So many life coaches make this mistake that I want to warn you about it. I made it too and I want to help you avoid it. What happens is a new coach is all enthusiastic about starting their new coaching business and they set up a website, get business cards, start coaching people and then discover that they either aren’t getting clients, or they don’t like their niche and want to change it.
The mistake is that they didn’t begin by doing market research in the beginning. By doing market research, they would have been able to choose the best domain name for their website, used client-attracting language in their marketing materials to attract their ideal clients, and been able to get a steady flow of clients much earlier in their business.
Almost every brick and mortar business owner will tell you that it would be foolish to open a business without first doing extensive market research. Whether you want to learn about concept testing best practices or conduct surveys to a focus group, market research is key! The same applies to an online business and new technologies are making market research even easier to implement. With help from the internet, you can now reach out to potential as well as existing clients to send them a questionnaire within minutes.
Here are several other elements of market research that every coach should explore:
1) Keywords: Using the correct keywords will bring more organic (free) traffic to your website. But it won’t be just any old traffic of freebie seekers, but targeted traffic of people who want to connect with you and hear from you again. Your keywords need to be the verbiage that your ideal clients use to look for the problem that you solve.
2) Market demand: You need to know if people are spending money on the solution you offer. You may have a wonderful product or service but if there isn’t a large group of people who are buying similar products and services, you may not be in business for very long. If, by doing your market research, you find that your potential target market is too small, you can adapt your product/service to fit a larger group, before you spend a lot of money on marketing.
3) Competition: It’s also helpful to know what your competition is doing. This area of market research can be extremely eye-opening. For one thing, you will be able to see what they are doing to market themselves that you can duplicate and shorten your learning curve. What language are they using, what keywords? The answers can stimulate more brainstorming on your part and give you new ideas to explore that you might not have thought of on your own.
Next you want to find the differences among your competitors. How are they differentiating themselves? By finding out more about your competition, you can formulate your unique selling position—that is, what you do that’s different from your competition. How can you stand out from the crowd?
When you discover how you can take advantage of your uniqueness you are on your way to attract clients who will be thrilled to have found you and want to work with you. It’s like pre-qualifying your clients. This makes the enrollment conversation more of a mutually beneficial and enjoyable conversation instead of a grueling sales pitch. These clients will be willing to pay for your services, easy to work with, will follow your guidance, and will get better results. And that’s the definition of an ideal client!
So don’t make the mistake of neglecting to do market research or you may end up working hard and not getting results. If you feel like you’re spinning your wheels, get all the business training you need in our Coaching Business Training Vault HERE.
