Episode 003: How to Build Your Email List To Get More Coaching Clients

Episode 003: How to Build Your Email List To Get More Coaching Clients: You’ll learn what how to get more coaching clients with your email list, how to create an amazing freebie, and how to track what’s working and what’s not

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Welcome back everyone! Today’s episode is entitled “How to Build Your Email List To Get More Coaching Clients”

While you may have heard lots of opinions about whether email marketing is dead or alive, the truth is, email marketing still works.

The secret is to build an email list full of hungry potential coaching clients who already want what you are offering. This process takes a little bit of work up front, but once you get started, you’ll soon start reaping the rewards.

But first… let’s get real.

Email lists critical safety nets for coaches building businesses online. You don’t own Facebook, Instagram, clubhouse, Twitter, or LinkedIn… but you do own your website and your mailing list.

According to Hubspot, email marketing generates a $38 return for every dollar spent.

The fact that it’s yours and it has a high return on investment, makes email marketing far more effective than any other form of marketing that has ever existed. But email marketing doesn’t live in a universe alone. It’s just part of your overall content marketing plan.

But regardless of the stats, the only way to be successful with email marketing is to do it the right way. Doing email marketing right means that you take the time to learn who your audience is, who you are, what you’re offering, and you have enough of an understanding of the technology to set it all up. Of course, you can hire someone to help, but I’m a huge believer that understanding things first is is the secret to success as an entrepreneur.

In this podcast, we’re going to go over the ten steps to set up your email list. Yes 10! I promised you guys real strategy on this podcast and I’m planning to deliver.

Even if you’ve set up an email list already, this episode will still help you improve your results exponentially.

As you listen, take notes for yourself about where you are now and how you can change so that you get better results over time.

Quick note! I’m not going to cover market research or getting to know your audience. I’m going to assume you’ve already done that. If you need help, check out Episode 2 entitled Marketing & Sales Funnels for Coaches 101: How to Start Generating Leads. That will cover all the basics of setting up funnels.

Without further ado, let’s get started.

Step #1 to building Your Email List To Get More Coaching Clients is to choose your email marketing technology carefully.

You want to use an email marketing service that follows laws as well as leverages automation for fast growth.

The technology you choose depends on your niche and your budget. However, switching from one provider to another is no joke people.

So be sure to choose the right one first. It should ensure deliverability and have automation options to help you segment your audience.

At Lovely Impact we live and die by Active Campaign.

In our opinion, if you are running advanced automatons and funnels, it’s perfect. ActiveCampaign gives you advanced segmentation, smart automation, a CRM to help you manage relationships, and an email designer that’s powerful enough to keep up with your growing audience.

You get all of that for a very very affordable price. Most tools that offer that much cost hundreds a month. We also love Active Campaign because it can grow with you. As you get larger and more advanced with funnels, you won’t need to switch to something better.

If you’d like a free trial of Active Campaign, check out the show notes for our brand ambassador link.

• Our brand ambassador link: https://mbsy.co/activecampaign/74926066

But, still do your research! There are a million email platforms out there. Pick one that fits you. Just make a list of features you need to succeed, then compare it to each platform. It all depends on what you want from your offer, your niche, and your budget.

The next step is to create compelling lead magnets.

When your software is set up, you can create compelling freebies and lead magnets to build your list. What kind of lead magnet you create depends on your coaching niche and what you offer, but here are some ideas:

• Any content can be turned into an eBook your audience can easily download.
• You can deliver eCourses via email, your website, or a separate platform.
• Or create a private Facebook group, only available to your list, to help you deliver more engagement to your audience.
• You can create guides and deliver them. A guide can be interactive gated content on your site (meaning they have to put in their email address to read it), or a PDF download.
• You can create a resource library or list they’ll need to solve their pain points. Plus, you can use affiliate links for this and make even more money.
• If selling membership, a free seven-day or longer trial period helps sell memberships.
• Another thing you can offer in exchange for an email is a survey or quiz that lets them figure out what to do next.
• You could make cheat sheets for what they want to accomplish, giving them step by step guidance.
• Lastly, the classic freebie, webinars still really work to build lists and make more sales.

The important thing is to solve a problem for your audience in a way that delights them. To create lead magnets that work, you need to make sure your offer meets the following criteria.

First, It should Be Specific. A good lead magnet is a solution. The solution is going to help your audience with a problem in a very specific way that adds value to their lives.

