain their desires, motivate them to action, and get past success blockers. I’d love to stay in touch with you by email. There’s no fee for being on my list, and if you would like this kind of support, just give me your email address and I can add you when I get home. Oh, if you find the information unhelpful, you can easily remove yourself anytime with one click.”

Then just smile and wait. They will probably happily say “Ok.”

Step 3. Add them using AWeber when you get home.

When you gather names and email addresses at networking events, add them via AWeber’s interface when you get home.

Log into AWeber and go to: Subscribers > Add

Enter the name and email and click “Add Subscriber”.

It’s easy and here’s a screenshot:

Once you click “Add Subscriber”, an automatic email is sent to the prospect asking them to confirm their email address.  This is called an “opt-in” message. It gives them the chance to first confirm that they want to get email from you.

Once they click confirm, they will automatically get your welcome message as well as future email messages you send out.

And you’re on your way.

Now on a regular basis, you send out articles, tips or other resources to your list to nurture them.

In AWeber, this is called sending a “broadcast.”

I recommend sending text only broadcast messages to start with as they are faster to create, have fewer technical issues, and are highly accessible.

Subscribers will see you as an expert and get to know, like and trust you more over time.

 Tip 1 – Follow up RIGHT AWAY with hot leads.

If someone you met is ideal for becoming a client, I suggest you follow up with them directly by phone or email and invite them to have a chat about their needs where you can enroll them into coaching.

Do NOT wait for them to contact you. Be proactive to prospects who are showing a strong interest in your help.

Tip 2 – Include an offer to explore working with you in every broadcast email.

You should let people know that you are looking to get clients.

Thus, in your broadcast emails that you send to your list, be sure to include an invitation to explore working with you at the end of the email.

Here’s what one can sound like,

“Struggling to make new changes for the better? Want to find more meaning and happiness in life? (or business, or career, etc) Then let’s have a 30-minute Reshape Your Life Consultation to help you uncover ways to make the changes you want. Email me back with your name, phone number, and a description of what you’d love your life to be like 6 months from now. ”

Tip 3 – As you amass articles, create a juicy giveaway.

In time, as you write more articles, create an absosmurfly scrumptious giveaway for those who say yes to your list.

I recommend a report or workbook that you can easily create and turn into a PDF for fast delivery.

This can be the last 8 weeks worth of articles you’ve written. If you can tie them into a theme, like “How to Crystallize Your Desires and Increase Chances for Success Five Fold”, even better.

Then, when you’re out networking, your invitation to your email list will be enhanced and could sound like this …

“Hey John, it’s been great talking to you. I’ve got a free workbook called, How to Crystallize Your Desires and Increase Chances of Success Five Fold. You’ll also get tips each week to further help you make things happen faster in your life. You can easily opt out of my list if you find the information unhelpful. If you give me your email address and I’ll add you.”

 Tip 4 – Go GOOF Up

Don’t sweat it if you goof up as you get used to doing this. It’s to be expected.

I’ve sent emails unintentionally. I’ve made spelling/grammar mistakes. They actually give you a chance to apologize and show people that you’re human.

The bigger mistake is trying to be perfect or worrying about making an error and then taking no action at all.

 In summary

In summary, if you’re out meeting and telling people about what you do, take advantage of those positive interactions and start getting people onto your email list with a nice invitation. Start building these the two assets: (1) your list of possible clients (use AWeber) and (2) your list of valuable articles – and you do not need a website to start doing this!

The discussion was titled, “Do you / should you / how do you charge for your initial consultation?”

There’s lots of great info and comments. It’s here:
http://tinyurl.com/3lavaog
(You will have to join the group first to see the comments)

I wanted to research deeper as to how I can help my coaching website clients improve their ability to get free consultations from their website.

Interestingly, I didn’t find out much to help me improve website conversions. But …

What I did get was a boat load of advice on how to do your initial consultation to get more clients.

After 47 comments back and forth, here are the main things I gathered.

Don’t do sample coaching sessions.

That is don’t do coaching sessions where you coach them on a challenge and help them walk away with action steps, etc.

They will be WOWed, thank you, and feel like they’ve got a lot to mull over and to your coaching they will respond with “I have to think it over”- and then NOT sign up.

Instead do “strategy session” or “enrollment session”.

Instead take the time to build the relationship, see if there’s a good fit, and if so, make an appealing offer to sign up for a coaching package (not a free sample session).

How to make an appealing offer wasn’t covered at great length – a conversation for another day (in fact, I’ve made a note to fire up this question in two weeks so stay tuned).

For newer coaches, focus on doing as many of these as you can for both getting clients and getting practice.

They are short, 20-30 minutes.

Many coaches don’t charge for the strategy session.

One reason is that for many coaches, people have no idea what you do. So it’s tough to try to get them to pay for that. You’re better off talking to them to see what their situation is like, assess fit, and then offer a coaching program or your services in some structured manner.

Another reason not to charge is that you are new without many clients and you want to do as many practice enrollments as possible.

When you have the strategy session, here are some tips.

Uncover hidden pains. Find out what the real pain is. How life would be if they stayed where they are right now.