Speaking of problems, second, it should solve one problem, not all of them. Don’t put everything in your lead magnet. It should be a first step. That way, the audience who consumes the freebie will want to hire you to coach them.

Third, it should get them results. This is why you want to choose one problem and solve it well. Everything you do has to be from your prospect’s perspective. What results do they want, and how can you deliver those with a lead magnet?

Fourth, it should provide immediate gratification. Do not make downloading the lead magnet difficult. You want them to use it now and not tomorrow.

Fifth, it should change your audience’s mindset. It’s easier to convert them from a lead to a prospect once they get that aha moment.

Lastly, it should turn some people off. You want to make sure the lead magnet is designed so people outside your ideal clients wouldn’t want it. Don’t just attract anyone with your lead magnet. Make sure it’s the right kind of person. You only want to attract the kind of people who’ll buy from you at some point.

Now, let’s chat about automating your emails.

Once someone downloads your freebie, you’ll need to communicate with them consistently. I cannot tell you how many times I see funnels where downloading a free offer was the end of it.

Did you know it takes a brand up to EIGHT follow ups to convert a lead into a customer?!

I always get coaches telling me they don’t know what to send to their list, but there is so much you can automate! Here’s a simple funnel you can try:

First, brainstorm 6 problems you solve. What are your audience’s main pain points? What do they struggle with the most?

Then, send emails solving those problems.

Email #1 is The Download Email – Remember, problem #1 was already solved with your freebie! So the first email should deliver it. This is the first message they get. It should tell them where to download or how to access the free offer. Plus, it should link them to the download page.

Email #2 is The Welcome Email – This message introduces yourself to your audience, letting them know who you are, what you do, and how they can reach you. Never assume that because someone downloaded a freebie they know who you are.

#3 is the Special Offer Email – Coach them through another problem and offer them a special discount only for your list. If you do 1-on-1 coaching, a discounted coaching call is perfect here. If you do memberships, offer a free 14-day trial. Or if you have ebooks, courses, or products, offer a discount. Make sure there is a deadline for the free offer.

Email #4, 5, and 6 should follow that same formula. Coach them through another problem and offer them a special discount or offer only for your list with a time frame to grab it.

#7 – The Another Free Gift Message – This email always gets lots of opens! Even though they got on your list with a freebie, you can still send them more surprise freebies. This encourages more opens. And, again, remind them of your special offer and deadline. Are you seeing a pattern here?

#8 – The Join Me Elsewhere Message – Last, send one more email that reminds where you are most active on social media. Tell them to follow you on Instagram, Facebook or Clubhouse. Wherever you show up consistently. And, you guessed it, remind them that it’s the last chance to take advantage of your special offer!!

Then, once they go through all your emails, add them to your weekly newsletter.

Lastly, let’s get people into your funnel with content marketing.

Everything you do online… EVERYTHING… should lead back to your free offer and your funnel. Period. Point. Blank. That’s how you build a list.

Showing up on social media? Remind them to download your freebie. Writing a blog post? Include a form to download your freebie. Speaking at a conference. Gift attendees access to your freebie.

Get it? Good.

If you really want to build your list and email marketing, you must understand how it all works together. Let’s recap it really quick before we dive into creating content:

1. Understand your audience pain.
2. Solve their pain with a freebie.
3. Create access to the solution aka the freebie.
4. Talk about the pain everywhere and offer your solution aka the freebie.
5. Nurture them with emails and remind them that you can solve their other problems too. .
6. Offer them a special offer to work with you.

Just like emails, your content should solve problems too. When writing content, pretend like it’s a coaching session with your dream client. If you remember this one thing, you’ll never struggle to market or grow your list again.

To do this, do a pain point brainstorm and come up with content you can create, then show up every day solving those pain points. You can do this on a podcast, like this one you are listening to, on your blog, social media, through YouTube, etc. You choose what works with your zone of genius and commit to showing up.

At first, you’ll be marketing to crickets and that’s okay. Getting into the habit of consistently making content is the first step to email growth. Once you get that down, it’s time to increase your brand awareness, aka, get more eyeballs on your content.

So how do you do that? There are a few ways that always work:

#1 – You can use social media engagement to grow your followers. The trick to social media is to focus on your audience and your audience only. Do not get caught up with your competitors, influencers, etc. Focus on speaking with and engaging with your ideal clients.You can do that by setting aside 30-minutes to search through hashtags and/or social media profiles and spend 1-hour a day actually commenting and engaging with your targeted audience.

#2 – You can run social media ads for your freebie or all the wonderful content you are creating. Make sure if you do this, your landing pages and your content is set up for conversions.

#3 – You can master SEO. It’s the number one way we get customers here at Lovely Impact. At the moment, too many coaches have given up SEO and content marketing in favor of social media. That’s good news for you. Keep in mind that this strategy takes anywhere from 6 to 11 months to really pay off, but it works and it’s FREE.

#4 – You can partner with other businesses with larger audiences. Email potential joint venture partners. This is simply a non-competitive business that also serves your ideal clients. For example, an executive coach may partner with a financial planner that services CEOs.

#5 – Repurpose your content everywhere. At Lovely Impact, this podcast will become a blog post, a social media post, and an email. Being a coach online means that you are fighting for your ideal clients attention. Make sure you are showing up and reminding them of all the awesome things you create.

Okay, before we wrap… how do you know what’s working? That’s why we track.

No excuses here. If you are running a business online you have to stop assuming and start tracking so you can make educated decisions. Since this is all about list building, let’s focus on the metrics you need to track to ensure the work you’re doing is helping grow your list and your business.

Lead Magnet Metrics

You’re going to want to know how many people clicked through to your lead magnet landing page versus how many downloaded the freebie. That is considered a conversion. The conversion rate will be determined by dividing the number of downloads by the number of visitors.

For example, if you had 10,000 visitors and 4500 downloads, the conversion rate for that campaign will be 4500/10,000 or 45%. You can take that number and compare it to industry averages or your goal that you set.

There is a lot you can do with that information. For example, what if you had 100,000 click-throughs but only 10,000 conversions? Is that good or bad? How can you know? You can try improving by working on your targeting better or trying a slightly different version of your landing page to improve the numbers.

Email Marketing Metrics

Some of the metrics you may want to pay close attention to in your email marketing are how many people open the download page for the freebie they signed up for versus how many did not. This may signal a problem with your opt-in process.

Look at the numbers inside your autoresponder to find out how many people open your messages. Find out how many click through and how many convert? This information can help you improve what works and stop what is not working.

Website Metrics

Using the analytics, you can get on your site, such as how long people stay on your site, how deep they go using the links you provide, and other metrics that matter to you. You may have different numbers to look at based on each campaign, but overall, how many visits to your site, where they come from, and what they do when they get there is information you can discover via Google Analytics information.

Social Media Metrics

Anytime you do anything online, always set up a metric to track that tells you whether you have met your goal or not. If your goal is conversions, track conversion metrics. If your goal is more engagement, check your engagement numbers. If your goal is to make sales, check your sales number. Don’t assume that just because you’re getting conversions that they’re happening in the way you think they are. Always seek the data proof before moving on.

The best thing to test on social media is engagement. After all, social media is about having a conversation with your audience in an informal way compared to how you communicate with them on your website and in email.

Conclusion: Coaching the Coach: Final Thoughts

Thank you for listening this far! Let’s go over what you learned one more time.

As you can see, building a brand-new email list takes a little work, but once you get started, it’s straightforward.

You simply need to know who your audience is, the problems you can solve for them, and how you plan to do it. Then you need to learn about them so that you can help them.  Follow all these steps to build your email list full of strong, hungry, and enthusiastic clients, and your coaching business will grow organically.

Let’s recap:

• Step #1: Choose Your Email Marketing Technology Carefully – Deciding on the right technology for your business needs based on who your audience is and your needs, along with your budget, is a business imperative.
• Step #2: Design and Create Compelling Lead Magnets – This is the key to getting a lot of hungry subscribers on your list. A lead magnet needs to be something that quickly and efficiently solves one problem for the ideal audience it was intended for.
• Step #3: Create and Set Up Email Automation – You don’t want to build a list and have them receive nothing once they signed up. They will forget about you. You need to ensure this is set up right away for maximum success. Remember, you can use a combination of repurposed content from your website and private label rights to deliver the right info to your list members.
• Step #4: Get people in your funnel with content – Planning your content in advance is the best way to ensure success. You’ll be able to figure out which freebies to create based on what you want to promote and your goals for your audience.
• Step #5: Track Your Metrics – Nothing is ever complete until the paperwork is complete, and the same can be said for marketing. If you don’t look at the numbers and match the data with your goals, you may not be able to repeat your success.

That’s a wrap on this episode! If you need help, I offer free 1-hour marketing strategy calls for coaches. You can check the show notes to schedule a call or email me at tee@lovelyimpact.com.