Find out how painful this is. Do they have real pains that need to be dealt with? If not, they may not be willing to invest and there may not be much to help them with. Dig deeper or move on.

Create a compelling vision. Help them clarify what they want to get in the future.

Are they a fit? Assess if they would be an ideal coaching client for you.

Present your solution. When you explain how your coaching works tell them the benefits such as helping them learn new things, helping them remove blocks, etc.

(Again, I’ve made a note to investigate this more in two weeks)

For newer coaches, my strategies for implementing this on your website would be:

1. Offer a free strategy session of 20-30 minutes in which you will discuss their situation, their desires, what’s working and what’s not working.
2. Have them email you with answers to questions on your form so you can start to learn about them and before the call.
3. Outline what’s in that discussion. For example:  how long, what you do during.
4. Make the invitation to this strategy call very accessible.
5. Put a link in the main menu and a sidebar box as well to further highlight your free strategy call offer.
6. Let them know this call is to see if there’s a fit and see if you can help them. If so, you can further discuss how you two might work together.

What are you doing when it comes to your initial consultation?

Are you offering free coaching? Are you charging? How is your website invitation looking?

It’s because the traffic you get are people who want what you have. They are actively seeking help. They are qualified – often highly qualified.

However, getting those rankings can be tough. There are loads of strategies, ideas, theories and the lot. Many work. Many don’t. Figuring out which works is the trick.

So, how do you figure out what works and what doesn’t? Try this.

The golden rule I like to fall back on when I tell clients who are seeking quick trips to the top or who are wondering where to put keywords is this…

Realize that search engines don’t want to give their users bad results, otherwise the search engines will be less used. Therefore, if Strategy X (whatever you’re contemplating) WILL HELP search engines bring about better results for their users, then it’s probably a good move.

On the flip-side, if Strategy Y is one that DOES NOT HELP search engines give better results, then it’s probably a bad move. Be wary.

Example 1 – Writing an article about healthy eating for your dog.

Is this a good strategy for increasing rankings? You bet, because search engines will be able to give good value to their users who search for “healthy eating for dogs”.

Example 2 – Putting keywords all over a page with the phrase “healthy eating for dogs.”

It’s too easy to just litter your page with this phrase and such a page becomes annoying and unreadable. Therefore search engines do not like this – and more so will penalize your page or site as a spammer (or abuser, etc.).

Example 3 – Paying $100/month to get high rankings.

Unless the service you’re paying for is building search-friendly content and links that are of value to people, then it might be worth it. However, if you have no idea what they are doing and they are doing “tricks” or things that don’t intrinsically help search engines give their users good results, then you’d best avoid them.

So to summarize, realize that, in the eyes of search engines, the sites that are most relevant and useful are the ones that go to the top. Then make sure your strategy is in line with that.

Questions for you

Got a strategy you’re using that’s working like gold? About to try something you’re not sure about?

I’m curious, please post it below.

Here are two great articles I ran across at my first perusing.

Article 1, The Seven Stages of Practice Building – What it really takes to build your ideal coaching business, by Brian Whetten, MA, PhD.

The article talks about the seven stages and how coaches tend to go through stages 1-3 and then jump to 6 & 7, without going through 4 & 5. And as a result, they struggle to reach a sustainable income levels of over $45,000.

Stages 1-3 talk about student life – before you go pro.

Stages 4 & 5 are about having a practice – becoming a master at working directly with clients.

Stages 6 & 7 are about becoming a leader.

What I find fascinating is how it explains why many coaches fail due to little support in stages 4 & 5.

In stages 4 & 5 you make an income you can survive on – again, the $45,000 mark. And then eventually increase that up to something more substantial such as $100,000. In these two stages you’re primarily working with clients as opposed to selling products or doing affiliate programs.

You may see a lot of advice on creating membership sites, writing ebooks, or selling affiliate products to make a lot of money as a coach. I know I have. I find it refreshing to see that you don’t need to do those advanced things to be a full-time pro coach.

I see so many new coaches get caught up in that stuff causing them overwhelm and slow or no success.

Then, on the facing page, so coolly positioned, is the other article I loved …

Article 2 – Enrollment – Using strategy sessions to get clients, by Frankie Doiron and David Steele.

This article dovetails nicely! It talks about one huge key to success for life in stages 4 & 5.

That key is mastering enrollment.

The authors tell you to do “strategy sessions” in stead of “complimentary sessions”.

These type of sessions are not client-driven as in “What do you want most help with today?” but instead are aimed at solving your market’s top, overriding challenge.

From the example in the article, if you’re a relationship coach, you may offer a “Find Your Soulmate Now Strategy Session” instead of the more common “complimentary session.”

The article goes on about what to do in the session, so I won’t give those goodies away.

I do want to say, that from both of these articles, you can do a lot for your business by focusing your efforts on  enrolling clients as opposed to worrying about advanced stage 6 & 7 type of stuff – passive income, products and the likes.

You may want to grab a copy of Choice Magazine

Choice has evolved in the last few years I’ve been subscribed. It’s got lots of great articles on handling clients, developing skills, and growing your career.

Thanks Garry (Garry Schleifer, Publisher) for your hard work putting out Choice and for getting this two articles out to coaches.